Starting Your Career? Begin on the right foot!
Starting your career can be exciting, overwhelming, and everything in between. We don’t know what we don’t know, and for some the ambiguity is hard to face. Whether you’re a university or polytechnic graduate, apprentice, or jumping straight into a role, beginning on the right foot is crucial. The following tips can help you take that first step into the unknown:
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Define your goals: Clearly articulate what you want to accomplish in your career. Remember this may change in coming weeks, months and years — and thats perfectly fine. Whether its gaining skills, learning about an industry or landing a particular role, having targeted goals will help guide decisions and actions.
Grow your network: Building your network isn’t just for busy professionals, it’s important for everyone. Connecting with like-minded people and opening your mind to hearing about differing experiences will always be beneficial. You may start by attending an industry event, joining LinkedIn groups, and proactively seeking out mentors. We may have a small fear of rejection, but don’t realise that many professionals want to help others, especially those just starting out. The relationships you build early on can open doors in later years.
Keep an open mind to learning. In the early stages of your career, learning should be your top priority. So many fall in trap of wanting to progress into senior roles quickly, without developing key foundational skills. The skills you learn early on, technical, communication, teamwork, time-management are often your ‘baseline’ - if these are limited, it may impact your chances of being a strong leader in later years. It’s important to ask questions, seek feedback, and always be curious. Your career is a marathon, not a sprint!
Find a mentor: Talking about your career with someone who has achieved some of the goals your setting, or who you admire in another field altogether, is incredibly valuable. The insights you glean, experiences you become open to, and the common challenges you can discuss will help form your view as you progress. If you don’t have one yet, consider joining a mentoring programme, or shopping around for a coach. There are parallels with sport, theatre, music — if you want to excel, having a coach is often one of the best investments you can make!
Persistence is key: It’s hard to keep at it, finding a job can be grueling and unrelenting. It’s so easy to get discouraged. Getting knocked back for a myriad of reasons is hard to take. But this is all part of it. Our careers are very rarely linear, and we don’t realise that when we’re starting out. Stay positive, keep applying, and remember every “no” will bring you closer to that “yes”.
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Starting your career doesn’t have to be daunting. With the right mindset and strategy, you can build a solid foundation for long-term success. CareerMate offers coaching and mentorship, catering for those just starting out, young professionals and career-switchers. We’ll help you kickstart your career with confidence and clarity - lock in a free introduction chat today!