If you feel a little stuck in a rut in your current job or you are struggling to make ends meet financially at the end of every month, it might be time to consider boosting your earning potential. We can all become a little complacent in our jobs when we can do the role with our hands tied behind our backs and blindfolded, we find the company of our office colleagues comforting, and we don’t face any real challenge. However, this can become boring, tedious and unsatisfying. As well as finding something new and exciting to challenge you, you could choose to move positions in a quest to find a better paid job.
Your skills and talents shouldn’t be going to waste in a role that isn’t utilizing you. You need to consider what drives you in your career. If you love working in a team and bouncing ideas across a meeting room, but you are stuck behind a desktop computer in a solitary booth, it’s time to be proactive and seek out further opportunities. There’s nothing worse than feeling stuck, burying your head in the metaphorical sand and doing nothing about it. You need to be more proactive and find a way out, however tricky this might appear.
Boosting your earning potential needn’t mean revolutionizing your life (although it can do!) Take a look at how you can explore your options when considering how to boost your pay packet each month.
Promotion
If you have been in the same middle management role for the past decade, you may be feeling a little stale. The chances are you haven’t completed any continuing professional development for years and you can’t remember the last time you sat in a classroom. Undertaking further training is the best way to become reinvigorated with your career. You will also see the potential that you have and how you are wasted in your current role. By upskilling, you can enhance your resume and go for the promotion that you’ve always been too scared to go for. This might mean moving from your current company to a brand new startup or business, but this is exciting and shouldn’t be something that prevents you from going for it.
Upskilling takes various forms. Before you embark on courses and qualifications, check out which ones you need to specifically get you an interview for the positions you are striving for. Then, look around local providers and select the trainer you want to work with. This might mean spending some of your hard earned cash before you secure any sort of pay rise. This is ok, as you will be investing in yourself to boost your earning potential.
With an enhanced resume, you are empowered to apply for the leadership positions you have your heart set on. Don’t scatter gun, and be specific in your applications. Never be generic and write a bespoke application for each job, matching your skill set and experience to the qualities they are eager to obtain from the person specification. Address your cover letter to a named individual and explain what you can do for the company, not what they can do for you.
You might want to explore the role of a recruitment consultant to help you with your promotion plans. These individuals know exactly what your industry is looking for in certain roles. They will advise you how best to brush up on your experience, skill set and general resume appearance. If you impress them with your qualifications and work history they may accept you on to their books. This means that whenever a job role becomes available that may suit you, they might put you forward, giving your resume to the company in question. Then, all you need to do is nail the job interview. Some recruitment consultants will even offer mock job interviews to hone your presentation skills and ability to answer questions under pressure.
If you are called to interview, the chances are you’ll be nervous; maybe even terrified. Don’t panic. Everyone is nervous at interview. Prepare your answers using the STAR method, giving a clear structure to your answers. You can explain the situation, the task, the action you took, and then the result. With any luck, you can secure a promotion in no time.
Retrain
If the current career path you are on isn’t stimulating enough any more, there is no harm in retraining for a totally new, and better paid role. You could choose to resign from your marketing position and enrol in a law course at the University of Southern California. Perhaps you fancy retraining in a more creative field such as floristry, graphic design or fine art, and then setting up your own startup. Retraining, even in your thirties or forties, is seen as a courageous thing to do. While it may take some time before you reach your full earning potential as you may have to start your career from the lowest rung on the ladder, with effort and hard work, you could eventually surpass your current salary.
Retraining could be life changing or it could see you morph from one role to another closely linked one. If your company has multiple departments and you work in project management, but want to work in change management, a simple and short bout of retraining could see you move from one role to the other. When positions are closely linked, it can take one simple tweak to help you shift focus and possibly boost your income potential.
Startups
Sometimes we feel so stuck in a rut that we don’t feel like working for anyone else ever again. If this is the case, you might be keen to give working for yourself a go. Perhaps you want to continue in your current profession and take all of your contacts with you. If you’re an accountant, you might choose to specialize in helping IT contractors with their bookkeeping. Having a network already can see you hit the ground running.
Or perhaps you’re keen to say goodbye and break all ties with your current profession to venture into a whole new field. Many city slickers and investment bankers crave a more sedate pace of life. Gone are the days of eight hour working weeks, and instead self employment can afford a more normal forty hour week. Perhaps you are keen on antique hunting or upcycling. These creative careers could see you developing an online presence through sites like Etsy and eBay, Using these platforms to flaunt your wares means you are no longer stuck behind a computer in a desk job every day. You might be scouring auction rooms one morning, listing your wares another day and going to make contact with a fellow dealer on another afternoon. The possibilities really are endless.
To become an eBay entrepreneur, you need to be able to describe your products accurately and honestly. Take photos and show off your item from every angle. Point out flaws, be detailed in your descriptions and always set a reserve if you need to cover costs. Become adept at online auctions, and you could find yourself making a small fortune every year lining your own pockets rather than a multinational blue chip corporation’s.
Your earning potential won’t be boosted if you sit on your hands and wait for an opportunity to pass you by. In the twenty first century, you need to be proactive and be empowered to follow your dreams. By putting in the hard graft, you could soon see your earning potential boosted to the max.
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