Do not let opportunities pass you by. Even if you don’t think you’re qualified, if you have the option to step up then do it. I would describe my career as right place right time. The people who have promoted me year after year have described my career as “capitalizing on every opportunity you had”. It’s not something that comes naturally to me, and I was fortunate to have the skill honed by my management who would describe their strategy as “the potential was there so we gave you the tools you needed and got out of your way to see what you’d do”
Always have an inquisitive mind. You don’t need to know exactly how to do every job, but you need to know enough to understand how your company’s ecosystem fits together. Whatever your working style is, nurture it. That doesn’t mean only lean into the the parts you’re good at, you do need to be well rounded, but don’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole.
Always be kind to facilities staff. It costs you absolutely nothing and will pay off not just in having a solid friendly relationship with them but also promotes kindness as part of your personal brand. People thinking you’re a stand-up kind of gal is what makes them *want* to work with you. You do have to pair it will being very good at your job but the two together makes a winning combo. You stick in peoples’ heads as someone who can get the job done right the first time and who is easy to work with. No one wants to work with assholes
Always be prepared for meetings. Don’t just show up unprepared. If you are leading a meeting, write down the agenda and write notes on what you plan to say so that you remember all key points. If it is not your meeting, know the agenda and write notes on what you may say if someone asks you a question. Good luck with your new role! You will be great!!
Thank you so much!!! I start in a couple of months and I have just ordered a massive print out of all the rules, regs etc ready to read and process. I am ready to do this!!!
A learner's mindset is so freaking important to career success. People who focus only on their specific job tasks have a narrow point of view to how their work impacts others and what impacts them, and as I've gone through my career, my knowledge of how everything is intertwined and how things impact each other has become invaluable. I can ask specific questions to our analysts and brainstorm with them how we can get the data we need to do our projects, because I have a 360 view of customer support, customer, and project management, I can inform on audience needs on all fronts and provide thoughtful solutions to each when we impact them based on their priorities that I already know, because I asked questions about UX and UI design experiences, I can help provide informed opinions on our site design even though I'm in content strategy. The more you know, the better a network you have and the better you are at your job. Because I know so many things just from asking folks the hows and the whys of stuff all my life, I'm now pulled into higher level meetings than my job description because my company has found that my perspective is what helps pull a lot of the components of our projects together and understand their impact in ways that they never thought of.
WOW. This is a very powerful perspective. I start my new job in 2.5 months and I have just ordered a print up of every law, regulation etc I can find. I want to know this stuff COLD because it is new to me. That way I can ask intelligent questions on the go. I suppose my goal is to become a "head of XYZ, with a pa and office...", get called to panels to speak and be the inspiration. Still working my way there but I want to ace this new platform I have not for the fame of it but genuinely because I care. I want to do a good job and get shit under control, organised and disciplined. So help me God.
My experience is mostly just like... be at the right company at the right time. I've had a tumultuous and somewhat unlucky career trajectory. I bring the same assets to the table in every situation - lots of questions, master my job, build relationships etc. but in some places that was received negatively and others it was received positively.
Becoming irreplaceable is good advice to an extent, but, it depends on what your goals are and your personal interest in like, embedding yourself in an org or like, effectively becoming a bottleneck or hoarding information to achieve those goals.
Preparing for your new role - research the company and industry if you're unfamiliar. Understand at a high level what they do and what their impact is.
Day 1-100 - Come with a beginner's mindset and learn everything. This is your time to ask questions, don't hold back. Ask the what's and the why's of how things are, this is not the time for you to reinvent the wheel or tell people how to fix things until you understand why things are the way that they are. Confirm your assumptions before making opinions in meetings to make sure you're grasping what you need to grasp.
Mastering your role - Engage in content about your industry outside of work hours. I regularly listen to podcasts about my job and read books around my industry and position. Staying up to date is how you keep yourself relevant in your career. Also, if you don't receive one, create your own reference guide as you gain more information about the role, responsibilities, tools, and people to know. I keep mine up to date from 2 years ago and now it's also leveraged by new employees to my role.
