If you don’t ask, you don’t get

It’s great when everything is going really well with your career, you feel confident, successful, respected, valuable and life is good.

Even when all is well I’m sure that you still have aspirations and ideas for further personal development, additional skills and experience that you would like to gain; after all who wants to feel that they have reached the summit of their capabilities?

For some people there is a lot of wisdom in the moto, “The time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining” – now I’m not suggesting that just because you’re performing really well that you should jump ship! However, I do advise two things:-

1. Make sure that your boss is clear on where you want to go with your career, what further capabilities you have and discuss how these can be accommodated within your existing organisation. Pick your moment and have an honest discussion, your boss will appreciate that you are ambitious, loyal and looking at your long-term prospects within your current company.
2. If there is a particular career goal that you would like to reach at some point in the future which cannot be achieved where you are, then make sure someone else knows about it. It might be that you would like to work in a different therapy area, a different market sector or a different country, maybe not now but at some point. It could be that you’d really like to work 3-days a week and spend the other two studying astrophysics. Maybe you feel that your “dream job” just isn’t out there or that it would be too difficult to get into. Speak to your recruitment consultant, make sure that they know that you are not actively looking but make it clear that if they have a role come through which ticks boxes X, Y and Z, then you want to know about it. You never know when that perfect role might come along and it could be the case that when it does the timing might be just right.

So, whether you set your sights on further challenges within your current company or an aspirational change of direction, make sure you ask and give yourself the option to get.