Career Development

Career activities share a characteristic that makes them worth doing when nothing is urgent: they all work considerably better done calmly, in advance, than under the pressure of an actual job search. A resume rewritten with no deadline is better than one rewritten in a panic, and salary research done before an offer arrives is worth more than research done afterwards. None of these require you to be job hunting, and several are more useful precisely because you are not.

These suit you when your work feels directionless, when a review is approaching, or when you have realized that you cannot remember what you achieved this year. Several are useful whether or not you are looking to move, since knowing your market position and being able to describe your own work clearly are valuable regardless of intent. The work compounds, since a clear record of what you did makes every subsequent conversation about your career easier.

To choose, decide whether you are working on the record, the direction or the network. Resume, LinkedIn, portfolio and brag document all concern the record of what you have done. Development plans, career roadmaps, skill gaps and certifications concern direction. Networking events, reconnecting with colleagues and asking for feedback concern people, which is where most opportunities actually originate. Each also produces something reusable, which means the hour keeps paying off at every review, application and salary conversation afterwards.

What you need is a computer and, for several activities, honest source material: past performance reviews, old project notes, real job postings for the role you want. That last item is the most under-used input in the whole category, because live postings tell you what the market is asking for far more reliably than any careers advice does. Time is the binding constraint rather than material, and these are best done in one uninterrupted block rather than in fragments.

Start today with the brag document if you have not kept one, because everything else on this list is easier once it exists. Failing that, read twenty real job postings for the role you would want next and note what keeps appearing. Both take under an hour and both produce material that several other activities here depend on. Your own calendar and sent mail are the other under-used inputs, since both contain a record of what you actually did. Whatever you produce, save it somewhere personal rather than on a work system you may lose access to.