As the CEO of your own business, which is your career (some have called it “You, Inc.”), a critical goal is to advance your career in the direction you want it to go by continually improving and growing.
It’s also vitally important to safeguard your career by planning for contingencies, such as events in life or in business that might require you to look for a new job or a career pivot. Basically, disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
Many of us are so busy, it’s often hard to find time to do this personal work. I’ve been in that place – particularly before my kids went off to college. Between a leadership role, kid stuff, family stuff, and trying to have a life outside of work, taking stock of my career was kind of the last item on my annual to-do list, something I did right about the time the annual goal-setting conversation with my boss was about to happen. My bad!
As I kept talking with my friends in the digital trust community about “continuous improvement” plans, continuous monitoring of risk and controls, disaster recovery, and business continuity – and the more I counseled others through a multitude of career situations, such as layoffs, disastrous job changes, re-entry, burn-out, and boredom, to name just a few – the more it hit me over the head: the kind of strategic processes that apply in business, apply to our careers as well. That’s when I came up with a concept that has become a mantra for me: career sustainability.
By taking time to monitor our career and life goals, we are proactively working to achieve our goals and able to keep both our short and long-term career path in view. By taking action steps that keep improving our technical, interpersonal, and leadership skills that enhance our marketability, we create career sustainability.
It's something we have to do. It has to be part of our career critical work. And it has to be done on the regular.
October is an optimal time to do your career check-up. Here are four reasons why:
- Ten months into the year, there is a lot of work, projects and hopefully feedback to review and assess in terms of the value-add to your career and skill gaps that might have been uncovered along the way.
- There is the building sense of what could lie ahead in the coming year for your team, department, business, and the world writ large. For instance, in technology (e.g., AI governance and security); economic conditions; and socio-political developments. And, with that in mind, you can revise your goals, your training, and the action steps you will want to take.
- Linked to Item 2, there is still time in the calendar year to fit in new training or certification.
- Doing your own review will help you be well prepared for any upcoming performance reviews.
Doing a career check-up can be chunked out into manageable pieces. None of this is hard. Carve out the time over several days, or a weekend, and you’ll have it done. Here are six steps to work through to efficiently complete your career check-up:
Step 1: Create an inventory of all your recent projects
This is essentially a “project journal.” Record the who, what, when, how, duration, scope, tools, learnings, and challenges identified. Very importantly, identify the value you added – why the project mattered (positive outcome) and who applauded it.
The easiest way to do this is to create a notebook (or spreadsheet, or Word doc) with pages for each year, recording your projects as soon as you finish them. Start with 2023 and document your work to-date. Then, work on past projects, grouping them by year, in one document. What this documentation gives you is an invaluable perspective on your work, your skill development (soft and technical), your contributions and achievements.
You can use your project journal notes to create vivid stories about your work. These stories are a key part of networking effectively, building your brand internally and externally, communicating your value to your boss during your performance review and concretely demonstrating your work skills in job interviews.
Check out this Career Corner column to learn how to craft inspiring stories about your work.
**Bonus -- Get ready for your annual performance review with these tips.
Step 2: Update your resume as needed.
Use your project journal to help you do that. The most critical content in resumes: your contributions, the value you have added, the problems you have solved.
Demonstrating leadership is important at all career states. Even if you are early in your career, there are ways to lead in your role – strive for that, and document it! Create bullets that detail examples of how you lead effectively and successfully. Quantify that success as best you can.
Similarly, many roles seek candidates that are “innovators” or “collaborative.” For any of the desired traits that might be important in your ideal next job, create bullets that SHOW how you embody these traits because no one believes it when we state, “I create innovative solutions.” You have to show how you did this.
Here are four Career Corner columns with ideas and tips:
- A big picture resume concept and how to improve the power of your resume content:
https://www.isaca.org/resources/news-and-trends/newsletters/atisaca/2021/volume-20/the-best-interview-hack-start-with-rethinking-your-resume - How to write a very effective profile for your resume:
https://www.isaca.org/resources/news-and-trends/newsletters/atisaca/2021/volume-32/the-profile-the-most-underrated-section-in-the-modern-cv - Resume ethics:
https://www.isaca.org/resources/news-and-trends/newsletters/atisaca/2023/volume-27/resume-ethics-in-digital-trust - Improving the odds of getting your resume read by a human:
https://www.isaca.org/resources/news-and-trends/newsletters/atisaca/2021/volume-11/improving-the-odds-of-your-resume-reaching-the-hands-of-a-human
Step 3: Improve your LinkedIn page.
