Spring cleaning and your career

With this whole moving to California thing I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning and getting ready for the move.  I was walking around outside today and was totally shocked at how beautiful it was...one of those epic spring days.  Anyway, the nice weather and cleaning really got me thinking about how you can apply a little spring cleaning to your career.  With that, here are a few thoughts on cleaning up your career:

Get a new job - Duh...what better way to clean things up than to get a new job and start fresh.  This is probably the most dramatic move right?  But hey, sometimes you’ve got to do the dramatic

Switch roles or take on a new project - Sometimes it doesn’t always make sense to get a new job...for whatever reason.  So, switch roles or find a new project.  There are lots of ways to refresh your career and a new challenge might be just the right idea.

Hire an intern - That’s right, no way to get things cleaned up and refreshed than to hire an intern.  This will make you responsible for someone else and force you to come up with cool work for them to do while they intern for you.

Take a class - You can never lose by getting more education.  I’m not saying you should go get your PhD or anything...but picking up a class or two and learning some new skills is a great way to clean up your career.

Volunteer somewhere - You didn’t think I’d say this did you?  Well, a GREAT way to clean up your career is to start volunteering and exploring your passion.  For a lot of us, work is work...and that sucks.  If you can find a volunteer gig or opportunity to help a group you're passionate about you may find it evolves into a new career path....and, it will feel great.

Get a new mentor - Mentors are some of the most important people in your life.  If you don’t have  a mentor, get one...if you don’t have three or four mentors....get a few more.  You’ll find great mentors can help steer you to greater things in your career.  Now...go get them now!

That’s it for today, I’ll try to write more later but the posts might be kind of sporadic until I get out to the Bay Area...but, I am going to be doing a few guest posts for Brazen Careerist so when those go live I’ll make sure to post links.

Enjoy the rest of the week!