It may be time for your annual career check-up
By Ken Pelczarski | TLT Career Coach January 2024
Follow these annual recommended actions to evaluate and update your career.
You do not need a doctor for your annual career check-up. What you do need is time dedicated to self-examination of what you have done in your career, your current career status, what you want to accomplish in the short and long term and how you will achieve your goals.
Any time of the year can work well for your annual career check-up. The end of the year may work best, however, for several reasons: 1.) you can analyze your complete calendar year job performance and overall job satisfaction, 2.) you can evaluate your employer’s financial performance for the year, 3.) you can look at the fairness of your annual salary increase, 4.) you can evaluate the amount of your end-of-year incentive bonus and 5.) you may have just had your annual performance review.
Below are recommended actions to take at least once a year to evaluate and update your career status:
• Evaluate your career goals. People change. Family situations change. Careers can take an unexpected turn. Your most recent career goals may have already been accomplished. As a result, your career goals may have significantly changed from one year ago.
Your updated goals may include some of the following common ones:
- Move into management.
- Advance on the technical ladder.
- Transition into sales.
- Move into marketing.
- Transfer to a different business segment or division.
- Work for a small family-owned organization.
- Work for a large international corporation.
- Relocate to a different part of the country.
- Start your own business.
- Stay put in your current role.
- Change careers.
• Meet with your employer to review your job status and career goals. This meeting will ideally be a regular performance review. It may raise eyebrows regarding possible job dissatisfaction if you ask for a special meeting to discuss new career goals.
Ask your employer how they see you progressing within the company, and then provide them with your feedback. Proceed to convey the preferred ways in which you would like to grow with the company. Request feedback from the employer. Be sure to emphasize the positive aspects of your job and your overall satisfaction (unless you have a high level of dissatisfaction).
• Discuss with your employer what you need to do to achieve your goals. If you are in sync with the employer about your potential path for growth, you should have an easy time discussing what you need to do for this growth to materialize. Be sure to learn the target timeline as well.
Obtain specifics about what you need to accomplish and repeat them back to the employer to confirm that you understand everything correctly. Attempt to arrange regular performance reviews so progress toward your goals can be monitored.
If you and your employer differ on your potential growth path, you will need to promote your skill set further as well as the benefit you bring to the employer through implementation of your plans. You may end up needing to discuss compromise and possible alternative growth paths.
• Analyze whether you can achieve your goals with your current employer. Ask yourself the following questions to determine if you are likely to achieve your goals with your current employer:
- Does your boss communicate with you frequently?
- Does your employer tend to take care of its employees?
- Does your employer listen carefully to your comments and goals during performance reviews?
- Does your employer value your skill set?
- Does your employer have a history of promoting individuals from within?
- Have other employees moved from your type of position into the kind of role you desire?
- Has the employer provided a specific timeline for your personal growth and/or change in responsibilities?
• Decide if you should search for a new position. The possibility of conducting a job search as well as its level of intensity will depend upon your daily job satisfaction and challenge. It will especially hinge upon the likelihood of your employer being able to satisfy your short- and long-term goals.
You will generally be making one of four possible decisions regarding leaving your current employer:
- Search actively and aggressively for a new position if you are consistently unhappy and there is little or no hope of reaching your career goals with your employer.
- Keep an eye on the job market without being especially proactive if you are having both good days and bad days and are not entirely confident of achieving your career goals with your employer.
- Become a passive job seeker if you are relatively happy and comfortable with your current job and believe there is some hope for achieving your career goals.
- Stay with your current employer and do not entertain other job offers if you are 100% comfortable and excited about the future.
I highly recommend that you make the most of your current job before deciding to switch employers.
• Develop a job search action plan. If you decide to conduct an active job search, you will need to take the following actions:
- Determine your primary goals.
- Decide if and where you are open to relocation.
- Obtain family support.
- List target companies and fields of interest.
- Identify job lead sources you will be using.
- Team with recommended, trusted recruiters who will work in your interests and maintain confidentiality.
- Update your resume and cover letter.
- Update your LinkedIn profile.
- Post your resume online.
- Inform references of your job search and request letters of recommendation.
- Contact professionals in your network and inform them of your goals.
- Review common interview questions and practice your responses.
- Attend industry meetings, trade shows and conferences for networking purposes.
- Review your non-compete agreement.
- Research what you are worth.
- Determine how much time you will spend weekly on your job search.
