Where To Get Good Career Advice
Not all career advice is equal: some is better than others. Some people are good at listening and giving the right information and advice at the right time. Others arent. In the same way, there are good places to go for advice and not so good places. But wherever you go for advice, be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of each option.
Since youre here now, youre already aware of the option of getting advice from a professional career consultant. However, there are literally hundreds of professional career consultancies and choosing the right one and the right service can feel challenging. So make sure you do your research and make the most of free and low-cost opportunities to try before you buy.
If youre not clear about what career you want to pursue or whether your choice is right for you, speaking to a career consultant will give you the information and support you need to examine your options, make a career plan and follow it through.
There are personality tests that will help you identify options based on who you are as a person. Such tests could throw up ideas youve never considered before. And if its been a while since you took any careers tests, its worth doing some again because youll have changed as a person with more experience and different ideas now.
Heres the thing
Career Advice From Wildly Successful People
Great job advice can be transformative. It can set you on a whole new trajectory, land you a new role, or even prompt you to make a big change. Through her podcast, Amantha Imber has had the opportunity to interview and learn from some of the most successful business leaders, musicians, writers, entrepreneurs, chefs, and entertainers. Here is some advice from them:
- Not all feedback is created equal. Take a moment to reflect on the feedback giver. Ask yourself: Do they have your best interests at heart? Do they have experience or expertise in the subject they have given you feedback on?
- Flirt with your future self. Its normal to get urges to try out different roles or career paths. But instead of doing something dramatic, think about small experiments you can do in your current role that can help you understand your choices better.
- Schedule a life check-up. A life check-up involves asking yourself how youre tracking with your career and the job you are in. It ensures that youre not blindly following a career path youre going to regret years down the track.
- Do your current job well even the boring bits. Every single job is a mix of good bits and bad. Do them all well to stand out from the pack.
Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here.
While I have no recollection of the positive feedback I received that day, there is one piece of constructive feedback that stayed with me.
Take Your Career Into Your Own Hands
This piece of advice requires a self-directed mindset, which means a person assumes full responsibility for their own career path and development, rather than relying primarily on their employer. Compared to the other three pieces of advice, this one has the most positive effect overall. We also found it to be across-the-board beneficial for all outcomes considered people who hold a self-directed mindset are more likely to experience both greater objective and subjective career success compared to those who dont.
Additionally, people who take full ownership of their own careers are more likely to have greater morale , higher job performance ratings, and lower withdrawal behaviors in their current job. Thus, the advice to proactively develop your own skillsets and pack your own parachute is the most helpful of the four types for both the employee and employer.
Recommendation: Someone lacking a self-directed mindset assumes their career development will be taken care of by others, such as their current employer. While this may have worked in the past, its no longer the case today. This is due in part to the need for companies to adapt quickly to changing technologies and increased competition caused by globalization. That requires employees to be on their feet to acquire the new knowledge and skillsets sought after by 21st century organizations.
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Career Advice Tip : When You Make A Decision Do It On Purpose
When you make a decision, make a decision. Do it confidently. Dont go with the flow just because it seems easier or youre not sure what to do. Decide on your course of action and then stand by it. If the outcome is poor, youll have well-thought-out and sound reasons for why you did as you did and can confidently make your case. Most employers understand a bad judgment call, but they have a harder time overlooking what they perceive as negligence.
Career Advice Tip 2: Fight For What You Deserve
Dont assume your efforts are being noticed and will be rewarded accordingly. If you want recognition youll have to fight for it. Strategically take projects that are visible, make yourself useful to your bosss weaknesses ask for raises.Dont just do excellent work silently and expect it will be noticed.
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How To Choose A Career Counselor
While credentials are not the only thing you should look at, they are a good starting point when you are choosing someone to advise you about your career. Just as you would never consider seeing a doctor who does not have a medical degree, you should never pay someone for career advice unless they have professional credentials.
Career Advice Tip : Leave When Its Time To Go
Dont be afraid to grow with a company, but dont be afraid to leave. If the company is not serving your career goals anymore, you are frustrated with the lack of promotional opportunities, or you simply arent being treated well or compensated fairly, dont let some misplaced sense of company loyalty keep you there. They wouldnt hesitate to replace youdont be afraid to choose yourself and replace them.
