Ask These 5 Questions to Decide Your Next Career Move
Almost all professionals and individuals get confused with their careers at some point in their lives. They either get tired of their current position or try to look for ways to upgrade or Career Move their job prospects. More often, people are also less interested in their field, and their heart lies in some other completely different domain.
Thus, many times we face these types of hurdles in our careers. And we have to make an important decision related to it to do something about the way we feel. Thus, there can be several questions to ask yourself when you are taking career-related decisions.
This is why in this blog, we have put together some of the critical career-related questions you need to ask yourself, put forward by expert entrepreneurs. Read on to find out more.
Why planning for your career is important?
If you feel like you have hit a dead-end in your career or even have the opportunity to make a critical career-related decision to change it, planning your next move or decision can go a long way to ensure you make the right choices for yourself. Some of the advantages of proper career planning are:
- Being satisfied with your current job
- Satisfied with your job prospects
- Interest in working in your field
- Have trust in your organization
- Expecting personal growth and development
You can ask yourself several questions while planning your next career move. These questions help you decide the direction you want to take your career to. Please take a look at them below.
Ask these 5 questions to decide your next career move
You must consider all your options wisely and ask yourself the right type of questions when you are trying to decide the next big move in your career. For guiding you through the process, 5 questions from assignment expert entrepreneurs are given that will help you decide your next career move smoothly and wisely.
- How fulfilling is my current job?
Do you find purpose and meaning in your work? Your values provide you with fulfilment in life. This is because they represent who you are as a person. Examples of values can be fairness, collaboration, impact, adventure, autonomy, recognition, security and creativity. When you express your values at work, it increases performance and work satisfaction.
You must list the top 5 values that are important to you. After you are done with that, on a scale of 1 to 10, grade how well do you find that value in your current job. For example, suppose you have rated security as 6. Ask yourself what made you give the number 6 to this value? How can you make it a 8 or even a 9? Do you need to change your job to do that? This can help you find the true meaning of your current job and even look for ways to better it.
- Am I growing and learning?
When you learn new things, you develop a sense of achievement in yourself. Thus, ask yourself how much you are gaining knowledge and competence in your current job. Often, we do not realize how little we have learned until we actually start questioning our abilities. What kind of skills, traits or knowledge have you acquired over the past years?
What are the types of competencies that you want to further develop in the next few years? Learning and growing can take many forms, such as:
- Time management skills
- Learning a new hobby
- Learning a new skill or trait
- Gaining extensive knowledge in your field
- Money management skills
- Efficient investing
- Meeting with mentors
- Experimenting with new ideas and beliefs
- Reflecting on the progress, you make
- Taking critical decisions to remove obstacles in your path
Thus, asking yourself if you are learning and growing in your current job is critical to taking the next big step in your career.
- Am I heading in the right direction?
If you do not assess your current standing periodically, it can be hard to tell if you are actually headed in the right direction for yourself. You can go on for years doing the same job without upgrading yourself or your abilities if you don’t question your current state. Most people out there change jobs from time to time without even planning for it. They reactively apply to jobs with better pay and thus feel like they are improving their current situation.
However, stepping out of your zone to figure out your broader vision or purpose can help you pursue jobs that can provide you with immense growth. Ask yourself the common question, “Where do I want to see myself in the next 5 years?”. This actually helps you reflect on your current standing, your main career goals and help you realize your abilities and self-expectations to get where you really want to be.
- What seeds can I plant now?
Career success is achieved by the cumulative effort of regular and small actions. This is referred to as the planting of seeds. A seed that you may plant today can be fruitful for you in the next two to three years. Or even 20 years from now, like a big investment. However, it would be best if you planted as many seeds as possible to able to achieve satisfying growth and development in your career. Even Google once encouraged their employees to try something new and explore different fields.
Some of the small efforts that you make today can result in enormous success in the future. You can try doing some of them from the following points.
- Learning a new language
- Picking up a new skill
- Taking online courses
- Learning a new domain
- Taking self-improvement classes
- Learning about investing
- Buying stocks and getting in the stock market
- Building your professional connections
We often underestimate the type of impact that consistent and small steps can have in our careers. If you are willing to take slow and steady steps right now to build yourself up personally and professionally, you will have certain advantages in the future.
- What kind of relationships do I need to build?
Building lasting relationships can be fundamental in achieving career success. You can never be in a professional world alone. It would help if you had the presence of people from different industries and sectors, whether related or not, to achieve a fulfilling career. So even if you are drowned in a sea of work, take some time out of your schedule to actually sit down and connect with people.
This helps you build up your network and get to people from different fields. Your network will one day determine your overall career growth and development. You can build relationships with your colleagues, people from various fields, senior-level executives, hiring managers, among others.
Final thoughts
Our careers are not linear, and they unfold over time. Asking yourself these 5 questions can help you take critical career-related decisions and help you decide the next big move. It can help you take back control over your professional life and get to where you always wanted to be Learn More