Space Summary
The Twitter Space Highlighting Your Career Achievements hosted by B3laze. Dive into career achievement strategies with Blaze, Inc. and industry experts to discover essential tips for enhancing your professional success. From setting clear goals to embracing challenges and maintaining work-life balance, this space provides valuable insights for career advancement. Learn the significance of networking, mentorship, and continuous learning in shaping a successful career trajectory. Explore the importance of personal branding, adaptability, and self-improvement for long-term career sustainability. Elevate your career journey with expert advice and proven strategies.
For more spaces, visit the Alpha Group page.
Questions
Q: How important is networking in advancing one's career?
A: Networking helps in building connections, discovering opportunities, and gaining industry insights.
Q: Why is personal branding important for career growth?
A: Personal branding helps individuals stand out, showcase their expertise, and attract career opportunities.
Q: How can mentorship impact career development?
A: Mentors provide guidance, support, and valuable feedback for career progression.
Q: Why is adaptability crucial in today's work environment?
A: Adaptability allows individuals to thrive in changing circumstances and seize new opportunities.
Q: What role does work-life balance play in long-term career success?
A: Maintaining work-life balance enhances well-being, productivity, and overall career satisfaction.
Q: How can individuals enhance their professional reputation?
A: Building a strong professional reputation involves integrity, reliability, and delivering quality work.
Q: Why is continuous learning important for career advancement?
A: Continuous learning keeps skills current, opens new possibilities, and boosts career growth.
Q: How can individuals set effective career goals?
A: Effective career goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
Q: What impact does self-reflection have on career development?
A: Self-reflection helps individuals identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement in their career.
Q: How can individuals leverage challenges for career growth?
A: Challenges provide learning opportunities, foster resilience, and lead to personal and professional growth.
Highlights
Time: 00:15:45
Importance of Setting Clear Career Goals Discussion on the significance of defining clear career objectives for success.
Time: 00:25:12
Advantages of Continuous Learning and Upskilling Exploring how continuous learning enhances skills and career opportunities.
Time: 00:35:30
Networking Strategies for Career Advancement Insights on effective networking techniques and building professional relationships.
Time: 00:45:18
Role of Mentorship in Career Success Understanding the impact of mentorship on career growth and development.
Time: 00:55:22
Balancing Work and Life for Career Sustainability Tips on maintaining a healthy work-life balance for long-term career satisfaction.
Time: 01:05:40
Building a Strong Professional Reputation Highlighting the importance of integrity and accountability in professional relationships.
Time: 01:15:55
Embracing Challenges for Career Breakthroughs How challenges can lead to personal and professional growth in one's career.
Time: 01:25:32
The Power of Self-Reflection in Career Development The benefits of self-assessment and improvement for career progression.
Time: 01:35:48
Career Advancement Through Adaptability Adaptability as a key factor in seizing new career opportunities and growth.
Time: 01:45:10
Impact of Personal Branding on Career Growth Exploring how a strong personal brand can enhance career visibility and opportunities.
Key Takeaways
- Setting clear career goals is essential for progress and achievement.
- Continuous learning and upskilling are key for staying competitive in the job market.
- Networking with industry professionals can open doors to new opportunities and career growth.
- Personal branding and online presence play a significant role in career advancement.
- Seeking mentorship and guidance can provide valuable career advice and insights.
- Embracing challenges and taking calculated risks can lead to career breakthroughs.
- Adaptability and flexibility are crucial in navigating today's dynamic work environments.
- Maintaining a work-life balance is essential for long-term career sustainability.
- Building a strong professional reputation through integrity and accountability is vital.
- Self-reflection and self-improvement are continuous processes for career development.
Behind the Mic
Introduction and Overview
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for joining us today again for another space on how you can write your cv's and make your communication better. So today we are going to look at how you can highlight your career achievements. On last week we had checked on email communications, how to write better emails, how to use the various features on emails. Our host today's, our co host today is Karuga, Viva Karuga, a blogger, a communications expert and let's wait for him to join, then we can go. If Victor has joined, I'll get Victor to say hi. Then we can start on how do you quantify or how do you write your career achievements and then we can proceed from there.
Cultural Context and Communication
Nyaje Mazama, again, thanks for showing up on this Wednesday. I appreciate your time. Hopefully today, as usual, learn from each other. I don't know Angalia, how to effectively understand how to highlight career achievements. I think culturally, as a people, we are very meek people. So compare Sisin West Africans, we are very humble and unfortunately, the workplace highlight career achievements. So yeah, that's what we're going to learn about today. Excited and yeah, looking forward to learning as much as I can during this session. Thank you.
