Is it time for a career physical?

We track our steps, our calories, our blood pressure, and for the more social media inclined among us, our likes. Why not our career accomplishments? Can you easily define and quantify your professional contributions over the past five or ten years? I advise my clients to conduct what I term as a career physical annually. Here are some of the benefits to this:

➡ It will make it easier to define and quantify your professional accomplishments. Recalling accurate information, particularly numeric, can be difficult. Don’t risk omitting key data.

➡ This information will serve as collateral for substantiating your worth at your next performance review or support why you are the best candidate for an upcoming project or significant account.  

➡ Should your position terminate suddenly, you most likely will not have an opportunity to access work files or your performance reviews. Be prepared and ensure copies of your performance reviews and impactful quantifying metrics are stored on your personal devices.

➡ Having relevant professional data at your fingertips will facilitate updating your resume and your LinkedIn profile seamlessly, this should be an ongoing process.

➡ Taking your career temperature annually will help evaluate your professional progress, define your career goals, and access your skill gaps.

Wrapping up with one of my favorite quotes, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”