Some individuals progress in their careers more quickly than others do. Perhaps you’re a mental healthcare professional who is hoping to discover how to hit the fast track to success in your career. If so, consider the following 4 ways you might go about advancing your career:

1. Seek Out Mentorship

It’s possible for mental healthcare professionals to learn on their own by trial and error. However, that isn’t the quickest, easiest or most efficient way to acquire the knowledge you’ll need for excelling at your job.

Having an experienced mentor can help you to learn things you need to know much more quickly, reducing the need for time-consuming trial-and-error mistakes. The right mentor will rapidly increase your access to must-know information that can empower your career success.

2. Sharpen Your Interpersonal Skills

No matter which mental health career path you’re following, interpersonal skills are central to your career success. According to the career experts at the National Skills Commission, Australian employers routinely reject otherwise-qualified candidates if their communication skills are poor or if their people skills are perceived as being inadequate.

Improving your interpersonal skills is one of the most critical keys to getting a good job and keeping it. Beyond that, superior interpersonal skills can lead to many positive benefits in the workplace:

• You can learn how to speak in a manner that will encourage people to listen to what you have to say.
• You can learn to read other peoples’ facial expressions and decode their body language. This could help you in many ways; it will make it easier for you to navigate your relationships with both colleagues and the patients you’re entrusted to care for.
• You can discover ways to be more empathetic.

So if you’re hoping to advance your career, it’s definitely worth making an investment of effort in refining your interpersonal skills.

3. Visualise Your Future Success and the Path You Will Take to Achieve It

Visualisation isn’t just new-agey nonsense. There’s actual science suggesting that it’s a viable technique for achieving your desired outcomes. To maximise your own career success, one approach is to make an action plan and then visualise yourself following that plan and reaching your career goals.

4. Further Your Education

Lifelong learning is now a critical component of career success for any individual – but it’s especially important for any healthcare industry professionals to undertake. This is because research and technology are both increasing at a rate of speed that it’s hard to keep up with on your own. If you don’t want to be left behind, it’s essential to learn as much as you can from other knowledgeable professionals in your field.

If you haven’t pursued an advanced degree, you speak English proficiently and you hold at least a three-year Bachelor qualification, it could be worth considering the possibility of studying to obtain a Master of Mental Health degree. This type of degree program is suitable for people pursuing many different paths in the field of mental healthcare. Just a few examples include aspiring counsellors, social workers, government assessors, child protection officers and occupational therapists.

You’ll find that many of the best jobs in mental healthcare do require advanced study. Furthering your education is one of the most straightforward and viable ways to fast-track your mental healthcare career.

These aren’t the only ways to ensure career success, but they are 4 of the most reliable ways to advance your career and ensure your continued employability in the field.


Photo by Fa Barboza on Unsplash