Keep your resumes up to date once in every 6 months
I usually work with a lot of people who are just starting their careers. Most of the time they are lost and they don't have any big vision on the direction of their career. I understand it and I have also had similar feelings during my first few years and I had nobody to guide me back then. But today the only thing that I tell them is to review their resume once every 6 months and make sure it is updated with new learnings and new skills. That itself should do magic in our career progression.
Keep flowing like a river
During the early years of our careers, we have to pick the right thing that attracts us and keeps flowing like a river. With enough dedication, we have to do all the necessary hard work and keep going. There will be a time when we have to start thinking about our career change or whatever we are doing is what we are supposed to be doing. We we start having such questions in our mind, it can be the right time to think about a change. Becoming stagnant in one place is not a good thing to do.
Opportunities will find you
There are opportunities everywhere. Some people might worry if they would get another interesting job if they leave the current one and there is a comfort zone on top of it. People find it very hard to leave their comfort zone. If the job is good, it gives you enough learning, if it gives you your desired salary, then there is no harm in continuing in the same company. But if we doubt that we are on the right track or not, there is no harm in doing a check to find out if what we are doing is what we want to do and align accordingly.
There have been instances where people overthink and lose their good job to end up in a job that is not very great and they cannot even come back to their old job. That shouldn't be the case either. It is good to continue in our current job if we are satisfied with all the parameters of the job.
Skill is more important than years of experience
The reason why I keep saying that we have to keep our resumes up to date is because it is important to make sure that we are learning new skills and that we have those skills helping us grow up on the ladder. If we don't have a particular skill, it is good to learn that skill from an opportunity. But it is also a fact that not all skills are for everyone. We have to choose specific skills that are important for us and what we need the most.
Instead of focusing on the years of experience to grow up on the ladder, we have to focus on the skills that are required for a particular job. In the olden days, appraisals happened based on years of experience. But these days appraisals happen based on the skills we have and not based on the years of experience. The world is changing. Even freshers with some great skills are getting a nice paycheck.