Four valuable tips to manage your career now to make you more
valuable to your current employer, prepare you for another job or build
you career foundation for a planned career change.

Careers after
50: it’s never too late to maximize your career opportunities. With
cutbacks all around us, outsourcing and tight budgets, even layoffs,
it’s vital you get the most out of your job and maximize your career
while you’re still employed.

Take a close look at your current
benefits. Are you maxing out your 401k? If not, get it done. How about
the medical plan? If you have elective surgery planned, now is the time
to get the knee fixed. Have a dental plan? Get to the dentist. Have
tuition reimbursement? Build up your career related skills. Is there a
valuable seminar or workshop you should be attending? Get it on your
schedule.

Beyond the company benefits the real advantages to your
career are not found in the employer benefit programs. By building on
your training and experience you can better manage your career by
acquire new training and skills that will add to your abilities in your
current career and could qualify you to additional career opportunities.

Here
are four tips to improve your current value to your company and boost
your worth for an internal promotion or add to your attractiveness by
managing your career and if you are in the market for a different
position or a career change after 50.

Build Your Achievement File: Go
back over your time with your current employer and list all your
responsibilities and achievements. Quantify every accomplishment. List
any promotions and how your achievements led to the move up the ladder.

List
the time, content and what you learned in all training completed. It
can be an in house training on a new system or software program up to a
credit course at a local college to distance learning on the internet.

Here’s
where many career builders drop the ball. Keep a record of all
thank-you comments both internal and external, handwritten complimentary
notes from the CEO or your boss on a project or exceptional action that
you did, positive notes from employees and other department heads all
should be in your “atta-boy” file.

This means you can look back
over your career development and management and if necessary draft a
current resume without missing something important.

Look For Chances to Grow and Shine: Look
for ways to do things better. Initiate actions to solve a problem,
reduce costs, improve customer service or increase sales. Volunteer to
work on projects, improve your team work building skills to be the go to
person when your boss needs something done.

Build your career
skills in areas you may be weak, like public speaking. Maybe a
toastmaster’s membership will help. Don’t miss an opportunity to
represent your employer to outside groups and customers.

Add to Your Education: Career
education is not restricted to formal education or something that only
directly relates to your career. It could range from in-house training
on functions outside of your career, systems and software, seminars and
workshops, self-study and a career planning reading program.

In
building your career; as you learn new skills and more about other
functions of your employer you spotlight you teamwork skills and
highlight your professional career development. All are valuable in
maximizing your position within the company.

Network Building is an Under-Used Career Benefit:
Building and managing your career skills that many do not take
advantage of is working with your network of contacts. Working with
coworkers in your career field, mentoring as appropriate, coaching, and
learning are but a few of the advantages to you as you make use of your
network contacts.

Your network should include friends and previous
coworkers, college contacts and customers of your employer. Making and
fostering new contacts should be an integral part of your career
building program.

Also, don’t overlook networking opportunities to
work with individuals in other departments on company charities and
other company related activities. It will just be added chances to
assist others and build your network.

These four tips on building
your current career will not only improve your position with your
current employer but will develop other skills that could be valuable if
you elect to change careers or need to move to another employer. Taking
advantage of the opportunities all around you is just good for your
personal development and good for managing your career.