Is It Possible To Accelerate My Career Path?

Whenever you focus on a particular career discipline, it’s wise to pay your dues and build experience at the correct pace.

That said, this doesn’t mean you have to sit back and wait for positive outcomes to arrive. A proactive professional can do more for their career than any fortune or happenstance, especially if by doing so they invest diligent effort as opposed to looking for shortcuts.

If you’re looking to accelerate your career, it’s important to do so using the correct methods. It’s fortunate to know, however, that this noble aim is more than possible.

In this post, we’ll explain how to accelerate your career path:

1. Undertake Specialist Training Courses

You can’t put a price on education, but luckily, some excellent providers have determined those courses to be more than affordable.

This can be a fantastic method of getting the upper hand in your field, as becoming accredited, learning about the surrounding disciplines of a particular craft, and becoming highly versed in its regulations will help you gain the wisdom that you’d otherwise only get through the experience.

For example, before taking your personal training services freelance, you may decide to complete an internationally recognised personal trainer course. This can help you round off your skills and give you the confidence to strike out on your own.

The best part? Specialist courses are everywhere, from SEO best practice seminars to public speaking groups to first-aid accreditations, what matters is selecting an appropriate topic and diving into your learning wholeheartedly.

2. Learn To Network

It’s both fortunate and unfortunate that it’s not always what you know, but who you know that helps you get ahead.

This is fortunate because it means those that care about building their reputation, developing connections, learning from others, and being a humble, respected presence in their field will pay off. This is unfortunate because it means those who may not be naturally wired to socialise could find themselves unable to access these opportunities.

However, you don’t have to be a social butterfly or take clients to dinners three nights a week to make use of good networking. You simply need to be a good listener, to ease people in your presence, and to be agreeable, but also self-respecting, and capable of saying no. This is a skill you can pick up like anything you would in an educational class, and so working on those tendencies is always wise career advice.

3. Don’t Disregard Opportunity

You would be amazed how seemingly pointless opportunities can pay dividends later on down the line. This is why the best piece of career wisdom you could ever receive is to not turn your nose up at these possibilities when they arrive.

That doesn’t mean you have to say yes to everything, of course. But a small placement task from a boss offering you a potentially new experience, to a side gig in a career path you have an interest in, all of this helps you build experience and connections.

For example, the heritage sector is notoriously competitive to build a career in. If you find that an intern position is open in the collections department of a museum, despite not having great pay for the first year, then this may open the door to the exact role you’re hoping for later on down the line.

Should this mean you have to accept low pay, poor conditions, or mistreatment in order to make use of opportunities? Of course not. But like the runner on a film set, the assistant of a political candidate, or even the chance to shadow a workplace as part of an educational course, stacking the benefit of small opportunities absolutely does pay off over time.

Bonus – Don’t Give Up!

You may not achieve the promotion this time around. Perhaps this career path has run its course for you. Maybe you’ve realised that a particular style of working lifestyle isn’t ideal for your situation.

It’s okay to accept this and try to find something more your speed. Don’t give up. 

There’s an essential principle in fitness that states it’s best to work out more lightly, perhaps with less weight, but with perfect form than it is to take on a heavy load but do so improperly.

Adopting this lesson we can see that finding the right fit is more important than investing your all, at least initially. You can always do that later when you find a passion you adore. From that comes the fire that will drive your (potentially accelerated) progress.