If you had more career confidence what would you do differently?

• Apply for more challenging jobs

• Seek promotion

• Seek more responsibility

• Do more of what you enjoyed, less of what you find tedious

• Switch company

• Switch sector

• Seek information about new sectors/roles?

Top tips to becoming more career confident

1. Knock negative self-talk on the head

• Think about what you can and cannot change:

• What can I do NOW?

• Focus on the achievable

• Focus on here and now

• Jettison the past - it can be pretty unhelpful

2. Test the truth - where's the evidence?

"Getting into PR is too competitive" - Says who? Find out how others did it. What did they do to make themselves attractive? It's about gaining knowledge.

3. Re-write the script - reframe. Turn the negative into the positive

"Taking a career break means I am out of date and so can’t return to my previous role and level."

FLIP IT

"I'm going to spend the next month familiarising myself with the latest PR practices and trends and book myself in for a returning to work programme with company X"

4. Three good things a day

Record three good things a day that happen to you and take time to acknowledge what they mean to you. At the end of each week, review all the positive events. How do they make you feel?

5. Find supporters

Struggling to big yourself up? Ask yourself how friends, a boss, family member would describe you. Think of yourself in the third person as this distances us from feeling we're bragging too much/not enough.

Let me help you work on your confidence to improve your career:

Email: helen.slingsby@careerbreakthrough.co.uk