How To Advance Your Career With Continuing Education

Young women entering today’s workforce have both challenges and opportunities. While every industry is different, female professionals must be proactive in managing their careers and advancing through the ranks, while also remaining aware of issues that could potentially impact their careers. Employee Harassment Training provides a wealth of resources devoted to helping people recognize and mitigate harassment in the workplace.

Go into your new workplace environment with a professional attitude and appearance, as well as a firm and confident recognition of your own value and talent. Avoid falling into cliques, getting caught up in gossip, or otherwise allowing yourself to be at odds with your supervisor or colleagues. Understand all elements of your job description, and strive to be a valued and contributing member of your team while showing respect for others. According to Career Contessa, you should demand a similar level of respect for yourself – get comfortable speaking up, offering your perspective, and establishing yourself as a knowledgeable professional.

Discrimination, harassment, and even bullying can arise in many contexts, and is not always clear cut. It’s important to pay attention to how others make you feel. For example, condescending language or comments about your appearance or age can be subtle forms of harassment; unwanted sexual advances, abusive language, or a disregard for personal space are more overt examples of harassment in the workplace. If you find yourself on the receiving end of this type of behavior, document it, including time, date, location, witnesses, and a description of the action, and speak to your human resources representative before things get out of hand.

Take every opportunity to learn new skills, whether that’s volunteering to be part of workplace work groups, leading a team effort, or seeking professional development on your own. Advancing your education via an online program allows you an opportunity to continue growing and advancing in your career. Many programs allow you to study at your own pace, from the location of your choice, while still working full-time. Burgeoning fields like IT, cyber security, marketing, and diversity and gender studies are all potential areas of education that can help broaden your horizons.

Even if you get your start working for someone else, many young professionals have an entrepreneurial spirit that leads them to launch their own business. If you opt to become self-employed, either in a part-time or full-time capacity, strive to follow traditional business protocols. According to SCORE, this starts with writing a business and marketing plan and forming a limited liability company, or LLC. This will protect you against some forms of liability and give you flexibility, particularly when it comes to tax time. There are different rules around LLC formation by state – for example, view this California LLC description – so learn your regulations in advance. You can do the legwork yourself, hire an attorney, or use a formation company to ease the process.

Being a young professional in today’s work world can be an exciting time full of opportunity and possibility. Be mindful of taking steps to realize your ambitions and continually look for ways to advance yourself personally and professionally. Consider not only your current role, but potential opportunities to learn, advance, and even build your own enterprise in the future.

Employee Harassment Training can help professionals at all levels recognize and mitigate problematic issues in the workplace. Email the organization for more information or visit the site to learn more. You can access valuable resources and information that may be helpful in your company.