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Are You Effectively Communicating Your Career Goals to Your Manager?

June 20th, 2018

In past generations, starting your career looked a lot different than it does today. When you entered the workforce, you likely remained at the same company for decades. This was the standard and assumed structure for employment. Workers could discuss their career aspirations, but employers never really feared losing someone to a different opportunity.

 

Flash forward to today where recent findings from the Bureau of Labor Statistics concluded that an employee will stay at a company for an average of just over four years. The number is cut in half when you focus in on the millennial generation. Almost all the respondents born between 1977 and 1997 planned to stay no longer than three years.

 

Because this is the new norm, you run the risk of your employer assuming you’ll follow the similar course. Instead of climbing the ladder within a company, your career will look more like a rock climbing wall to the top. This puts the matter in your hands to help boost your career by talking to your manager.

 

Does your manager know your goals?

Most employees start their career with some idea of where they want to go. With new positions and opportunities, this course may change, but usually there is a general guide that keeps them moving. Are you taking the time to discuss where you want to go with your manager?

 

In a perfect scenario, your supervisor is concerned with an effective and satisfied team. They understand that to achieve this, they need to be aware of the strengths and desires from the people who report to them. If they aren’t asking you, it could come down to the uncertainty of your commitment to staying with the company.

 

Think your plan through

Knowing you might have to start the conversation to effectively communicate your career goals, consider your relationship with your manager as well as what you’re going to say. Honesty is important so they can help you grow, but you don’t want to say you have plans within so many years to move into a different industry with a supervisor who might hold it against you.

 

More than just expressing where you want to go, show them your plan and how they can help as well as the room for your growth at the company. If there isn’t a position, show what you can do to move into something new. Make them a part of your team.

 

While these conversations can be awkward, they’re essential for your career. Learning when and how to have them will help you as you advance and make you a stronger employee.

 

Start your climb today

Take the first step to finding your career path and let Staffing Resources find you a position with one of the best companies to work for in Atlanta. Contact us today!

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