Ok, so we’ve all recovered from our New Year’s hangovers; now it’s time to get serious. The cold hard facts are that while jobless claims are down and the economy is on the upswing there are still a hell of a bunch of folks that are underemployed, freelancing or perma-lancing. Do you want to be another statistic? We didn’t think so. So break out the laptop and take a few notes because we’ve got five easy ways (and one not so easy) to give your career some upward momentum.
Polish That Resume
Whether you currently have a gig or not it never hurts to give your resume a nice facelift. Even if you feel nothing’s changed since your last update, try completely revamping the structure. Use a new font, change around some bullet points or challenge yourself to cut it down to one page. Just the fact that you are retooling it can inspire you. Think of this task as a way to review what you’ve accomplished (and what you hope to accomplish in the coming year). P.S. — it never hurts to spruce up that LinkedIn account as well. If you do this, be careful about appearing to look for another job when currently employed as it is not out of the realm of possibility for HR departments to snoop around employees LinkedIn accounts.
Suit Up
Yes, your work should speak for itself. But in today’s climate, you’ve got to look the part if you want to succeed. So use some of abuela’s Christmas money and buy yourself a new “corporate” wardrobe. Then make your way to the barbershop and get a nice, clean fade. It should go without saying that if you want to impress the boss man, you’re going to have to leave the scraggly beards, beat up Nikes, and Affliction t-shirts behind.