In Parts 1 and 2 of What Drives Career Advancement - Development of Skills or Development of Connections we saw the need to develop great job skills. Once you have become skillful in your particular line of work it is important that your skill be recognized. You might be really good at what you do but if your goal is to be promoted it is critical that your superiors are aware of how good you are.
One way to make them aware is to target your skills directly at the most important projects or goals in your organization. Notice the use of plurals here. It is unusual to be promoted after just one stellar performance. Most people who hold high ranking positions got there by cranking out a series of major wins over time.
I once observed a young engineer who used this approach to move quickly up the ranks. He joined our firm about 18 months after graduating college. He started out as an entry level Junior Engineer. In the first few months of the job he demonstrated an above average aptitude for his work. He devised some clever solutions to rather complex problems. He then leveraged his new reputation as an adept problem solver by requesting he be put on increasingly high profile assignments. With each new assignment he would continue to perform well and in so doing more and more people in the firm became aware of his talents.
He continued this pattern of parlaying each outstanding performance into a new, higher profile assignment and after about 1 1/2 years he was promoted to the position of Level 2 Engineer, becoming the youngest person in the entire division to hold that title.. This promotion also carried a significant pay raise.
Next he leveraged his new position and growing reputation to get assigned to a mission critical project with visibility all the way up to very senior management. As before, he did great work. This particular project was a joint effort between his group and another division within the company. The folks in this other division were very impressed with his work and word of his performance soon reached the head of that other division. Within only a few months of being promoted to Level 2 Engineer the head of that other division made our young friend an outstanding offer. He was given the chance to transfer to the new division, get another big raise and qualify for a cash bonus as well as options on the company stock. This new package represented an 80% increase in total pay over his initial starting salary just 2 years earlier. Not bad for a kid just a few years out of school.
This example is a perfect real life illustration of the Proverbs principle of one who is skilled in his work not serving before obscure men but rather serving before kings.
Please note the four take-aways from this story.
1) This young fellow had developed his skill to the point of expertise.
2) He learned that strong problem solving ability was a highly valued trait in his superiors’ eyes so he worked hard in that area.
3) He applied his problem solving skill to increasingly visible and urgent projects.
4) He did not wait around for these projects to land in his lap. He aggressively lobbied for them and pointed to his past performance as the reason why he should get them.
If career advancement is your objective, try consistently applying this technique to your every day work. I think you will be pleased with the result.
Stumble it!
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