Building a solid career foundation in today’s marketplace means more than mastering a limited number of tasks in a given field.
Career diversification in your field will bring larger rewards, according to the American Association of Finance and Accounting. “When employers look for talent, they typically settle for people with the proficiency to perform certain tasks. But what they really want – especially in today’s hyper-competitive market – is an adaptable breed of cat, whose broad-based set of skills crosses over into a variety of disciplines,” writes Bill Radin for the AFA. Paxton suggests looking for “areas of weakness” in your own career portfolio and developing those weaknesses into strengths, thus increasing your market value.
The more you can offer a multiple spectrum of knowledge – rather than a single color of skill – the less likely you’ll be to paint yourself into a corner,” Paxton said. Building on these areas of weakness can be accomplished in several manners:
- Look for new opportunities for growth with your existing skill sets
- Seek out opportunities to broaden your marketable skills
- Attending conferences, seminars and industry events will help you broaden your network, opening new doors to diversify your knowledge base
- Obtaining industry-recognized certifications beyond your own field of expertise, broadens your marketable skill sets to potential new employers
Hot Spots: Human Resource’s New Role
Human Resource professionals bring a dynamic to today’s corporations unparalleled in the past. Gone are the days of Human Resource Executives handling only the hiring and firing of employees.
Today’s Human Resource professional must stay abreast of changing market demands from knowledge of the latest government guidelines to actively developing corporate talent to striving for cost-effective and efficient ways to conduct ongoing training for all levels of employees.
In today’s dynamic workplace, human resource professionals are expected to add value to their organizations,” according to the National Human Resources Association’s Web site.
In addition to managing traditional human resource functions, (Human Resource professionals are) expected to contribute to such key organizational challenges as facilitating mergers and acquisitions, improving productivity and quality, improving the ability of an organization to bring new products to market, and to continuously improve the company’s return on its greatest asset … its people,” according to NHRA.
Through ongoing personal development such as professional conferences and seminars, among other avenues, Human Resource Executives can continue to increase the bottom line for employers of all sizes. Developing a company’s workforce directly impacts its bottom line, according to industry experts.
