Moving On

Do any of these sound like you?

It's time to move on?I've done this for long enough. It's time to go.

It'll be time to move on in the next year or so. I need to start planning my next move.

I've only just got to where I wanted to be?give me a break! I'm still congratulating myself! I want to put my personal life first, for the first time in ages. I want to have some fun.

I've got to the stage where I'm on top of the job and my bosses and I are getting along fine. I'm going to enjoy the summer and have a short rest, try to cut down on my hours at work and see more of my friends. Then I'll go back to being career minded in the winter.

The PA career is self-led and self-determined, more so than any other. A key career skill is, knowing when it's time to move on, and being prepared to say goodbye, even to something great. There may come a point when you know that you're not likely to learn any more in the role you're in; and that you're in danger of becoming stale. Start looking around the organisation to see where you can use your skills and talents. Be pro-active and create opportunities where you spot them. It may be that the career opportunities the company you're with can no longer match your career aspirations. If you put the effort and investment in at the times when it's right for you, and you're motivated to do it and committed to achieving it, success will be easier to reach.

Your gut instinct will probably tell you when the time has come for you and your company or you and your boss to end your working relationship. It's always better to go out on a high, than stay while your performance starts to plummet. Once your heart isn't in something, everything becomes much more effort; you start making mistakes; your concentration begins to wonder, you get tired more easily because it takes far more effort working at something you don't believe in. So take control, get behind the wheel of your career and start driving it in the direction you want. Don't chance leaving your future to others. Remember that only you know what you want. If you don't know, it's because you haven't thought. Take some time to think seriously about the role you want next.

Why think seriously about the role you want? Here are seven reasons:

• Life is much more fun when you're doing the things you want to do and you're doing things you're good at.



• You'll waste time doing things you don't want to do for the sake of doing something.



• The more you can identify what you want out of a role (and life) the more you're likely to achieve it, even if it takes years to get there.



• Planning ahead and knowing where you're going gives you a purpose in life. Whatever happens along the way, you have a plan.



• Your job hunting will be far more successful and effective if you know what you want to do. Employers will welcome your enthusiastic and positive approach.



• You'll excel at what you're doing and you'll infect others with your passion.



• Your career will be going places.