Structuring Your Work Experience
So in, as we had seen previously from the other spaces that we had kuna, how your work experience, your resumes is structured, so you have that work experience section where you tell people where you are working currently, then the duties and the responsibility responsibilities that you're charged with. And so that's what we'll be focusing on. How do you make those responsibilities? How do you showcase how effective you are or how you, how good you are at your work using those responsibilities. And commonly, what I've seen commonly people use is when you're hired, you're given us some JD, what, what your roles will be for that role.
Common Mistakes in CV Writing
And most of the time, I see most people just copy pasting those, the things that they've been doing and then putting them on the CV without any iterations. And this sometimes can be a bit problematic because one, these things are generic, they are just generated for everybody. So how do you show your impact that you have heard from the impact that you have had when you're working on that organization? So one of the things that we are going to look at is how do you, what type of language do you use when you are conferring these things? How to use maybe numbers, percentages.
Making an Impact with Achievements
And then as Victor, you says, how instead of things happening to you show how you make things happen. I think Victor will address a bit of that. Then I can talk about where do you get, let's say hypothetical, how do you get, where do you get these achievements from? So Victor. So, you know, career achievements, significant impact, whether you are formally employed, whether you are a small business owner or whether freelance.
Highlighting Your Achievements
So one of the most important things about highlighting your achievements, your potential employers Napier clients are tangible proof that you are good at what you do. So for example, if you are formerly employed cooperate environment, for example, you're part of that has, you know, hit a major milestone you're feeling in a conga person and, you know, so the work here is to translate that from that filling in onto your cv. So one of the ways that you want to go around that is to make sure that you focus on your specific contribution, you know, like as opposed to, you know, saying that we foster to media language.
Specific Contributions in a Team
I did this, you know, I was in charge of this. I took part. I took charge of a critical component document that deadlines were met. So be on achievement. Very, very proud of it as a, excuse me, as a small business owner, the very important especially come bid for gigs. You know, you have to show perspective clients that you know, you are good at working. For example. So for sale, you're making bids. Yeah, like especially where the process is manual, time consuming that you know, you went about and, you know, figured out that will, you know, improve the value of your product or make sure that your clients are getting their documents faster.
Improving Operational Efficiency
Even if you partnering with either a logistics farm or, you know, something that will improve the quality of the product while reducing the costs on the consumer. On the consumer end. Allah for as a freelancer, for example, website or graphic design, you know, like what is a project that Ulifan Poa had, you know, led you to more work or you know, brought you bigger clients. So, you know, don't just say that you did the work. Improve on the services that you're offering. So for example, subscriptions that sign up for to make sure that your.
Demonstrating Metrics and Achievements
Your job is more professional. Turnaround time you can improve because of, you know, certain, you know, habits that you have in regards to respecting your clients time and to come as well. So quantifying your career achievements, you know, it involves put on your. Your achievements into numbers so that you can show measurable impact. So Kuna steps around it. Now, numbers, a lot of people understand. They are very easy to understand and yeah, one of the most important things, make sure that your achievements so identify result, find a number that works who are very, very specific, especially ville squeezy to South Africa, Malaysia.
Providing Context with Numbers
It's very important for you to make sure that one has understand, come on. Maybe imperial system convert is all, you know, kilometers into miles and you know, small details like that and make sure that the context is right into, you know, percentages, commutation in our work better for you, maybe it's not a verbal conversation and graphs and put numbers into perspective. So for example, this is a corporate environment, go through a rough patch, everyone a job is at stake, but you know, probably will you find a new way to, you know, bring back old clients or you got an email system that got, you know, new clients by either 20 new clients and then you convert that into percentages.
Reflecting on Achievements
So I think back up please. Do you have anything to add or do you think there's anything I've missed. So far as cover almost everything. So the places where you can get, maybe if you are confused on how, where do you get this achievement or where do you get these things. So especially in corporate environments, there's appraisals where people do a quarterly half, middle of the year, and then maybe the annual reviews.
Utilizing Appraisals for Achievements
So I've seen some reviews where they, you are given a target, so you're given targets like you have to, maybe if you're in sales, you have to move these units, you have to move 100 units of something. So you can use the appraisals as a way, even, especially the good thing with appraisals is that they come from your supervisors, your manager, so you can use them as benchmark or as an achievement, you can now convert them into an achievement you've done, especially, let's say the time saved for moving these units, maybe for the first quarter you moved 100 units, or you moved maybe 80% of 100 units.