Update employment. Add your hot projects. Add your certifications. Join new groups to reflect your current professional interests.
Get recommendations from past bosses and colleagues. We all read Yelp and Amazon reviews. It goes almost without saying that LinkedIn recommendations are extremely powerful because other people are singing your praises. Be sure to add at least a couple of new recommendations each year.
A number of people I have spoken with say that they aren’t keen to update their LinkedIn profile because they don’t want to be hounded by recruiters. But it isn’t just recruiters that look at LinkedIn. Your current and past colleagues look; your HR people look; your boss may look; if you are in consulting or self-employed, certainly your clients will look. Keeping your profile up-to-date and interesting is part of your personal marketing and branding mission. Make a periodic “audit” of your LinkedIn profile part of your ongoing career hygiene. Schedule it on your calendar for review every six months.
Here's a link to my new article on how to create a professional LinkedIn profile that will set you apart and build your brand.
Step 4: Review your goals. Update and align them to your career vision.
This Career Corner article from January 2023 provides you with how-tos for this piece.
Critical to integrate into your career goals are your life and personal goals, and planning for the amount of focus you want to give each of them. Here are some thoughts on that from the May 2023 Career Corner.
If you think you are ready for a job or career change, maybe it’s time to honor that notion with a bit of dreaming and constructive ideation. This Career Corner article shows you how.
Step 5: Plan your training, and if need be, prepare for a new certification.
Assess where your skill gaps are. What skills will you need to be effective on the types of projects you want to undertake now and in 2024? What skills will help get you promoted, if that is your objective? Assess and make your plan.
There are lots of training options available, many of them free. If work typically slows as the year winds down and holidays approach, jump on getting your CPEs and upgrading your skills. That initiative won’t be lost on your manager.
Many employers view a certification as an absolute must-have for promotion to leadership roles. From a recruiting point of view, candidates with a certification are much preferred over candidates with no relevant certification. If you haven’t earned a certification in a few years, think about where you are heading in your career and what certification will support your next move.
A new certification has messaging power on your resume that goes beyond certifying your skills. It demonstrates that you are committed to keeping your skills sharp and continually learning, which are attributes prized by hiring managers. Ageism is, unfortunately, still prevalent. So, if you are a professional with years of experience, showing that you are actively learning will definitely enhance your career sustainability.
One CISO I know gets a new certification every year. His rationale is that having a definitive goal in mind and a reward in view (the earned cert) motivates him to study harder and learn more effectively. This strategy might work for you as well.
Step 6: Keep your network fresh.
Many people find a new job through their network. The percentage bandied about is typically 85%. However, an interesting analysis on LinkedIn suggests that 85% (based on one study) is not accurate. The author’s conclusion is that while the percentage is likely less than 85%, it is not negligible, and given that, networking is an important strategy for any job search. I would add, based on my experience as a career coach, that the higher you go up the leadership ladder, the more likely your network will play a big part in the interviews you get and the roles you are offered.
So that is one big reason to keep your network vibrant. Another is the incredible power in being able to reach out to people you know for advice and knowledge. When one works in a fast-paced and ever-changing profession like digital trust, the need for many fonts of wisdom and people to consult is all the more crucial.
Jumping on this final part of your career enhancement project, consider doing some (all!) of the following to improve the health and dynamism of your professional network:
- Plan for professional meetings and/or conference attendance.
- Make time to meet with colleagues in different departments of your company for updates on what they’re doing and what you are doing.
- Drop a line to a former boss to let them know about your career progress (or your gratitude for their guidance)!
- Connect with a current or past mentor for advice or to update them on your career.
- Send an interesting article to a colleague in your field, together with a note about your recent work and a query about what they have been up to.
- Touch base with people you consider to be your best career references and refresh their knowledge of what you are doing now.
- Join an affinity group or a volunteer initiative at work (both of these greatly expand your internal networking opportunities in an organic way).
- Consider volunteering for your ISACA chapter or taking on a leadership role.
- Share your knowledge at work through a lunch-and-learn.
- Write a piece for the ISACA blog or Journal; or collaborate with others on a white paper.
- Plan to speak on a hot topic that inspires you at a professional meeting or conference.
With these six continuous monitoring activities, you will be well-armed for what comes next. If you are looking to grow internally, you’ll be ready to impress. If you find yourself having to look for a new role, you’ll be able to make your job search much more effective. If you want to look for a new role, you’ll be ready to play to win. Bottom line: You will have taken proactive steps to protect your career and improve your career sustainability.
As CEO of your career and future, you will have done your job well.