5 Keys To Accelerate Your Career After College

There are a lot of us that are patient with our jobs, but we want to know when our next promotion or position will come. It’s perfectly natural to think about advancement in your career, even if you’re fresh out of college. While some can settle into the same position for years, there are plenty that want to make a change within their first few months.

If you find yourself in the latter category, there are some ways in which you can stand out. Here are five keys to accelerate your career after college so that you can land the job that you’ve always wanted.

Network

It’s a known fact at this point that getting ahead in your career is more about who you know compared to what you know. There are countless people who are fantastic at their jobs but don’t like to interact with their coworkers. While this is certainly fine if you want to focus on the life aspect of work-life balance, those who want to get ahead in their careers will need to network as much as they can.

You don’t have to spend all of your post-work hours rubbing elbows with higher-ups at bars, either. You can simply get on social networks like LinkedIn to start networking within your company and making connections that can get you a long way. Shadowing those who are working in jobs that you want someday is also huge for your networking skills.

Continue Education

Employers absolutely love it when you already have a degree, and they love it even more when you’re working on your next one. Some of the biggest and best companies in the world to work for not only encourage you to work toward another degree, but most of them will end up paying for it as long as you’re there. Most of these opportunities are online, too, making things easier.

Depending on your employer, you might even get paid time off to concentrate on school. Some of the highest-rated companies for those looking to advance their education include Ocrulus, DevBridge, and Liberty Mutual Insurance. Some stipulations may require you to maintain employment at the company for a few years after graduation, but you won’t be in debt.

Create a Map

Before you get too deep into the company you’re currently with, try to make a roadmap of where you want to be in the next five to 10 years. There could be certain companies that you’ve wanted to work for, certain roles, or even cities that you want to move to. We mentioned Liberty Mutual, and that would be a good destination for those that want to end up living in the Boston area.

Even if you don’t know exactly where you want to go with your career, at least try to brainstorm some ideas. There aren’t many people who want to stay in the job that they landed straight out of college forever. Write down your dream job and the path it’s going to take to get there, no matter how hard or outlandish it might sound.

Let Higher-Ups Know

In companies of pretty much any size, your direct managers and those above them are going to want to know if you want to pursue other opportunities. They don’t want to know because they think you’re going to mail it in on your current job, but because they want to help you land those new positions. At the end of the day, managers look good when their employees are promoted, so it’s a win-win for everyone.

Managers will get in touch with those in the same position in different fields or perhaps even higher up on the ladder to see where you might be a good fit. Even if it’s a job that you weren’t trained for initially, you could end up feeling more comfortable while making more money in an entirely new role. However, your managers can’t help you if you don’t let them know.

Focus on the Now

It’s great to plan out your future and think about advancement opportunities, but when it comes down to it, you still have a job to do right now. If you’re too focused on other things, you might not even get that new job or raise because your performance isn’t up to speed. 

Focus most of your energy on the tasks you have to complete now and the rest will fall into place. It’s good to show initiative, but managers from all walks of life want to see how you’ve been performing before any movement is made.