5 Tips to Professional Development & Career Advancement

Professional development is critical to career advancements in the form of promotions, raises and new opportunities. A continuous quest to learn new skills and techniques is important, because it is through these new abilities that you will position yourself for offers of greater responsibilities and leadership tasks in the workplace. For example, since most advanced leadership positions come with profit and loss responsibility (if you’re in marketing), you would benefit greatly if you became familiar with financial forecasting and planning. Armed with some financial acumen, you may be able to manage an entire marketing campaign — not only in relation to leads and sales, but also in relation to the overall profitability of a project.

So, how does someone go about learning these new skills and developing professionally? Well, the default answer — and it’s usually a good one — is to visit your human resources officer and explore any professional development paths offered at your company. Certainly, this is a great place to look, but if access to this professional development knowledge were simple, everyone would be in charge — right? Additionally, what about smaller organizations in which HR departments are not as advanced or even available? Follow these suggestions for seeking out viable professional development opportunities and take matters into your own hands.

I. Business Networking Events

Before you rush out to sign up for all the big industry conferences and seminars, consider a look in your own backyard, as you will often find an array of networking and business development events. Local chamber of commerce functions, for instance, are great places to meet new contacts who can help expand your business horizons and knowledge base or provide prospective leads for your organization.

Special-interest venues, such as venture capital forums, provide opportunities to meet new people and foster new business knowledge and skills. These avenues are also far more convenient and may be more attractive to your employer than it would be to send you to the big out-of-town national workshop. If your organization has not suggested that you attend one of the bigger out-of-town deals, asking for a four-figure budget (registration, plane ticket, hotel, meals, etc.) may be met with some doubt, particularly if it seems like an excuse to party on the company’s dime rather than to build new relationships and business skills. Your organization may have a more flexible budget for the occasional luncheon and could be more receptive to you being away from the office for two hours than for two days.

Even if your employer will not front the bill for these events, they are affordable enough for an individual and can be well worth the investment. Of course, if some real professional development arises from these smaller local events, it may be easier to get the company to send you out to Las Vegas for a national session.

II. Hit the Books

Bookshelves are teeming with books and periodicals that can help your professional development. More often than not, you simply have to look to the New York Times’ best-seller list to find a handful of the most current business and professionally focused reading material to peruse. Another idea is to specifically identify an area you would like to work on and select a book that addresses that subject. Reading one book per month will greatly improve your knowledge and your professional skills. Many of these books are relatively easy reading, and don’t feel discouraged if some of the material is not immediately processing or if you are struggling to apply the new techniques at work. Situations will arise, weeks or months after reading the book, to trigger the knowledge.

It’s also wise to not force your new knowledge into work situations. In most cases, even though you are excited to apply the fruits of your reading, when the application is forced, you may take actions that you don’t fully understand, which is bad. Additionally, it may bother people, especially when they see you reading a book and a week later you are spewing quotes as if you are the new master of all. Finally, consider subscribing to a couple of special-interest trade magazines or journals that fit the bill — they often provide consistent reading and are a great source for professional development ideas.

III. Back to School
Going back to school to get your master’s degree is certainly not a bad idea, but it may not be the answer for many of us. To save some money and to remain employed, visit the local universities or community colleges in your area — many offer evening or weekend courses that cover many topics, from business management to web site development or check Online MBA Schools.
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15 Successful Entrepreneurs Who Didnt Need College

How many times were you told to make sure you worked hard in high school so you could go to college and get a good career job? Okay, maybe not all of you got nagged about it, but probably a good portion of today’s generation of adults did.

It’s natural to wonder whether college is really necessary. A college degree, as many have found, is no guarantee of a good career. On the flipside, there are many successful entrepreneurs who didn’t need their college education and become millionaires anyway. Here are fifteen of them, both contemporary and from the past, in alphabetical order.

• Mary Kay Ash. The founder of Mary Kay Inc. started a cosmetics business. While she didn’t have a college education or any training, she successfully created a brand known throughout the world. To date, nearly half a million women have started Mary Kay businesses, selling cosmetics. Their appreciation for Mary Kay Ash is unwavering.
• Richard Branson. Richard Branson is best known for his thrill seeking spirit and outrageous business tactics. He dropped out at the age of 16 and started his first successful business venture, Student Magazine. He is the owner of the Virgin brand and its 360 companies. His companies include Virgin Megastore and Virgin Atlantic Airway.
• Coco Chanel. An orphan for many years, Gabrielle Coco Chanel trained as a seamstress. Determined to invent herself, she threw out the ideas that the fashion world deemed feminine, boldly using fabric and styles normally reserved for men. A perfume bearing her name, Chanel No. 5 kept her name famous.
• Simon Cowell. Simon Cowell started in a mailroom for a music publishing company. He has since become an Artist and Repertoire (A&R) executive for Sony BMG in the UK, and a television producer and judge for major television talent contests including American Idol.
• Michael Dell. With $1,000, dedication and desire, Michael Dell dropped out of college at age 19 to start PC’s Limited, later named Dell, Inc. Dell became the most profitable PC manufacturer in the world. In 1996, The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation offered a $50 million grant to The University of Texas at Austin to be used for children’s health and education in the city.
• Henry Ford. At 16, Henry Ford left home to apprentice as a machinist. He later started Ford Motor Company to manufacture automobiles. Ford’s first major success, the Model T, allowed Ford to open a large factory and later start the assembly line production, revolutionalizing the auto-making industry.
• Bill Gates. Ranked as the world’s richest person from 1995-2006, Bill Gates was a college drop out. He started the largest computer software company, Microsoft Corporation. Gates and his wife are philanthropists, starting The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with a focus on global health and learning.

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Three Steps to Learning Anything Fast

By Jim Sarris

If you were thinking you could learn anything fast in just one step (maybe two), you’re in for a surprise. You see, there are 3 steps you need in order to learn anything fast (and easy, too!). The problem is, people (young and old), want to skip one of the steps and get right to the success part.

Well, these are the people that end up frustrated, discouraged, and unable to understand why they can’t seem to learn like other people. I’m here to tell you that it all comes down to these three points.

Step 1 - organize what it is you need to learn. If you’re studying, organize the topics and the material so that you understand the “whole story.” Not just isolated facts. That goes for a history test, a driver’s test, a pilot’s license test, you name it. When you have things organized, then you can see how different parts relate to each other and you develop an understanding.
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Hacking Knowledge: 77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better

If someone granted you one wish, what do you imagine you would want out of life that you haven’t gotten yet? For many people, it would be self-improvement and knowledge. New knowledge is the backbone of society’s progress. Great thinkers such as Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and others’ quests for knowledge have led society to many of the marvels we enjoy today. Your quest for knowledge doesn’t have to be as Earth-changing as Einstein’s, but it can be an important part of your life, leading to a new job, better pay, a new hobby, or simply knowledge for knowledge’s sake — whatever is important to you as an end goal.

Life-changing knowledge does typically require advanced learning techniques. In fact, it’s been said that the average adult only uses 10% of his/her brain. Imagine what we may be capable of with more advanced learning techniques. Here are 77 tips related to knowledge and learning to help you on your quest. A few are specifically for students in traditional learning institutions; the rest for self-starters, or those learning on their own. Happy learning.

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