New year’s resolution: my career evolution

A bright new year is upon us, meaning it’s time to prepare for a fresh start! For many of us, that means making resolutions, and whilst it’s great to resolve to drink a bit less or eat more broccoli, sometimes the changes you make can be deeper and can even transform your life completely. If that sounds like an exciting prospect, you need to have a good think about what you really want from life, and how you are going to achieve that.

One major aspect of life that affects us all is our career, with most of adults spending at least 1,800 hours a year at work.  If you work for 40 years, that’s at least 72,000 hours worked. If you’re going to spend that much time doing something, you really ought to enjoy doing it, right? Well, you may be surprised. New research from the London School of Business and Finance has revealed that half of UK employees are looking to change jobs, with 66% of under 34s regretting the career choices they have made. Perhaps you are one of these people. If so, now is a great time to take the bull by the horns and change your life, forever.

To ensure you make the best choices for your future, it’s worth taking a bit of time to think about your career. A UK survey revealed that over 40% of people failed to keep their New Year’s resolution last year, and 80% of those had given up within the first three months. These stats prove that if you want to make deep, lasting changes, you need to be realistic and keep motivated. To help you structure your thoughts and determine what you really want, try following these stages:

• • Look back and reflect

First of all, look back over the past year and think about what made you tick and what frustrated you. Try making a list for each and jot down everything that happened in your professional life that affected you – both good and bad – whether it was getting that promotion you really wanted, mucking up an interview… or a colleague who made you feel small – write it all down. Then review your list and see which things you want to change in it.

• Look to the future

  Don’t let your past mistakes define your future – you can change things for the better. Look ahead and think about what you want professionally – is there a dream job you secretly covet? A life change you yearn for? Do you want more respect, more money, more flexibility? Write down your ambitions. To be successful, choose a career that you can realistically train for, where there are openings on the job market. There are numerous resources online offering advice on how to assess and develop skills for career development.  Have you considered a career in web development? If you’d like to know more why not check out our website – you will find information on how to train for a digital career, what jobs are available and what type of salary to expect. What’s more, our courses address real skills gaps in the market, so it’s a good place to look.

• Make an action plan!

  Now you know what you want and what you need to do to make it happen. Next you need to find the best way to do it. If you need to train or get a qualification, what is the most cost-effective training option and how can this fit around your existing schedule?For example, if you want a new career in web development, you need to find the best way to train yourself in HTML and other programming languages. Can you take time out to go to university? Do you have the funds for that? After all, stopping work for three years and paying £27,000 in tuition fees might be easier said than done. Then again, do you even need to go to uni? Are there better, more cost-effective vocational alternatives?  Why not sign up to OpenClassrooms’ bachelor-level diploma and qualify in just one year following our 100% online, mentored diploma? To find out more, give one of our student advisors a ring on 0203 868 9900.

• Keep your resolution

  Now it’s time to put your action plan… into action! Try following these points for success:

  

  • Set yourself concrete goals, such as ‘Complete the Web Developer Path in one year’ rather than ‘learn frontend web development’ – this is too vague and it will be difficult to assess your success.
  • Keep your goal in sight by setting weekly and monthly targets, such as completing our course on HTML by the end of January. Be realistic about what you can achieve and always remember what you are aiming for.
  • Studies have shown that most of us succeed better with outside support. This creates accountability and motivation. If you want to be sure of success, our Premium Plus membership offers one-to-one coaching with your own dedicated mentor. In one study, it was found that 95% of mentoring participants said that mentoring motivated them to do their very best (The War for Talent’,  Michaels et al., Harvard Business Press).  A mentor can open you up to new ideas, making the learning process faster and show you how to promote yourself with success.
  • We believe in you, now it’s time to believe in yourself!

   

  Now is the time to change your life and start on a new path. We would love to help you get that dream job, so check out our website to find out more about what we can achieve together. Succeeding in this project will be the new year’s resolution that changes your life.