What is career resilience?
Career resilience is the ability and decision to keep moving forward in your career even after an unplanned setback. It’s about being able to proactively manage your career, steadily making decisions that fuel career progression and work/life integration. Resilience will propel you through work struggles, quests for advancement, or transitions to career-defining occupations. It describes more than just fighting for internal opportunities--it’s also about figuring out where you want to go next and what you plan to do to make an impact once you get there.
The benefits you gain are your reward for your diligence and hard work (e.g., compensation, reskill/upskill opportunities, promotions, and invitations from leadership to join special initiatives). They are the results of an intentional professional growth and development plan. Resilience positions you to have a positive and meaningful career. (Fun fact: many companies are taking an interest in exploring resilience as a new HR management trend. Is this a corporate value you seek from your target companies?)
Career resilience and career planning
Taking control of your professional future means applying the concepts of strategic decision making, personal branding, and marketing to career planning. Career planning is an ongoing process, which is why it’s important to continuously assess your individual learning and development. Reassessing your skills over time to identify and fill competency gaps is an exercise fundamental to career planning. Many people vision cast about their future, but never clarify short-term and long-term goals.
Laying a sound foundation for career resilience
Don’t rush the career planning process. Take time to think about what you want from your job and career before mapping the steps to get there.
Which career have you chosen? Take time to examine the opportunities that are available to you, and the steps you’ll need to take to get what you want. What job do you want to have in the next 12 months? What about in 5 years? Make a realistic plan of action by knowing exactly what you want to do. For instance:
- What do you need to know about your chosen field?
- What are the employer requirements for your target roles?
- What career assets do you need in order to be successful?
- What is your earning capacity for this and future roles? What is your income likely to be in 12 months? Is it above or below average? Have you considered your earning potential in 5 years?
Once you have completed the above steps, the next step is to translate your goals into an action plan. How will you achieve the milestones? What do your next steps look like? What timeline gets you there?
Stay tuned for future posts as we offer specific strategies to support your career management goals. Want help planning career transition objectives that position you for wins? Contact our team to schedule a free 15-minute discovery session.