Everything seems to be a bit quieter in the summer months. Here’s how to use that to your advantage and level up your career.
Summer tends to be a time when work slows down. The lazy sun-drenched days give a vibe of lethargy, deadlines sag and half of your colleagues are on annual leave. It’s tempting to give into that wind-down, but we know the end result: feeling totally disengaged at work, counting down the hours until you can go sit in a pub garden each day, and then feeling overloaded with work once the temperatures drop again.
Instead, the smart choice is to use these quieter months wisely, as a chance to recharge your career. This is a time that presents an ideal opportunity for those career development tasks that we always put off because we’re too busy.
Not sure where to start? Here are five things to try.
Review your goals from the start of the year
You’re more than halfway through the year, making now the perfect time to review the goals you made back in January. Give yourself a pat on the back and tick off the goals you’ve accomplished. For the goals still in progress or not yet started, create some smaller tasks that you can complete to bring you closer to them. Or maybe circumstances have changed and some of those goals no longer hold relevance, in which can case you can remove them to allow you to remain focused.
As the year progress, it’s natural to lose steam and motivation at some points but a quick check of your goals can help to reignite that drive and keep you focused.
Refresh your CV and LinkedIn
Something many of us are guilty of is only updating our CV and LinkedIn when we are ready to look for a new job. The disadvantage of doing this is that it becomes easy to forget all the great things you have achieved and the skills and expertise you have accumulated, especially if you haven’t changed job for a long time.
Check your CV and LinkedIn and update it with projects and initiatives you’ve worked on, qualifications and awards you’ve obtained since. On LinkedIn, this means making sure you complete the ‘about’ section, update your work experience and add any promotions and relevant certifications. Take advantage of features such as the ability to seek endorsement from past and current peers for your skills and the ‘featured’ section allowing you to highlight the work you’re proudest of.
In your CV and cover letter, try to follow the XYZ method. This is when you follow the format of accomplished [X], as measured by [Y], by doing [Z], to articulate your experience. It’s a very simple way of demonstrating not just what you did but the impact and results it led it to, which recruiters across most industries want to see. If you’re planning to look or are already looking for a new job, make sure you have a version of your CV that features keywords from the job postings you spot.
Grow your skills and expertise
If you’re thinking about making a career pivot, going for a promotion at work or maybe you’re just itching to learn something new, summer could be the perfect time to start a course, embark on a new qualification or even take on a few additional non-critical tasks at work that will enable your enhance your capabilities. Depending on your goal, a quick task to complete initially would be to list out:
- The areas and skills you feel confident with
- The areas and skills you need to improve upon to reach your goal
- The skills and expertise you need to obtain from scratch
There are lots of free courses and workshops on platforms such as Udemy, Future Learn, LinkedIn Learning, General Assembly, edX and more, but also if there are any paid ones you’re interested in, ask your company if there is any budget, making a case for how what you will learn will also benefit them.
Grow your network
While the weather is mostly decent, get to some in-person networking events and finally reach out and organise catchups with those you have been meaning to connect with for some time. If you’re more of a virtual person, be more present in any outside-of-work Facebook/WhatsApp groups you’re in, sharing relevant content and offering up any advice, etc. If you work in a global organisation, set up some calls with your counterparts in other locations to establish those relationships that can often go neglected day to day.
Have some downtime
Proactively choosing rest can be productive, too. Make a conscious effort to use this time to really recharge.
- Take some holiday if you have some remaining days
- Leave work a little earlier if all your meetings and tasks are done for the day
- Use any free time in the day to go for walks or a quick workout session if time permits
- Block out some focus time to avoid being in back-to-back meetings all day especially when the weather is nice
Having a slower but more focused summer will provide the energy you need to end the year strong.
