How To Own Your Growth At Any Stage
You don't need a perfect plan to move forward. Whether you are reentering the workforce, switching careers, or taking your very first job, growth is already happening. With the right tools, you can own it.
How To Own Your Growth At Every Stage
Growth isn’t a straight line to the top. It also isn’t defined by job titles or degrees.
Growth begins the moment you decide to move forward.
If you’re working with a workforce development center to find your next step, growth might mean rebuilding your confidence or figuring out how to talk about everything you’ve learned outside of a traditional job. It might mean navigating a completely new direction. And no matter where you are in your journey, Hardly is here to help you take that next step.
Who Are The People Utilizing Workforce Development Centers?
- Recent High School Graduates
- Someone looking to pivot into a different industry
- Veterans readjusting to the job climate
- The ones who decided to forgo the college experience for real world experience
- Formerly incarcerated individuals
- Displaced workers
- Anyone rethinking what meaningful work looks like for them
- Parents getting back into the workforce after years
Everyone’s path is different, and that’s the point. Every experience teaches you something worth bringing to your next role.
The First Stage
This section is mostly for our high school graduates, but this advice applies to anyone without a degree looking further their careers without one.
Many of the most successful business men and women in the world don’t have a college degree. Their success didn’t come from a diploma. It came from the skills they built and the way they showed up.
Career success today depends far more on real-world experience than formal education. Every experience you have had has impacted you, whether that’s positively or negatively. It’s up to you to figure out how to channel the growth that each experience has sparked in you into your next steps.
Working in retail or at your local diner has value. It means you know how to work with people, even in difficult situations. If you had a side hustle in high school, it shows entrepreneurship and the ability to take risks responsibly. Volunteering at your local nursing home shows compassion, willingness to give back to the community, and most importantly, dedication.
These experiences matter and important to build true character alongside your foundation. You’ve already built the skills you need. Now it’s time to make sure employers see them.
Hardly works hand-in-hand with workforce development centers. Our tools, like our resume builder, help you tell your story clearly and professionally. If your experience doesn’t look traditional, that’s okay. Tell us where you’ve been, and we’ll help you present it in the best way possible.
Reentering The Workforce
Coming back to work after time away can feel overwhelming. Whether you’ve been raising a family, serving in the military, or navigating a major life change, reentering the workforce requires courage and support.
For some, it’s been years since they’ve had to update a resume or apply for a job. For others, like formerly incarcerated individuals, the gap in employment might feel like a wall. And for veterans, the transition into civilian life can be jarring.
You’ve developed highly valuable skills that aren’t always written in the language employers expect to see. These types of skills could never have been gained by someone in academia. That’s your advantage. You have lived a different life, and have grown skills that are necessary for our society.
If you’ve kept people safe, followed detailed protocols, or learned how to make fast decisions in unpredictable environments, you already have what so many employers are looking for. Adaptability. Leadership. Attention to detail. Teamwork.
Can you work well in a high-pressure environment? The question doesn’t even need to be asked with certain jobs under your belt.
The key is helping employers recognize those strengths. That is what Hardly does best. Our resume and cover letter builders help you translate your story into a format employers understand. And this time, you don’t have to spend hours staring at a blank screen.
Pivoting To A New Industry
The job search is grueling, especially when you’re trying to pivot into a new field without a traditional background.
It’s a time filled with uncertainty.
You apply to dozens of jobs, rewrite your resume over and over, tailor your cover letters and still hear nothing back. Eventually, it starts to feel personal. But it’s not.
Rejections left and right are NOT a commentary on the value you can bring to the table. Forbes states that 70% of people are finding it harder to get a job this year than in years past. You’re not imagining things. The market is tough.
Hardly lets you update your resume as you grow, build custom cover letters for every job you apply to, and track all your applications in one place. We help you stay organized and focused so your effort doesn’t go to waste. Our tools make your growth visible to employers.
Don’t make it harder than it needs to be, right?
Action Steps
Here’s a few steps to get you started:
1. Use Hardly’s resume builder to tell your story clearly and confidently.
A well-crafted resume is your first impression. Use our tools to highlight your strengths, your experiences, and your goals in a way that speaks to employers.
2. Track your applications with the job tracker.
Staying organized during your job search helps you stay focused. Hardly’s job tracker lets you see where you have applied, follow up with confidence, and celebrate each small win.
3. Set one new growth goal each week.
Small goals lead to big changes. Whether it is updating one section of your resume, learning a new digital tool, or attending a workshop, consistent progress builds momentum.
4. Keep showing up.
Growth is not about having everything figured out. It is about taking one step at a time, no matter what stage you are in.
Hardly makes those steps easier. We are here to help you stay on track and own your growth with clarity and purpose.
Growth Looks Different on Everyone
Here’s a fun fact about me: I’m a perfectionist at heart. However, being perfect is not what growth is about. We’re all running the same race but from different places. Your next step will look different from mine. The most important thing to keep in mind is that we’re both moving forward.
Feeling sad? Take a step forward. Feeling tired? Take another step forward.
Each step forward facilitates more growth and more character.
You have to own each step.
Hardly has your back every step of the way.