Five Areas to Be Grateful for in Your Career

As we approach Thanksgiving Day it’s good to think about our career and the parts of our work lives that we’re grateful for. We’d also recommend a daily gratitude practice but that is a story for another time.

There are many aspects of our career that we might be thankful for but for now let’s focus on the following five areas.

The opportunity to do work that benefits your community and the world, while utilizing your strengths, talents, skills, and interests. It’s fulfilling to find work that interests you and enables you to use your strengths and skills to make the world a better place through your company’s products or services.

Working with good people. You’re fortunate when you work with a competent and dedicated team that you enjoy working with toward a common goal. You earn bonus points when there is one or two co-workers you consider a friend or enjoy socializing with outside of work.

Flexible work arrangements. Be grateful for opportunities you to work from home, leave work early to attend to family matters, or benefit from a four-day work-week.

A mentor. We should always be thankful for those people who have taught, guided, and mentored us along the way in our lives, education, and in our jobs. A good mentor should not be taken for granted, and he or she likely played an important role in where you are now in your life and career.

The occasion to advance in your career and to develop your skills. A great workplace enables you to gain new knowledge, enhance your skills, and provides opportunities for advancement. Be grateful for these opportunities at work.

These five areas can offer you the chance to reflect on your current job, be thankful for the positive aspects of your work, and can help you consider whether a change in scenery might be better for your career.

5 Things To Do When You Don’t Get the Job

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You carefully prepared for the job interview and it went well. You were called back for a second interview and had been excited to make a job change when you get the disappointing news: You were the runner-up for the position. Thank you for your time.

What to do you now? Manage your disappointment, of course, along with continuing to crush it at your current job.

In addition to maintaining your strong performance at work, take the following steps to turn your disappointment into something positive and beneficial for your career.

Be gracious. When you get that call letting you know that you did not get the job be sure to be kind and courteous. Thank the interviewer for taking the time to consider you for the position. You want to continue to make a good impression by demonstrating how you manage disappointment when a situation doesn’t go as hoped. You never know, you just might get a call back for a future opportunity. Or your interviewer might remember you when they’ve moved on to another job.

Seek feedback. While you have the person on the phone, make the most of the opportunity by asking for feedback on your interview and the areas you seem to be lacking in knowledge or experience. This is simply for information gathering. Do not get defensive or attempt to persuade the interviewer that he or she is making a mistake. Your job here is to listen, take notes, and say thank you.

Fill in the gaps. Take that information you just received and put it to use. Sign up for a class or a training session to master the skills you’re lacking or seek out a mentor who can provide some counsel. Develop a plan to improve your skill set and get after it.

Widen your net. Use this experience to widen your network of contacts and deepen your relationships. Perhaps seek to develop a professional relationship with someone at the company you interviewed with. Find a connection through LinkedIn or inquire among your friends. Go to conferences or events where the speakers or attendees will likely be individuals from companies you’ve targeted.  

Be grateful. Flip the switch and turn your disappointment into gratitude. The grass is not always greener and many of us have made career moves we’ve regretted. You might have been spared a difficult situation. Turn your attention to what is good about your current situation and focus on that. There will be other opportunities that come up and for now you can master your current work and develop skills that will help land that next job.

Do These 5 Things After You Get Promoted

Let’s imagine a big day coming up when you receive the exciting news from your manager that you’re being promoted. Congratulations!

Now what do you do?

Don’t let that first day pass by without doing the following five things:

Be grateful. Let your manager know that you are appreciative of the opportunity and the recognition and that you intend to continue to do your best. If you feel like the promotion is overdue resist the urge to mention this. Simply be grateful for the opportunity that you’ve been provided at this moment.

Give thanks. Let your colleagues, friends, and mentors know about your promotion and be sure to thank them for the role they played in developing the skills and knowledge that brought you to this moment. You didn’t succeed alone, and you’ll continue to receive the support of these friends and colleagues if you recognize them for assisting your career.

Work hard. Resist the urge to leave work early to celebrate. Instead, continue to demonstrate your commitment to excellence by working hard while supporting and serving your colleagues as opportunities arise throughout the day. You likely will feel a sense of pride and accomplishment over your promotion, as you should, but do not let it impact your performance on the job.

Update your resume. Yes, you read that correctly. Now is a perfect time to update your resume with your new job title, along with a description of your new responsibilities, as you understand them. You don’t want to wait until moments of crisis in your career to scramble to get your resume updated. Do it now when you feel enthusiastic about your new position. Also, be sure to update your LinkedIn profile.

Celebrate. You definitely deserve to celebrate your accomplishment. Enjoy a night out with friends and family and be grateful for your new opportunity.

Handle your promotion more and there will be more to celebrate in the future.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Tips for Showcasing Soft Skills on Job Interviews

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• Tips for Showcasing Soft Skills on Job Interviews: "As more companies recognize the importance of soft skills, they're becoming more interested in figuring out how candidates will respond to certain scenarios."

• 6 Good Daily Habits for a Fulfilled Life: "My best daily habit is waking up each morning feeling grateful for the opportunity to live another day and have impact on the world around me."

• How the Best Companies for Women Neutralize the Mommy Wars: "Ultimately, I find that most women will say there is gender equality at their firms if an equal amount of sacrifice is required of both men and women, whether they have families or not."

• If Your Team Agrees on Everything, Working Together is Pointless: "What we need is collaboration where tension, disagreement, and conflict improve the value of the ideas, expose the risks inherent in the plan, and lead to enhanced trust among the participants."
• 28 Best Habits to Have in Business: "Considering the difficulties involved with building a notable business, it's important to stay inspired. Find something that inspires you every single day."

4 Things to Do Once You've Been Promoted

So, you got the big news: all the hard work has paid off and you've been promoted to that job you've been coveting and working toward for months. Now what? This isn't a time to kick back and relax.

Take the following steps to continue your career momentum:

1. Celebrate and be grateful. Yes, you certainly deserve to celebrate your accomplishment. Enjoy that night out with friends and family and be grateful. And then be grateful every day. You'll want to remember the importance of being thankful on those days you question if you really all the responsibility of this new job.

2. Listen and Learn. Begin to listen to others you'll be working with and for. Hear their frustrations in the job, along with the things they enjoy and the processes that are going well. Begin to understand your role and how you can best support those around you, in addition to considering how to best apply your strengths and knowledge to the new position. Learn as much as you can from others and seek to serve those you work with, particularly those who report to you.

3. Find an ally. Often when a promotion occurs it means that at least one other person you'll work closely with was passed over for the job. These can be tricky situations and so it's important to find someone to discuss issues and concerns with. Find an ally and a mentor to help you move through the transition to your new role, especially in those early months when emotions are raw and everyone is still finding there way around the new structure.

4. Give yourself some slack. You'll make mistakes. That is a given. You'll need to learn how to quickly move on from your mistakes, own them responsibly, and learn from them. Learning from mistakes does not mean that you spend hours dwelling on them in an attempt to get things right. A good leader knows that you need to let your decisions go and move on.