There is no crystal ball right now. For business, work, our lives, the world – these are unprecedented times. How should we be thinking about career management right now?
ISACA’s new survey exploring COVID-19 impacts for the tech workforce offers insights. A key finding that points to what the future might hold is that only 10% of survey respondents think that they might be out of a job in the future due to the pandemic, and only 1% of respondents had been furloughed.
What one can infer is that IT audit/GRC/cyber and information security jobs are more stable than many other disciplines. Having been an IT audit recruiter through the 2002 dot-com crash and the 2008 Great Recession, that aligns with what I had also seen during those periods. That’s really good news in this time of uncertainty.
The survey also found that the biggest challenges respondents currently are facing are the balancing of work and family; managing stress; and staying connected with co-workers. These are challenges that we are finding creative ways to manage. I have heard from dozens of professionals in the tech community about the innovative ways they are coping – including their new strategies for getting work done and how they are building connection. Crises are the mothers of innovation.
In the midst of all of this, career planning for 2020 is a daunting challenge, but it need not be a stressful challenge. Offered below are five actionable steps that you can take now to safeguard your career progress and assure that you are prepared to weather the rest of this crazy year.
The concept of continuous monitoring is valuable in guiding our thoughts and actions. According to a Deloitte white paper, “continuous monitoring enables management to continually review business processes for adherence to and deviations from their intended levels of performance and effectiveness.”
Career management is an essential business process. As much as we would like assistance with career pathing from our employers, the bottom line is that we are, in fact, fundamentally free agents, responsible for our own short- and long-term career planning. When there is a sea change, like now, we need to regroup and put the focus back on our career goals. We need to plan for business continuity and disaster recovery by creating career sustainability. This is strategic planning done at the executive level by you, the CEO in charge of your own career.
And now, the five continuous monitoring reviews you can perform while sheltered in place and wondering what the future holds:
First, create an inventory of all your recent projects. Record the who, what, when, how, duration, scope, tools, learnings, and challenges identified. Very importantly, identify the value-added – why the project mattered (positive outcome) and who applauded it. The easiest way to do this is to create a notebook (or spreadsheet, or Word doc) for each year, recording your projects as soon as you finish them. Start with 2020 and document your work to-date. Then, work on past projects, grouping them by year, in one document. What this documentation gives you is an invaluable perspective on your work, your skill development (soft and technical), and your value-added. You can use the information to create vivid examples of your work for future interviews, performance reviews and for conversations with colleagues and leaders in your company.
Second, make sure your resume is updated. Use your project journal to help you do that. The most critical content in resumes right now: your contributions, the value you have added, the problems you have solved. Add a tantalizing “Profile” section at the top of your resume that concisely sums up your career, providing an intriguing executive summary to your resume. That section must be factual. Don’t load it up with self-descriptive adjectives like “accomplished leader” or “exceptional communicator.” Why? Because no one believes those descriptions we attribute to ourselves. Focus on the facts of your sexy skills, your recent contributions, your major projects.
Third, spruce up your LinkedIn page. Update employment, hot projects, new certifications. Join new groups to reflect your current professional interests. Get recommendations from past bosses and colleagues. We all read Yelp reviews. It goes almost without saying that LinkedIn recommendations are extremely powerful. Be sure to add a couple of new recommendations each year. A number of people I have spoken with say that they aren’t keen to update their LinkedIn Profile because they don’t want to be hounded by recruiters. But it isn’t just recruiters that look at LinkedIn. Your current and past colleagues look; your HR people look; your boss may look; if you are in consulting or self-employed, certainly your clients will look. Keeping your profile up-to-date and interesting is part of your personal marketing and branding mission. Make a periodic “audit” of your LinkedIn profile part of your ongoing continuous monitoring. Schedule it on your calendar for review every six months.
Fourth, keep your network fresh. Take stock of your networking activities: professional meeting attendance; making time to meet with colleagues in different departments of your company for updates on what they’re doing and what you are doing; dropping a line to a former boss to let him or her know about your career progress (or your gratitude for their guidance); connecting with a current mentor; sending an interesting article to a colleague in your field, together with a note about your recent work and a query about what they have been up to; touching base with people you consider to be your best career references and refreshing their knowledge of what you are doing now.
Fifth, review your certifications and training. Many employers view a certification as an absolute must-have for promotion to leadership roles. As an executive recruiter, I can say categorically that candidates with a certification are preferred over candidates with no relevant certification. If you haven’t earned a certification in a few years, think about where you are heading in your career and what certification will support your next move. With many professional organizations moving to online, at home testing, including ISACA, the logistics of getting a certification have become even easier. There are lots of training options available now, many of them free. If work is slow, jump on getting your CPEs and upgrading your skills. That initiative won’t be lost on your manager!
With these five continuous monitoring activities, you will be well-armed for what comes next. If you are looking to grow internally, you’ll be ready to impress. If you find yourself having to look for a new role, you’ll be able to make your job search much more effective. If you are planning to look for a new role when hiring picks up, you’ll be ready to play to win.
As CEO of your career and future, you will have done your job well.