Found 0 posts
As spring ends and summer begins — you can probably look outside and see the leaves growing back onto the trees. Just as nature changes with the seasons, our career and professional journey can transform, too – if you allow it to happen!
If you’re looking for a change in your career, either from unhappiness with your current job or a longing for something more fulfilling, now is a great time to do it. Just take some inspiration from the budding plants and follow this advice.
Plant Yourself in The Right Environment
A plant could thrive in one environment and die in another. Each one is unique and needs a different type of soil, amount of rain, and sunlight to grow tall and strong.
People are much like plants in this regard. If you’re unhappy with your current job, it’s likely because it’s not the right environment for you.
This can trip people up: it can be easy to think that it’s your fault that you aren’t growing where you are. You may see others finding great success – and wonder what’s wrong with you.
Before you dive into growing into a new career, it’s helpful to do some introspection and get to the heart of your wants and needs when it comes to work. Assessments, such as the Myers-Briggs Indicator or the 16 Personalities test, can be a useful and fun way to accomplish this.
These tests aren’t flawless – nor can any assessment perfectly capture the unique individual that is you – but they can provide new revelations about what will be the best environment for your success.
Are you extroverted? Time to find a job that involves working with new and interesting people on the daily. Do you have an analytical mind? Maybe a job that involves studying fascinating and impactful data is the right fit for you.
With these new insights into yourself, you’ll be able to find both a job and an employer that provides you with the best environment to grow. Remember, with the right soil and amount of sunlight, every plant can succeed!
Nurture Growth by Asking Questions
If a plant needs sunlight and water to grow – what are the nutrients we need to thrive in a new career. The answer is information!
Ask questions. This is one of the biggest pieces of advice we offer to new Cydcor employees (it applies to just about everything in life, too).
Coming into a new career can make you feel like you don’t know enough. Everyone else around has worked their way into being an expert on their job and how systems function at the specific company. Starting out, it can be tempting to avoid asking questions, so that you don’t stand out too much as “the new guy.”
But you can’t grow until you say “I don’t know.” Get curious – about just about everything. For those looking to create healthy work relationships with their new colleges, asking questions has a great impact.
People love to talk about themselves and what they do. When you ask questions, most people don’t think wow – how do they not know this? Instead, they’re likely thinking wow – this person is interested in me and what I do!
To go one step further, don’t just ask how to do things – ask why they’re done this way. This will teach you about the shared values and logic of the new company you’re working for and will help you problem solve in the future when you are given work that nobody else has figured out yet.
Learn To Appreciate Rain
Spring is a time for beautiful flowers and baby birds to emerge, yes, but this time of year also sees its fair share of thunderstorms.
If you’re diving into a new career, failure is unavoidable. Trying anything for the first time is challenging – this is perfectly normal and ok!
To grow, you need to have gratitude for every hiccup, mistake, or misunderstanding that you may run into. You’re learning and each failure comes with takeaways that you can use for the rest of your life.
We’re sure budding flowers don’t always find the rain comfortable, but it’s what helps them grow the most.
Continue to ask questions and seek valuable feedback (even criticism) from your peers and supervisors alike. Most employers aren’t looking for someone who’s perfect, they’re looking for people who are coachable.
When you trip up, remember that showers make way for flowers.
Keep Growing!
This advice is all useful for those growing into a new career – but they can apply to anyone! A tree can only grow so tall and certain flowers only last a season – but when it comes to your career, there are absolutely no limits to growth.
We wish you success, learning, and joy in your career journey – wherever it takes you!
At Cydcor, we believe in constant growth – and we hope you do, too! In our last blog, we explored how to grow into a new career. Now, we’re going to focus on what to do when you’re established in your career and want to continue improving.
It’s not all about fancy job titles and bigger paychecks (though we’d be lying if we didn’t say these are great perks to growth). Building on what you’re already accomplishing in the workplace will increase your impact, open up new opportunities, and lead to a more fulfilling life.
Let’s keep growing!
First things first: growth comes to those who can manage it. Improving your position at work means taking on new (and larger) responsibilities. If you aren’t handling your current tasks with excellence – are you really able to take on more?
