Are you looking for more money, a promotion or new job in 2023?

Low unemployment and skill shortages have continued to create opportunities for rapid career progression, but you need to make sure you are progressing in a way that will help you achieve your long-term career goals.

Before jumping into your job search journey, start by thinking about where you’d like your career to be in two years, five years and then 10 years. Once you’ve identified your goal, you can focus on what steps to take and what skills you might need to get there. 

So how do you advance your career in 2023? Here are our top 5 tips:

1.      Upskilling

Your skills are your most valuable commodity in the jobs market so regularly upskill to stay ahead of the competition. Focus on acquiring new technical or hard skills involved in your profession or industry, but don’t neglect your soft skills and digital skills, with soft skills becoming almost as sought-after as hard skills in the current world of work. Hard skills are easy to measure (they are your profession or trade skills), but soft skills on the other hand, are how you handle your approach to things. They include:

·        Coachability: Able to take and incorporate constructive feedback;

·        Empathy: Able to relate and come up with win-win solutions;

·        Effective Communication: Able to present clearly and effectively to avoid misunderstandings and error;

·        Critical Thinking: Able to analyse potential choices and the best route to take;

·        Creativity: Able to adapt your approach and find unexpected solutions;

·        Solution-Focused Attitude: Able to problem solve to overcome obstacles;

Open University (www.open.edu.au) offer many short courses including architecture and construction, business and management, engineering, and digital skills. They offer courses from two hours to upskill or reskill.

Head over to our blog also to ready more on Soft Skills.
Learn 6 Soft Skills To Succeed at Work and Life

And remember, as you update your skills, update your resume/CV.

2.      Find A Mentor

Reach out to experts in your workplace, experienced professionals or perhaps a former work contact, and learn from someone who is already where you want to be. Speak to them about their experience, how they got to where they are and what they learned along the way. You will gain plenty of professional insights talking to someone who is already an expert in their field. It’s a great way to ask them if they think you need to take up a particular courses to boost your skills and potentially get you further, faster.

Of course, at SiteForce Recruitment, we are always available to guide and direct you to your next step, and take great pride, in watching our staff grow in their careers.

3.      Be Able to Sell Your Skills

In response to the current skills shortages, employers are more open to transferrable skills and understanding what capabilities are essential in a role and what are desirable and where you fit in.

In return, they want to know you can be trusted to produce results. So, add what you have learned, achieved and examples to your resume and online professional profile as proof that you can deliver. When preparing for an interview, practice articulating your quantifiable results in your answers to common interview questions.

One simple trick is to use verbs to bring your successes front and centre in your resume. For example, instead of writing that you managed a team, try “directed”, “united” or “motivated”.

Of course, if you are working through an agency like SiteForce Recruitment, we know our staff exceptionally well and naturally sell your skills to the right person and make sure we have the right person in the right job.

4.      Don’t do it just for the money

Skilled tradies and professionals are aware of the demand for their skills and are subsequently changing jobs to secure a higher pay. Making major life changes however, such as getting a new permanent job, purely for the money can led to unsatisfying outcomes unless carefully considered.

At SiteForce Recruitment, we focus on putting the right person in the right job. We know this leads to job fulfilment and less stress, whether this is a permanent placement or labour hire placements. We carefully consider the skillset, progression opportunities, and expectations of both the employer and employer to ensure there is a match that will satisfy both parties. If progression opportunities come with regular upskilling for instance, it can future-proof your employability and may be of greater financial benefit long-term.

Whereas, if you are just focused on the money, it make employers concerned about their long-term retention potential if salary is your primary motivator. Also when conspiring the money, don’t price yourself out of consideration. Ensure your expectations are aligned with current market rates rather than the figure you believe your skills warrant. This also allows you to be confident if you need to negotiate a salary offer.

5.      Be adaptable to change

In today’s construction landscape, it’s become even more important for employing organisations to be able to pivot quickly and remain agile, and employees need to be ready to adapt with changes.

Your comfort zone is the set of behaviours and actions that together create the drumbeat of your day-to-day life, reducing risk and stress and providing us with a sense of security. It is this comfort zone that is often threatened by change, so the challenge is to identify how to quickly establish a new routine, and thus a new drumbeat so that you can rebuild self-confidence and a sense of security.

If you find that the prospect of change causes you some fear and anxiety, it’s therefore important to learn how to embrace change – and in so doing, develop an important, transferable skillset.

Change readiness is a valuable skill, and something employers really value in our changing world of construction. So think about this skill, learn to adapt to change, adopt innovations and methods and be part of the forefront of implementing best practice. By building on your ability to respond quickly and positively to change, you’ll help your career success.

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SiteForce Recruitment specialise in labour-hire and permanent recruitment in the construction industry. We are committed to valuing people, safety and well-being, collaboration, trust and of course – results!

CONNECT with us via our contact page or bookings links on our website if you are looking to recruit for, get your dream job, or join our amazing labour force team.

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