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Six Career Actions You Should Take But Probably Don't

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At a career workshop for experienced executives, one attendee complained about unsolicited recruiter calls. Apparently, he was getting multiple calls from the same recruiting firm, even after repeatedly declining the opportunities. When I asked how frequent the calls were (daily? weekly?), he estimated once every quarter. Several minutes on the phone, four times a year comes out to less than an hour’s worth of time investment. A recruiter call gives you a window into the current market – opportunities and compensation levels. A regular relationship with a recruiter means you’ll hear about opportunities and compensation over time, enabling you to see market trends. An hour of time over the course of a year to manage recruiting relationships is a career action you should take. Yet, many professionals I know don’t return recruiter calls, don’t ask about the market, don’t refer others in their network (thereby helping the recruiter and the other contact and playing the generous connector). Here are five other career actions you should take but probably don’t:

Vetting Unsolicited Calls

Whether it’s a recruiter call or a social media invite from someone you don’t know, don’t be so quick to dismiss before vetting. Spend a minute researching the recruiting firm or viewing the profile before you decide your next step. The recruiting firm might be a retained boutique in exactly your specialty so it will be a helpful relationship to grow. The unsolicited invite might be a potential client or joint venture partner or have a shared interest that makes them a potential friend.

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Connecting Outside Your Day-To-Day

Recruiter calls or outsider invites may seem easy to dismiss because they are not as urgent as your day-to-day relationships. But to keep yourself from getting too insular in within your role, company and industry, you need to have these outside connections. If you don’t want to prioritize recruiters or new professional relationships, consider reconnecting with former colleagues and classmates. This doesn’t have to take a lot of time – acknowledge people’s status updates on social media (e.g., Jane has a new job…); block out one lunch each month or each quarter for someone outside your immediate circle.

Marking Yourself To Market

I mentioned that recruiter calls are helpful because you can learn compensation trends. If you’ve been at your job for a while, it’s likely that your salary has fallen below market – year-to-year raises typically pale to increases you can get by jumping around. How underpaid are you? Or, you might be pleasantly surprised that you’re on par or even above market (which may increase your commitment and fire for your current job). Regardless of which end of the pay scale you fall on, you want to know where you stand by marking yourself to market annually and whenever your role substantively changes.

Updating Your Resume and Online Profile – Even If You’re Not Looking

Part of understanding where you fit with the market is delineating what you do. Updating your resume is a great way to do this and when you’re not looking, it’s too easy to overlook this. If it’s been awhile since you’ve updated your resume and online profile, set a reminder on your calendar for at least an annual review (or ideally as often as you need to change something – a new role, project, or skill). Regular updating will ensure you don’t forget critical details about what you accomplished. Having an updated resume and profile enables recruiters you do develop relationships with to properly position you.

Asking For Feedback

Asking a recruiter about your market value is one piece of feedback. Asking a mentor or trusted colleague about your career potential is another example of helpful feedback. Asking your direct manager how you’re doing, outside (or in lieu of) an official performance review, is yet more feedback that will help you: 1) know where you stand; 2) identify where you can improve; 3) highlight strengths you may not realize; and 4) confirm next steps relevant to your career goals and your company’s business goals, Don’t just assume the work you’re doing is good enough or valued or relevant to the current priorities. Ask for feedback.

None of these activities take a lot of time individually, but they are all activities that are easy to overlook until it’s too late. If you don’t get performance feedback, it’s easy to become complacent on the job and not realize it till your position is up for restructure and you find out your manager won’t go to bat for you. If you don’t have a resume ready to go, you can’t take advantage of surprise opportunities. If you don’t have an updated profile, you will likely not be found. If you don’t watch your market value, you can drift too far away from the norm and become the underpaid slog or the overpaid target for the chopping block. If you don’t make time to connect outside your inner circle, whether it’s long-lost contacts or new relationships, your network will become insular and less helpful. If you don’t take the time to return recruiter phone calls, how will you know what you’re missing?

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