How to Keep Your Job
10 Tips for Staying Employable & Negotiating a Raise
In person & online career counseling helps with career planning, job interviews, resumes, work visas, & career training. After you get the job, here's how to keep it.
Finding a career or job after college, being laid off, getting fired or raising kids at home for years is its own full time work. Consider entry level jobs such as sales jobs, driving jobs, clerical work, and service industry work. Many people start in these entry level positions and work their way up.
After you find suitable work, getting a business promotion or raise requires more than doing your job right, getting to work on time, and working as part of a team. Those are the basics, but knowing how to negotiate a raise or promotion goes beyond the basics.
Your career planning doesn't end with professional resumes, fantastic job interviews, and job training. That – and career counseling – is just the beginning.
How to keep your job: 10 tips for staying employable
- Assess your job skills, education, and accomplishments. Is your job training current, your skills valuable in today's job market, and your performance effective? If your career or job requires regular skills updates or job training, stay on top of it.
- Keep your skills polished. If your biggest qualification for your job is that you've been doing it for ten years, consider taking a refresher job training course. Adult education classes or night school is a great way to expand your job skills and broaden your horizons.
- Know who's hiring in your field. It's important to know your options. What skills, education, and job training are employers looking for? If you were unemployed, could you apply for the open positions?
- Track trends. Stay current on industry events, changes and news. Read newspapers, journals, trade magazines; talk to colleagues.
- Be positive. Avoid slandering your coworkers or gossiping about your supervisors. Be slow to criticize your clients, employees, or couriers – whether it's to their faces or behind their backs.
- Hone your networking skills. Whether you're planning to stay with your employer, learning how to negotiate a raise, or looking for a new job, keep networking. You'll learn valuable information, both professionally and personally, if you stay tuned with the people around you.
- Keep your resume updated. Even if you're not actively looking for work, update your resume regularly. Add your new responsibilities, changes in job title, professional associations, volunteer work, etc.
- Take care of yourself. Get plenty of sleep, eat nutritious food, and exercise regularly. Deal with mental, emotional, or spiritual issues; don't ignore your problems.
- Dress professionally. Take pride in your appearance; if you're not into the current fashion, ask your partner or a salesperson to make sure you're well dressed. Even if you're in an entry level job in the service industry, make sure your hair, face and hands are neat and clean. Leave the nose rings, lip rings and eyebrow rings at home.
- Practice the basics. Get to work, meetings, and workshops on time. Do your job well. If you can't meet deadlines, get support. Be reliable, consistent, and trustworthy.
Be the employee you'd be glad to hire and promote.
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