LinkedIn, the professional network with more than 161 million members, this morning revealed 67% of UK professionals believe that the ideal amount of time spent daily on progressing your career should be in excess of 30 minutes. The finding is based on research by IPSOS Mori, involving 3,200 working professionals globally.
But personal branding expert William Arrunda advocates that by spending just nine minutes a day employees will be able to maintain a healthy and successful career.
The public perception of 3.5+hours per week is a stark contrast to Arruda's recommendation of 45 minutes per week.
Other results reveal that - given an hour - 98% of emplouees would place equal importance in making the boss tea as spending time building their network or finessing their CV.
Other than the marketing profession, politicians were deemed to be the most effective networkers (18%), followed by stockbrokers (11%) and journalists (10%).
Also revealed was a gender divide - more men think the sexes are equally developing their careers, yet women are more likely to think than men spend more time developing their careers (50% women vs. 29% men) with 37% of the population think that men are better than women at networking, versus 24% believing women were better.
Arruda, who partnered with LinkedIn to identify the optimum amount of time to spend daily on what he has termed 'continuous career management. Fitting nine minutes of career management into your daily schedule is all it takes without adding stress or pressure. Nine minutes is the optimum amount of time recommended, because it also gives you complete focus, and educators to psychologists agree that the ability to focus one's attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one's goals.
"Relationships require care and so building and maintaining them is a major component of successful career management. These days, we live in a highly connected and technology driven world, so building your online network on LinkedIn, is a critical career management skill.