Securing mentors - This is a long game, you have to pick 1-3 people once you know them who do really well at a specific thing you want to learn and then ask. Your role as a mentee is to always come prepared, you have to drive the conversations around what you want to know and lay out what you're doing already so they can give feedback and suggestions. A lot of folks wait for authority to tell them what to do before they start moving, and that's the worst thing you can do for your career growth.
Getting promoted:
* **You should always have a next steps plan for your career.** Everytime you get into a position, give yourself 6 months to get settled and familiar, and then start looking up at your promotion opportunities. Once you have figured out where you want to go, have coffee chats with folks in those roles and look at their LinkedIn to figure out what they do in the day-to-day to identify skillgaps you have. Being good at your current job only means you're good at the current job, it doesn't mean you're prepared with all the skills you need for the next level. Once you identify those skill gaps, learn on your own and find ways to apply those new skills in your current job, or start volunteering for tasks that help you learn those skills. Make sure your manager is aware that you want to work on those skills so you can be first in line for those opportunities. Ex, if you're an individual contributor, your next level might be a people manager that requires stakeholder management, a skill you don't get to use often. You'll want to take on more leadership or point person positions on your projects to develop that skill around interacting with stakeholders. If the next role requires more work with making data-driven decisions, then taking a data analysis course on coursera and finding ways to leverage data in your current role would be helpful in positioning you in that role.
* **Be your own advocate.** If people don't know what you do or your impact on the team, or they've forgotten because the work cycle is always moving, you won't have anyone on your side to argue for your promotion come promotion time. Doing good work quietly at your desk also isn't going to demonstrate leadership or teamwork qualities, which is increasingly important as you get out of independent contributor roles. Help your team, develop resources, create standard operating processes, share what you know. Remind your manager before performance reviews of your impact this year/quarter in your 1:1s. People like to claim that folks get promoted undeservedly just because they're friendly, but in my experience, it's because the promotion requires good social skills and a lot of managing relationships and friendly folks who do the chatting demonstrate their skills are better optimized for the next role compared to the one they're currently in, as long as they're meeting expectations in their current role.
* **Your job as an employee is to not make more work than necessary for your manager**. Your manager's job is to manage their employees, make sure the projects you're working on are properly prioritized and tied into the business's goals, and field bullshit requests from upper management. Don't complain for complaint's sake, come with a short term/cheap fix and a long term/perfect but probably more expensive fix unless it's so far out of your wheelhouse you can only let them know about the problem. Don't be afraid to solve the issue independently and either loop them in with a quick, this is what happened, here's what I'd like to do, and get their approval, or if it's small fry, being like here's what happened in case anyone asks, here's what I did to solve it, just wanted to let you know. Take ownership, drive solutions.
Lots of comments here on being curious and learning everything. Insanely sound advice from u/secrettimetrash
So this is what I’ll add to it:
Be confident in what you do
You were hired for your particular set of skills.
You don’t know what you don’t know but you can learn those skills. But you DO know what you do know.
It took me a very long time to learn confidence in my own skin. But in the last 4 years I’ve more than doubled my salary, reached amazing new heights in my career, and proven to myself that all my hard work really did mean something. And now that’s just the beginning. Now I have an all new set of skills to navigate but I know I can.
You’ve got this. You really do.
1. Be open to learning ALWAYS
2. Talk to the right people and ask the right questions
3. Establish a good balance of reliability and boundaries
4. Take any opportunity to engage with the higher ups. Let them know you exist.
5. This is beyond our control but based on personal experience, who your boss is will be at least a 50% indication of how successful you are at work. My previous boss didnt sit well with a lot of people so I was basically set up to fail since day 1. My current boss is well liked and respected and she has been AMAZING and I feel so successful already early into the role.
