Preparing Your Career For The New Year

The beginning of the New Year is the perfect time for career planning- because you'll have a whole year to evaluate your goals and readjust if your plans aren't working.

Annual Evaluation

Do an evaluation of what have you achieved throughout the last year. You may have attended a short course on computers or another subject and attended some seminar or other certificate course; make sure that you still have those certificates around, because they will be useful if you decide to look for a new job.

File your certificates by the year that you have achieved them - this will make it easier for you to find them when needed.

Take inventory of what new skills you have acquired - for instance, you may have attended an internship where you learned accounting practices, or you may have taken an internal training course on Human Resources Management.

If you are already working, evaluate yourself honestly, and find out where you stand with regard to the competition (i.e., others in positions similar to yours). Take stock of how much have you accomplished during the year. If you find that you are lacking in a particular area, try to overcome it. It is better to understand your own mistakes and work on them before anyone else points them out.

Find out if you were able to meet your targets in the past year; if not, make it a point to work harder and smarter this year. You can list all your achievements and failures on a piece of paper - this will give you a clear picture as to which areas you need to work on.

Stay Current

In order to get ahead in your career, your skills need to be current. Technology is changing every day, and if you don't keep up with it, you may soon find that your skills are obsolete, making you expendable.

Along with your skills, your resume needs to be updated as well. Many people draft resumes only at the last minute when they realize that they need one. You need to make sure that you update your resume regularly.

Set Your Goals

Many people set various goals for the New Year with determination. However, only a few manage to stick to them. Goals are important, because they keep you on track and let you know where you need to go and how to get there.

Plan your goals according to your field; for example, if you are a finance manger, your aim could be to earn more profits by the end of next year. However, to reach to that goal, you will have to meet certain targets which you need to accomplish within a given period of time.

Preparing your career for the New Year isn't rocket science, but it does take dedication and planning. Follow the tips above and 2008 will definitely be a success!