The further you climb up your career ladder, the easier it becomes to assume you are up to speed in your field. The more experience you get under your belt the more you learn and become an expert, but what happens when you reach your peak?
The importance of continuing your learning
No matter how much experience or knowledge you have, there’s always more to learn and it’s important to stay relevant in our ever-changing world. By continuing to invest time in learning you will:
- Sustain your professional creativity and passion
- Increase your job security
- Hone new skills and achieve more
- Earn promotions and pay rises
The more you learn, the more you can bring to your organisation and employers should be supporting learning and development. Businesses won’t be able to transform and improve if their employees aren’t doing the same thing and leading the way.
What you should be learning
Making a decision about what you want to learn next depends on where you want to develop yourself. You may want to focus on broadening your industry knowledge and home in on key areas that you are interested in.
Reading regularly will also ensure that you continue to learn and develop. Your reading list should take you beyond the regular news and it’s a good idea to find some specialist blogs that relate to your field. You may also be able to find communities and online groups where you can take part in discussions about your field.
A good target is to spend half an hour a day either reading or networking with peers. When certain topics pop up that interest you, you can then explore them further. If you decided on any areas that you would like to specialise in, then have a look for relevant courses and conferences that you could attend.
Make the most of company resources
Get to know what learning platforms and help your company offers and make the most of it. Does your company have a learning portal that you can explore? Is there a budget available for attending training courses? If your current company doesn’t support your learning, then it may be time to look for a new job opportunity.
Ask for more opportunities to learn
If there aren’t a lot of training and development opportunities available, then don’t be afraid to have an honest conversation with your employer about any external training courses you would like to attend and highlight how it will benefit the company. You can be the person who leads change at your company to improve the learning that is available.
Bringing it all together
When it comes to your education, it’s down to you to be proactive and ensure that you continue learning. There are plenty of ways to learn and so much accessible information that you really have no excuse not to. If you can continue to soak up knowledge, you will be able to use it to better yourself and your career.