Take your finance career to the next level: 6 tips for junior & mid-level professionals

You have all the time in the world, they said.

You can take your time, they assured you. Your whole life is ahead of you. No need to rush.

Today, as you look back on the early part of your career and look ahead to the prime earning years of your life, you know those words ring hollow.

You don’t have all the time in the world. You can’t take your time, whatever that means. Much of your life is, in fact, behind you.

Is it time to push the panic button on your career? Should you set your sights lower, accept that things aren’t going to work out as you intended?

Not if you have anything to say about it. You weren’t raised to be a quitter, and you’ve chosen a field that rewards persistence. If you keep moving forward, you’ll keep moving upward.

How, exactly, will you keep moving forward? Try these six career-boosting strategies, if you haven’t already.

1. Add Another Notch to Your Belt of Credentials

You don’t have to get a Berkeley business degree to rise through the ranks. Your local state or city university will do just fine. The important thing is that you make a concerted effort to add real credentials to your resume, not just-minted certifications that employers don’t know what to do with.

2. Work With a Seasoned Talent Scout

Work with an executive staffing firm that speaks your language and knows how to get results. The employers you want to work with are doing the same. Even with the right staffing team on your side, you won’t get every job you want; this recent talent search by Dallas-based NexBank, a top finance employer, likely involved dozens of prospects.

3. Volunteer for the Assignments No One Else Wants

Think you’re tougher than your coworkers? Prove it to your bosses by volunteering for the really sticky stuff — the projects that no one else wants to lead. These high-risk, high-reward opportunities could demonstrate you’ve got what it takes to lead a team on a permanent basis; they could also compel you to find a new staffing firm sooner rather than later.

4. Network, Network, Network

Three words: Never stop networking.

What’s that? You’re not a Type A? That’s not a problem. Networking takes many forms; many a successful introvert builds their professional brand around an active, engaging LinkedIn profile.

5. Test the Waters, Quietly

This follows naturally from networking, whether you realize it or not. You shouldn’t make a big deal of interviewing for other positions, of course, not while you’re still gainfully employed. But as long as the labor market remains tight, you need to act like your skills are in high demand. Because they are.

6. Develop Your Subject Matter Expertise

You might not be a Ph.D., or even an MBA, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have expert-level insights to contribute to the conversation. With your employer’s blessing, start a blog or podcast about your area of expertise; you’ll be amazed how far simply putting your insights out there will get you.

Don’t Settle for Less. You’re Worth More.

So you missed your first big shot at a promotion. It’s not the end of the world. You’ve got the best years of your career ahead of you, and all the tools you need to make the most of them. Go out there and earn it.