Make Some Resolutions to Help Your Career

How are your New Years’ resolutions coming along? Did you join a gym? Are you watching less TV and reading more? No? Not even a little bit?

Maybe what you need is some real motivation – resolutions to help your career. Let’s examine resolutions that can help you get ahead (or stop you from being passed over).

Stop Effing Cussing
On the one hand – as my English professor said – words are only words – we give them meaning. So swear words are just words, but like it or not there are people in your work world – no matter how laid back – that will judge you for using profanity.

CareerBuilder conducted a study that found that 81 percent of employers have doubts about their employees who curse while a little more than half have reservations about promoting a work-curser.

And in 2015 do we still need to remind you to curb your cursing on social media? A Jobvite social recruiting survey shows that two-thirds of recruiters don’t like seeing profanity in social media posts.

Do Something Career Constructive
You don’t have to vow to learn another language… but you could read a career or business book once a month.   You could make a practice to spend 15 minutes a day doing industry reading. Or you could take some postgraduate courses to sharpen or develop skills. If you are standing still, you’re sure to get passed.

Get Organized
Seriously – put a reminder in your calendar if you have to. Is your desk a mess? Do you have a hard time keeping track of priorities or tasks? There is no excuse in 2015 as the resources, tools, and apps are there to keep track of your life. Keeping your desk clean? There may not be an app for that, but the cleaner and more organized your workspace is, the more likely you will be to focus on the task at hand.

And if your New Years’ resolution involves advancing your career, we’d love to hear from you about your goals and how you might fit into one of our current openings or how you might be the “perfect fit” for that job requisition we receive tomorrow.