Determining Your Career Path

Determining Your Career PathDetermining Your Career PathIf youve been in a new sales job for several weeks or months, you may be reaching the career point when you begin to map out your career path. But determining your career path may notlage be as simple as asking your sales manager, consulting with your human resources department or taking a long, hard look at your organization chart. Start With Your Long-Term Goals While your next step might be (and should be) a small step up the corporate ladder, youll serve yourself well by seeking to get a good understanding of your long-term career goals, both with your current employer and potentially with a new employer. If, for example, you feel that you are interested in lokal management positions for your current employer, talk to people who currently hold regional management positions and ask them what career paths they took. Modeling yourself after successful people is a fantastic shortcut to success. If someone who has earned the level of success that you desire is willing to offer advice or even to mentor you, you will be better able to make more empowering decisions and to avoid career mistakes. Be Quick, But Dont Hurry Legendary NCAA Basketball coach John Wooten was famous for telling his players to be quick but not to hurry. What this means for your career is that you need to be quick to explore and take advantage of career-advancing opportunities but to not grow impatient and hurry into a position that doesnt fit with your career goals. When it comes to professionals regrets, two things are commonly listed Not taking advantage of opportunities when opportunities presented themselvesRushing into promotions that were known to be bad choices The moral to the story is the more clear you are on what you really want in your career, the more likely you will be to recognize good opportunitiesand to avoid making bad career choices. Establish a Time Frame Every geschftsleben in different and each will hav e their own unique time frame of when it is reasonable for their employees to climb their corporate ladder. While these time frames will certainly not be written in any employee manual, youll be able to determine what time frames your employer usually follows for employee advancement. If you determine that your career goals should find you moving to the next level position within 2 years of your start date but your employer doesnt usually promote people till theyve been on the payroll for at least 3 years, you need to make some decisions. Either youll need to consider altering your time frames or will need to consider looking for a promotion with a different employer. Have a Sit Down with Management Many people in sales management and senior leadership will complain that they are hard-pressed to accurately list their employees who are interested in advancement. If you dont let your supervisors know that you are interested in advancing your career, they may never know until they post a position and you apply for it. You would be doing your career a tremendous favor by making your career goals known by those who may ultimately determine whether or not you get promoted. The last thing you want to do is to surprise your manager when you apply for a promotion.