Career occupies an important place in the structure of the needs of a modern person, thereby influencing his or her satisfaction with work and life in general. A successful career provides a person with material well-being and the satisfaction of the highest psychological needs, such as the need for self-realization, respect, and power (DuBrin, 2015). It is a quick and successful advancement in a job that helps to achieve fame or material gain. A career strategy is a way to build it in such a way that the method of promotion and organization of activities ensures the optimal use of all driving mechanisms. This paper aims to identify and explain the three most important career-enhancing techniques.
One of the most important tactics is the development of career goals. Building a professional career is inextricably linked with a purpose, an image of the desired result, which at different periods of life can change each other or have different levels and priorities. As an immediate motive, the goal directs and regulates conscious human activity, giving it consistency. In a self-marketing system, a goal is a specially revised dream prepared for fulfillment (DuBrin, 2015). Like a dream, a quality goal should be attractive, inspiring, but unlike a dream, it is more specific, detailed, somehow measurable, defined in time, and obligatory to achieve. The process of setting a goal for building a career includes three main phases: finding a goal, situational analysis, and formulating it.
There are certain principles for setting a career goal, such as attractiveness, closeness, progressiveness, consistency, and the possibility of target adjustment. The goal should be realistic, achievable, and correspond to personal interests, values, and ideas. Sequential goal-setting concentrates efforts and brings the final goal closer (Low et al., 2020). In the process of building a career, the motives may change, and moving towards the goal, rigidly focusing on the initial motives inhibits the career process. Finally, the goal should be formalized and provide criteria for assessing its achievement.
Life-long education and growth through continuous learning and self-development is the second important career-enhancing tactic. The world is changing and self-education is one of the ways to update existing knowledge and acquire new ones. Today, many people striving to achieve career success learn independently, while mastering a huge amount of information in a short time (Low et al., 2020). The ability to learn is the main skill necessary for a person engaged in self-education. It manifests itself in developed self-motivation, the ability to find the necessary information, choose the appropriate methods of learning, as well as the ability to make acquaintances and cooperate with people (DuBrin, 2015). Experts say that everyone who has achieved significant success in their work, regardless of its type, has been doing a lot of self-education. They associate this not only with the acquisition of new knowledge but also with the fact that this type of education develops the skills of creative understanding of reality.
The third secret to professional success is to build yourself up as a top-notch specialist in the business. Any determined person can make a significant contribution to the success of the company with the help of the intensity and quality of work, and stand out from the crowd of other employees. Identity politics, or creating a brand pays special attention to the identity and personality of a person (Low et al., 2020). The brand serves as a sign of originality that distinguishes a product or a person. Everyone knows some well-known brands whose identity is deeply rooted in the minds of consumers. An employee or a businessman with his or her identity can make outstanding progress while simultaneously focusing on strengthening the identity of the entire enterprise.
A career in a broad sense is a sequence of professional roles, statuses, and activities in a person’s life. This is an active comprehensive achievement by a person of previously designated posts and positions in professional activities. A career is an individually conscious position and behavior associated with work experience and activities throughout a person’s working life. Thus, to realize and build a career consciously, every person needs to master the methods of building a career strategy, that is, the modern techniques of self-marketing. The analyzed career-enhancing techniques help to ensure the sustainability of the career process.
References
DuBrin, A. J. (2015). Human relations: Interpersonal job-oriented skills (12th ed.). Pearson.
Low, T. H., Ramos, J., & Hernández, A. (2020). The changing role of personal resources in perceived employability of young people in different labor conditions. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 36(2), 169-179.