How to Turn Every Step in Your Career into the Right Step Forward

Pro tip: always focus on personal growth.

During Office Hours this week, Her Campus Media Co-founder and President Windsor Western hosted a motivating conversation with Catie Enright, Senior Associate Brand Manager for Nair at Church & Dwight! Catie shared her thoughts on crafting your career story, resume tips, and how to advance your career even when the path isn’t linear.

Watch the replay here!

ICYMI, be sure to check out the replay above. In the meantime, here are three key lessons we learned from Office Hours this week:

Keep track of your accomplishments.

When navigating your career path, it’s important to document your experiences — past and present — so you can speak confidently about your trajectory. Catie recommends keeping an “accomplishment archive” to help you track relevant information for each position you’ve held, from volunteering and internships to full-time roles. “This will help you remember your past experiences and the impact you’ve had across your career,” says Catie, who learned about how to keep an “accomplishment archive” during graduate school, and has kept one ever since. 

The idea is to document every experience in as much detail as possible, making note of the company, your role, specific responsibilities, and the specific impact you made. Bonus points if you can back up each item with numbers or measurable data!

Have a clean, professional resume.

“If you’re looking to go into any sort of business or marketing, your resume needs to be exactly one page, very clean and concise, and follow a very specific format,” says Catie, who had her resume vetted multiple times throughout undergrad and graduate school. “You want to make it really easy for a recruiter who’s receiving 500 resumes to scan it quickly and make a split decision about whether you get an interview or not.”

Catie recommends starting each description with an attention-grabbing verb and ending with a clear result to highlight your skills in a strong, efficient way. “Your resume is like putting yourself on display,” she says. In other words, make sure you look great on paper so potential employers will have no choice but to interview you! 

Focus on personal growth and presenting yourself with confidence.

Catie began her career in fashion and later went to graduate school to pursue her MBA. Along the way, she learned that higher education is more than just gaining a fancy degree. “The true value in business school is personal growth,” she mentions during Office Hours. “You’re there to grow as a person. 

Whether you experience growth in graduate school or during a gap year, owning your story and understanding your value are key for advancing your career. “It’s learning to see the value in all of your past experiences, and being able to confidently and eloquently put that on display,” says Catie. And as someone who has interviewed for multiple diverse jobs, I couldn’t agree more! Focus on personal growth and what you’ve learned from your past experiences — it’ll make you way more confident in the long run when pitching yourself to potential employers.

We loved Catie’s tips for personal growth and how to transform your career. Catch up on the replay here and be sure to follow @generationhired and @naircare on Instagram to stay up-to-date on future events and updates!