Former classmates are running their own businesses, managing major projects, and defending dissertations at the Sorbonne and Cambridge, and writing homeworks and essays for others, and running sites such as PayToWritePaper and others. and you seem to be still at the very beginning of your career path. Don’t panic: Almost everyone thinks so. Approximately 86% of young people 25 to 30 face a quarter-life crisis. And, most importantly, they overcome it. How do they do it? We’ll tell you in order.
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Recognize the problem and don’t lie to yourself.
Take a sober look at your progress over the last few years. Could you have accomplished so much more? Let’s understand what the problem is. Perhaps your organization simply doesn’t have career opportunities. Then start your job search as soon as possible. Go to a career counseling session – an expert will help you write your resume, talk about the features of Russian and international companies, objectively assess your capabilities and prepare you for an in-person interview.
If the fact is that you are not interested in your chosen field, ruthlessly change it. To find out what your heart is in, sign up for an internship at a major company – the program often includes rotation between departments, and you will be able to try yourself in several roles at once. Talk to your colleagues, find out the pros and cons of working in different departments, compare with your own impressions – and make the right choice!
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Understand where you can get ahead of others
If you still like what you do, and your employer encourages employee growth, it’s time to think about your own development. Identify your strengths and weaknesses – stick out the first ones, and pump up the second ones as hard as you can. Draw up a development plan and write out your goals step by step.
Google calendar, special applications for to-do lists and creating habits (e.g. Todoist or Toodledo) or a classic diary can help you here (masters of time management do it this way). Can’t assess yourself objectively? There are many ways out: from the usual career guidance to a personal meeting with a professional coach. The main thing is to remember: your success will depend on your ability to overcome your weaknesses.
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Work on yourself
The cause is established, the plan is ready, it’s time for action! First, browse online universities (Coursera, edX, Udemy) – there are courses from the world’s leading universities on every possible topic. You can learn programming at Codecademy, Code School, Stuk.io, foreign languages at Skyeng, Duolingo and Busuu, look for general outlook and inspiration at TED-Ed.
There are also dozens of workshops, seminars, and summer schools. Explore university websites – there are often courses there that you can go to as a free listener. Jedi level (for those who have tried it all and know what they want) – advanced training, a second higher degree or a master’s degree.
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Develop structural thinking
It’s used by consultants, financiers, and IT professionals to solve complex business problems. Want to get into the big leagues? You can’t go anywhere without the case approach. How to master it? Read articles and books, or assemble a team and participate in championships – many major universities have their own case clubs. Everybody can join them, each university has its own membership rules. Gain experience – welcome to the National Case League: real projects and Big3 and Big4 recruiters looking for candidates.
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Being on trend
Being able to distinguish between world-changing trends and overnight hype is one of the golden skills in today’s job market. Meet with the business community, go to conferences, and make useful contacts in different industries. It takes a while to get a feel for trends, but it’s worth it. Telegram will do most of the monitoring and sifting out unnecessary stuff for you: look for thematic and opinion makers channels and read them regularly. Make a list of the top industry sources and make it a habit to start your morning with them. Pay attention to podcasts about business and success: for example, Profit. Power. Pursuit or The Broad Experience.
The quarter-life crisis is a problem for most millennials. Changellenge Summer School will help you cope with it in 21 days and pump yourself up on each of the 5 points. Workshops with experts on the most useful business topics: from résumé writing and public speaking to financial modeling and defense of their own project. Guidance, a consulting project supervised by real consultants and powerful networking. By the way, with SAP, EY, BCG and RB will be introduced personally – this year they became partners of the School. Register – there are still some places left!
If you have failed once or several times, or even a whole year in a row, the worst thing you can do is to let your confidence die and stop trying. On the contrary, tell yourself that you are as capable as anyone else, find out from your teacher what the problem really was, and work on fixing that mistake for the next time. You may fail again later, but it shouldn’t stress you out. When you make a mistake and learn a lesson from it, you often understand better how to succeed than if you were lucky enough to hit the jackpot the first time.
