Page 4 - Resilient-Nursing-Career-12-20-2016a

THINK OF YOUR CAREER AS

A BUSINESS OF ONE

If you understand that regardless of your current employment situation you
are solely responsible for the well-being of your career (and paycheck), that
means you can take control. You can focus not on lifetime employment but
on lifetime employability.
What’s the difference between the two? Lifetime employment means
hanging on to a job, rather than risk pursuing more fulfilling nursing career
choices. Lifetime employability involves continually developing new ways to
contribute value and grow professionally, and seeking out opportunities to
do so.
Several years ago, Reid Hoffman (co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn)
and Ben Casnocha published The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future,
Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career (Crown Business, 2012).
Their main idea? You need to embrace an entrepreneurial mindset when it
comes to your career, considering it to be in “permanent beta.” Translation:
assume that when it comes to your career, you’re always in the process
of learning, growing, and trying new things to see what works (or doesn’t).
Their advice is to always stay focused on your competive advantage, which
is a combination of your assets (what you’re good at), your aspirations (your
dreams and goals), and the market realities (who’s willing to pay you decent
money for what you can do).

Why think of your career as a start-up? Because in a time of corporate
downsizing, mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, offshoring, and job
automation, the only job security lies within you – and your ability to
improvise your career.

www.americansentinel.edu

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