5 Essential Mid-Life Career Skills You Won't Learn in Business School

Many mid-life professionals think they're stuck because they lack expertise or education. Or they think they need just one big break or the perfect test to tell them exactly where they fit.

But here's what I've learned from experience and from my clients. Degrees, proficiencies and a big break can make a huge difference to your career. But they're probably not what's holding back your success.

Here are 5 skills you need to avoid the most common career traps and maximize your own career success.

(1) Set priorities based on your company's reward system. What achievements are valued by your boss? By your company? Don't get derailed by busywork that doesn't contribute to your job's bottom line.

"Laura," a corporate librarian, knew her company valued building client relationships. So she initiated meetings with the sales staff and created programs to meet their information needs. Soon the sales manager became her corporate ally.

When you can't quantify meaningful accomplishments, make time for a career review. Maybe you to recognize what you've achieved. Or you need to revise your career path.

(2) Focus on marketability, not security. Organizations take care of their most marketable workers. That's why unions often have trouble organizing high-tech engineers: if they're not happy, they just hop to another job.

Stay marketable by learning new skills, requesting new assignments, and maintaining a strong independent network.

No current contacts? Some of my clients are getting queries from their social marketing resumes and post.

Is your job being replaced by Internet websites or overseas outsourcing? Start thinking of ways to start your own business and/or change careers.

(3) Use every dime of your company's education benefits. No amount is too small to leave on the table.

Let's say you have five hundred dollars. Choose a year of monthly lunches with a speaker and a chance to network. Or take courses in website design and maintenance, marketing, finance, writing, speaking...you name it.

Choose courses that build skills and (ideally) offer you the opportunity to network with other professionals. Choose colleges and schools with established reputations. The wrong program will block off entire career paths.

(4) Keep your game face, no matter what. When you've just moved to a new city or accepted a new position, you probably feel stressed. But when someone asks, "How are things going?" there's only one answer: "Terrific."

Of course you may have a legitimate request or complaint about your job. Maybe you're being asked to do things that take lots of time but don't count toward your own success. When you bring up these issues, calculate your presentation as if you were making a pitch to a client. Come up with a win-win scenario.

Anything you say can and will be misinterpreted. When everyone shares their weekend plans, frame your comments so you won't raise questions. I recommend keeping quiet about medical challenges, family grievances, dating woes and financial pressures.

Successful professionals find confidantes outside the workplace. They hire therapists, coaches and counselors. They test the waters before they visit company-sponsored resources. And they never, ever assume anyone at the company (even -- especially -- Human Resources) will be there to help.

(5) Create a career strategy. Set a time -- every three to six months -- to look up and ask, "Where am I going?"

Once I asked a client to list 3 times when we could talk. She asked for Saturday night and Sunday morning. The rest of the time, she said, she was on call. She had gotten so immersed in her job she didn't even realize how odd her choices were.

Another client was delighted when he was invited to develop diversity programs for a division...until his new boss downplayed his contributions to the group.

Another client accepted a job as a teller in a small town local bank while experiencing a personal crisis. By the time she called me, five years had passed. She was still a teller and still in the bank.

These clients saw their jobs one day at a time, instead of viewing the whole job as just one step on a longer journey. They had no strategy. Now they were in danger of being stranded in the middle of nowhere (sometimes literally).

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