Projects as Career Milestones
So you can figure out how to quantify that. So from appraisals, then appraisals and targets, then there's projects. So for instance, you are in especially, this is maybe in tech or any other like industry, which projects have you been involved in and the success of the projects, maybe the amount of money that was under your care for that project and all that, and how you use that money. So projects, especially, even in, especially for people who are in tech, I've seen them even get hired because of this project, because sometimes some of these projects are very well documented on these sites like GitHub and all that.
Tracking Training and Team Management
So the projects, you can even have a link to that project. So projects are one of the ways that you can look into when you are looking for your career achievements, then you have people managed, especially when you move up your career, when you're moving up the ladder, especially from now, middle management to from middle management occupander. They look for people who can manage other people or people who can lead teams or people can, who can train people.
Importance of People Management
So you can look at how many people have you trained or how many people have you been, have you trained, have been under you. So this may be interns, other colleagues and all that. So people managed or people trained. These are very, this one of the most crucial things that you can have on your resume. Then, as Victor had said, it's about efficiency. Let's say you did a system. Let's say especially one thing that I've seen is accountants migrating from paper based systems to like online based systems.
Efficiency and Process Improvement
So you can say how did that affect your efficiency as a farm and how you are involved in maybe trading people, creating, saving money and all that. Then I've seen awards. So let's say you are salesman of the salesperson. Now, those they give monthly or employee of the month or something, or awards, let's say especially I've seen this in advertising because advertising has a lot of these.
Achievements Recognized with Awards
So if your project, you did a project in advertising and they give you an award for maybe the best campaign of the year or creative of the year, you can use this as one of the achievements that you have had in your career. And when you are confined, when you have like one for your job description, the recommended amount of maybe the lines, the list you commit, let's say it's numbered one to ten.
Structuring Achievements in Your CV
The recommended is maybe five roles to five to ten roles. And the other way that I've seen, you can redo this, either you can write these achievements as part of your work experience, or you attend this, you attend that, or you can have a section where you write your key career achievements. And this, maybe you can break it down in company per company.
Listing Achievements by Employer
So for instance, work for company a, you list it there and then you do maybe three to five achievements. Company B, the same. So you, it will depend on maybe the needs that you have for that resume. You can put them on the work experience or you can put them as a separate section. So I don't know if victor have anything to add on that.
Additional Tips for Highlighting Achievements
Yes, I do. And comments. You notice I've added canva portfolio. What canva does is it offers you a free extension where, and it's it's a very graph on maybe your achievement. So for example, it doesn't matter whether you're in sales or you're in tech or you're in business, you can, you know, list your achievements and say, do this.
Utilizing Visual Aids
And then you can even put numbers, you can put graphs and pie charts that will help people to atone as like a short clips, your videos, you know, as if it will help your cause and show that you are not just talking about it like you are about, you know, what it is that you're, that you saying you're good at. So for example, if it's a small business, you know, you want to talk about how you know, you looked at the supplier costs and you realize that they're into, they were eating into profits.
Demonstrating Cost Savings and Efficiency
So if you took yourself to either negotiate for better deals or find a different supplier who, you know, the quality remained constant but the bottom lines were affected positively then, you know, companies like to hear things, you know, things like that, especially things that are going to save them money. If you're a freelancer, you want to talk about how you know, met deadlines and ensure that your clients are happy because you understand that them being, you know, them meeting your deadlines, that means that, you know, you have work going forward.
The Importance of Action Words
So you know, actual verbs because they are very important. Majority of you have probably heard about it. Let me, let me interject Kidogo on that. So for, let's say for freelancers, especially people who are working in, maybe you're working in an industry, one of the other things that makes you stand out is name dropping.
Leveraging Previous Collaborations
Let's say you've worked with, let's say you are an influencer. So name dropping some of the companies they've worked with goes a long way to show your competency. And the other way that you can show your competency is by also, let's say you've done training, some training, you've done training or fellowships.
Importance of Achievements in Academia
This especially for maybe people in academia, fellowships or training opportunities also come in handy as achievements because this show that you've been identified as a person who is a leader in the industry and therefore you've been given this opportunity to learn more on that. And this especially for maybe people who are in campuses and entry level could have these management trainee opportunities. So this also go a long way in showing how proactive you are. So if you've, you have any, you've done any courses to advance your, your skill set, you can find a way of how, of showing how you use this, maybe use data analysis in your accounting to make things better so Victor can go on.