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The National Career Development Association
Many career counselors are members of the National Career Development Association. The NCDA offers special membership categories to recognize those who have reached certain professional levels of achievement.
Master Career Counselors, for example, have a minimum of five years of experience and a Masters degree in a related field, or a minimum of seven years of experience and a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
You can find NCDA members listed on their website. Career counselors may also have local licenses from state boards of licensure.
Earn A Bachelor’s Degree
Completing a relevant degree programme can help you improve your suitability as a candidate when applying for radio jobs. Education requirements may vary amongst radio stations, as some don’t require a degree. Some radio hosts may enter the radio industry with a General Certificate of Secondary Education certificate with sufficient work experience to supplement their skills. Degree courses in journalism, communication, music production, digital media and broadcasting may provide you with a firm foundation and help you learn the skills to work in the radio industry.
Additional certifications such as a Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media Production and Technology, BTEC Level 2 Extended Certificate in Creative Media Skills and BTEC Level 3 Certificate in Creative Media Production can help increase your competitiveness. You can also attend a broadcasting school to build valuable connections and learn more about filming, script writing, presenting and editing various content.
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Need The Best Career Advice Out There These Websites Can Help
Whether youre fresh out of college or want to switch careers, these websites offer the top career advice for both college graduates and mid-level professionals.
Ready to jumpstart or level-up your career? Check out our careers page where we cover the latest topics in the world of recruiting to help you nail your interviews and land the job of your dreams!
How Counseling Can Help
Career counseling can help you with your development and mental health when trying to find a career by getting answers to questions about personal interests, skills strengths, and how to make a career change. There are many forms of counseling that can help many aspects of life. If you’re feeling frustrated by doing most of your learning alone on Google or LinkedIn, there is help available. Career counseling can help you prepare for an interview, craft your resume or cover letter, ask someone for a reference, or learn about networking.
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Advice For Entering The Workforce
Opportunities don’t happen, you create them. Chris Grosser
1. Create a vision statement
What do you want to do? What will your career look like, and what impact will it make? Once you understand your career aspirations, youll be in a better position to choose work you love. Use your vision statement as inspiration to create a vision board.
2. Find out what your career will look like
No career path is without challenges. Jane Fonda said, If the career you have chosen has some unexpected inconvenience, console yourself by reflecting that no career is without them.
You can learn more about what your career path will really look like by working with a mentor or coach. Apply for internships, attend networking events, or go to working interviews to learn if youll be satisfied with the jobs day-to-day.
3. Learn as much as you can
Cultivating a beginners mindset is a critical part of career growth. Take advantage of on-the-job training to learn as much as you can. Ask questions and get to know people across the organization. Try job shadowing someone to learn what their role is like. You can also try reading some career books to help absorb expert advice.
4. Dont be afraid to say no
I firmly believe that opportunities can come from anywhere but if your gut says no, listen. Dont feel pressured to take a job that feels out of alignment with what you want for yourself. Sometimes, its better to gracefully decline a job offer than to get blown off course.
What Career Counselors Do
A good career development professional can help you explore career options, can inform you of labor market trends, and can assess your skills, interests, and work-related values. A career development professional can help you sharpen your job search skills, and can help you learn how to move up the corporate ladder.
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Career Advice Tip : Learn Everything You Can
Take advantage of any development opportunities you can on the companys dime. Spend your development budget, take the certification classes, get a free Masters degree. Any knowledge you gain is knowledge that can never be taken away and can give you leverage and value in this job or in the next one.
Skills Necessary For A Job In Radio
Having the necessary skills proves that you have the expertise to do a particular job and helps you prepare for a successful career in the radio industry. Examples of radio job skills include:
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Audio editing: Basic audio editing skills allow radio hosts to create clean transitions during their shows when switching to music or audio files. It can help you provide high-quality sound output using sound databases and edit any mistakes using intuitive software.
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Scriptwriting: Radio broadcasters can write, read and edit their scripts on air. They also use such scripts when interviewing guests during live broadcasts.
