How to navigate your career through your 20s and 30s (5Min)

If you are new to a company, early in your career or you just need some straightforward, professional guidance, then it’s completely valid, as the more you challenge yourself early on, the more successful you’ll become down the road. But, before we discuss about the tips on how to move in 20s and 30s, you should always remember that it’s never too late to ask the question “What should I do with my life?”
Following are few tips which can guide you on the ways of how to navigate your career through your 20s and 30s:

1. Find out where your skills and passion intersect: You have to find out the point of intersection of what you are very good at and what you love to do which means that you have to find out what you would love to do and at the same time if you are very good at that or not.  This has to be done because in the midst of your passions, interests and the opportunities is the sweet spot—where you should build your career in order to be successful.

In order to find that out you need to focus first on identifying the gaps and the needs. Engage yourself fully with the support of others in your career planning process. Once you get the clear picture of what your ideal future looks like, you can move with that vision in mind and chalk out your plan and take necessary steps to keep moving on to that path and achieve your goals.Ask yourself the question where do you want to be in the next five years and then ten years? Start keeping the final goal in mind and then work backward. 

2. Over Deliver (deliver more than others): In order to excel in the role you occupy currently and in future roles too, you should constantly ask yourself if you’re delivering above average or not. You should take the assignments which others won’t take usually. You need to show that you are not lagging behind in taking initiatives.
First, take your time to understand what your employer needs from you and then don’t just do it but do it the best you can to drive your organization forward. 

3. Work on the feedbacks: We can’t see ourselves objectively all the time. That’s why we’ve to seek honest and regular feedbacks and mentorship from our senior colleagues and peers. In your career, how you manage your performance is largely dependant on you only as your manager may not have enough time to provide you with regular and meaningful feedbacks—so you’ve to be proactive all the time. Your progress will entirely depend on how much you understand yourself and improve on your areas of improvements as quickly as possible.

4. Don’t be afraid to fail: You have to be ready always to face the career setbacks head on. Things will go wrong any time in your career like bad managers, economic downturns, unexpected terminations and you need to be ready always for any of these or similar situations. Failure is a natural part of the process in building a career. Failure is how all the successful leaders have achieved success. Failure reveals your character and if it is handled with grace then that’s what separates you from the others and guides you to success in the long run.

You have to prepare a contingency plan on how you’d respond if certain events unfold in your career. As setbacks are a natural part of life, so you should make plans in advance on you to handle those when it strikes.

5.Leadership is leading others by example: If you are seeing yourself moving into a management or leadership role one day, then start preparing for it now and not later. When you lead, then you realize that the skills which you need to succeed in your individual role aren’t the same as the skills which you need to help others succeed in theirs. Today, it’s all about shared leadership, and the most important job of a great leader is to create more good leaders. As a manager or a leader, it’s not about you only anymore, it’s about all of them.

Do you already have the leadership skills? Perform a skills and experience gap analysis on yourself. When you identify your gaps, you can make a suitable plan for bridging the gaps and make yourself fit the role of a manager.

6. Always keep learning: Never stop learning and reinventing yourself. Constantly review your career goals and keep on modifying accordingly so that you can make sure that they’re aligned with where you actually want to go. Ask yourself how you can keep developing and closing your knowledge and skill gaps. Even you will be surprised when you actually find your own potential. An amazing career which you design yourself, challenges you and takes you from one level to the next.

So, you can join a course in something you’ve always been interested in or join a professional group in your community. You can take on a project to develop new skills and talents. You should always be learning to feel alive.

CONCLUSION: When you think of your foundation and authenticity as your center and don’t let anyone wring it out of you, then your career takes care of itself on it’s own. If you give excellent performance and constantly keep on challenging yourself in order to grow, then you’ll definitely find your way and achieve your goals. Great performance will always be recognized. Keep on learning and asking questions as it’s about your career and about what you going to do with it. You have to make it yourself.