Reignite your career
Upskill or reskill with a microcredential and take your career to new heights
That stuck-in-a-rut feeling can sneak up on you. Perhaps you’ve only just realised how long it’s been since your last pay rise, or promotion, or even performance review. Maybe you’re working for the weekend, every moment from Monday morning onwards. Or possibly you’re simply going through the motions, to the point where you doubt your employer could ever see you as serious about your career again.
These are clear signs that you’re more than ready to write the next chapter of your life. But here’s the good news. Career stagnation can be overcome with change: microcredentials can help you reignite your career by reinventing what and who you are.
1. Reset your knowledge benchmark
Upskilling and retraining can get you past your plateau, but it works best if you rediscover what makes you both interested and interesting. Professional studies can achieve both of these by reawakening your thirst for knowledge, your drive and excitement about your industry, and by making you a more attractive hiring prospect for employers in the process. You’ll stand out in the crowd.
Gaining new knowledge and skills can be the ultimate catalyst for growth in all aspects of your life. You’ll get the boost you need – from higher-earning potential to elevated employability overall.
2. Gain vital knowledge in career-defining areas of expertise
Acquiring new credentials also makes existing and new employers view you as a serious contender for more in-depth roles – whether you have your eye on leadership or management positions, or a cutting-edge role that requires up-to-the-minute training and industry knowledge.
“The leadership skills I learned at the TREAD workshop have provided significant insight into the effect that stress can have on individual performance and productivity,” says Christina Hardy, who completed the Neuroscience of Leadership microcredential.
“Applying these skills has helped me become more in tune with my team and internal clients, and I’m now a far better leader and manager,” continues the Director of Business Development and Legal Affairs at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research.
3. Personal wins lead to improved career prospects
Personal development should not be overlooked as a vital factor in reviving your career trajectory. Plateaued executives commonly struggle to adapt to change, according to the Center for Creative Leadership, which has amassed three decades of research in the United States on why some people’s careers derail. In other words, if you’re not growing, you’re going backwards.
Taking a breather from the work-eat-sleep grind – day in, day out – to study means you can re-engage with your subject matter on a more intimate, specialist level. Take the time to research and examine, and theorise and contemplate. In short, fall back in love with whatever it was that led you to your career path in the first place.
When you’re ready to use your new capabilities gained through microcredentials, you’ll be a much more solid prospect for employers. Microcredentials not only provide you with an updated skill set but also make you more open to fresh ideas and better innovative thinking.
Undertaking a microcredential shows employers that you have made a deliberate choice to enhance your skill set and update your industry knowledge – while demonstrating your ability to take on, and complete, a challenge that exhibits your commitment to your professional development. It shows you’re interested in your work and keenly invested in broadening your knowledge in your specific area of expertise or capability.
More than anything, it allows you to regain momentum and leave that stuck-in-a-rut feeling far behind, for good.