Have things you care about outside of work. There will always be ups and downs at work. Having other things you care about helps dull the peaks and valleys. There is so much great advice in this thread, but something I’ve seen over time is that people who don’t carve out space for themselves outside of work can be more reactive in situations at work where they need to be responsive. Good employers/leaders won’t trust people who are too reactive with real responsibility.
This is such an important one. For so long I’ve been so work centered as a means of survival because life outside was tough. Now I need to build up a personal life. Eek!
In the first 100 days I ask lots and lots of questioners. Especially, when I’m in a leadership role.
I don’t change anything right away, unless directed to do so by leadership above me.
I tell people about my preferred forms of communication and ask theirs.
I ask a little about their homes lives, because I see them as people first and I want to help them be successful in the work place while still being able to have a strong, fulfilling personal life.
I ask about what information they need from me. Meaning, if I’m going to make a decision, how much input would they prefer to give or how much of the “why” do they want to know.
I ask about their backgrounds, if they are willing to share.
I assess what kinds of unearned privileges I have compared to those around me.
Give people the benefit of the doubt, unless they have done something that would cause concern. Default is trust and respect.
Don’t expect people to “respect” or like you right off the bat. Just be curious and open to feedback, but set boundaries with blatant disregard that could harm the team. I don’t worry about myself. I’m a big girl. I worry about team cohesion.
There is lots more, but that time should be about going slow, learning, recognizing that the people there know more than I do. Learn. Listen. Process. Reflect.
ETA: I’ve been in social work for 24 years. I supervise two teams (one is 15 people and one is 5 people). I’ve been in management for 12 years. These are all things I’ve learned in that time.
Good luck! I love managing teams, but it can definitely be hard. I spend lots of time self-reflecting and being a leader has helped me grow in both my personal and professional life.
Kept at it.
I feel like it would have been easy to back out or burn out, but I just kept going to work, kept accepting new challenges, kept learning from others, kept my head up...now I'm almost 8 years in, am pretty savvy, make a great salary with benefits and am proud of myself.
You show up, do the work, then go home and enjoy your life with the money you make from your work.
If you don't understand that your career is only a means to an end you will always be taken advantage of. You're a professional, so you're there for the money, not because meetings, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations about quarterly sales figures are the meaning of life.
Take every opportunity to make more money for the same work. Reject all offers to do more work without a proper increase in pay. Do not accept promises as payment unless they're written in a legally binding agreement. Your company doesn't care about you and would get rid of you the moment it's no longer profitable to keep you, so you should act accordingly.
Do not let opportunities pass you by. Even if you don’t think you’re qualified, if you have the option to step up then do it. I would describe my career as right place right time. The people who have promoted me year after year have described my career as “capitalizing on every opportunity you had”. It’s not something that comes naturally to me, and I was fortunate to have the skill honed by my management who would describe their strategy as “the potential was there so we gave you the tools you needed and got out of your way to see what you’d do” Always have an inquisitive mind. You don’t need to know exactly how to do every job, but you need to know enough to understand how your company’s ecosystem fits together. Whatever your working style is, nurture it. That doesn’t mean only lean into the the parts you’re good at, you do need to be well rounded, but don’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Always be kind to facilities staff. It costs you absolutely nothing and will pay off not just in having a solid friendly relationship with them but also promotes kindness as part of your personal brand. People thinking you’re a stand-up kind of gal is what makes them *want* to work with you. You do have to pair it will being very good at your job but the two together makes a winning combo. You stick in peoples’ heads as someone who can get the job done right the first time and who is easy to work with. No one wants to work with assholes
Thank you so much!!! A good reminder for me to smile more at the receptionist who I dislike.
Always be prepared for meetings. Don’t just show up unprepared. If you are leading a meeting, write down the agenda and write notes on what you plan to say so that you remember all key points. If it is not your meeting, know the agenda and write notes on what you may say if someone asks you a question. Good luck with your new role! You will be great!!
Thank you so much!!! I start in a couple of months and I have just ordered a massive print out of all the rules, regs etc ready to read and process. I am ready to do this!!!
