What Is Career Confidence? (And How to Achieve It)
Building your confidence at work can help you advance in your career or change it (as well as benefit you in other areas of your life).
Join us as we explain what career confidence is, its benefits, then lay out the steps you can take towards feeling confident in your career.
What Is Career Confidence?
Career confidence isn’t quite the same as self-confidence. It refers to being assured that your career is right for you, it’s something you’re passionate about, and it aligns with your goals and values. Many things can influence career confidence, including:
- Your skills and experience
- How your colleagues and clients treat you
- Whether you feel fulfilled in your job
- How much passion you have for your work
Why Is Career Confidence Important?
Researchers have linked confidence and self-esteem at work to higher earnings and career success, which can help reduce stress, particularly when running your own business.
If you lack career confidence, you might doubt your abilities, which can lead to letting opportunities pass you by. For example, you might turn down an exciting project because you need more confidence to try something new.
Low career confidence might even prevent you from switching to a job that’s a better fit for you, making it harder to build confidence in yourself and your skills. Boosting your career confidence will help you make the most of any work opportunities that come your way.
How to Achieve Career Confidence
While confidence comes more naturally to some people than others, you can build and develop it. To improve your career confidence, you should:
Set Clear Goals
Pursuing a career without a plan is like setting off into the woods without a map. If your goals aren’t clear, reaching them will be harder, damaging your confidence. To avoid this, make sure any career goals you make are:
- Specific and complete with all the details you need to know
- Measurable so you can keep track of your progress
- Attainable to help keep you motivated
- Relevant so you can get to the place you want to be
- Time-bound so you know what needs doing when
Your goals can be flexible. If you keep in mind that your current plan isn’t the be-all and end-all, you’ll have more confidence to deal with any changes that come your way.
Learn How to Deal with Your Inner Critic
As the old saying goes, sometimes we’re our own worst critics. It’s a bit of a vicious cycle: Low career confidence results in a harsher inner voice, lowering your confidence even further. But there are ways to combat it. When your inner critic speaks up, try:
- Identifying the places, people, or activities that can trigger it
- Responding gently but firmly with evidence to the contrary
This is the worst document I’ve ever worked on… but I thought that last time, and the client loved it.
- Adding “yet” to adopt a more optimistic view
I’m no good at this… yet.
Remember, it’s better to acknowledge your inner critic than ignore it and risk slipping into the toxic positivity mindset.
Build Your Skills
On the more practical side, working on your skills will help you to silence that niggling voice that doubts your professional abilities. Proper training can also remove uncertainties about performing a particular skill or service. At the same time, a certificate or qualification can be physical evidence of your capabilities.
Focus on identifying any skill gaps you might have and skills you’d like to build further to advance your career or start a new one. Once you know what skills you want to work on, you can develop them by:
- Finding a mentor
- Studying resources, such as guides or training videos
- Taking an online training course
Knowadays Courses
If you wish to boost your career confidence by learning a new skill or developing an existing talent further, our Becoming A Proofreader and Becoming An Editor courses can help.
We’ll provide you with in-depth, comprehensive training on all aspects of editing, plus guaranteed work so you can test your skills and build your confidence with real editing projects. Sign up for your free lessons and take your first steps toward more career confidence.
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