You can dream of that raise or promotion, but if there are areas to improve in your current role, your current role won’t be improving either.
If you can handle the little things, you will prove trustworthy for bigger responsibilities. So take pride in your current role – because it can build into something awesome!
Before you move to grow in your career, take stock. How could you improve what you're already doing? In order to move up, you’ll need to step out of your comfort zone, encounter challenges, and put in some hard work. This can start today – so get to it!
As we discussed in our last blog, most people are thrilled to share what they know with others. If you're aiming to grow in your career – the best thing to do is pick the brains of those who are accomplishing what you seek to achieve.
Start forging relationships with people at various levels of your company. It doesn’t just have to be the CEO, even the person who’s only slightly ahead of you in the process of growth has something to teach you.
Use this insight to start creating a plan for yourself. Looking at the top brass of your company, what do you think that your final goal can be? Learning from your coworker that just got a promotion, what are the steps you can start making today to get there?
Taking the experience of others and complementing it with your unique goals for life, you can come up with a vision for how you see your career going.
Having a clear vision is powerful in its own right, but everything is stronger together. The next question to ask: how can you align your vision with that of your company and your coworkers (who have their own dreams, too)?
Collaboration is one of humanity’s greatest tools, so think on the many ways your growth can impact and accelerate the improvement of your surrounding environment. With aligned goals, you will become someone that your work family can depend on. When you invest in the visions of others, they’ll be inspired to respond in kind.
Growth is not a zero-sum game. This is the philosophy that has helped Cydcor grow into what it is today – and it will help your career journey, too!
As we’ve previously mentioned, improving your position at work means taking on more responsibilities. Many of us fall into the trap of sitting around and waiting for that to happen. The people who grow the quickest are those who proactively seek out opportunities to expand their role.
Saying things like “that’s not my responsibility” or “that’s not in my job description” won’t lead to growth. To move forward in your career, you have to be looking for ways to constantly be expanding your job description – not allowing your current role to box you in.
Look around – everyone could use a hand. Whether it’s being ready to fill in when someone is away or indisposed, or it’s coming up with a solution to a problem that your office has deemed unfixable, there are always ways to proactively grow.
In helping others, you will help yourself. Opportunities are always available – but only to those who are ready and eager to take them on.
The idea of taking the lead can be scary – but you can’t keep growing in your career until you’re ready to lead those who are in your current position. That’s why it’s important to start fostering this skill now.
Leadership skill doesn’t come from a fancy title or a promotion. It comes from humility, a willingness to share what you’ve learned, and from taking accountability for now just your work, but the work of those around you.
For more on this topic, stay tuned for our next blog!
In the meantime, we encourage you to continue seeking growth in your career, finding new ways to build on what you’ve already accomplished. The future will be bright – and it’s you who will be shining!
What do you want the impact of your life to be? We would all like to leave the world a better place – so how can we use our careers to make a positive difference?
This may at first be a difficult question to answer. We can often think of our careers as separate from the legacy we’re leaving behind. But with the right mindset and approach to living out your values, you can find your place on a team that aligns with your mission to better your family, community, and world.
It’s 2023. Our world faces many challenges, from climate change to poverty. With so much work to be done to leave a better world behind, our careers must play a role in how we act out our higher values.
This isn’t just the right thing to do – this will enrich your life and help you reach your goals. When motivated by a mission bigger than yourself, you can experience a life of fulfillment, hold the joy of generosity, and form deeper connections with the community and world that surrounds you.
So, what does a career with positive impact look like? Let’s explore.
Most careers revolve around bringing a product, service, or solution to people who need it. Therein lies the first way that you can build a meaningful career that serves as a net benefit. If you can take pride in what you are offering clients and customers and the business that you work for, you’re on the right track.
For the entrepreneurs reading who either have or are soon to start their own businesses, thinking about what you offer is critical. Remember, sales is about leading people to the things that they need, so the best success comes when your first mission is to enrich the lives of your customer or client base.
As an example, we can develop the best methods for clean energy, but if there’s no business set up around making it available to people, it cannot have any impact. We tend to think that creating positive change is a job best left for charities, missionaries, and the like – but when we look at doing good in this light, we see that every career can have a positive impact.