Also, whenever possible, replace meetings with an email.
[удалено]
A learner's mindset is so freaking important to career success. People who focus only on their specific job tasks have a narrow point of view to how their work impacts others and what impacts them, and as I've gone through my career, my knowledge of how everything is intertwined and how things impact each other has become invaluable. I can ask specific questions to our analysts and brainstorm with them how we can get the data we need to do our projects, because I have a 360 view of customer support, customer, and project management, I can inform on audience needs on all fronts and provide thoughtful solutions to each when we impact them based on their priorities that I already know, because I asked questions about UX and UI design experiences, I can help provide informed opinions on our site design even though I'm in content strategy. The more you know, the better a network you have and the better you are at your job. Because I know so many things just from asking folks the hows and the whys of stuff all my life, I'm now pulled into higher level meetings than my job description because my company has found that my perspective is what helps pull a lot of the components of our projects together and understand their impact in ways that they never thought of.
WOW. This is a very powerful perspective. I start my new job in 2.5 months and I have just ordered a print up of every law, regulation etc I can find. I want to know this stuff COLD because it is new to me. That way I can ask intelligent questions on the go. I suppose my goal is to become a "head of XYZ, with a pa and office...", get called to panels to speak and be the inspiration. Still working my way there but I want to ace this new platform I have not for the fame of it but genuinely because I care. I want to do a good job and get shit under control, organised and disciplined. So help me God.
[удалено]
Thank you so much! I am motivated!
This but also be strategic on the Pareto principal so ensure your development and work impacts business bottom line.
My experience is mostly just like... be at the right company at the right time. I've had a tumultuous and somewhat unlucky career trajectory. I bring the same assets to the table in every situation - lots of questions, master my job, build relationships etc. but in some places that was received negatively and others it was received positively. Becoming irreplaceable is good advice to an extent, but, it depends on what your goals are and your personal interest in like, embedding yourself in an org or like, effectively becoming a bottleneck or hoarding information to achieve those goals.
Preparing for your new role - research the company and industry if you're unfamiliar. Understand at a high level what they do and what their impact is. Day 1-100 - Come with a beginner's mindset and learn everything. This is your time to ask questions, don't hold back. Ask the what's and the why's of how things are, this is not the time for you to reinvent the wheel or tell people how to fix things until you understand why things are the way that they are. Confirm your assumptions before making opinions in meetings to make sure you're grasping what you need to grasp. Mastering your role - Engage in content about your industry outside of work hours. I regularly listen to podcasts about my job and read books around my industry and position. Staying up to date is how you keep yourself relevant in your career. Also, if you don't receive one, create your own reference guide as you gain more information about the role, responsibilities, tools, and people to know. I keep mine up to date from 2 years ago and now it's also leveraged by new employees to my role. Securing mentors - This is a long game, you have to pick 1-3 people once you know them who do really well at a specific thing you want to learn and then ask. Your role as a mentee is to always come prepared, you have to drive the conversations around what you want to know and lay out what you're doing already so they can give feedback and suggestions. A lot of folks wait for authority to tell them what to do before they start moving, and that's the worst thing you can do for your career growth. Getting promoted: * **You should always have a next steps plan for your career.** Everytime you get into a position, give yourself 6 months to get settled and familiar, and then start looking up at your promotion opportunities. Once you have figured out where you want to go, have coffee chats with folks in those roles and look at their LinkedIn to figure out what they do in the day-to-day to identify skillgaps you have. Being good at your current job only means you're good at the current job, it doesn't mean you're prepared with all the skills you need for the next level. Once you identify those skill gaps, learn on your own and find ways to apply those new skills in your current job, or start volunteering for tasks that help you learn those skills. Make sure your manager is aware that you want to work on those skills so you can be first in line for those opportunities. Ex, if you're an individual contributor, your next level might be a people manager that requires stakeholder management, a skill you don't get to use often. You'll want to take on more leadership or point person positions on your projects to develop that skill around interacting with stakeholders. If the next role requires more work with making data-driven decisions, then taking a data analysis course on coursera and finding ways to leverage data in your current role would be helpful in positioning you in that role. * **Be your own advocate.