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Mid-life crisis in a career? Simply re-invent!

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INDIA: Upskilling, Reskilling, Refresher Courses etc, does it ring a bell?

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These days it has become a norm where you have to continuously keep pace with the changing times, not only with your life but also with your career goals and job responsibilities.

You enjoyed some brilliant years of progress in your career where everyone used to look up to you as the ‘can-do member' at work. And then something turns ‘not so good'. You have been working on the same thing at the same pace and then suddenly stagnation seeps in and there's nothing interesting happening around.

Every day at work as per your job scheduler, you know what to do but not sure, if you want to do the same thing all over again. The ‘what's next' moment seems to be missing in your career. It takes some time to gulp or accept but you finally realize that you are going through mid-career stagnation period.

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Competition is not a new word but it is something that keeps on reappearing in one's career, time to time. How do you curb the possibilities of competition that you face not only from your peers but also from the new blood that's entering the market every day?

For that we need to refer back to the beginning of this article i.e. Upskilling, Reskilling, Refresher Courses etc.

Re-skilling helps you in revamping your career and takes it ahead of mid-career stagnation.

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Through re-skilling,

- You update your skill-sets and knowledge. Industries worldwide keep on changing every moment. New technologies, ideas and strategies are discovered and brought to the game time to time. However by keeping yourself updated with all these changes, you stay relevant in the race. With this not only you update your skill-sets with latest technology but also your knowledge with industry news and standards. It expands your expertise and increases your value in front of employers.

- You are aware of latest industry practices. You were the ‘go-to leader' at work yesterday and you still stay the ‘go-to leader' at work today. Through re-skilling and moving along with the industry, you are able to keep pace with the industry best-practices that keep changing or updating. This improves job performance and helps you maintain the same level of confidence at work as it was in the past.

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- You are at-par with new players with added advantage of holding industry experience. You are way better than the new players at work because of your vast experience in the field and therefore by re-skilling yourself with latest developments in the industry, you polish your skills. While experience keeps you ahead of the newbies, re-skilling keeps you ahead of your peers.

 

Mid-career stagnation is faced by most of the professionals due to lack of re-skill and losing confidence. The mantra to overcome this is self evaluation and re-skilling. Examine yourself, identify your weak links, fix them and polish yourself with the newest information in the industry.

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Is Professional Certification a Solution? To some extent, yes it is. To showcase your knowledge and updated skills, there's nothing better than a professional certification. Though a certification do not stamp mark your expertise, it showcases your skills and dedication towards the profession to potential employers in the industry. Besides, most of the professional certification are globally renowned and thus keep you at par with the global standard. If you are looking for a change in career and want to move abroad, professional certification builds that bridge for you. To achieve a certification, you need to go through dedicated hours of exam preparation and study. This way, you re-skill yourself with global standards and make it visible to the world at the same time.

So, if you are facing a mid-career stagnation, do the following and it really works.

- Evaluate yourself

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- Identify your flaws and fix it

- Re-skill yourself

- Go for professional certification

And besides all these, regain the confidence that you lost in yourself. Believe in yourself to make the world believe in you and mid-career stagnation will just remain a thing of the past.

(Krishna Kumar is Founder & CEO of Simplilearn. The ideas and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of CyberMedia)