How to make your career grow

To help successfully grow your career, it’s important to use a range of career tools and resources. Networking with colleagues, as well as professionals outside of your workplace is an effective way to build professional relationships.

A professional online presence across social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook can also help you build a positive profile. In addition, a clear and well-written résumé to present to potential employers will give you the best chance of achieving your career development goals.

Effectively network with professionals in your field
Business networking is an effective way to engage with other professionals in your field and establish relationships which can assist you in gaining future career opportunities.

It involves forming trusting relationships with both your colleagues and key people from other companies. You can network with these professionals by regularly attending industry association events such as conferences, as well as social events.

The larger your network is, the more access you will have to a range of interconnected contacts. Maintaining contact with these key people will provide the opportunity to build your reputation as a knowledgeable, reliable and competent professional.

Actively promote a professional online presence
As more companies use the internet to search for information about potential employees, it is important to ensure that any information about you will leave them with a positive impression.

Your online profiles with platforms such as LinkedIn should include your career highlights and achievements, with recommendations from people outside of your organisation.

If you have a personal Facebook profile, be aware that employers are increasingly reviewing these pages before making their hiring decisions.You can increase favourable content about you on the web to help build a professional image.

This can be achieved by recommending and joining corporate groups related to your industry or starting a personal/professional blog to establish the expertise you have in your field.

Create a comprehensive résumé
A clearly written résumé is the key to ‘selling’ your skills and abilities to a potential employer.

As this is usually the first thing an employer or recruitment company will see, it’s important to showcase your experience and unique accomplishments with the aim of standing-out from other candidates. A resume should clearly demonstrate how you meet the experience and attributes the employer is looking for, as well as core skills that are required for the role.

You can do this by using similar key words in your résumé to those in the job description.

Using clear language and a professional, enthusiastic tone will help you get noticed, while a simple layout with lots of white space, bulleted information and subheadings will improve the readability of your document. 

Andrew Norton, Regional Managing Director, Michael Page International