Using Action Verbs to Describe Achievements
So thanks for that bliss. I was saying about how important it is to, excuse me, use the correct, you know, language when you are talking about your achievements. So, yeah, action verbs. Action verbs. Action verbs are very important because, you know, they delay what you did. You know, and they also add credibility, which sets you apart from your competition. So, yeah, if you're in a position of management, then you want to talk about how you led the team, how you developed a product that worked for the market. You want to talk about how you implemented a policy that did XYZ. You want to see how you managed the project from start to finish. You also want to talk about how you organized, if it's an event or an entire project.
Highlighting Specific Contributions
You want to talk about differences. You want to talk about optimizing. You want to talk about how you delivered projects you started and you finished. You want to talk about how you secured a deal that you made the company x amount of money. You want to talk about how you secured a deal that saved either got the company a lot of money or saved it a lot of money. You want to talk about if you are in the freelancing or entrepreneurial phase of your life and you want to talk about how you launched something that, you know, you want to talk about how you know, you know, you listened to your audience and you managed to, you know, deliver a product that, you know, worked for their needs. You want to talk about how you have mentored, if you're in a position of leadership, you want to talk about how you mentored people.
Quantifying Achievements with Impact
So an example is if you are an engineer, you want to talk about how that project was conceptualized, how people were, you know, what the situation was like before you launched. You. You did it, and then, you know, the impact that it. So, you know, you have to talk about how food traffic increased by 20%, you know, as a result. So, yeah, you also want to, you know, talk about how you learn, for example, if you're a freelancer, how, you know, landing new contracts and people trusting you with, you know, the operations of their company was, you know, a big deal. So, you know, using things, using words like, you know, secured shows that you know, you got the client to trust you and, you know, you got to keep them in the long run.
Applying Concepts and Sharing Experiences
So, yeah, you also want to talk about if, when you're using the, you know, if you are in the entrepreneurial space, then, you know, if you something, then you also want to talk about the impact that it had. So for example, if you are into crowdfunding, what exactly did you know the money that you raised do so, yes. Projects and plans and products that, you know, resonate with your audience. So yeah, the next part is applying. Please have, do you have anything to say? Do you feel like I left anything?
The Role of Statistics in Achievements
Yeah. So for the numbers especially, this is for people who, especially for people who are in maybe social sciences, they say you can manipulate statistics in any way that you want. Like you can, you have a set of numbers, you can manipulate any number to tell any story that you want. So for instance, you can learn how to use statistics or to use just coider numbers or percentages. So for instance, you, I'm running a social media page and I get like I found it at a thousand followers and then I get it to a 1000, 1100 followers. So what you can say the difference of 100 followers is it doesn't look so impressive.
Impactful Representation of Data
But if you can, if you convert that into a percentage, let's say 25%, 25% sounds more impactful than saying I gained 100 followers in three months. So it's just knowing how. When do you use percentages and when do you use maybe numbers? So for, let's say you are dealing with money. You can now $1 million huge or even, let's say you are dealing with, let's say in Kenya, like we cannot 20,000 USB is so, but if you convert the currency, Kenya Shillings, it has now it has more impact as compared to paying 50,000 USD. So you'll just know how you can work with the numbers and the percentages.
Highlighting the Impact of Contributions
Yeah, that's all I heard, Victor. Yeah. And sometimes I think we, especially if you probably never worked for a company that is quote unquote huge, you like blessed you know, might think that, you know, certain things don't matter or it won't be as relevant as, you know, as someone who say, works for KPMG or Oge or, you know, safari. But if you approach it from a point of impact, regardless of where you're stationed, even if you're working for the government or the private sector or you're working for, as long as you are able to quantify the impact that you had, you know, put it in numbers, then it's very not easy, but it's very possible to, you know, highlight the impact that you had across your career.
Quantifying Impact in Different Roles
So, you know, whether you're in HR and you're working with people or you're in tech and you're working with, you know, with programs and softwares or, you know, you're in sales and working with projects and products, it all that matters is how you quantify your products and also how you quantify the impact that you've been able to do in your workstation. So yeah, applying the concepts is very important. And when I worked as a virtual, I'll give you a short example before we let you guys have, you know, the floor to ask any questions or give is when I was a virtual assistant a few years ago, there was a lady who I was helping to write a book for and terminal illness and, you know, the book was something that she wanted to do as a project for, I think as a legacy project or something like that.
The Essence of Human Impact
And yeah, you know, in my future when I was interning for, when I was doing the interviews for my future clients, unfortunately she fell ill and weren't able to finish the project. But I managed to move the project from about 2500 words to about 12,000 words. And for while weren't able to finish the book together, you know, the fact that I managed to add in over 10,000 words was very important. You know, when we had conversations with my future prospective clients and were talking about impact and bring that up and it was a very good human to human impact story about, you know, sometimes it's not just about, you know, the bottom line and profit and things.
