If you are craving more challenging assignments and tasks, set up a meeting to discuss this with your boss. You want to ask for more responsibility as soon as you feel ready and confident you can perform well. It is also critical that you ask in a very positive manner. For example, “I have really enjoyed working here so far and I really think I’ve mastered my current responsibilities. Do you agree?” If the answer is affirmative then you can press on. “I really want to learn as much as I can here, and I am hoping you might have some additional assignments I could take on?”
Be aware that you may very well get what you ask for. Also, if your boss agrees to give you new and more challenging assignments, he or she will be watching closely to make sure you can handle the added responsibility.
Similarly, there really is no magic formula when deciding when it is time to move on from your current position or company. Each decision to move on is unique to the individual and company. Some times moving on is the only option to continue to grow as an individual and also in your career.
Even when you are in a career you love you will have days that challenge you. However, open communication is the key to a successful career. If you don’t communicate your wishes and desires to your boss etc. how are they to know what you really want to do? Please don’t make the self-defeating mistake that they should just know, or one time in passing you dropped a hint as to what you really want to do. You must make it extremely clear to your leader the direction in which you would like your career to go. Remember you own your career. During midyear evaluations is an extremely appropriate time to bring it up, so it can be documented and you can have a copy of it. If your company doesn’t do formal evaluations, then schedule a meeting with your boss to discuss your career.
Make sure you are prepared ahead of time with exactly what you would like to discuss with your boss. Think of ways of how your boss can help you get where you want to be. Perhaps you want to learn more about a particular area in the company, find out if you can job shadow someone in that area, on your own time of course. You never know your boss might be so impressed with your preparedness and assertiveness she might allow you to do it on company time! Perhaps you want to go back and get a degree or advanced degree. Does your company have tuition assistance benefits available, or can your boss recommend you for a special company sponsored program? Are there any leadership development programs available that you would like to be considered for? If you go into the meeting with a lot of ideas about how you can get to where you want to be in the company, and if you can do it in a way the boss thinks they have helped you, it can be a win win for you both. Help your boss help you!
In order to gain a true understanding of any situation, we must learn to evaluate ourselves objectively. (Easier said than done!) It is much easier, safer perhaps, to believe that the problem lies with everyone else. But changing jobs will never solve the problems that within us. if you are the problem at your current job, remember that even if you change companies, and you don’t evolve emotionally, professionally, or socially, those same problems will be waiting to greet you on your first day at your new firm. We must truly be honest with ourselves in order to find true happiness at any job.
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Anne Brown is the co-author of “Grad to Great” (Dalidaze Press, 2007). Visit http://www.gradtogreat.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anne_Brockseker_Brown |