If you are not actively searching for a new position, you will need to use great discretion and be select regarding who you talk with about new career opportunities. You also will need to be careful about posting your resume online and about how you present your profile on LinkedIn.
If you are happy with your current employer, it can still be beneficial to listen to what is going on in the job market. You could use what you learn about other opportunities as a measuring stick, or you may uncover a unique opportunity that you want to seriously consider.
• Examine your recent industry visibility. Make sure you have been staying visible to professionals that are relevant to your career path.
Ask yourself the following questions to determine if you should work on increasing your industry visibility:
- Can you find the time to publish and/or present more papers?
- Do you attend industry meetings and conferences whenever possible?
- Do you belong to LinkedIn groups in your field, and do you post regularly?
- Can you spend more time volunteering in your field?
• Document accomplishments. It is important to document your accomplishments on a regular basis. Keep a record of all your accomplishments, big and small, and quantify them in the best way you can. You may not remember all your achievements if you have not documented them for many years and you suddenly need to incorporate them into your resume.
Having your accomplishments documented will not only benefit you when you are interviewing with a prospective employer but also when you are making your case for a promotion with your current employer.
• Update your resume and cover letter. Whether or not you are searching for a new position, it is generally recommended that you update your resume at least once a year. It is much more time-consuming to write a resume from scratch or update it for the first time in many years than it is to simply update it from the previous year.
There are a lot of potential changes in your resume that could be in order from one year to the next including in the following categories:
- Contact information
- Job objective
- Skill summary
- Current employer and job title
- Job responsibilities
- Accomplishments
- Formal education and seminars
- Publications and presentations
- Awards and honors
- Volunteer activities.
Post your updated resume online if you are actively job searching. In addition, write a new template cover letter to include updated career goals.
• Add names to your reference list and professional network. Even if you are not job searching, always be on the lookout for new individuals to add to your reference list. Typically these would be industry professionals who work with you now or who worked with you in the recent past. Never be lulled into thinking that you already have enough references on your list. References can drop off your list at any time for a variety of reasons.
Ask yourself the following questions to determine if you have been managing your professional network and your reference list as well as possible:
- Have you been staying in touch with your networking contacts and references to keep them informed of your career status and goals, and to also see how you can help them?
- Have you confirmed periodically that contact information for your networking contacts or references has changed or is about to change in any way?
- Have you been looking to set up networking conversations and/or meetings with new or existing contacts, especially if you are actively job searching?
•
Determine the value of your skill set in the marketplace. Average salaries in your field can fluctuate greatly at times depending upon market conditions, such as when salaries went up dramatically post-COVID. That is especially why it is advisable to check regularly how your salary and overall compensation compare to industry averages.
If you have not changed jobs in many years, you may have fallen out of touch with your market value, and you may have fallen behind in your salary compared to average industry compensation.
Below are sources of salary information you may want to utilize:
- Salary.com (salary surveys and information)
- SalaryExpert.com (salary surveys and information)
- PayScale.com (salary surveys and Information)
- TLT (advertisements and articles)
- STLE Career Center webpage
- Lubes’N’Greases (annual salary surveys)
- C&E News/American Chemical Society (salary surveys)
- Monster (compensation articles and surveys)
- Career Builder (compensation articles and surveys)
- LinkedIn (compensation articles and surveys)
- ZipRecruiter (advertisements and articles)
- Indeed.com (advertisements and articles)
- Glassdoor.com (compensation articles and surveys)
- TheLadders.com (100K+ jobs)
- Bestplaces.net (salary comparisons between cities)
- Staffing Industry Analysts (
https://staffingindustry.com)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm (wage and salary data)
- Google (e.g., type “average salaries” or “salary surveys”)
- Job boards (advertisements with salaries posted)
- Prospective employers (make direct contact with hiring companies)
- Colleagues, competitors and coworkers (have open discussions about salary)
- Networking (have open discussions about salary)
- Job searchers (talk to individuals who have recently learned about industry compensation)
- Industry specialized recruiters (talk to experienced, knowledgeable recruiters).
If you are currently earning below average compensation, sit down with your employer to make your best case for a raise.
Staying on top of your career status will put you in control of taking the necessary actions to achieve your goals. I wish you well in obtaining a clean bill of health and a positive outlook during your next annual career check-up.
Ken Pelczarski is owner and founder of Pelichem Associates, a Chicago-based search firm established in 1985 and specializing in the lubricants industry. You can reach Ken at (630) 960-1940 or at pelichem@aol.com.