Five top tips for career progression in a virtual world

These are her five top tips for career progression in a virtual world:

1. Be brave

These may be challenging pandemic influenced times, but there are still excellent job opportunities available. Don’t let fear or inertia stop you from taking advantage of these.

2. Maintain your network

It’s easy during a lockdown to become more reclusive, however it is even more critical to raise your profile. LinkedIn and external networking groups such as NextGen are an excellent way to do this.  Connecting with people you may have met or know by name, but not directly worked or collaborated with, is a great way to do this and putting in this extra effort can pay dividends.

3. Make a great first impression

There has been a notable shift to casual dress when working remotely.  However, when participating in remote job interviews, it is still important to dress the part. Don’t forget to perfect that all important background!

4. Say a proper goodbye

When you’ve secured that great opportunity, it can be easy to quietly depart as social distancing means leaving drinks are a distant memory. However, this can be a great time to re-engage with your colleagues, to have one-to-one or small group goodbye chats and to make sure you maintain your network. The analyst supporting you today could be a hiring manager of the future.

5. Make the time to chat

Starting a new job remotely means there are fewer opportunities to learn the social nuances and information about ‘how things work round here’. It can be easy to misinterpret situations with new colleagues remotely. To ensure you understand the team and people dynamics, make the time to chat. Set up zoom calls, be social where you can and try to build a network of ‘go to’ colleagues for when you need advice or help.

You can see the full panel session ‘how to build and progress your career in pensions in an increasingly virtual world’ here.