How to build relevant work experience

NAIROBI: The tendency to mistake work tenure for experience is quite common. For instance, some people have tenures of 10 years that, unfortunately, translate into one year of experience repeated many times over.

If you are seeking to build a successful and rewarding career, care must be taken to ensure your work experience is relevant and solid to support you up the next step in your career.

To do this, avoid some common mistakes. Top of the list is laziness. Lazy people are shallow and content with just being there. They lack initiative, opting to take instructions literally, and once finished, they will just sit back and wait.

MAKING MISTAKES

Fear is another problem. Some people are so fearful of making mistakes that they will simply not try anything new. They just lie around like lame ducks and watch risk takers fly past them. Others lack the necessary skills and competencies necessary to attract additional responsibilities.

Some people don’t make attempts to strategise for their career, preferring to leave matters to roll on auto-pilot. Others do not believe in their worth. For some strange reason, progress and success are for others, never for them. Yet others are stuck in the past. They are fascinated by things gone by and forget they are living in the present and as such, must be adaptive. The list of mistakes can go on and on. However, it is important to take a decisive position for the sake of your career. Mistakes such as the ones listed above have no place in the life of a success-minded person.

The decision to be bold and progressive must be made. This should be followed by the necessary action plan that should include acquiring the right skills and modifying your behaviour, beliefs and value systems to become supporting of your success.

Depending on the nature of the career, there will be particular skills, abilities and knowledge needed for the particular job. Your goal should be to become outstanding in these. You should then focus to complement these strengths with other general competencies that are essential for success irrespective of your job.

General awareness of your business or industry is essential. No excuse can be acceptable for any ignorance in this area. Proficiency in communication, irrespective of the industry is also crucial in supporting career growth. Take note to keep your communication skills on an upward trajectory at all times.

LARGER TEAMS

Learn how to team play. The modern organisation is a maze of teams, each with a unique objective. Small teams then build into larger teams that ultimately merge to form the entire organisation.

Being a good team player improves your growth prospects. Other skills that must be honed include persuasion, problem solving, leadership and motivation, organisation and working under pressure.

As you embark on progressively upgrading your skills, you must realise that mere reading or observing is not enough. You must practice what you learn and keep getting better with time. Complacency and ineptness should never be tolerated. Whatever you do, remember your career is a life-long journey and every progressive step, no matter how small, counts.

-The writer is a human resource specialist at Peoplelink Consultants Ltd.

Email: goretti@peoplelink.co.ke