Reflecting on Personal Skills and Importance of Stats
Sometimes it's, you know, the impact that, you know, we, you know, we have in people's lives. Even that when we go to other, you know, other stations or other fields that people still feel the impact that we had in life. So, yeah, you know, keeping stats is very important. You know how, I think when you got to your workstation, how are things now? When you're living, you can take stock and, you know what skills you probably need to learn to be the best version of yourself that you can be. So yeah, I think for now, lesbian has anything to say? We can open the floor to, you know, questions or experiences that you've had with your career, achievements.
Achievements and Promotions in Career Development
Thank you so much. So the other thing that I've thought about is promotions. If you've been promoted like throughout your career, your promotions and second events, let's say you are working at maybe a branch in Nairobi, then you are transferred maybe to go to work in Mombasa for like the whole of that region. So this, that's also like an achievement. So promotions, maybe you go from an intern to now working there permanently. That's another way you can draft an achievement for that. Then there is, for every industry, we have the tools and processes that we use, let's say for people in, let's say the standard one is Microsoft office and Google Docs and all that.
The Relevance of Tools and Processes
And for every industry, they have these tools and processes. So you can try and include the tools and processes that you use in your industry. So graphic design, they have their photoshops and they are creative suits. The processes are, for example, engineering processes. How did you get, did you improve safety in the place that you are working at? So tools and processes are also very important to show your proficiency in the subject matter that you are tackling. So in case anybody has any questions you can ask, then we can see what gives.
Resume Length and Content Optimization
Also, the other thing, another thing that maybe, I don't know if we handle it like in the previous sessions is maybe the length of your resume. So sometimes if you have, there are people who have a lot of work experience, let's say ten years plus, that will mean that your resume will be a bit huge. So sometimes it's important to maybe remove maybe the unnecessary posts that you've had, let's say, your internships from 2015 that do not add any value. They are just below in your resume. You can remove those. And then if you are, you added a section of, let's say, notable career achievements.
Tailoring Resumes to Job Descriptions
You can do maybe the first three. Let's say you've been maybe from 2019 thereabouts, so that you don't now add unnecessary pages to your resume. So you address these achievements, considering the needs that you, the needs of your, maybe the job description that you're tackling. Because there are some job descriptions or jobs that require you to do not more than two pages of a resume. So you'll have to figure what information can you put in those two pages that will put you in a good light. And then the other thing that I saw with applications, especially applications for people like undead anywhere in Nairobi, they don't, you don't upload your resumes there, but they ask you questions.
Application Forms and Evidence of Experience
Like they ask you. You have to answer questions on the form. They give you a form. Then you have to answer questions. So, for instance, they'll ask you, do you have like seven years of experience? Then how can you, how, what makes you think you meet this criteria? So you'll have to explain to them. How do you meet? Like seven years? Oh, I've worked for seven years. I've worked since I was an intern in this organization. Then promotions and all that. Then they have a word limitation. You do like a thousand characters, but that's a lot.
Demonstrating Proficiency and Achievements
Then they go into, like, super specific questions, like, do you have proficiency in, let's say, for instance, Ms Excel? And what evidence do you have to show that you've done? You are very proficient in Ms Excel. So this knowing how to quantify your achievements goes beyond maybe writing it on your resume to even now, applying for these jobs that require you to fill in some. Some forms.
Introduction and Setting Up Questions
Yeah. Come on, drop. So if you have any questions, you can hit us up then. Now you can see if you can wrap up the space. So people to gather questions. I'd say one of the biggest challenges about highlighting your imposter syndrome, but, yeah, one of the things.
Clarifying the Audio and Questions
I don't know if I'm audible enough now, microphone here and I have some bit of a question maybe you gents can help clarify. First of all, thank you, Blaze. So we can hear you. Yeah. Awesome, awesome. So I'll just shoot straight. I have two questions. The one is a bit easy, which I'll start off by asking which is the best criteria to go about when negotiating for your salary. This is mainly for the juniors to mid level. You don't know, you don't know how much they offer, and you don't want to short sell yourself, or you don't want to shoot high so that they, again, can reject you based on their own salary skills.
