Work Survival Tips
Adapted from: Reile DM and Nickols JL. Survival
Strategies for Your New Career. 2002; 55–64.
Establishing Goals
It has been said that life is what happens to you
when you’re making other plans. For some people,
life is what happens because they aren’t making
other plans. Establishing goals help you to achieve
the kind of life you want. The first step is to examine
each area of your life. Think about the next 5, 10,
and 20 years. Put together a list of what you hope
to accomplish in these areas:
- Personal
- Family
- Social
- Spiritual
- Financial
- Intellectual
- Professional
- Societal
You may want to post this list in a prominent place
so that you can refer to it at least once a month.
This will help you keep track of your goals and aid
you in ascertaining your progress in reaching them.
Project Management
Goal setting and project management are intricately
connected. People often fail to achieve their goals,
not because their goals can’t be achieved,
but because they try to complete them all at once.
You didn’t complete your pharmacy training
in a day, a week, a month, a semester, or even a
year. You completed your training one course at a
time, one day at a time, one semester at a time.
Many of our personal and professional goals need
to be viewed in the same way. By breaking goals into
small, manageable, immediately achievable tasks,
even the biggest goals can be accomplished.
Staying
Connected The importance of staying connected to and being
actively involved in professional associations cannot
be stressed enough. At the beginning of your career,
you need these connections more than ever. Professional
associations help you learn about new techniques,
legislation that impacts your work, continuing education
that advances your knowledge, and contacts that will
help you get your next job. Staying involved with
associations gives you a voice and some influence
in the growth and direction of the pharmacy profession.
Additionally, you need to stay connected to your
job. Make allies at all levels. Never allow yourself
to become isolated. Once you are out of the loop,
you stop receiving the kind of inside information
on which an organization runs. Gossip and office
politics are things to avoid; but knowing the departmental
budget, who has the ear of the director, and which
projects are high profile will help you better manage
your career.
Return
to Career Development Resources |
