如何走出职业发展的死胡同？

    大约三十年前，许多公司都会提供明确的职业发展路线。只要你表现出色，你的工资、职务和责任一定会稳步提高，为公司忠心服务25年后，你还将得到一块金表作为表彰。

    但现在，公司会根据自身需要，自由地重新安排和辞退员工。“大衰退”前就被婴儿潮一代塞满的公司管理层，现在不大可能出现人事变动，因为这些最年长的员工正在努力重建他们的退休积蓄。

    年轻人必须开拓自己的职业道路，他们需要寻找机会提高技能和积累经验，与正确的人交往，谋划职业发展道路上的每一个转折点。

    咨询师、《管理者面临的27项挑战》（The 27 Challenges Managers Face）与《你也可以管理老板》（It’s Okay to Manage Your Boss）的作者布鲁斯•塔尔干表示：“毫无疑问，大多数公司都希望人们对自己的职业发展负责。大多数公司已经不再提供一条适合所有人的职业道路。”

    如果你从事同一个职务两年、三年或者五年，渴望下一个机会的到来，那你恐怕要学会自己开拓职业道路。以下是几条重要建议。

    建立关系网

    我们都知道建立人脉和寻找一位导师或担保人有多么重要。但最成功的做法则是通过自身的努力建立起多元化的关系网，并依靠这些人提供诚恳的反馈、建议、见解和信息。

    如果每个人都必须成为自身事业的CEO，那么你就应该将这些人视为你的咨询委员会。这个团队应该包括公司内部和外部的同事、你的直属上司、其他部门的高层、公司人力资源部职员、同行和行业领袖、家人，以及在大学和其他地方结交的值得信赖的好友。你将依靠他们对自己进行评估，确定自己应该提高和发展的方面，了解机会所在，理解自己的角色，以及公司和行业的现状。

    安永会计事务所(EY)美洲区招聘主管丹•布莱克表示：“这是一项毕生的追求，并且需要定期完成。一定要将自己的目标放到所处环境中进行衡量。”布莱克刚刚卸任全美大学与雇主协会（The National Association of Colleges and Employers）主席一职。

    加入行业组织、俱乐部和同行团体，例如公司女性或少数族裔的网络。怀着帮助对方同时也从对方那里得到帮助的心态，去接触同事和同行。

    塔尔干表示：“单纯为了交际而交际，对于忙碌的人而言只是在浪费时间。认识其他人的首要规则是要展示自我。第二条规则是：要有价值。”

    A generation ago, many companies offered a straightforward career ladder. If you performed well, you could count on a steady climb in salary, job title, and responsibilities until receiving a gold watch for 25 years of loyal service.

    Today, organizations freely reassign and fire employees as needed. Management ranks that were clogged with Baby Boomers before the Great Recession are now even less likely to see turnover, as the organization’s oldest employees seek to rebuild their retirement savings.

    Young professionals must create their own career paths by seeking out opportunities to develop skills and experience, networking with the right people and plotting each turning point along the road.

    “There’s no question that most organizations expect people to take responsibility for their own careers,” says Bruce Tulgan, consultant and author of The 27 Challenges Managers Face and It’s Okay to Manage Your Boss. “There’s no longer a one-size fits all career path in most organizations.”

    If you’ve been in the same role for two, three, or five years, and are itching for the next opportunity, chances are you need the secrets to the do-it-yourself career path. There are three key ingredients.

    Build relationships

    We’ve all heard it’s important to network and find a mentor and sponsor. But the most successful do-it-yourselfers build a diversity of relationships and rely on those individuals for honest feedback, advice, insight, and information throughout the course of their careers.

    If each of us must be the CEO of our careers, think of these people as an advisory board. The group should include peers inside and outside the company, higher-ups in your chain of command and in other divisions, someone in your company’s human resources department, peers and leaders in your industry, family and trusted friends from college and elsewhere. You’ll rely on them to help you evaluate yourself and where you should develop and grow, as well as to learn where there are opportunities and to understand your role and how the company and industry work.

    “You have to have those conversations early and often,” says Dan Black, immediate past president of the National Association of College and Employers and Americas director of recruiting for EY. “It’s a lifelong pursuit and an exercise to go through at regular intervals. Make sure you’re weighing your goals against the environment you’re in.”

    Join industry associations, clubs and affinity groups, such as corporate women’s or minority networks. Reach out to colleagues and industry peers, with a goal to helping them as much as they help you.

    “Networking for the sake of networking is wasting the time of very busy people,” Tulgan says. “The number one rule to getting to know people is show up. The number two rule is: be valuable.”