How to Earn More Money – It’s Your Responsibility

careers Mar 26, 2018

TOUGH LOVE TIME, KIDS

 

Your job is YOUR responsibility. The amount you earn is YOUR responsibility. It’s time to take charge.

 

Here’s a pattern I see all too often.

1) You hate your job

2) You feel like you should and could be earning more

3) You keep doing your job

4) You hate your job even more

 

WHY?

So many reasons why. Fear, complacency, not taking responsibility.

 

NOTE – AND THIS IS REALLY BLOODY IMPORTANT

Responsibility and blame are not the same thing. Let’s have a quick story to explain.

Bowser’s gone and kidnapped Peach gain. She’d upped her royal guard, had some new defences installed but he got through and now she’s in his castle.

Is that her fault? Of course not. But is IS her responsibility to stay safe and get back to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Meanwhile Mario has seen all this from afar. He wasn’t there. Was it his fault? Nope. But it is his responsibility to help rescue her.

 

OK real world time

Someone takes financial advice and invests all their money. They’ve done their research, the advisor is highly respected and trusted, and everything they have goes into investments with the expectation of both short and long term financial gains. They have a steady well-paid job with regular bonuses and are ahead of schedule on their mortgage.

A market crash happens. All the money’s gone. All of it. They can’t pay their mortgage and lose their home.  The market crash leads to redundancy. They’re left with nothing.

This person can start blaming everyone. The financial advisor who told them to invest. The bankers who caused the crash. Their employer who didn’t have a plan in place. Themselves for investing.

What good would this do? Nothing. Assigning blame does us no good what’s needed is taking RESPONSIBILITY.

If this person accepts full responsibility for where they are right now, for all the things that have happened to them, then they will be driven to take action. To look at their legal position, to get hunting for work, to find somewhere to live. To pick themselves up, get on with it, and sort things out.

 

It’s the same with every aspect of life – IT IS ALL YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. No-one else’s. You can apportion blame all you like but it won’t empower you to take action.

 

POWER UP OF THE DAY – TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR EVERYTHING IN YOUR LIFE


I have type 1 diabetes. Not my fault but it is wholly my responsibility to manage. And so I have done research, changed my diet, gone on courses, tried new approaches, bought different kit above and beyond what my medical team can offer.

Other people have crohns, eczema, depression, ADHD, a wonky eye, missing limbs – not their fault but their responsibility to manage it as best they can.

 

I’m not saying don’t listen to your healthcare team here I’m just illustrating that there’s only so much they can do. Please do check with them!

Getting away from the point –

1) It is your responsibility to get a better job if you want one

2) So start doing things to make that happen

 

American friends! This is all still valid, we call a Résumé a Curriculum Vitae or CV. Don’t be scared.

 

HOW DO I DO THIS?

 

1) Get more experience in your current role to bolster your CV

Can you take on more responsibilities in your current role? What would be useful to add to your utility belt of knowledge?

What courses or training can they send you on? Is there a budget available?

How about some job shadowing with colleagues? Learn to use that piece of machinery or software? Take on that client or project, or part of it?

Not only will your happiness in your current role likely increase, but you may be able to earn more within it, as well as gaining the XP necessary to level up and move to a different career tree.

 

2) Get more experience away from work

It’s never been easie to do some self-study, whether podcasts, formal courses, meetups, online learning, low cost in person trainings.

What would benefit you in taking the next step?

Check out the likes of UdemyOpen UniversityFuture Learn for cheap and low cost courses. Try Wowcher, Groupon, and other voucher sites. Here at CfG we have some online training in PRINCE2 coming soon!

Have any friends been on courses and have the materials available?

 

There’s so much free training available!

 

Employers look on this favourably as well – you have taken responsibility for your own development and driven it on.

GDPR is a hot topic – it wouldn’t hurt to get some training there.

 

3) Update your resume/CV

 

GO AND DO IT. Always have an up-to-date CV/resume and have it posted online.

You never know who’s looking and may be looking for someone with your exact skillset, no matter how unusual, generic, or specific it is.

You will need to tweak and update your skills to suit the role you’re applying for but having a brilliant one that’s ready-to-go will make sure you’re ready.

 

We’ll cover having a great CV and tailoring for specific roles in a future blog post, for now, get it updated with your current experience.

 

This is your first shot, make it shine. Make it look good, make it relevant and interesting. Someone is reading through a stack of these and half of them are going straight into file 13 – the secure shredder.

 

4) Get on LinkedIn


LinkedIn is a big deal. Bigger than ever and more people are joining and using it as a living resume and to recruit. 
Employers use it to check you out and recruiters use it to find potential candidates.

You can get social proof of your expertise by having recommendations from employers/colleagues/clients and you can build up a network of relevant professionals.

It also allows you to post articles, blogs, videos, which can increase your reach massively and going viral on LinkedIn can have big career benefits in establishing your authority.

 

Don’t have a LinkedIn profile? Get to it. Get the basics up.

I’ll do a guide to LinkedIn soon and drop me a line if you’re interested in some growth hacking. In the meantime connect with me.

 

5) Get good at interviews

Look, it’s a learned skill like everything else and I’ll cover this in more detail soon too. Here are the key points.

 

  1. Do your research, For the love of god do your research – what is the company? What do they do? How do they do it? What’s their mission? Who are the key stakeholders? All likely available through their website.  The amount of people I have interviewed who haven’t bothered with the basics is absurd.b) Ask some great questions. ‘What would success look like in the first 6 months?’ shows you’re thinking about how the role works, what’s important about it, and how that all important first half a year will play out. 
  • ‘Can you tell me about the culture of the organsiation?’ You’re interested in the people, the vibe, the way it is. Are they all come in, work, go home, or is there more to it? Make sure you’re a good fit.
  • ‘Is there anything I haven’t answered that I could do now?’ give them a chance to fill in any gaps – they may think you’re missing a vital piece of the puzzle that you can address.

Pick what works for the position, the interview and for you, but have some prepared and ready to go.

 

Dress for it!

It depends on the role but dress appropriately. Smart for an office role used to be the way but some startups may actually feel this is too formal. Find out what the feel is and dress accordingly.

If in doubt, dress smart.

Full interview post coming soon.


“Sure Robin, it’s that simple, I have kids/don’t know what I want to do/have depression/care for an elderly relative/no time/no money for courses/anxiety.”

Yes, you do, we all have things in our lives.

 

Make the time.

 

Can you listen to courses on your commute? Can you do some study in your breaks? How about the time you spend browsing Facebook/Reddit/YouTube vids? How much League of Legends/Fortnite/PUBG/Overwatch does one person need in their life?

 

It’s YOUR responsibility and it’s time to take action.

 

Lots more coming soon – how to write a CV, how to smash an interview, how to gain more experience. This is only the beginning my friends. Tell me what you want first in the comments and I shall deliver.

 

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