Imagine yourself in a racing track. When you stop learning in your profession, you are not standing still; you go one step backwards in relation to all others who are marching forward!
Career growth is just an illusion if you are picking up only grey hairs year after year. Your career grows only when you learn and evolve to be a better professional every passing day, especially in a world where technologies, concepts and methods are changing rapidly.
The catching up game: All of us have limited time and space in our minds. Hence if you are in an evolving and happening industry like Information Technology, there will be a new “hot skill” popping up every other day. It wouldn’t be wise to pick up something to learn just because it’s hot today.
Rather pose a question to yourself: “Will this help me do my job better or do a better job?”. If you get an affirmative answer, then you are good to go. Better still will be to decide on an area to specialize first and then choose the latest in that.
Is there something better than catching up?
There are two big steps that you can do to ensure that you are never in the catching up game.
- Enhance your learning ability: Be aware of and open to all kinds of learning methods and figure out which one works best for you. Again, not all of us learn at the same pace. Recognize your pace of learning, acknowledge the same and then improve on that.
- Cultivate a learning attitude: We make our habits and then habits make us. Put learning habits in your style of work so that it comes naturally for you to be on top of what’s happening in your field than having to put additional effort every now and then. Learning doesn’t always happen through certifications or training programs. Many a time, your job itself will be so complex that noting down how things work itself can be very insightful learning.
