Volunteer yourself to be noticed

Conventional thinking tells us that the way to get ahead in our career is to work hard at our job. If you are a conscientious worker and you show competence in the work you do, career success will surely come your way.

It may not be very true any more. Experts are now telling us that the best strategy is not to wait to be noticed but by deliberately calling attention to yourself.

But how do you stand out from the crowd? How would you achieve the high visibility in your work? Getting noticed by your bosses is your objective but you wouldn’t want to come across as being boastful, right? It’s an art to separate promoting yourself from boasting about yourself.

One strategy that may work for you is to volunteer yourself. If there is any company function coming up or any committee that’s being formed, why not volunteer to spearhead it? This will work especially well if the job requires you to inter-act a lot with people from various departments. Not only will this enable you to show some leadership qualities, it also gives you an opportunity to learn new functions.

The only caution we can offer you is not to overdo it. Self-promotion still requires you to be fully committed towards completing the task. Unless you really relish the challenge, don’t volunteer yourself for the sake of making yourself look good. A half-hearted effort may fail on you.

(This article of mine originally appeared in BlogStreet.)

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