5 steps to help you advance in your career
by
Ben Smith
Each week I speak with high-performing individuals who are seeking
career advice. These people are almost always ambitious and talented,
but they're often doing a disservice to their career by not thinking
far enough ahead. They focus on what the next logical step in their
career might be, but they don't look any further ahead than that next
step.
Focusing only on the next step on the job ladder often results in
developing a deep but narrow skill set that's unique to a specific
class of jobs. That might be fine if you want to stay within that
type of job, but if you're looking to go further, the narrow skill
set that you're developing might not be sufficient to take you to
your ultimate objective.
The key to getting ahead in your career is to look past your next
job. Here's a five-step strategy for thinking ahead that you can use in
your own career or to help your employees advance in their careers.
Step 1: Think a Job Ahead Whenever
you find yourself ready to change jobs or advance to the next level
in your career, take time to think about what you want the next job
after that one to be. I like to call the job two steps ahead of where
you are right now "the job that you really want."
The reason to think another step ahead is because your next
opportunity must equip you with the skills and experience you need
for the subsequent job—the one you really want. Ask yourself "What
gaps in my current skills and experience do I need to fill before I
can get the job I really want?" Your next job should help you fill
those gaps. For example, if you're a frontline manager of
administrators, it's unlikely that you'd be able to step directly
into the position of director of operations. You need to think about
the skills that you're lacking for the director of operations
position, then make sure your next job takes you closer to your goal.
Step 2: Find Mentors Identify people
who currently have the job you really want or a comparable one and
ask them for a few minutes of career mentoring. Send each person your
resume in advance and explain your intentions.
During the meeting, be up-front. Explain that you'd eventually like
to have a job similar to the one that your mentor has. Summarize your
experience and your current role. Then, ask what would prevent you
from getting your mentor's job if you were to interview today to
succeed him or her.
After talking with a few people, determine the common themes that
arose across those discussions. You should be able to identify a set
of skills and achievements that you'll need to qualify for the job
you really want. Building on the earlier example, you might find, for
instance, that the people who currently hold director of operations
and network operations manager positions aren't confident that you
have the experience necessary to manage a seven-figure budget, would
prefer a candidate who has a stronger business background, and
believe that you'll need to show that you've successfully managed
people of multiple disciplines rather than just administrators.
By seeking out mentors who hold positions similar to the one you want
to eventually have, you'll expand your professional network more
than you would have been able to by networking only with your
co-workers and current manager. You might very well meet people who
know of opportunities that could help you further your career. It's
also important to stay in touch with those mentors as you progress in
your career. At some point in the future, those people might have a
need for someone with your skill set or experience. Making yourself
known and leaving a positive impression on the people you meet with
can pay huge dividends in the future.
Step 3: Obtain Needed Skills and experience
When you have a clear idea of the types of skills and experience you'll
need in order to get the job you really want, map those skills and
that experience to a job that will help you obtain them. You might
find that there's more than one job between you and the job you
really want, but you should be able to plan your ascension
strategically.
Continuing with our earlier example of moving from being a frontline
manager of administrators to a leadership position in the IT
department, you realize that as a front- line manager, you've never
been involved in forecasting and managing a budget. Your management
experience might also be limited to overseeing a few people who
report directly to you as the functional expert in your group. To
become qualified for the leadership position you want, you'll need to
develop budgeting skills and broaden your management experience.
To gain experience in managing a budget, you might want to pursue a
position in which budget management is a core responsibility.
Alternatively, you could ask your current manager to give you a role in
the budgeting process. To build your business background, you might
enroll in a certificate program in finance or organizational management
at a local university or community college. To broaden your management
experience, you might consider looking for a position that expands
your role beyond just the area in which you're recognized as a technical
expert. For example, you might go after a job as the manager of a line
of business (LOB) application team that includes developers as well as
administrators. Such a position gives you a chance to demonstrate that
you can be successful in other areas and can adapt to new situations.
Put them all together, and these actions constitute your plan of attack
for achieving the skills and experience you need.
Step 4: track and Quantify Your Achievements
As you learn new skills and broaden your experience, be results-driven
and quantify your accomplishments. As you progress in your career,
your accomplishments and results become more important than how you
spent your time. For instance, consider the difference in these two
resume bullet points:
- Managed budget for LOB application team
- Grew LOB application user base by 50 percent while reducing per-user costs by 16 percent
The first statement simply describes how you spent your time; the
second recounts what you actually accomplished. Both points might
describe you, but the first is much more effective and impressive
than the second.
Step 5: Focus on Your Strengths
Often, I find that otherwise well-qualified individuals disqualify
themselves from a job after reading the job description and seeing a
requirement or two that they can't fulfill. For example, a job
description for the position of director of operations might state
that applicants must have an MBA or experience with a specific
software package, neither of which you possess. But you shouldn't
assume that you'd never be considered a viable candidate for that job.
Most job descriptions are boilerplate templates that might—or might
not—apply exactly to the job you're interested in. Instead of being
discouraged by deficits in your experience, think about the assets
that you'll bring to the position: the skills, experience, and
accomplishments that uniquely qualify you for the role. Focus on
those assets and play them up.
It's Who You Know and What You Know I
constantly see people make huge strides in their careers simply by
thinking ahead, identifying the job they really want, and planning
their path to that position. Along the way, they might debate the
cliche"It isn't what you know, but who you know." As is so often the
case, the cliche is wrong: It's both who you know and what you know.
Follow this five-step strategy, and you'll come out ahead in both
areas. And don't forget, as you take that next step up the career
ladder, to advance your thinking and your planning another step into
the future.