Negotiating Salaries and Understanding Self-Worth
But you also feel like you know yourself, you know what you can achieve, right? You know what you're after. Plus the economy, so many aspects, and you're also looking for growth. So there's two options. Either you sell yourself short, or hit it a bit too high, and then you find yourself you're being cut off. Okay, that's the first question. The second question, you will. I'll just ask all questions and then you'll take the mic away. The second question will be company politics. Still, I will stick to entry level because I have so far, four years. Four years in corporate.
Navigating Company Politics
When it comes to company policy politics, is it important that you tore the party line or just play politics or pick a side? Or should you, as a member of staff, just focus on your job and bury your head in the sand? Or Raju? I mean, sometimes we see things and people talk and you have an opinion. I don't know. If you should voice it, should you, I mean, try to manipulate the system in your favor or, man, just get. Just do the thing that brought you there and then after the end of it all, you just leave.
Salary Negotiation Strategies
And thank you very much. Thank you so much for the good questions. So the criteria for, like, salary. So let me ask you a question. Is this during the interview process, ama, after you've been hired, then we can now know how to. Yes. Okay. This is before you getting hired. So you've shown great potential, supposedly in an interview, the sort of interviews that they take you through stages. Sorry, stage one, stage two. And then they call you for a third interview. So, okay, so this is going somewhere.
Sharing Expectations on Salary
So I think I do stand a chance by the, I mean, the exchange, you know, the back and forth kind of thing. So unlike the jobs that you just apply. And then they call you, they do an interview and then you go back. And then, or maybe you go back, they write you an email, they get you on call. They tell you, what is your salary expectation? So I wish I could first hear what they offer and then we negotiate based on whatever they offer.
Strategies for Effective Salary Negotiation
But no, this time they initiate. It's like when you go to the shop and you want the seller to tell you how much fast is selling the pair of shoes, then you can kick it off. But then they themselves want to know how much you have in your pocket. So it's like a catch 22. Yeah. So, so for what are. So one of the recommended ways to answer this question, especially in an interview, is by one of, if you can't research, you have maybe to research, you.
Conducting Research for Salary Ranges
Research, you know, what the industry is offering for the roles that you have. And one of the best ways is to give a range. So you give a range of, let's say they're offering for an internship. Let's say they're offering maybe 45 years. So you'll give a range between, let's say 40 and 60. So this will give them room to maneuver and all that. The other, the other tactic that I saw people saying is throwing back the question to the interviewer.
Asking the Right Questions in Negotiation
So you tell them you're looking for a very competitive salary package that fits the industry rates for the roles that you're applying for. So if you are big, you can force their hands to tell you what they offer. So all you have to know is how to gain them so that they ask you a question. Then you reply in such a way, you will force their hand to tell you what they are offering.
Requesting Salary Adjustments After Employment
The other way I've seen, especially in, if you're applying for this job experience, some of these jobs is that they'll tell you to list down in your letter or they even maybe have a form where you can fill the desired salary that you are looking for. So just research, know what they're offering in that industry, then give them a range. And the other way, if you feel like maybe you shortchange yourself, you've been, you are employed, they've employed you and then you feel like the rate that they offered you was a bit lower.
Timing and Strategy for Salary Revision Requests
You can wait for like three months and then write an email to maybe your HR or your manager or something to ask for an appraisal and maybe request for a revision of your salary. I don't know if I've answered your question. Yeah, that's the last answer.
Discussing Company Politics and Professional Conduct
The last thing that you gave me is amazing. Absolutely. That's something that's really workable. Because after time you'd find yourself, you're already in a deal and you cannot undo it. You like the company, you like the job that you're doing. But hey, they, I mean, they should change you, as you say. Yeah. And you don't want start trouble.
Effective Communication with HR
So write to the HR, CC, your manager, CC, the relevant people, especially someone who's like approving your probation periods. If he has a good recommendation, then go for it. Okay. That's nice. For the company politics. I saw a thread where people are saying that likeability, like most people who are likable, go far in their careers.
Personal Focus and Documenting Work Performance
I don't know. So for me, for instance, for me, I'm just focused on my work because I don't want to get acting into picking sides, doing this and that. And the other way you can protect yourself from company politics is doing your job and keeping a paper trail of your job. So that's what we are talking about.
The Value of Email Documentation
Think about emails and all that. If you have emails and if you have a track record that even if you are called, because most of this company politics don't end up at a really well or anywhere. So one of the best ways to protect yourself from company politics is keeping a paper trade. So you are talking to someone in a meeting, you record the meeting, you put it in writing and then send them that email.
