Career Blog
Whether in your academic or professional life, reflecting on your progress can be key in making your aspirations come true. Reflecting can mean many things and is unique to each individual but setting new objectives can be extremely effective. Exploring various avenues of reflection will help you determine which method works best for you.
The ways to reflect
- On paper
Write down your objectives and revisit them from time to time to assess your progress. For example, when starting a summer job or an internship, create a list of things you would like to accomplish. At the end of the term, taking stock will be much easier.
- Digitally
There is no shortage of online resources that can help you set goals and monitor your progress. Websites like Goalscape can help you visualize and set goals; you can also use it on a mobile app.
The importance of reflecting
- Purpose
Reflecting on your progress gives you a sense of purpose, especially once your goal is achieved, as this leads in turn to happiness and productivity.
- Improvement
Learning from an unachieved goal means identifying the gap between where you are and where you want to be. It gives you an idea of what you need to do to improve in the future.
- Effectiveness
Taking the time out of your schedule to set objectives can be extremely beneficial in the long run, as it will allow you to better plan your tasks and find the best and most effective ways to complete them.
Goal setting is one of the many ways that can help you reflect on your progress in your professional and personal life. This reflection exercise in turn can help you achieve success and a richer sense of fulfillment and purpose.
Finding the right balance between work and school is a common and major challenge for students. Let me share with you my three tips to achieve it.
1. Learn to manage your time well.
This skill is absolutely crucial, as it gives you more time to devote to your hobbies. A smart piece of advice: get started on your assignments a soon as possible; don’t wait until the last minute. By planning for a specific amount of time for each activity (your studies, job, sleep, hobbies, etc.), you will be able to quantify the exact number of hours that you’re effectively dedicating to each. Naturally, effective time management requires a lot of discipline.
2. Stop before you reach exhaustion.
Exhaustion causes a lot of stress and affects a vast proportion of students. Why? Because we want to get the best grades, take as many courses as possible in one semester, work to make ends meet, maintain a rich social life, etc., all at the same time. By combining all these pursuits, students inevitably become exhausted. To avoid such a situation, I advise you to revisit your priorities and to make choices. You’ll then be able to eliminate the excess from your schedule and to focus on what really matters. In the end, the most important is to keep time for yourself and to know how to kick back and relax… often!
3. Remain focused on your objectives.
To stay motivated in the pursuit of your objectives, it is crucial that you keep your goals in sight. Taking stock of your objectives will allow you to spend more time and energy on things that bring you value. A good incentive to stay motivated throughout your studies is to work to cover your tuition fees, as far as this is possible, because you’ll then take your studies very seriously.
When is the last time you thought of your dream career? Dream salary? Dream lifestyle? With our busy lives as students, once a new school year starts we don’t often think about our big-picture career goals. A vision board can change that.
What is a vision board?
A vision board, as the name implies, is a collage of images, pictures and affirmations of one’s vision, dreams and desires, designed to serve as a source of inspiration and motivation. Not only can it be used to visualize general life goals, it can also be specific to your career goals. The idea is to create a visual of all the images that remind you of your dream career and that will motivate you to achieve your goals. This vision board will help you bring your dreams to life by using the power of visualization.
Here are the steps to follow to make your very own career vision board:
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Ask yourself the important questions
- Before collecting pictures and putting together your collage, you need to establish your career goals. If those are not clear to you, ask yourself the following questions: “What goals would I like to achieve during my career?”; “Where do I see myself in 3, 5 or 10 years?”; “What values are important to me in an organization?” It could take you a couple of days to find the answers, but it should help you determine what your perfect career would look like.
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Collect images
- Collect pictures that remind you of your goal: the logo of a company, the title of the position you would like to have, images of an ideal office space, pictures of cities you would like to visit with work, etc. The options are really unlimited. You can even add quotes or beautiful pictures that speak to you and motivate you. What you want is a visual that motivates you each time you look at it.
