How to perform career preventative maintenance for startling results

Career preventative maintenance? What’s that? It’s the secret that most people don’t know and never recognize until it is too late.

Why don’t people do career preventative maintenance?

Most people carry on in their careers and may think about promotions or even job changes but there are only a few people who are wise enough to practice career preventative maintenance.

When everything is going well, we don’t think there is any reason to have a resume and there certainly is no reason to hire someone like me to help you prepare for the future.

It’s the same people who don’t think about retirement or life insurance or even preventative maintenance on their furnace.

What do you need for career preventative maintenance to be effective?

• A resume – not just any resume but a value-driven resume that showcases your best success stories and markets you to a specific target. For this to work, you need to be able to get your hands on quantifiable results and be sure they are verifiable! (hint: keep notes on success stories quarterly, it’s too easy to forget if you think back even 2 years)
• A quality and complete LinkedIn profile. Stop looking at incomplete LinkedIn profiles and thinking this is the standard. I am amazed at how many people say, “I checked out so and so’s profile and they didn’t write anything, that must be the right way.” sigh… Maybe they never do career preventative maintenance either.
• Learn the right way to USE LinkedIn. I see people complaining every day that recruiters aren’t finding them. Recruiters work for companies not job seekers and they are looking for the best not the easy pickings. If you are exceptional and meet what a recruiter needs to complete a contract for that employer that day, you will catch their notice. But if you are not that special gem, you have to be the one checking out LinkedIn and the web for companies that fit your needs, finding the connections, and making the calls.
• Keep networking. Build connections online and in real life. Build them because you want to fill your life with great people and be the resource they need when there is a problem. This is the best way to have a network ready to help you if you need them.

Are you practicing career preventative maintenance?

When you are ready for the breakdown, the career emergency, the layoff, you will be able to rebound with startling results because you planned ahead! It’s the kind of peace of mind will sustain you through the tough times.

Image courtesy of Serge Bertasius Photography at FreeDigitalPhotos.net