6 Figure Career Management

As we wrap up 2008, I thought I’d share some of the best posts of the year below. I got the idea from Penelope Trunk, who recently shared her best 18 posts of the year on the excellent blog, Brazen Careerist.

As this is the last post of the year, can I also quickly say ‘thank you’ for reading and commenting on the blog. I understand that everyone is busy and so appreciate you taking the time to read. I hope you’ve found the articles of benefit during a turbulent 2008 and hope to bring you more valuable advice and information in 2009.

So wherever you are in the world, I wish you an enjoyable and relaxing time over the remaining days of the holiday season and look forward to ’seeing’ you in January.

15 Best Posts of 2008

Focus On Reinvention, Not Recession

10 Ways YOU Stop Yourself Getting The Right Job

How To Thrive During Uncertain Times 

9 Career Lessons From Richard Branson

13 Ways To Stay Positive In An Economic Downturn

How To Recession Proof Your Career By Developing Your Network

5 Tips For Managing Your Career In A Crazy Market

Why Thinking Like A Consultant Protects You In A Downturn

5 Steps To More Money AND More Satisfaction

The 7½ Tips For Being Remarkable

The Secret To Success In A Downturn: Choosing Your Reaction

5 Tips For Job Searching In A Crazy Market

How To Make Your CV / Resume Stand Out In A Downturn

Lehman Employees: Here’s What To Do Next

Career Changers: 6 Steps To Becoming Unstuck

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Following on from Goldman Sachs laying off 10% of it’s workforce in recent days, media reports this week suggest that the newly formed Bank of America / Merrill Lynch group is gearing up for a 15% cut across its global workforce. Like Goldmans, the lion’s share of redundancies are rumoured to be in New York and London.  With further reports of Morgan Stanley and UBS planning further cuts and the dire economic predictions from the IMF this week, there’s plenty of bad news around.

If I wanted to, I’m sure I could fill the pages of this blog daily with news stories of job cuts, dire predictions and gloomy announcements. But if you keep following all these stories, they just consume you, paralyse you into not doing anything out of fear or an attitude of “well what’s the point?”

It is much wiser (and so much more effective), to instead focus on solutions instead of all the problems. That means strengthening your network internally and externally, doing some self analysis to get really clear about all the skills and talents you offer, understanding what value you offer employers then reinventing and re-packaging yourself to meet the changing needs of your current and future employers.

That’s what every forward thinking business is to doing right now to survive - revaluating itself and then repositioning the business to meet changing needs of the market. As the CEO of You Inc / You Plc, that’s exactly what you should be doing to succeed in the current market. 

Individuals who are proactive enough to take meaningful action and make changes can potentially thrive and be the winners in this market. For these individuals, the economic downturn could in fact be the best thing that ever happened to their careers. On the other hand, those that sit around watching and worrying about the bad news stories will unfortunately find themselves become the victims of the downturn.

So it’s a choice - focus on the problems or on solutions.

What are you choosing….?

Are you ‘stuck’ in a career you dislike?

Do you want to change careers but feel ‘tied’ due to the salary you earn within financial services? Do you sometimes get excited by the idea of doing something completely different – but then find yourself (or others) talk you out of doing anything about it?

If this sounds like you, then you need to shut down that brain of yours and stop listening so much to the people around you. You need to stop planning ahead and just focus on taking some baby steps to get you unstuck. Once unstuck, you’re in a much better place to push on with any type of change.

Click here to read the rest…