#1 - Create a portfolio with your best, recent work
Always have a portfolio updated with your best and most recent work ready. It could be a selection of your best campaigns, reports, projects or written articles that showcase your skills. This comes in handy should you need to present it to your employer or a potential one, and saves you the frantic scrambling to assemble it all the night before an interview or meeting.
#2 - Understand your working style
Perhaps the biggest skill to master in your career is to truly understand your working style - what organising, to-do system works best for you, when you're most (and least) productive, how you best deal with stress, what your limits are, and what you will and will not tolerate in the office. Firstly, find a to-do list system that you find productive. Determine if you're more of a pencil-and-notebook type of person, or prefer your lists synced digitally across all your devices. Secondly, understand when your peak energy and productivity levels are, and when they're at their lowest. Learning how you can best manage stress is also essential as poor stress-management, no matter how competent you are skills-wise, can really break you in your career.
#3 - Curate your online presence
It's no secret that everyone does a cursory Google or Facebook search on anyone that might be potentially working with or hiring. The type of content that show up on your social media profiles and pages will naturally affect their first impression of you. Delete any questionable photos, tweak your privacy settings if you have and really purge your pages of anything that might incriminate you or leave the wrong impression.
#4 - Refine your Linkedin profile
Your LinkedIn profile is perhaps your most key online pages, and one of the first few searches that show up should anyone Google your name. Curate your profile in such a way that it tells the story you want it to tell.
#5 - Achieve something you'll be proud of
We all have that one thing we'd be incredibly proud of achieving, deep down. Well, the solution to making that a reality is simple: just do it. Ensure that there is something on your resume that you're really proud of accomplishing. Make sure you're also open to stretching your limits and moving out of your comfort zone. After all, as the saying goes, big risks do bring big rewards.
#6 - Invest in yourself
To say that the working world today is evolving at an unprecedented rate is an understatement. To stay ahead professionally, never fall into the trap of being complacent and continue honing your skills. This could entail something as simple as taking up a free evening course on a workshop relevant to your job scope or interests.
#7 - Invest in something beyond yourself
The world is your oyster: invest in something beyond yourself, like volunteering your skills at a non-profit organisation. Trust us when we say that there are few things that come close to how rewarding giving back feels.
#8 - Know your strengths and shortcomings
We're all gifted at something - knowing your strengths is key as they become your selling points in the workforce. Harness these strengths to give you an edge. On the flip side, it's also equally as important to be aware of your shortcomings. Learn how to work with, not against your weaknesses. You'll also find that you'll make plenty of mistakes and missteps throughout your career. Rather than beat yourself down about it, learn the right lessons from it and taking them productively with you as you move along your career.
#9 - Learn how to "manage up"
One of the biggest career misconceptions is that you have to capitulate to all your boss' or client demands, without actually considering if they're objectively reasonable or feasible. This is not true. In fact, being able to manage the expectations of those whom you report to, known as "managing up" is an indispensable career skill.
#10 - Take on a side project
Don't pigeonhole your skills and abilities. Pick up something you're passionate about as a side project - like setting up your own freelance page, for instance. Not only could this be a new potential career path and a source of income, it also injects a little much-needed variety into your daily routine.
#11 - Have a "career emergency" plan
Alas, no matter how competent you may be at your current role, it's always best to prepare for the worst possible outcome. In the event you get laid off, it's important to have a career back-up plan.
#12 - Invest in your retirement
You may still be over a decade away from retirement, but if you haven't started planning for it, it's high time you start! It can be hard to set aside chunks of your precious monthly paycheck, but saving is one of those things that are best done as early as possible.
