By Becky Heidesch, author of “The Career Masterclass for Women: Staying Marketable and Succeeding in a Changing Business World”
For the past 30 years I have interviewed and placed hundreds of professionals and executives in dozens of industries and what I know for sure is that in today’s fast-changing world, managing a career requires continuous change, adaptation, flexibility, and ongoing learning. With even more transformation coming, the ability to remain qualified, skilled, and relevant is critical to your career and livelihood. With pensions evaporating, Social Security vulnerable, and the cost of living continuing to rise, a long working life is a distinct possibility—this means staying employed is more important than ever. You will need to know how to manage your career through rapid changes, but don’t despair as it’s possible to reinvent your career several times over in this new world of work.
When you can reimagine, rethink, and choose your next move from multiple options, you can climb the ladder in one or even multiple careers . . . if you know what you need to succeed. These constant shifts require being nimble, versatile, and having an expanded skill set garnered from stacking skills, learning new tools, and growing with each career move. I think of a career ladder as a mountain to climb, and a successful climb demands the right gear and equipment, yields better returns, and makes the climb easier.
To successfully climb the mountain, you need to understand how to build and manage a career leveraging your STEEP Qualifications® (Skills, Tools, Education, Experience and Personal Qualities). They are the key to getting interviews, hired, promoted, and properly compensated for future opportunities and are key to achieving your goals. Having the proper STEEP Qualifications® will help your job performance and are central to surviving in any field of work.
I developed the STEEP acronym because building and managing a career today is much like climbing a steep mountain and in order to reach the peak where your goal of an exciting job, position, or career resides, you’ll need to have the right resources which includes an accurate map, up-to-date skills, tools, and strategies for maneuvering through harsh and unforgiving terrain.
Think of each STEEP Qualification® as a bucket. Each of these five buckets needs to be filled to perform well and are what is needed to ultimately build a successful career. Ideally, you want all these buckets to be full of the right qualifications, because having a full bucket with the wrong or missing qualifications is like having a hole in that bucket, which is nearly as bad as the bucket being empty. This isn’t ideal when you are looking for a job. To make it to the top of your career mountain, you must build and tailor your qualifications to the jobs you want and the career you desire and make sure you fill and refill your buckets accordingly.
Today, you might feel secure when considering your qualifications, and you might even think all your buckets are full. If so, that’s great, but don’t be surprised if at some point you need to empty or refill a bucket to remain competitive. To know if or when a bucket needs to be topped off, refilled, or entirely replaced, you need to do a regular objective self-evaluation. To do this you need to consider both the short- and long-term paths in both the job you are in and your future goals. It’s important to always be aware and as objective as possible as to where you stand, so you can realistically evaluate which buckets need attention now or might later.
A critical component in managing a career is knowing which career bucket needs attention and when. In your career climb, you will make changes, some unplanned. Every type of changeover means adding to or refilling buckets, or perhaps even dumping some and replacing old skills with new ones or upgrading tools. A radical change like deciding to replace your degree in engineering with a license to be a financial advisor means refilling your education bucket. Other career events can demand bucket attention too. A missed promotional opportunity because of poor time management might mean filling or topping off your personal characteristics bucket with a course on procrastination or time management.
After climbing a few career mountains and achieving some professional goals, your buckets might even be overflowing. Even this is temporary as the ever-changing job market requires regular refilling.
Regardless of the mountain or mountains you decide to climb, just remember to care for and reference your map (your STEEP Qualifications) along the way. This is your compass to leverage on your journey to maximize your opportunities and become your best self. It will be your best career guide when making impactful decisions. And when you face a storm or treacherous crossing, remember who you are, your unwavering spirit, your passion, desires and goals — and most of all believe in yourself. You’ve got this!