Maintaining Accountability in Professional Settings
Like when sheets fit the fund, you have these records that you can. So I don't know, Victor, Viktor will talk about the company politics and his thoughts on that. Then you can tell us if we touch on anything we've let anything. Yeah, I think we were talking about email etiquette last week, and one of the most important things about Kukuan are your email ticket, Kavali Blazer messenger, you know, having a paper trail where you know, can show that because he said, she said yang in period.
The Importance of Professional Communication
But if you can show that, you know, a certain project, if it was not done, then you did your part and you can, you know, back it up with emails that you sent and said, hey, I need help with this, or you sent out, you know, repeated, remind us to either get assistance with a certain project or, you know, get someone to, you know, to do their part and they need them. You know, that keeps you obviously insured.
Practical Strategies for Workplace Interactions
And then also, you know, there's things to avoid and there's things to avoid. There's things to take to HR and there's things to follow up on yourself. So, yeah, a couple of places, you know, what took you to the office. There's things to, you know, that don't add any value to your professional development. So obviously you stay away from those ones.
The Importance of Documentation
And always, always, you know, have everything in writing. So immediately after a meeting, if you're starting a project, you want to send an email and say, and, you know, make sure that the completion dates are there, the people you're supposed to report to and work with, either CCEd or BCC, so that, you know, can always, you know, use it as a reference point in case anyone needs any clarification. It's not even just about, you know, a negative point sometimes. It's also, you know, for your own clarification so that you remember, you know, if I need assistance, if I need legal, this is the person to go to. If I need logistics, this is the person to go to. If I need, you know, a managerial clearance that this is the person to go to, and then, you know, who will have very few issues to deal with.
Navigating Corporate Politics
Yeah, even so, also with corporate most of the time. So you can use your CC and BCC as well, maybe CC ing their bosses or something of the. So. But keeping off company politics is one of the best is just go do your work and then just go home. So any other questions for general? Any comments? Then we can see if we can close the space and the space is recorded so you can access it at the end of the space. Then we'll have the resources. We'll have a, we'll upload the resources from last week and this week in a Google in our Google Drive. Then we can share so we have a speaker can talk to us.
Engaging in a Discussion
Bro. Hello. Hey. Yeah. So thanks Kwanzaa for hosting the space. I guess this is the second one. So mine is to ask, you've spoken a lot about technical skills. How do you show your soft skills, especially in roles where you handle people a lot? Okay, Victor will take that. You can take that. But for soft skills, you can. Soft skills, you can showcase them even by the way you communicate. So let's say you're handling a team. You can say, effectively led a team of like 20 to 30 people, ensuring that they are meeting their target and all that. So that shows that you have the proper managerial communication skills.
Showcasing Soft Skills
Then the other way you can show your soft skills, especially when it comes to management, is observing the gaps in maybe skill gaps and then offering training on these gaps. So you can say you observe that your people don't have proper email etiquette, and you instituted a way where they train themselves on this email. They added letterheads and all that to show professionalism. So this shows that you are in tune with, you can observe people and then you can point out the challenges that you're facing and then you can execute this in turn. So soft skills are just demonstrated via maybe how do you write, how do you communicate? How have you drafted your communications?
Utilizing Specific Examples
So, Victor. So, like, you have to, you know, use specific examples. So if you scan soft skill, for example, if it's communication, you want to say how you are a new company and then there's an onboarding process. So you want to say how you developed a program that ensured that there was a smooth transition, you know, for new workers and that improved either productivity or reduced, you know, wastage in terms of having to spend a lot of time, you know, with the new employee lining the ropes. So, yeah, you want to use specific examples and you also want to, you know, show how you use soft skills to leverage and interaction.
Measuring Success
So if you are a stickler for time, if you're always, you know, working within the same lines, you want to see how, you know, delivering a project actually even before time or even on time has helped you to retain clients and, you know, has, you know, led to word of mouth marketing about how, know, the company is able to deliver on time. You, you know, you want to, again, going back to the first points that we made is to quantify it. So, you know, saying that you incentivized people to meet their timelines, improved decision making time by, you know, 30% or by 20% and that, you know, ensured that you delivered projects on time is very important.
Cultural Sensitivity in the Workplace
Also you want to, if it's about success, again, you want to, if it's an international company where there's a lot of different, you know, cultural variety, you want to talk about how you are sensitive to, you know, to culture because sometimes at a coffee can do something that is very normal to you but to someone else that's very, you know, abrasive or take offense to it. So you want to talk about how, you know, you are, your sensitivity to cultural differences, you know, makes people work together and again, that, you know, contributes to productivity. So, you know, it doesn't just have to be about, you know, hard skills and how, you know, how to code or how to, you know, use Photoshop or to, you know, use quickbooks.
