Celebrate Success and Connect to Your Future — at Work
Celebrating your successes and connecting to your future are good ways to keep learning and growing in college. But these strategies will be equally valuable in your work life. Just as your values, interests, skills, and goals can change during college, they can shift in your professional life as well. Ongoing personal reflection, the ability to adapt as you encounter challenges, and a willingness to network will help you build a satisfying, successful career.
Keep Reflecting
When you celebrate your successes at work, you take stock of the new skills that you’ve acquired or talents you’ve strengthened, and these insights can help when you’re seeking a promotion and refining your career path. Likewise, when you experience setbacks at work, you can take personal responsibility for analyzing what caused them and identifying the changes you’ll make to get a better outcome in the future. Employers appreciate people who take initiative, turn setbacks into learning opportunities, and keep honing their skills. Ongoing personal reflection helps you do just that.
Adapt to Change
In the world of work, one thing’s for certain: You can expect constant change. Over time, the job market for various careers can grow or shrink. Skills that employers value today may differ from those they’ll want five years from now. The most pressing challenges and the most exciting opportunities that organizations face will also keep changing — thanks to new technologies, changes in consumers’ preferences or needs, and radical moves by competitors.
By staying up-to-date on developments in your field, you can better anticipate what changes may be lurking on the horizon — and adapt as needed to take advantage of emerging opportunities or tackle fresh challenges. For instance, Paolo has just learned that his employer is installing new accounting software that requires some basic coding skills in SQL, a computer language for accessing and manipulating data. Proficiency in SQL would advance his career in any company, so Paolo purchases a book on SQL programming and creates a study schedule so he’s prepared for the transition. By doing so, he is building valuable skills that will open up new doors for him.
ACTIVITY: Ask students to draw a diagram of their academic connections. Next, have them diagram their professional network (which might be smaller), leaving a few blank spaces to represent the professional connections they’d like to have. Finally, ask students to discuss in groups how they can make these connections.
Continue Networking
Networking is just as important in your professional life as in your academic life. So take just as much care to build and maintain your professional network as you do your academic network.2 For example, if you’ve recently been hired at an organization, find out whether the company has a mentor program. A mentor can help you define career goals, connect you with people who know about job opportunities within the organization, and advise you on how to navigate the organization’s political landscape.
Likewise, make sure your professional network is diverse. It should include people at higher and lower levels in the organization, peers in different divisions, and even individuals outside the organization, such as customers, suppliers, or members of a trade association. By gaining insights from people in your network, you can get a clearer picture of what’s going on in your organization and where the best opportunities and sources of support are.
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voices of experience: employee
THE VALUE OF CONTINUOUS
PERSONAL REFLECTION
| NAME: | Matthew Gordon |
| PROFESSION: | Author; future lawyer |
| SCHOOLS: | Wilfrid Laurier University; Cornell University; University of Alberta |
| DEGREES: | Bachelor of Arts; Master’s; Juris Doctor (2015) |
| MAJORS: | English and History; Industrial and Labor Relations; Law |
“To stay on track and keep pushing myself, I constantly reflected on the progress I was making.”
I’m a writer, and I very recently finished my third novel. As I worked many long nights, I focused on staying organized, maintaining my discipline, and achieving my long-term goals. I learned through experience that writing a novel is a test of endurance; I made progress little by little, not all at once. To stay on track and keep pushing myself, I constantly reflected on the progress I was making, how I handled different situations, and whether there were ways to improve.
My whole life, I knew I wanted to be an author. Although I’ve always liked academic writing and journalism, literature has been something I’ve loved for as long as I can remember. I spent my childhood and adolescence writing increasingly longer works until, during high school, I figured I was ready to write a novel. Each attempt since then has been better, leading up to the novel I just finished. It took me a year to write but, in some ways, vindicates all the effort I’ve put into reading and writing up to that point.
Now that I’ve finished this novel, I can step back, reflect on all my hard work, and celebrate how far I’ve come. It’s a great feeling to be able to pick up my novel and enjoy the story that I wrote. Even though I know what happens next, I can still get lost in the story over and over again.
YOUR TURN: If you’re currently employed, do you continuously reflect on your performance and progress, as Matthew does? Do you take time to celebrate your successes? Why or why not? If not, or if you’re not yet employed, what strategies might you use to prompt self-reflection and appreciation in the future? How might these strategies benefit you as an employee?
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