My Career Capital

Move over managers! 5 ways to take charge of your career capital today

‘Career capital’ is a term that you may be unfamiliar with as it is often misunderstood and under-valued. It’s even likely that you associate the term ‘capital’ as a financial metric.

It’s not a common term but it is something that is actually really powerful for people to understand and manage – consciously and continuously.

Simply, ‘career capital’ refers to the unique skills and experience you’ve gained over your own, uniquely personal career. This includes performance reviews, references, feedback, goal setting, achievements and core competencies, such as language, courses completed and tech skills, etc.

Unfortunately, the first half of that list (performance reviews, references, feedback and soon) is tracked by managers using private, stagnant and dated software not accessible to employees after their contract or employment ends. So we often pour hours of time collating and preparing information about what we’ve delivered in a job and how we’ve gone about it for a review process – simply to put in a black hole that we realistically, won’t really see or use again. This leaves employees and job seekers in the tricky role of contacting former bosses to ask for references, often years down the road when your quality work is no longer fresh on the mind. Not to mention, how do you even clearly remember what your valuable contribution was to articulate it clearly, or track progress year on year?

Actively managing your own career capital is one of the most important ways to achieve fulfillment and growth across your career.

So why take charge of your career capital? To get clarity on what makes you valuable, where you can best add value, as well as where and how to make your best contribution. We often fall into careers unintentionally. Imagine having the tools and resources on hand for you to manage yourself, and every detail about your work and its impact tracked and neatly waiting for you on an online platform –a few clicks away – the next time you want to switch things up, try freelancing or apply for that dream that’s just been posted. Before we get to this new platform that does all that and more, called My Career Capital, let’s look at 5 ways you can take charge of your career capital – today.

 

1.    Get to know the existing evaluation tools and schedule

Most structured roles with a manager-employee relationship will involve some form of evaluation (ex. based on deliverables, a project’s time frame, targets, etc.) at some frequency (ex. quarterly, annually, at the end of a project, etc.). While these evaluations exist, too often they are not formalised, happen in a passive way, or you share all the preparation of deliverables – only to never reference or see it again. This means there is no clear record of your work, feedback or achievements, and certainly no record that will move with you in that career path or in another direction entirely. To address this, start by asking your manager or HR team what the existing performance evaluation tools are (many companies use software where you can log your goals and achievements) and what the review schedule is. Then plan your own timeline! Think about what are the points of preparation to get ready for the reviews with your manager? Importantly giving yourself enough time to collect stakeholder feedback and the information you need to have ready to demonstrate the work you have done. We suggest tracking your work as you go, and reflecting and summarising at the end of each month. Check out My Career Capital for innovative tools to meet the needs of managers and employees alike.

 

2.    Set goals

Recognise that you have ultimate control over your own career. This is especially true as people increasingly change careers and fields up to 17 times over a lifetime. Whether or not your manager prompts you on this or whether or not you’re your own boss, be sure to set goals for yourself and your work. There may not be a formal system – software, for example – in place to set goals for specific projects or deliverables. You can always create a tool for this using Excel or Microsoft word, or online, easy-to-use software such as My Career Capital. Set goals and create a plan to work towards them. Track your progress of achievements, and importantly celebrate them and the valuable contribution you’ve made – reflecting and knowing what you do well is key!

3.    Know your opportunities

As careers move more and more from traditional paths to more flexible and dynamic, it’s important to know your opportunities. Life is too short to get stuck in a rut personally or professionally. Read autobiographies and articles from your career mentors and idols. Learn about roads less travelled. Understand your bigger plan, understand what’s stopping you and research how to move from A to B and from C to D. Too often we fall into staying into a job for too long because we think that we’re not relevant anywhere else or the unknown may feel too big. Knowing your worth, and having clarity on where to play can help identify opportunities.

 

4.    Upskill

Upskilling is not always built into roles, especially if you’ve worked in the same role for some time or have a manager that may not know how or even be invested in your development. But that doesn’t mean you should stop learning or seeking new opportunities, as mentioned above. There are so many courses available online, often at little to no cost, and a wealth of audio and library books out there. Look for new ways to upskill and give yourself an edge, whether by brushing up on language skills or finally sitting down to learn how to maximise Photoshop or excel at public speaking. My Career Capital can assist you in identifying areas that you may want to start focusing on first.

 

5.    Keep your CV and network updated

It may have been a while since you last looked for work or maybe you are now. In either case, keeping your resume up-to-date will not just save you time, it’s essential. With such busy lives and dynamic careers – more and more people working remotely or independently as a result of the pandemic – backtracking and trying to remember what that great project you did a few years ago was about is not practical. Instead, use a one-stop-shop like the My Career Capital platform to store important details about your respective jobs and achievements and create and maintain your resume easily without forgetting anything that would make you stand out from the crowd. Likewise, keep your network updated through the platform, where you can record information about, including performance evaluations from, and contact details for your best references.

Career management may feel like something that should be left to managers or your employer, well at least that is the way people have mostly perceived career management or development. With the Future of Work on our doorstep, the call to action is for you to take ownership.

Stop waiting for someone else to tell you what’s right for you or what you need, you know what’s best for you with the right tools in hand, take charge of your career capital – it’s your very own after all!

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