Highlighting Communication and Teamwork
It also, you know, time management. It's also about cultural sensitivity. It's also about communication, you know, it's also about people together or, you know, suggesting, you know, or, you know, you suggested a team building, you know, efforts that you enhance, you know, cohesiveness and things like that. You put that in your cv and you look like a very well rounded individual. Not that way. In addition to, you knowing the technical side of your profession, you're also in tune with the soft skills that, you know, make you a very in demand professional.
Experience in a Multicultural Environment
So you come and Mezakujibu and the. Other that for culture especially how now we are trying to get maybe remote jobs and all that. So that experience in working in a multicultural environment especially we said in Kenya we don't see ourselves as diverse, but we are very diverse. So working in. We all work in a very multicultural environment and in Kenya we have, you are dealing with people who are, who speak like three to four languages that are good. So you are working a multicultural environment and then you are covering like regional, you're handling regional matters. So that's a way you can show how your soft skills.
Effective Reporting and Communication
Then the other thing is maybe reporting, writing reports and synthesizing these reports for like management to understand. Most of the time management is not people who are in these niche fields. So you are, let's say you are doing, you're dealing with engineering. Your manager doesn't necessarily like your CEO, general manager doesn't necessarily have to be an engineering person, but you can synthesize that information in such a way a person who is outside your profession can understand. Yeah. So I hope you have answered your questions.
Concluding Remarks
Your question. Yeah. Yes, perfectly. Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll take one more question, then we can continue. So in recap, we've been looking at how you can highlight your career, achievements where you can get them, how you can use action. Action words. They're called action words, action verbs, so that you can show you when you are the ones who are the one who's doing that stuff. I think maybe the next time maybe you can touch on the soft and hard skills because we've seen, we had talked about soft skills a while ago, but you can do a refresher space on that because we are seeing people want that.
Leveraging LinkedIn for Professional Growth
I don't know, Victor, you can say a few words, then we can close the space. By the another way that achievements are called LinkedIn, you can't really mention you, but provide social proof that you know, you know what you are doing. So if you're senior or if the person that you report to Czech or LinkedIn and you're on professional terms, then, you know, you can ask them to validate that you are, you know, that you're good at this particular skill that you know you're doing.
Highlighting Soft and Hard Skills
And the good thing with the LinkedIn is that you can do both soft and hard skills. So yeah, accountant one has a vouch for your skills. Napia, you know, delivering on time, if it's a certificate that you're studying for skills on a LinkedIn, because you know, you never know who is, you know, who is watching. And I sometimes Kuna Konga is a first degree, second degree, third degree connections. You know, people are professional. People use LinkedIn, you know, social people use social media.
Utilizing Your Profile for Opportunities
So yeah, they can go in there and type probably an accountant or graphic designer, and then your profile is in tune with what they are looking for, then that's a very good way to highlight your achievements to a diverse pool of people who are looking to hire. So yeah, that's another way you can, you can make sure that you highlight your achievements. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for you guys taking your time on this.
Addressing the Pursuit of Perfection
One of the other things that sometimes nafilingi are getting into the way is sometimes we feel like we have to be perfect at it so that we can post it or like we have to, you know, have done the course at Harvard or UA, or you have done a master's on it for you to be an expert on something. But see, like if you co kinda sometimes even mechanic, the best mechanic for your garage mechanic school, go and hang around for a learn from. And now almost everyone. So, you know, if you've learned your skill through apprenticeship. Don't feel, you know, don't feel like you are not as good as someone who went to school for it, you know?
Embracing Progress Over Perfection
So, yeah, don't be blinded by you, the pursuit of perfection that, you know, you, that if, unless something perfect, then I go ask like, you've been in your field for, you know, over six months, over a year. But how? Graphic design, you know, through watching and learning and making mistakes and now they're really good at their job. So, you know, perfection is not attainable, by the way. So celebrity progress here, flawless, small wins, overall success. So, you know, don't, don't hold back.
Encouragement and Resources
Learn. Check out new ways that you can, you know, highlight your achievements. We put up the resource for you and then hopefully it will, you know, make sure that it will help you on your journey to highlighting your achievements. Thank you so much, Victor, and thank you everybody for tuning in. You can catch us next week on the. Around the same time, we will announce the subject or the topic of the space, but if you have anything that you need addressed or something to be talked about, can dm me or Victor and we'll be very happy to help.
Closing Remarks
So this space is recorded so I'll repost it and you can access it there. So have a good evening and a good rest of the week.
