Recently I got a bunch of questions about career advancement and career management. This isn’t really an exact science since people are very different and have distinct goals in life, but there are a few rules of thumb that apply to nearly everyone. Here is what I tell my mentees and what worked for me.
1. Your career is yours only
Don’t wait for other people to help you or make you grow. The sole responsible for your career is you. Many people complain that their managers or their companies don’t help their careers grow, but the truth is, you have to take the lead and drive your career yourself, despite of your boss or your employer. If they help you, fine; but in case they don’t, don’t blame them and take control instead. Which brings us the second point…
2. Have a plan and act on it
If you don’t know where you want to get, then you have a problem. People who are successful know exactly where they want to be at any point of their career timeline. You can’t be good at everything, so having a plan help you focus on what will get you to the position you want at the timeframe you expect.
First, define where you want to be in the long term — very specifically: position and timeframe. Then, start connecting the points backwards until you get where you are now. If there are multiple paths to choose, include all of them as well. After doing this, you may start working on how you will get there.
When creating the plan, be realistic and honest with yourself — or, like Heidi Grant says in her book [1], be a “realistic optimist”. Optimist generates the motivation required for you to achieve your goals, but you need to be prepared to the journey ahead.
Assess your skills and enumerate what you need to improve/achieve in order to reach the next step. Always do this with your company’s own career path side-by-side. Your employer has its prerequisites for each position and you should be aware of that. “Focus on getting better, rather than being good” [1].
After having a plan, it is important that you act on it. Keep track of your progress and take appropriate action whenever applicable.
Discuss the plan with your mentor as he/she will help you set your expectation for each step.
3. Have a mentor
Here is where most people fall short. Mentoring is very common in large enterprises, yet most people don’t know how to use it as the power career-growing tool it is. When looking for a career mentor, think about a long-term relationship.
Like any long-term relationships, your mentor needs to be someone you identify yourself with, and vice-versa. The closer and more open this relationship is, the better. Choose someone who is at a position you want to be in the future to guide you through the torturous path to the top.
Your career mentor doesn’t necessarily needs to work at the same company as you. Sometimes this is preferable, as a fresh/outsider approach to problems may help you solve them faster and better. And, besides, you may always have an inside mentor to guide you through corporate politics, or a technical mentor to help you with technical skills.
You don’t need to be limited to one mentor only, but I advise you to have only one true career mentor and use a number of other relationships to help you at specific career moments. A good career mentor will know his/her limitations and point you to the right people whenever necessary, enhancing your network.
4. Take care of your network
This should be obvious, but some people fail to understand that we are social beings and we need a strong network of people in order to thrive. Networking is one of the most important aspects of career management. It is your contact network who will point you to the best opportunities, help you move around and offer you the best business deals. I started building my network in college and I cannot remember a single time when I got a good opportunity without leveraging my network.
Like any human relationship, you need to take care of your key contacts. Keep in touch online and/or in the physical world; go to lunch together, discuss business and random stuff, whatever. Don’t do this just for the sake of doing it and getting something back. People will look at you suspiciously if you just socialize when you need something in return.
In professional networking, you have to build your “social capital”. Each time you help someone, you gain some of it. The higher your social capital, the higher are the odds that someone will remember you when a great opportunity arises. So, help people whenever you can. In the worst case scenario, you became a better human being, which is good enough.
5. Be known
Sometimes I hear people complaining that it is impossible to nail that awesome Software Engineer job at Google; or that it is impossible to get promoted. In addition to the networking argument (it really helps a lot if you know someone inside), being known as an A-player in your field of expertise also gives you leverage. A lot of it.
Having worked on a true meritocracy environment — the open source software community — I know that the more good work you show to the right people, the more good opportunities you get. Even if your current employer doesn’t value what you are doing, if people outside are noticing, you will get good opportunities.
So don’t be locked inside a bubble. Use the internet to broadcast your personal brand: write a blog, tweet, be active in message boards, share interesting stuff you did on LinkedIn or Facebook, keep your online profiles updated. You will fare much better than the average if your resume is a Google search.
6. Have fun
We spend one third of our lives working. So, why not do something we enjoy? If you are not having fun, maybe it is time for a change.
You may have reached the planned position, but it didn’t meet your expectations. Or, sometimes, we are not advancing even though we done the planning/action part correctly.
For the first hypothesis, you need to redo your plan. Your mentor is invaluable if that happens. For the second case, it means that either:
- There is no room for growth in your current organization. This is very common at small companies and small organizations within large companies.
- Your current employer does not see you as valuable.
- You are failing at item 5 above.
Whatever is the cause, it is your duty to take appropriate action. If you hit options 1 or 2, you need to start planning your way out. This is when items 4 and 5 above come into action. Leverage your network and personal brand to get good opportunities. If you are failing at being known, you have to change.
Remember: your career is yours only and you have to drive it.
Recommended reading
- [1] – H. Grant Halvorson, “Nine Things Successful People Do Differently
“, Harvard Business Review Press, 2011.
- [2] – Various authors, “HBR Guide to Getting the Mentoring You Need
“, Harvard Business Review Press, 2014.
- [3] – D. Gowel, “The Power in a Link: Open Doors, Close Deals, and Change the Way You Do Business Using LinkedIn
“, John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2011.
- [4] – G. Laakmann McDowell, “The Google Resume: How to Prepare for a Career and Land a Job at Apple, Microsoft, Google, or any Top Tech Company
“, John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2011.
- [5] – M.D. Watkins, “The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, Updated and Expanded
“, Harvard Business Review Press, 2013.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn.