You’ve been working hard at your job, but your salary hasn’t changed in three years, and it seems like everyone around you is more successful than you are. We tell you how to change the situation in this article.
What do you mean by career advancement? Is it a promotion?
Yes, but not only that. Career growth is a leap in experience and knowledge, the transition to a higher level of responsibility. Promotions or pay raises are important parts of career advancement, an indicator that you are becoming a more valuable employee.
The ideal is when your competencies, position, and salary grow at the same time. The main thing is to understand that you need to pursue your career, not meekly wait to be noticed. Of course, you cannot force the manager to promote you here and now. But you can influence this decision and accelerate it.
I want a promotion, but it is still not there. What am I doing wrong?
Intention alone is not enough. You need to find out exactly what you’re missing for the next step – preferably from multiple sources.
Talk to your supervisor. Your boss may not realize that you’re not happy in your current position. Share your opinion about it and ask what you need to do to get a higher position. For example, you’ve been a marketer for a long time and would like to head up your company’s marketing department. You may need to learn business negotiation skills or learn how to develop a strategy to do so.
Ask for advice from successful colleagues. People above you on the career ladder can share their experiences. Communicate and find out exactly what led them to grow professionally. Ask for recommendations for books, programs, and other materials that have helped them in their work. Ask how they handled challenging and interesting cases.
Do an audit of your skills. Objectively assess yourself as a candidate for promotion – compare your competencies with those required in the new position. Think about what you are already doing well, and what you need to work on. It is difficult to be objective about yourself, but some techniques can help you do this.
What techniques can help you objectively evaluate yourself as a professional?
For example, the subtraction technique. It helps to set up an HR-agency-style test of yourself and understand how well you fit the desired position. Here’s what to do.
- Find the job of your dreams. Or better yet, find a few.
- Write down in the column the requirements for candidates for those jobs.
- In the adjacent column, write down your actual skills – as honestly as possible, you’re doing it for yourself.
- Compare the columns and cross out the skills you have in the first one. The remaining ones are what you need to master to reach the next career level.
Now you know exactly what you are missing, and you can start working on the missing competencies.
Or maybe the problem is not with me, but with the company?
Yes, it does happen. Maybe the company doesn’t need the position you want right now or doesn’t have the budget to increase your salary. It all depends on the company you work for, your place in the market, consumer confidence, and adjusted gross income definition. If you have been working well for a long time, but every conversation with your boss about a raise is put off for a long time, it is unlikely that anything will change.
Give the last arguments: tell about your contribution to the company’s development in the last six months, draw the attention of superiors to the average market salary of specialists in your position.
If your efforts go unnoticed, and your earnings are lower than those of people at your level at other companies, you may be able to change jobs.
I know for a fact that there are career opportunities at my company. The only thing is that they don’t see my growth, so what can I do?
Demonstrate it more clearly. Do more than your colleagues are doing.
Read professional literature, go to courses and training, participate in the life of your industry, attend conferences, webinars, and lectures. Everything you learn, put it into practice: offer ideas for improving the company’s work processes and be prepared to take responsibility for their implementation. Such efforts will not go unnoticed.
I do not have time and energy to attend courses and lectures. Can I get a promotion without it?
You don’t have to be torn between a dozen training and courses. There are comprehensive programs where you get a squeeze out of the most valuable information to advance in your field. For example, an MBA (Master of Business Administration).
An MBA course teaches management, marketing, finance, project and personnel management, solving business cases from real companies, developing the ability to think strategically, use available resources effectively and assess risks. This program gives you the skills to work in an executive position, which means the opportunity for vertical career advancement. The new knowledge will increase not only your position but also your salary.
Conclusion
Career growth is one of the brightest manifestations of the professional development of the individual. Everyone encounters it in one way or another. And although career growth most often correlates with work in a particular organization, it is present in any activity. It is the development and achievement of new levels in every type of work. A person strives for development.