Whether you’re in sales, marketing, accounting, or anything else, by aligning with brands that are bringing products and services that better the planet, your career can have a positive impact!
Success in your career means that you will find more opportunities to give back. Whatever you do, there are always ways that you can share the wealth of your hard work with others.
This is something that we at Cydcor hold very dear to us. We believe that you can make a career out of caring and we continue to discover philanthropic efforts that allow us to impact both our community and the world at-large.
In a past partnership, we were able to raise nearly $1 million to offer free cleft-lip and cleft palate surgeries to children in underserved regions across the globe. These are life-changing operations, which brought healing to nearly 4,000 smiles.
As of this blog, we are currently working with Liberty Children’s home, a Belize-based orphanage.
In addition, our Neighborhood Leader Program helps the independent sales companies in our network direct their passion and talents towards great causes in their local communities.
Philanthropy offers you many ways to take the gifts that your career has grown and share them with those who need a helping hand. This can help you find fulfillment and leave a meaningful legacy.
We’d do anything for our families. That’s why it’s important to consider the people in your life when creating a career of positive impact.
Building wealth that brings comfort, opportunity, and wellbeing for your spouse, children, and other dependents is likely a major reason why you show up to work. We want to provide for the ones we love. Keeping this at the forefront of your values is a surefire way to unlock motivation on even the most difficult of days.
But it’s not just wealth most people want to give their family and friends. Time is the most valuable thing of all! When building a career of positive change and fulfillment, remember to leave space for you to enjoy quality time with those who matter most.
Once you’ve found a way to offer something better, get involved with philanthropy, and support your family, what’s next? The positive impact your career can have does not stop there!
With a fulfilling and meaningful career established, next comes the beautiful opportunity to pass your knowledge, experience, and wisdom onto others – so that they too can create an impactful legacy through the work that they accomplish.
When you teach others, your positive impact multiplies. Knowing that the people you teach will then build on that knowledge and teach others – well, there’s no better or easier way to change the world than that!
Whether you’re just starting out your career, or are simply looking for something more, take some time to intentionally think about the legacy you can leave behind.
Let’s all commit to careers of positive impact!
Just getting started in your career? Chances are, your brother’s new girlfriend, last night’s Uber driver, and your second cousin once-removed have all offered their wisdom. While, certainly, you’re lucky to be surrounded by a well-meaning community, deciphering good career advice from bad career advice is no easy task.
When it comes to making smart career moves, the stakes couldn’t be higher. So, before you follow one of these four pieces of bad advice, be sure to think twice.
“You need work-life balance”
Building a successful career requires long hours; don’t let the popularized “work-life balance” lingo trick you. It doesn’t matter if you’re an athlete, a sales representative, or a scientist: the top achievers in any industry are those who’ve lived unbalanced lives in order to get to where they are today.
This isn’t to say that spending time with loved ones and taking time to recharge aren’t important ― of course they are. That said, if you’re just launching your career, now is the time to grind. Delay gratification. Invest your time and energy into building. Balance will come later.
“Give it a try”
This is another piece of bad career advice often imparted to young people. On one hand, it’s great to keep an open mind to new opportunities. But on the other, “trying something out” is often the same as making the premature decision to quit when challenges arise.
Anything worth doing is going to require an unwavering commitment. This means not giving up at the first sign of discomfort; or in other words, closing your back doors. No matter the career path you choose, if you want to reap the benefits, you have to stay the course.
“Choose a job that doesn’t feel like work”
It probably hasn't been long since you've seen this popular Confucius quote appear on one of your social media feeds: “Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
While it's certainly great advice to select a career that you’ll find gratifying, don’t be fooled by this oversimplification. As the happiest of employees and entrepreneurs will tell you, even when you love what you do, not every task is intrinsically enjoyable. Even the most rewarding careers require tasks that are unglamorous, monotonous, or simply unpleasant. Sometimes, work just feels like work ― and that’s okay.
There is real danger in continuously looking for the “perfect job.” Be careful not to pass up a great opportunity just because you don’t love every inch of it.
“Follow your passion”
This is often synonymous with “do what you’re good at.” Unfortunately, as you may have noticed, talents don’t necessarily translate into lucrative careers.
