What’s Your Plan? Career Tips to be Aware Of

Whether you have been trained in project management, IT, sales, or marketing, you undoubtedly have come across a period in your career when things start to look down. Perhaps you have felt stuck in a rut in your current position as possibilities for promotion get shut down before you really get to take a crack at them.

While we can’t always control our circumstances, we can do our very best to be prepared to seize the opportunities that do arise at long last. In short, every working professional should have a plan for advancement, one that is capable of tactfully shifting as the situation demands.

As surprising as it may be, online project management software can, in fact, be one of your best friends in your search for career promotion. As the saying goes, knowledge is power–and there may be no more powerful knowledge in the business world than knowing exactly where you are at and how your business’ current structure is faring.

Those people who can identify points of weakness in a company’s many workflows and moving parts can position themselves as innovators and problem-solvers above and beyond what the company pays them for.

This strategy should go above and beyond punching a few numbers into a Microsoft Project file every once in a while. Analysis and application of the data that you are far more important than the gathering. As a project manager or marketer, is your current software solution no more than a few dusty old programs like MS Project and Outlook cobbled together haphazardly, or are you investing as much time and thought into how you solve your company’s problems as they really deserve?

In addition to looking to forward-focused solutions such as Workzone or Basecamp-like software, you should consider implementing and taking advantage of online collaboration software that encourages a team mentality.

Functionality such as online document management (a cutting edge way to store, share, and collaborate on important files on a secure server) and instant accessibility anywhere in the world ensures that everyone in your department is on the same page–a state of affairs that can only help make you look better when the time for raises or advancement arrives.

Far too many people in the modern professional world have absolutely no plan as to where they will get where they want to be, and yet they complain when nothing seems to push them toward their goals. You cannot expect the world to hand you every opportunity on a silver platter; instead, you must not only leap through the doors that open without hesitation but also put yourself in a position where more doors open in the first place. Rather than playing the blame game and sulking because you’ve been stuck for what seems to be a long time beneath your potential, instead, push forward every day toward your vision.