How to stand out in any stage of your career

Navigating the world of work and ensuring that you stand out in the best possible way is challenging. Find out what our experts have to say about making sure you stand out in your career.

Whether you’re trying to progress as part of a large team or one of many applicants chasing a new role, trying to set yourself apart from others can often be difficult. We’ve gathered our top five tips to make sure your hard work and talent don’t go unnoticed.

Standing out at work at a glance

To stand out in your career and stay ahead of the game, you have to take a proactive approach. It requires hard work, open communication, the right mentor and a willingness to learn.

Learn more about how you can stand out in every stage of your career below.

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Five tips to make help you stand out at work

1. Stand out from the crowd

Achieving this comes down to two things:

First, you have to understand the commercials. No matter what sector you’re working in, you need to understand the business and how your role can make an impact on the organisation. This understanding will definitely set you apart and will guarantee that your employer recognises you.

Secondly, it might sound obvious, but combining hard work with productivity is essential. Anyone can work for 12 hours a day, but if it’s not productive work then it will not go a long way. If you can demonstrate that you work with purpose, it will show your employer that you are committed to the role. You will also make them notice that you will go above and beyond to achieve your goals.

Running alongside these two things you should have a career plan. You should be able to communicate to your manager what you want your next steps to be, where your passions lie and what you think you can bring to the table.

2. Communicate with your manager (and not just the good stuff)

You need to have an open dialogue and talk regularly with your boss, and during this you need to be able to share the good, the bad and the ugly. For example, if you’re sharing something that went well but also contained a lesson for next time, then say so. Your manager will see you trying to make the best out of any situation, plus you’ve created an open forum to talk about your achievements.

Keep your employer informed about your journey and they will be more willing to listen. Additionally, they will also be open to giving you the praise that you deserve. If you’re open to talking about what’s not going well and what you’re learning from, then you demonstrate awareness that failure could also be the key to your success.

3. Find a mentor

Mentorship within a workplace can be invaluable. They can be more objective about your career beyond the organisation and help you see the bigger picture. Your manager wouldn’t always consider that as they see things more from an organisational perspective.

It is important to have someone you admire and look up to as a mentor; they may have more experience than you as well as a great network. But the main thing to look out for is that you see them as your trusted advisor. Your mentor should be able to give career advice and help along your career path. They can help you make the right decisions and sense-check things, but you can only achieve that if you genuinely trust them.

4. Discussing your career path

Meetings about your future career plans are always tough, especially earlier on in your professional journey. But having these regular conversations about your personal development is a major factor in moving up the career ladder.

Your boss may have already scheduled quarterly review meetings, but they are typically always dropping hints along the way too. You need to be able to demonstrate that you are proactively listening to this feedback, capturing pieces of information and putting it into action.

It’s about being clear and open outside of your formal development meetings. The chances are if you’re good, they’ll want to keep you, but they aren’t mind readers! If they know what you want (and it ties in with how they want you to contribute) then they can help you through that journey.

Furthermore, be transparent about moving on. If you’re looking to leave your current role and your job search is getting to a point where it is becoming noticeable, then you should have an honest conversation with your manager. Letting them know that you’re no longer happy in the position isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes your openness can turn into a new opportunity for you, either within a new team or by amending your current remit.

5. Continuous learning keeps you ahead of the game

You should always keep yourself and your profile up to date, whether it’s on your social media or just a case of updating your CV with new skills and projects.

Step one of course is to take full ownership and accountability of everything you are working on and ensure your contribution is meaningful. But then you need to go the extra mile and keep your profile updated as you go, otherwise, you can’t demonstrate this ownership in the future. The key is to be objective and transparent throughout your career and take your learnings as improvement and progression.

You can be really open as you do this – a lot of people use their social presence to write about activities and learn from their own careers. It makes great content as everyone can relate to a story about learning. The more you can absorb and then apply, the more your employer will have a connection to relate back to your hard work and ensure it doesn’t go unnoticed.

What you need to remember about standing out at work

Standing out in your career is about getting the recognition you deserve and the opportunities to progress. Sometimes you might find yourself working hard but not moving up the career ladder at the pace you had hoped. Apply the above steps to your situation and you’ll start seeing a shift soon.

Explore our career advice section to find more handy guides for every stage of your career.