A new year often brings about an assortment of exciting opportunities, both in your personal life and career. Along with your new year’s resolutions comes a fresh set of professional goals to accomplish. This 2022, you may be planning to land that dream job or promotion you’ve been thinking about for a while. If you’ve realised that you’re not satisfied with your current career path, then you may be considering a job change.

The journey towards any career milestone can seem daunting at first. It requires a lot of dedication and effort. That said, there’s no better time than the present. Whatever your goals may be, there are several things you can do to boost your professional image for a fruitful career. If you’d like to learn more about these tasks, below is a checklist to help you achieve your 2022 job objectives:

1.  Update Your Professional Biography

Each year gives you the opportunity to learn new skills and acquire more knowledge in your chosen field. Since you’re constantly growing as a professional, you should have a regularly updated biography. Remember, employers or clients appreciate a bio that is true to who you are and provides a realistic overview of the services you offer. With that in mind, below are a few key points to consider when revamping your bio:

2. Evaluate the Interest You Have in Your Field

The most important question you need to ask yourself is “Do I like what I do?” After all, a biography is meant to market you as a top talent in the field you’re genuinely interested in. Most employers are drawn to people who enjoy their work and inspire others as they are usually also committed to improving their skills and providing quality outputs.

3. Rethink Your Skillset

A great biography effectively markets your skill set in relation to your current career or, if you’re considering a job transfer, the career you’d like to enter. Now is a good time to think about the new skills you’ve learned or the projects you’ve worked on from the past year and how they could be valuable assets to your professional image.

Conducting a life skills audit is one way to thoroughly reassess your present competencies. It involves creating a written document that takes stock of your current skills and shows you which ones still need to be developed. It also helps you address these skill gaps in relation to your career goals.

4. Fix Up Your Online Job Profile

Similar to your professional biography, you should regularly maintain your online job profile and resume on sites such as LinkedIn. This is particularly important when you’re searching for a new career, as physical job postings through newspapers or posters are quite scarce and ineffective. Many employers have digitised their recruitment processes, posting job openings on the internet and surveying potential candidates through their publicly accessible websites or online profiles.

That being said, it may be beneficial to seek professional help for fixing your profile. If you have your own website, you could hire a web developer or designer to spruce up your bio and resume sections while making them more user-friendly. There are also professional writers who can assist you in improving your career branding and optimising your profile for the web.

5. Do a Search Result Audit

The move to online recruitment processes also means that employers have access to any information about you that’s publicly available on the internet. While this increases your visibility, it also means that you have to be more careful about your online presence and the image it creates. The last thing you want is to lose a job or opportunity due to incriminating information that you—or another party—posted online.

One way of maintaining a good online reputation is by performing a personal audit on a search engine like Google. Input your name into the search bar and examine the entries that show up. Are there results that you don’t want people to see? For example, there may be posts with bad language or sensitive images and information that shouldn’t be there. If there’s a way for you to delete or take down these results, now would be a good time to do so.

6. Work on Thought Leadership

Besides an impressive job profile, working on your thought leadership is another way to strengthen your professional image. This involves expressing unique and in-depth knowledge on your area of expertise through a widely consumed format that’s made available to the public. In doing so, you can establish yourself as a dependable and competent professional in your field.

For instance, you can write articles and publish them online or through physical platforms like magazines. You may even consider posting video discussions on streaming sites or social media. If you’re employed at a company, it’s best to ask for their permission before creating any content that involves their brand. Who knows? With quality work, your company may give you more opportunities to work on informational articles or videos as a promotional strategy.

Start your new year right by preparing for the next big step in your career. Whether you’re looking to impress your company or pursue your dream job, taking the steps necessary to bolster your professional image will ensure that you achieve the success you deserve this 2022.

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