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Voice acting: A radio presenter’s voice can entertain and motivate the listener. Voice acting skills can help develop vocal techniques to maintain a healthy voice and change the tone or pitch according to different situations.
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Audience engagement: Engaging listeners throughout a show is a necessary skill for all radio presenters. Communicate with your listeners in a way that helps you develop a connection with them to make the session interactive.
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If You Need A Phd Get Through It Asap
PhDs take up so much time, and for a lot of career paths are a helpful credential but not very useful on the object level. If youre in the US and thinking that I should go into government for X, Y, Z reasons. One of the credentials that matters is a PhD. Well, just optimise for getting through your PhD quickly and well enough. One way to do this is to do your PhD in the UK instead of the US, because PhDs are much shorter there. If youre not going to be an academic, it doesnt seem like the difference matters much if you can afford it financially, youre basically getting three of the most valuable years of your life for your career back.
Why Is Your First Job Important
Your first job is important because it teaches you valuable skills and shows you what kind of work you enjoy, which can guide you through the rest of your career. The people you meet and the coworkers you work with are often more important than the money you make.
Your first job is a great place to network as you can make connections to higher-paying jobs. It also exposes you to new situations with customers, inventory and even particular computer systems. You can also add experience from your first job to your resume to make you even more competitive in future applications.
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People Who Have Interviewed You
The interview is still the most common method employers use to identify the best person for a new job. Its also the part of the process most of us dread. However, even unsuccessful interviews offer plenty of learning opportunities. If you keep getting interviews but havent been able to secure the job, you may need some feedback on your interview technique. Where better to get that than from the person who decided not to hire you?
Best Practices For Writing A Letter Requesting Career Advice
An effective career advice request letter should do the following:
Explain who you are. At the beginning of your letter, explain who you are. If you’re friends or close acquaintances, you obviously do not need to do this. However, if you are not close acquaintances, remind the person of who you are and how you met:
- For example, It was a pleasure meeting you last month at the sales conference in Boston.”
If you were put in touch with this person through a mutual acquaintance, then explain the connection:
- For example, Our mutual friend Linda Smith suggested I get in touch with you.
State your request. After a brief introduction, clearly state why you’re writing. If you’re looking for information about specific careers within an industry, then say so. If you’re moving and looking for advice about jobs within a particular city, explain this.
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Your Guide To Working In Entertainment
Do you have big Hollywood dreams? This article is part of a series on starting and building entertainment industry careers. Read on.
Most of the programmers The Times interviewed say that they fell into the job. There isnt a defined pathway. Many of them didnt even realize it was a career at first. They started with a love of movies, then gained a love of the film festival environment and wanted more.
Its like summer camp, said Faridah Gbadamosi, senior programmer at the Tribeca Film Festival. Theres people that I know that I will see every year at this place. … It really creates a family vibe.
But planning a film festival is also a lot of work. I think that a lot of people almost idealize our jobs, said Kim Yutani, director of programming for the Sundance Film Festival. They think, Oh, I would love to watch movies for a living.
But film festival work goes beyond the actual event. Programmers are screening submissions throughout the year to get the final selections theyre building relationships with filmmakers and other industry members theyre providing support for up-and-coming talent. Their work helps films continue to have impact beyond the time audiences are watching it.
I love that moment when you see a film that just changes your life, said Martine McDonald, the director of artistic development at Outfest. Every now and then, therell be a film that Im like, My life is better after seeing that.
Apply For Jobs That Match Your Qualifications
Once you have your search criteria, it is time to apply for jobsbut don’t apply to everything you see. It is more efficient to be selective and only apply to the opportunities that match your qualifications. Rather than sending out generic resumes and cover letters, this allows you to tailor them to the needs of each job. A tailored effort increases your chances of getting a response from an employer because they can easily see how you can support their specific vacancy.
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Be An Entertaining Interviewee
The best interviewees come in almost like entertainers. They realise that the people interviewing them are bored, they come in with ideas and anecdotes specific to the organisation, and tell them in an entertaining way. That will make you stand out. It might not be the best way to choose an employee, but I think it happens a lot. People want to work with other interesting people.
