SoFi Blog

To get ahead in your career, technical expertise is a must-have.  But many experts agree that it’s a mastery of the less tangible qualities – things like leadership, communication and interpersonal skills – that differentiates the great from the good.  You can have advanced degrees, experience and IQ in spades, but if you don’t develop your EQ and other non-technical competencies, your career prospects will likely be limited.

Holiday downtime is a great opportunity to start planning your career strategy for the new year.  In a recent guest post I wrote for The Daily Muse, I shared one of my favorite tips for people who want to be on an executive career path: build a “career advisory board.”  To learn more about it and how to create your own board, read on . . .

Every year around this time, I notice a slowdown in the number of phone calls I get from job candidates.  Some of it has to do with people taking time to relax and enjoy the holidays, but I think it’s also due to the myth that December is a bad month to find a new job.  Many candidates simply take a whole month off from their search because they assume that employers are doing the same on their end.

Congratulations – you’ve just landed your dream job!  It should be smooth sailing from here on out, right?

Of course, most of us know from experience that this isn’t usually the case.  Even the most happily employed person will encounter challenging work situations from time to time (a negative review, for example).  And if you want to grow in your chosen career, it requires a proactive approach.  The truth is, “career strategy” doesn’t end once you get the gig.  In some ways, it’s just getting started.

By Maury Denton, UVA, Darden MBA 2014 – SoFi Member since 2012

If someone were to ask me why I chose to finance my student loan with SoFi, my answer – in a word – would be “network.”