But that’s not even the biggest fault in this piece of bad career advice. The problem with telling young people to follow their passions is that in many cases, they’ve yet to develop them. Passion is achieved through mastery of a subject ― which takes years!
Don’t expect that the best career for you is the thing that you are currently the best at doing. Figure out what your goals are, and then do what it takes to achieve them ― even if it doesn’t come naturally to you at first.
What’s some of the worst career advice that you’ve received? Did you know it was bad advice at the time? Tell us in the comments below!
The leading provider of outsourced sales teams, Cydcor is dedicated to helping business professionals worldwide reach success.
Choosing the right words is key to creating a successful resume in 2015. But even before a hiring manager sees your resume, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) could reject it. It’s estimated that nearly 75% of applicant resumes don’t make it through this automated scanning process. At Cydcor, we value all resumes that have been written well, and showcase the experience we're looking for.
Hiring managers may not understand your “passion” or you skill as a “problem-solver” if you do not explain how you demonstrated this in a work setting. You need to make sure your resume shows how you increased company profits. Use your resume to tell how your record-breaking effort contributed to your team’s success.
Start With a Summary
Your resume needs to let the hiring manager know that you’re the right person for the job and are worth being contacted for an interview. Get the hiring manager’s attention by identifying your relevant experience in a well-crafted summary at the beginning of your resume.
Numbers Tell the Story
Use numbers to define your professional accomplishments. Numbers add focus and scope to your work history. Answer questions like these with facts and figures:
Use Keywords
Highlight keywords in the job description and compare them to related keywords in your resume. If there is a 70-80% match, then you should apply for this position. Only about 20% of applicants applying for a specific job are actually qualified for the position. Online tools like Jobscan analyze how well your resume matches the job description.
Keep It Relevant
Employers want to hire people with relevant experience. Keep your resume to 1 or 2 pages by cutting any experience that is over ten years old.
Get Creative—Within Reason
Colored fonts will make your resume stand out from others—but don’t get carried away. Consider at two-color system—black and one other color, like blue. Test these colors on various screens and printers if possible. You want to make sure it’s easy to read. But before investing too much in design, study the company’s website and get a feeling for their culture to determine if a creative resume will work in your favor.
Cydcor has previously written about Toxic Employee Traits That Can Slow Progress, but it's also important to mention how to continue career progress. You will never advance simply by sitting at your desk, answering emails, and filing reports. A promotion is earned. Achieving a promotion isn’t an impossible goal. But to get there you need a good plan. The following suggestions are your starting points for success.
Evaluate Your Skills
You wouldn’t have been hired if you weren’t good at your job. But are you producing enough positive results to earn a promotion? Before you request a promotion, evaluate your job performance. Ask yourself the hard questions—face your fear.
It’s Not All About You
You will never achieve success by yourself. Your colleagues are an important part of your advancement. Study what they do. Understand their pain points. Improving their productivity is a leadership skill and contributes to your chance for promotion.
Write Your Future
Write the story of your career. Imagine where it will lead. This exercise provides a private place to draft new possibilities for your work life. It’s a safe place to practice taking risks. Don’t waste time creating a fantasy about wealth and power. Your career is serious work.
Become the Resident Optimist
Don’t get distracted by the inevitable complaints you hear during the day. Is it hard to do? Yes, sometimes it is. Everyone has bad days. But remember this: negative is easy, positive is hard. Don’t complain—explain. Don’t spread rumors—educate. Build a reputation for being constructive, informed, and open-minded.
Your Evaluation Happens Every Day
Do you ever feel invisible when your workload is building up? During these times remember that your supervisors are taking note of how you manage stress while you reach your goals. If you feel stuck in a negative take time for a mental stretch. Many corporate leaders find insight and get reenergized when they meditate.
Ask For Help
Sometimes you’ll come across a problem you can’t figure out. You need to be brave enough to ask for help. Find a mentor. Build a resource team from various departments. Share the problem. You will be remembered solving problems with creative strategy. Never ignore the wealth of institutional experience at work.
Find out more about Cydcor and our latest company updates by following us on Twitter @Cydcor.