Joel Chery’s Guide for Professional Development

Joel Chery, who started his business career in Worcester, Massachusetts, shares his tips for professional development

Regardless of whether you are looking to be better at what you do, advance your career, or become a stronger leader, there are many things that you can do to continually improve your professional development.

Respectfully, career and professional development is entirely about you and what you need, what you want, what your goals are and so on.

Making the decision to take control of your own career path is the best way to arm yourself with the tools needed to clearly demonstrate what you are capable of and what you have to offer.

Dedicated and experienced professional Joel Chery shares his insights on professional growth. Here are a few tips that Joel Chery denotes will help you take control of your continual professional development:

1. Research a list of core competencies or required skill sets: Core competencies are those qualities that describe the knowledge, abilities, or skills needed to be successful in your chosen or desired role. Carefully review the ones associated with your role and determine which you need to improve or acquire in order to grow. Having this information will help you strategize and plan learning and development opportunities.

2. Try job shadowing: If you aren’t entirely certain which roles or advancement opportunities are of interest to you, you might consider job shadowing before investing too heavily in professional development courses. Job shadowing is an easy (and free) way to learn about the different types of roles that exist in your company.

3. Seek out a mentor: After you’ve determined which skills you need to improve, or what knowledge you need to acquire, look for someone who already has them and ask them to be your mentor. Having a formal (or informal) mentor provides great benefit and can often open doors to growth potential and networking opportunities.

4. Look for monthly learning programs: Joel Chery explains that it is likely that you will be able to find local groups or online learning opportunities that focus on everything from general professional and leadership development to more niche topics.

5. Join an association: Obtaining a professional membership or joining an association is often an inexpensive way to gain access to industry insights and educational opportunities. Joel Chery began using this tactic when he was starting his career in Worcester. Most associations offer affordable (or free) access to events, workshops, conferences, webinars, journals, self-paced learning, and more.

Joel Chery was part of the Worcester Young Businessmen’s Association

6. Attend a conference or event: Seek out external learning and development opportunities. This can be done by investigating the specific skills or training you are hoping to achieve and looking online to find events or conferences that focus on these topics. Take into account the cost of the event and what you will gain from it. Some employers offer reimbursements for professional development courses if the training will benefit the company in some way.

7. Think outside the box: There are opportunities for professional development everywhere. You might consider volunteering somewhere to develop skills and increase networking potential. Or, you could subscribe to podcasts, join a Peer2Peer group or even join a committee.

Joel Chery’s Final Thoughts

If you take the necessary time to work on each of these steps, you will position yourself for success. Joel Chery strongly believes that each of us must make conscious efforts to improve our professional development, he states that it is essential we continue to move forward and progress as a society.