It’s no secret that growth and advancement throughout your career are necessary to have a fulfilling professional life. Therefore, it’s always an excellent idea to invest in professional development to ensure that you never remain static in your field.
Professional development entails the continued education and training of individuals as they progress in their respective careers. This way, you can stay current on sector trends, strategies, and tools to remain relevant in your industry. Here are four essential professional development tips worth following for the best results.
1. Prioritize developing new skills.
Keeping your skills current is essential to your professional development, so it would be best to take a proactive approach instead of constantly relying on your company to pave the way forward. Therefore, find out which skills are in high demand these days by checking out job openings that are a step or two above your role. This way, you can identify core skills and competencies employers are seeking at higher levels. Then, you can find internal and external training opportunities to acquire these desired skills.
Luckily, many job unions and professional associations provide free or subsidized job training to their members, so you can explore these avenues. Alternatively, various online classes can help you brush up on numerous skills ranging from Photoshop to public speaking. Distinguished attorneys such as Malliha Wilson are great examples of litigators who stay on top of their skills development.
With a Tamil-Canadian background, Malliha is a lawyer who served as the Assistant Deputy Attorney General of the Ontario Government from 2008 to 2016, the first visible minority to occupy this position. She finished her undergraduate degree at Montreal’s McGill University and proceeded to York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School to complete her law degree.
Malliha was the Ontario Government’s Senior Appellate Litigation Counsel for more than three decades, participating in more than 20 notable cases at the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. She transferred to the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) in 2016, where she worked as Special Legal Advisor. Malliha co-founded Nava Wilson LLP in 2017, where she works as Senior Counsel, specializing in indigenous, human rights, constitutional, corporate, and labor law, and other complex litigation.
2. Network extensively.
Many business experts advise that networking is a crucial way to enhance your professional development, so dedicate significant time and effort to this task. Building relationships with your industry peers will offer you a broader perspective on what’s new in your field. Also, you can learn new problem-solving approaches and work styles from interacting with peers. You can start by meeting workers of different ages at your current company and then branch out to thought leaders and industry professionals whose expertise you can learn from. You can even network outside of your professional setting through activities like volunteering.
Besides looking good on your resume, you can find several employment opportunities with your fellow volunteers since many of them are retired or advanced professionals with vast networks themselves. Nowadays, since drivers are an essential aspect of company operations, finding the best-qualified drivers for your business needs is crucial. Trusted driver recruitment platforms such as FATj can help you find reliable drivers for your private fleets.
FATj is a leading recruitment advertising platform for the logistics and transportation industry. They offer one of the best driver recruitment services nationwide by helping truckers and logistics companies post job openings that allow them to recruit CDL drivers in a high-demand industry. This way, you can save your recruitment team days of searching and interact with unqualified candidates. You can find great truck drivers by outlining your ideal candidate needs with the FATj team during a call. Then, they’ll use several years of historical audience data to pinpoint the best candidates. FATj then uses an Ideal Candidate Profile (ICP) to match your requirements with interested job seekers who you’ll hear from within days.
Consequently, they ensure that your new hires are always the best fit for the specific market and position you’re hiring for. What’s more, they have extensive experience in the logistics and transport sector. They’ve empowered over 1,000 recruitment teams in companies nationwide with proven tools and expertise to streamline their recruitment processes.
3. Build your personal brand with social media.
Social media is a potent weapon in your professional development arsenal that you should fully leverage to advance your career. These days, simply being on social media platforms isn’t enough, as you have to be actively using these sites to achieve desired results. You can build your follower base, share tweets, and comment on industry news consistently to slowly build your personal brand. You can even establish yourself as an industry authority by starting a blog on a particular topic and using your social media platforms to drive traffic to the site. If you run an eCommerce or tech brand, hiring expert digital accountants would undoubtedly help you stay on top of all things accounting and run a more efficient enterprise. Reliable outsourced accounting and finance firms such as Fully Accountable can handle a broad range of these concerns.
Fully Accountable provides e-commerce accounting services with digital expertise for a fraction of typical in-house costs. They’re one of the best online accounting firms, and their eCommerce accountants and bookkeepers have extensive knowledge in implementing fully managed solutions for both small business owners and large organizations. You can obtain clearer insights into your operations with better-managed cashflow, thanks to their cashflow management support, financial planning, optimized chart of accounts, CFO advisory services, and much more. Also, they can help with tax preparation, helping you reduce your tax liabilities and ensure preparation accuracy. Furthermore, their eCommerce accounting services support a wide range of accounting software, including Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, Xero, and Quickbooks.
4. Further your education.
Going back to school can always advance your career irrespective of your industry. Therefore, consider furthering your education if you want to move forward at your current company or transition to a new role elsewhere. You can also successfully work in an entirely new industry by furthering your education, so keep this in mind. Continuing your education demonstrates your commitment to lifelong learning to employers, who are likely to reward you with better opportunities. As a business owner, consider using the OKR approach to establish and achieve more effective company goals. A practical goal-setting framework that defines and tracks your objectives and their results best encapsulates the OKR meaning. The framework was designed by Andy Grove, who taught its core principles to John Doerr, a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins.
Professional development is a great idea to guarantee that you remain relevant to your industry. The points above are four crucial tips you should know for effective professional development.