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Create the vision
- You can choose to create a physical or virtual vision board. Typically, vision boards look very similar to a collage, but the goal is for you to see it every day. So if you spend a lot of time on your computer and less time in your room, you can choose to make virtual career vision board and make it your desktop background. You can always change it or add to it.
Once you have completed your vision board, use it to motivate you to reach your career goals and make career decisions.
If you have chosen to study at the Telfer School of Management, you have come for a reason. Maybe you have a specific dream job in mind, or have a general plan to work in the business field, or maybe you even plan to create your own business. Whatever your goals, the Telfer Career Centre offers many resources to help you succeed in achieving them.
Are you unsure of what you want to do with your business education?
Look no further than the Self-Understanding, Career Testing and Planning workshop. This workshop will help you to analyze your personality and interests to assist you in finding potential career paths that could be a good fit for you. I had a great experience taking this workshop. The personality tests provided me with a better understanding of myself and of what I wanted in a future job. I was able to use this information to help choose an option at Telfer that I enjoy.
Do you want to know more about what professionals are doing in your field?
Attending networking events, speaker series, and office tours offered by the Career Centre are great ways to meet professionals in your chosen field and gain insight into what they do. By attending, you could potentially determine if the jobs these people are doing might be of interest to you. Either way, these types of events are a great way to make connections in the business world and learn something interesting.
Do you want to build your professional skills?
The Telfer Career Centre offers a great number of workshops and clinics to help you to improve and diversify your professional skills. Whether you are looking to improve your resumé or find out new ways to be creative with your LinkedIn profile, the Centre has ways to support you.
If you are looking for a more one-on-one experience, think about booking an appointment with a career counselor or relationship manager, or drop in to visit one of the Career Centre ambassadors on Fridays during our office hours. The ambassadors can help you with resumés, cover letters, LinkedIn critiques, interview tips and practice, and even networking advice. By using the tools offered by the Career Centre, you will be able to round out your business education by gaining the necessary skills you need to succeed!
The Telfer Career Ambassadors offer peer-to-peer advising on Fridays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in DMS 2111 (from September to November and from January to March).
We are in the third month of 2018 and it’s a good time to reflect on whether or not you have been sticking to the goals you have set for yourself in the beginning of the year. Are you still on the right track or have you given up after two weeks into the year? If the latter is you, don’t worry, it is never too late to start over! Here are three tips on how to get back on track.
1. Revise Your Goals
Perhaps you were not able to stick to your goals because they were too vague or they lacked a clear plan. Now is a great opportunity to revise them, tweak them and make the goals perfect for you. Set small, specific goals and create a plan on how you can get to where you want to be. The more detailed you can be, the easier it is to stay focused on what you have to do to achieve your goals. It keeps you organized and encouraged along the way. It also makes it less overwhelming.
2. Understand Your True Motivation
Take a step back and ask yourself: “Why was this your goal in the first place?” This will help you understand the values and the meaning that underlies in the goal in the first place. If you wanted to attend more career-related workshops, maybe your underlying desire is to gain and develop skills to help you in your classes and in the real world. This will help you check in with yourself and to remind you why you’re doing this in the first place. Knowing what truly motivates you will help you move forward.
3. Let Your Goals Be Known
You’re more likely to achieve your goals when you let others know about them. It holds you accountable and it’s harder to withdraw from them. You’re more motivated to work hard and get things done. Telling your best friend about your goals and talking about it with them on a regular basis will keep you on track. Additionally, do not rely heavily on others to get things done but, don’t be afraid to reach out for help if you need it. You can’t always do things on your own and asking for help will perhaps give you the leverage you need.
To conclude, there are plenty of ways to get back on track but hopefully these tips will help you get started on getting back on track. Just because you failed to set up the perfect goal or stick with your goals, it doesn’t mean you should give up on your goal completely. It’s okay to slip up but it’s important that you pick yourself up and try again. Be open to the changes and the challenges that come along with it. Believe in yourself and get excited, you’re learning!