5 Ways to Further Your Career
January 3, 2025
No matter where you work or your professional title in your industry, advancing your career should be a goal of yours. It's not just about earning a higher salary, but it's also improving your learning and skills potential.
While increased earning potential is sometimes the goal and the benefit of a promotion, it's also about making sure that you improve your job satisfaction and allow you to try a new job in a new field. Whether you want to change your career completely or you'd like to pivot in your current career, we've got five ways to further your career below.
Key Takeaways on How to Advance Your Career
- Learning drives career growth: Whether through online courses or prestigious business schools, continuing education makes career advancement more accessible, even while working full-time.
- Set clear career goals: To make progress, identify your goals—whether it’s earning more money, aiming for a leadership role, or planning for retirement—and start building a roadmap to achieve them.
- Identify and fill skill gaps: Understanding your current skill set and addressing any gaps is essential for growth. Seek opportunities to develop missing skills, whether through formal education or on-the-job learning.
- Consider formal education for a career change: Going back to school full-time to pursue a new degree can accelerate a shift to a new career path and open doors to more opportunities.
- Explore internal opportunities: Discuss your career aspirations with your employer to uncover potential roles within your current company, utilizing transferable skills to move into different departments.
- Continuous self-assessment: Regularly reassess your skills, goals, and ambitions to stay on track for career growth and ensure that you are positioning yourself for success.
- Seek professional development support: Engage with your employer about professional development programs, which can help you develop the competencies needed for higher-level positions.
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START NOW1. Explore learning
Whether you go online for learning platforms and resources that are free or you head out to apply for a European business school, learning can make your career advancement more accessible and possible. If you've reached a ceiling in your current job, you can always segue with education to start climbing the new ladder in the same industry. Learning online can really be flexible for you because you can continue working full time while you obtain either a new degree or a certification. You also have huge access to a range of courses and subjects, so it's about time you start researching what you'd like to do.
2. Make a list of goals
Before you can take any real actionable steps in furthering your career, you need to know what your goals are. Are you trying to earn more money or are you trying to become the boss? Are you trying to change your career entirely or are you trying to build on a plan that is realistic and measurable for your retirement? Whatever your goals may be, you need to sit down with a pen and paper and start thinking about what it is that you want.
3. Identify your skills
If you want to advance in your current career, you need to identify what skills you have, what skills you lack, and what skills you need. An industry skills gap can be a significant obstacle between you and any growth opportunities in your current industry. From here, you can focus on developing the core competencies that you need and identify the areas that could use improvement. This will allow you to seek out ways to fill those skill gaps within your company and then apply for higher level positions. Sometimes this means postgraduate study, and sometimes this means learning on the job. Discuss your goals with your employer and see whether or not you can invest in professional development opportunities with them.
4. Go back to formal education
We talked about studying to further your career, but formal education in the form of changing over your degree for something new is going to help you to start down a new career path. By taking time out of work and going back to full time school, you'll be able to pursue the career you want to pursue quicker.
5. Take a look at opportunities in your current company
Sit down with your bosses and discuss where you can go with your career or whether you can sidestep into a different department. There are many transferable skills that you likely have that you haven't recognised but that your bosses could see your potential with. If you discuss it with them, you might find that career development is just a conversation away.
