Revamp your resume and LinkedIn profile
Gift yourself a keywords-optimized resume and LinkedIn profile this new year. This will improve your chances of getting better offers from recruiters and will lead to an increase in your income. (yesss!!!)
Read books, magazines, journals
This year take a target of reading a book every week – that’s 52 books for the year. Try to keep the genre varied. Read magazines and journals of your interest. Books can greatly improve your knowledge and abilities. Keep aside a day for reading for best results. I generally do it on Saturday evening.
Some good books that I read last year were :
- I am Jackie Chan – My Life in Action, Jackie Chan
- Many Lives Many Masters, Brian Weiss
- Zero to One, Peter Thiel
- The Magic of Thinking Big, David J Schwartz
- Sapiens – a brief history of mankind, Yuval Noah Harari
- Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
Listen to podcasts
If you are driving, listen to podcasts related to news, entrepreneurship, or any field of your interest. This will push your mind to think and take steps towards a next level in your career.
Some good podcasts to listen to are:
- Ted talks daily
- The Economist
- 6-Minute English
- HBR Ideacast
- Curiosity
Subscribe to good Youtube video channels
Subscribe to good youtube channels to gain in-depth knowledge of the subject of your interest. Some channels that interest me are PBS Spacetime, Goalcast, etc. You can subscribe to one or more of the following:
- TED (for amazing personal success stories)
- Stanford E corner ( for entrepreneurship)
- Goalcast (for motivation)
- One percent better (book summaries)
- Crash Course (educational)
Attend conferences and workshops
If you are an engineer, you can become a member of organizations like PMI and attend their conferences. You can also write papers in your subject of interest and present it. Attending self-development workshops to teach yourself leadership and selling skills can be greatly helpful in your career. Google out the conferences happening around you and register.
Enroll and complete five online certification courses
You can learn new skills through online learning portals like Coursera, Udemy, Udacity, and EdX for free. The choices on these portals are numerous and you can learn anything from philosophy to engineering. Search and enroll for courses of your choice and start attending online classes.
This not only keeps your learning ability alive but also provides you matter to add to your resume. If you are an engineer, a very powerful skill to learn is Machine Learning. You can also go for learning sales & marketing, which are generic skills and applicable to any stream.
Take a target of completing 5 courses this year.
Go for a digital detox
There is really not much to do for this particular goal, but it is the most difficult. You just have to cut down social media engagement.
A method to do that is to delete apps from your mobile so that they cannot send notifications. Now, you are in control of your time and can use the web to log into your social accounts at your convenient time and not when the app wants you to.
Improve communication skills
If you are able to do the last activity, you will get enough time to improve your communication skills. Having excellent communication skills can not only expedite your career journey but can also help you develop better relations with friends, family and colleagues.
You can improve your communications skills through practice. Join a local Toastmasters Club to join like-minded people who are looking to improve their communication. It is also a great place to network.
Learn a new Language
By learning a new language, you expand the scope of your services. Not only that multiple languages look impressive on your resume, but also they help you seek jobs in new geographies.
You can easily learn anything online these days. Google Duolingo is a very famous app that teaches new languages through your native language or English. Many courses offered by MOOCs (Massive open online course) marketplaces like Coursera and Udemy are also very effective.
Network network network
“Birds of a feather, flock together”.
While you may like to hang around with the people who share your thoughts, you must also make conscious efforts to network with people who can mentor you.
Try to network with good people through social channels like Linkedin, Facebook or just email them about your queries. People are generally nice and will help you most of the times. You will learn a lot of life skills by networking with good people.
Networking with achievers and growth-oriented people can take you a long way.
So what are you doing this year? Let us know in the comments.
