Career development is something that everyone has in their minds when they begin their journey in the business world. To go further in the career ladder and build up the future you want, you need to pay attention to learning, assessing your skills and choosing the right decision for you, continuously.

Under remote work conditions, career development is an uncharted area for now. It’s not known for sure what are the steps that can take you to your next step; however, there are some effective ways to make sure that you’re on the track.

Here in this list, we listed five effective ways of making yourself more present and effective in the remote environment. You can apply them to your job when necessary and take your steps in a more certain manner towards your next career goal.

1.Maintain a Responsive and Visible Manner

One of the challenges of the remote work model is keeping a steady communication with your co-workers. On one hand, it’s not expected that you communicate just as much when you are in the office; on the other hand, it’s important that you’re responsive enough that you let your presence be known.

Being responsive is not only speaking up during online meetings or responding to emails in a timely manner. It also requires you to step up to the plate by taking charge in new projects. You have to make sure that your coworkers know that you’re open  to communication and you can take responsibility on your own accord.

One of the best ways to present yourself as a responsive and visible employee is keeping your manager and colleagues updated on your availability. As you make progress in your work, you can let them know that you’re done with the project and ready for the next one. If you can be on time with your tasks and respond to your emails timely, your company will notice that you’re a valuable person for them.

Here, you can use OCTAPULL as a time management tool to promote effective and efficient workspace communication with your co-workers. Thanks to the calendar feature, you can easily arrange your online team meetings and save valuable time to afford focus on your job.  

2. Be Clear About What You Want In Career Development

When working remotely, it’s highly possible that you get lost in your daily routine and day-to-day tasks. So, thinking about future advancement of your career can be pushed back to secondary place. To avoid such a thing from happening, you need to take your time to assess your current situation and what you expect for the next step.

Keeping your manager updated with your future expectations for your career is a good road to take. When your company implements a remote work model, it’s difficult for managers to keep track of their teams’ expectations as the communication becomes less frequent. By informing your manager regularly about where you stand with your career development will allow you to win a seat in your manager’s mind.

Another thing you should consider is keeping also updated with current initiatives and goals of your company. If you can get a grasp of your company’s business plans, you can analyze yourself if your and your company’s future plans are compatible. If you get excited by the progress that your company’s making, you can ask about future projects and emphasize that you’d be very happy to be a part of them.

3. Strengthen Your Network For Your Career Development

When working remotely, it’s difficult to get in contact with other employees in your company. People working remotely usually get in touch with their own teams or managers and that happens from meeting to meeting.

However, getting to know your distantly related colleagues is actually a really good benefit for you because it enables you to be known by a larger community in your company. You might be asking yourself how it can help you, but if you’re good at what you’re doing and you have a broad network in your workplace, you might be one of the first candidates that comes in people’s mind for a possible future position.

You can join online networking events held in your company or ask for opportunities that allow you to work with people from other departments. With these basic steps, you can grow your professional network in your company.

In the broader sense, you can also think about joining online networking activities in the business world. It might be an online symposium, course or project that can bring you together with different people from different companies. Building a strong professional network is always a good idea if you’re someone passionate about career development while working remotely because you’ll never know what opportunities you will get.

4. Attend Online Courses For Remote Career

One thing that remote working enormously helped us with is the feasibility of incorporating online course opportunities to our daily lives. While working remotely, taking an online lesson on any topic that you consider beneficial is very easy because you are in full control of your time management skills.

Taking online courses targeting your career development will definitely help you for your future advancement because you’ll have a stronger resume and can actually improve your skills.

5. Establish a Vision To Your Career Development

In the end, it all comes down to your vision in terms of your career development. You need to think about a variety of things; from your salary expectations to the city you’d like to live in. If you can define your vision clearly, you’re going to have a more well-defined career development road for you.

Having a clear vision doesn’t necessarily mean that you know every aspect of what you want in the future. But, at least setting up a minimum for yourself will help you take the right step for your future.

So, to sum up, you need to pay attention to five aspects for your career development if you’re remote worker:

·  Be responsive and visible in remote environment

·  Keep a clear attitude about what you want

·  Build up a strong professional network

·  Develop your skills by taking online courses

·  Have a clear vision of your future