Personal Note from Julie: You’re One Business Decision Away from Career Upset

Every single one of us is one business decision away from having our professional lives turned upside down. Are you prepared if this happens to you?

I’ve talked to a lot of admins and training colleagues about this lately, and it’s a scary but true fact. Last week, at the Office Dynamics Conference for Administrative Excellence, Joan Burge touched on this reality when she said, “Security doesn’t lie within a company. It lies within you!”

I couldn’t agree more. There are habits you must refresh or develop to find the job security you crave. You control this. You need a career toolkit that’s complete, current, and includes all the items you need to quickly activate your network and transition yourself into a different company or position should the need ever arise. You need to be actively engaged in your own professional development and skills advancement. You need a strategic career plan that helps you track where you’ve been, where you are, and where you are headed next. These are the things that help you navigate those unwelcomed business decisions that can upend your world if you aren’t prepared for it.

It’s heartbreaking when we receive the emails and phone calls after people find themselves on the wrong side of a business decision. Many times these decisions were not made as a result of anything the person did wrong or poorly. In fact, it can be quite the opposite. But the decision was made and the result is you now need a new job without much notice.

A lot of times, we find these admins don’t have a current resume or a professional portfolio or work samples to put into it. They don’t have a LinkedIn profile. Sometimes they haven’t been to a networking event in years. These things don’t take much time to keep current each week or month. But when you’re in panic mode, you’re usually not thinking clearly about the skills you want to highlight or the accomplishments you’ve achieved. And if you try to throw together a career toolkit in a hurry, you end up with a lackluster picture of your professional self. That’s why this month we’re focusing on preparing you for if and when your professional life gets turned upside down by helping you get your career toolkit in order.

This week’s feature article highlights one of the most important components of your career toolkit: your resume. We share some ideas on how you can make it more visual and visible in this digital age. You can also find additional advice, information, and resources on creating your toolkit on our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages.

Be sure to stick with us throughout the month as we help you brush the dust off of these key career components that help you proactively weather the business decisions you least expect!

Supporting your administrative success,

P.S. Don’t have a resume? Struggling to get started on your admin career toolkit? The All Things Admin job-search toolkit provides templates to help you get started!