How consistent self-investment can be your career game-changer

Last weekend,  I got a chance to spend some time with my colleagues and we had a very interesting conversation, talking about our careers, the moves we want to make, moving to the next level, and we realized that the most challenging thing in achieving career growth is self-investment done consistently. We exchanged different ideas on how one can achieve that and that’s where I realized that it is something that needs to be talked about and discussed enough. I decided to write an article about it, sharing how I managed to invest in myself consistently in the past 18 months and how it positively affected my career growth.

In Tally’s article published in January this year, They defined Self-investment as the process of investing time, resources and money into enhancing your own life and self-development. In this article, we will just be discussing self-investment in our careers.

According to the article published in 2021 on clear company’s blog about employee development , 87% of millennials say professional growth and career development are very important. Yes it is true, almost everyone wants to grow professionally, and you can ask yourself who is in charge of that growth, your organization or yourself? in the same article, it is mentioned that unfortunately only 29% of organizations have a clear learning and development (L&D) plan for their employees, so this shows that your career growth is yours to take care of, and self-investment is a must journey to take if you are willing to grow professionally.

Does self-investment guarantee success right away? The answer is "not necessarily", and that’s where consistency comes in. The truth is we don’t have the ability to control the outcome or the output that comes from our actions, all we can do is control our inputs, we can work on the inputs and the output/ outcome will always depend on what we have put in as work or investment, that is why I would like to take this time to share with you some steps and practices that have worked with different people including me, because remember we can only work on the inputs and the outcome will take care of itself.

I will start with how one can adopt a culture of self-investment and finish by how one can stay consistent.

How passionate are you about what you do or want to do?

The courage to consistently invest time, money in your career development will be based on how passionate you are about what you do or what you want to do. The passion in you will always push you to be the best you can.

I have always loved technology in general and to be specific I loved building digital products, that passion that I have for Product Management had pushed me to invest in myself as I wanted and I still want to be among the best in the game. In the end of 2020, it is when I realized that if I want to be among the best I have to take myself and my career seriously. From the beginning of 2021 I decided to read at least 30 pages per day of books that are related to my career of Product management and entrepreneurship in general, which has hugely impacted my product sense and thinking.

Through reading on a daily basis, listening to podcasts and attending different workshops have pushed me to another level. Of Course the real lessons are learnt on the field, working on projects, however as a person who is in tech, It is really helpful to know how your peers are doing things, what are they doing differently and why?What can I learn from that? What is trending?All those questions are answered through learning from others no matter the channel you can use.

So it doesn’t matter which career you have or want to build, if you are passionate about it, then it will push you to learn and educate yourself. You are probably a product manager like me, a data scientist, a product designer, an engineer or any other beautiful career that I didn’t mention, You can find books to read, podcasts to listen to, workshops to attend and courses to take that are related to you career and that can boost your performance and take you to another level.

The passion won’t only push you to self-educate, but it will also push you to practice. I knew only reading and workshops won’t make me the best but practice will. Last year in August, I co-founded a company called Product lamp, our main purpose was not making money right away, but improving our product knowledge and experience through working voluntarily with different startups. That initiative itself showed me where I needed to improve and it was easy for me through practice to measure my progress and to achieve an exponential growth.

In any career, you can look for side projects to contribute to or start side hustles that are related to your career. I can testify that the combo of knowledge and practice can take you to the level you have never imagined to be.

Never underestimate the power of your surroundings 

This is something that people don’t take seriously, however I have realized that the people around you have a huge impact on your career. We have mentioned time as one of the investments you can make in yourself, so the time you spend with people really matters, make sure their energy is the right investment in yourself, make sure they are the people that push you to be the best you can, make sure they are the people that support you. 

This point of surroundings might sound too little but I know a lot of friends of mine that are courageous, that want to be the best in what they do, that self-educate but when they go out they meet people that tell them that it is not possible, that only show them problems and limitations. Those people can drain the energy and the mood you gained from reading and practicing. Make sure you are surrounded by people with positive energy.

How can I build consistency in self-education and practices?

According to the conversation I had with my colleagues, most people find consistency as a huge challenge. A big number have tried to make some moves to improve themselves but few of them managed to stay consistent over the course. 

For a person to keep the same energy despite going through different situations and having different moods is hard, and the reason (“why”) that pushes you to do something, is the one that determines how long you will stay committed and consistent to it. 

For  me to stay consistent I adapted the technique that is normally used in different companies and teams called OKRs(Objectives and Key Results). OKRs is a goal-setting framework used by individuals, teams, and organizations to define measurable goals and track their outcomes. 

Set your Objectives/goals

Yes I understand that you want to take your career to the next level or want to grow professionally,  but how? When the vision is clear and you understand why you are doing things, you will find that it will not be difficult for you to stay consistent.

You have to set an objective/goal, and that goal doesn’t have to be big to the point you know you can’t achieve it or too small to be sure that you will definitely achieve it. You need balance, and when you have a big goal but attainable, that goal will be the fuel for you to stay consistent. 

Let’s say, in the next 12 months you want to join a certain tech company, or you want to be making double of what you are making now, or you want to get a promotion in your existing company, all those are examples of goals or objectives. I can’t read the goal and say this is achievable or not, the person who is setting the goal is the one to know if it is possible or not according to her situation.

Make sure you set an ambitious but achievable goal that will keep you awake, the one that will push you to respect the practices that you set for yourself, the one that will keep you consistent no matter the situation.

Then you might ask yourself, how will I know that I am heading in the right direction? That’s where Key results come in.

Establish measurable key results

To achieve your goals, you have to put in work that will help you to meet your goals in a given time. Let's say you are an athlete and you want to win a medal in the next olympics game in the summer of 2024 Paris, in a 100 meters sprint race, you can set some action like running the same race on a daily basis till the summer 2024. That action that you set will show you how you are progressing to your goal, for example if to win a medal in a 100 meters sprint race requires to be using less than 13 seconds, that daily run will show you how you are approaching that, if there is no progress then you will have to fix your Key results may be to running the same race twice a day until you meet your goal.

As mentioned, a key Result is a measurable outcome required to achieve the Objective. Now the key results will help you to organize and measure your self-education and practices. 

Example

Suppose you are a product designer and you want to join a very big company called “XYZ” and you know your portfolio and skills are not enough to land that job, set a goal and key results that will help you join that job.

Objective: To join XYZ company as a Product designer in the next 6 months.

Key Results:

1. I will dedicate 2 hours daily to learn new skills about UX & UI design, for the next 6 months.

2. I will be designing at least 3 pages per week for the next 6 months to build a huge portfolio

3. I will find a side project to volunteer in to improve my collaboration and communication skills.

That is the format, that was an example. Let's say that a product designer after one months does a review and finds that maybe her skills are not developing, she can now take 3 hours instead of 2 or maybe increase the number of pages she designs on a weekly basis.

The secret is to have an ambitious goal and to set measurable key results that will help you track your progress towards the goal. I have personally used this format and it has worked for me efficiently.

There is no better investment than the one done in yourself. Self-education & practices done consistently are very efficient especially when it comes to accelerating your career. Your career is your responsibility before it becomes the responsibility of your employer or anyone else. I will keep sharing articles like this one, where I share learnings and experiences that worked for me. Stay focused on your goals and strategies, the future of your career is bright.