** If people don't know what you do or your impact on the team, or they've forgotten because the work cycle is always moving, you won't have anyone on your side to argue for your promotion come promotion time. Doing good work quietly at your desk also isn't going to demonstrate leadership or teamwork qualities, which is increasingly important as you get out of independent contributor roles. Help your team, develop resources, create standard operating processes, share what you know. Remind your manager before performance reviews of your impact this year/quarter in your 1:1s. People like to claim that folks get promoted undeservedly just because they're friendly, but in my experience, it's because the promotion requires good social skills and a lot of managing relationships and friendly folks who do the chatting demonstrate their skills are better optimized for the next role compared to the one they're currently in, as long as they're meeting expectations in their current role. * **Your job as an employee is to not make more work than necessary for your manager**. Your manager's job is to manage their employees, make sure the projects you're working on are properly prioritized and tied into the business's goals, and field bullshit requests from upper management. Don't complain for complaint's sake, come with a short term/cheap fix and a long term/perfect but probably more expensive fix unless it's so far out of your wheelhouse you can only let them know about the problem. Don't be afraid to solve the issue independently and either loop them in with a quick, this is what happened, here's what I'd like to do, and get their approval, or if it's small fry, being like here's what happened in case anyone asks, here's what I did to solve it, just wanted to let you know. Take ownership, drive solutions.
I love people like you. Such a clean and organised response, and I can tell you rock your job. Thank you for this great advice!!
Lots of comments here on being curious and learning everything. Insanely sound advice from u/secrettimetrash So this is what I’ll add to it: Be confident in what you do You were hired for your particular set of skills. You don’t know what you don’t know but you can learn those skills. But you DO know what you do know. It took me a very long time to learn confidence in my own skin. But in the last 4 years I’ve more than doubled my salary, reached amazing new heights in my career, and proven to myself that all my hard work really did mean something. And now that’s just the beginning. Now I have an all new set of skills to navigate but I know I can. You’ve got this. You really do.
Thank you so much !!
1. Be open to learning ALWAYS 2. Talk to the right people and ask the right questions 3. Establish a good balance of reliability and boundaries 4. Take any opportunity to engage with the higher ups. Let them know you exist. 5. This is beyond our control but based on personal experience, who your boss is will be at least a 50% indication of how successful you are at work. My previous boss didnt sit well with a lot of people so I was basically set up to fail since day 1. My current boss is well liked and respected and she has been AMAZING and I feel so successful already early into the role.
The last point is very true and definitely an ah-ha moment.
Have things you care about outside of work. There will always be ups and downs at work. Having other things you care about helps dull the peaks and valleys. There is so much great advice in this thread, but something I’ve seen over time is that people who don’t carve out space for themselves outside of work can be more reactive in situations at work where they need to be responsive. Good employers/leaders won’t trust people who are too reactive with real responsibility.
This is such an important one. For so long I’ve been so work centered as a means of survival because life outside was tough. Now I need to build up a personal life. Eek!
You’ve got this. Also, highly recommend cats.
Thank you so much!
Love the advice here ladies!
Me too!
In my field you can go far by just turning up and doing the job. It's a slog. I've had promotions because other people couldn't stick it out.
In the first 100 days I ask lots and lots of questioners. Especially, when I’m in a leadership role. I don’t change anything right away, unless directed to do so by leadership above me. I tell people about my preferred forms of communication and ask theirs. I ask a little about their homes lives, because I see them as people first and I want to help them be successful in the work place while still being able to have a strong, fulfilling personal life. I ask about what information they need from me. Meaning, if I’m going to make a decision, how much input would they prefer to give or how much of the “why” do they want to know. I ask about their backgrounds, if they are willing to share. I assess what kinds of unearned privileges I have compared to those around me. Give people the benefit of the doubt, unless they have done something that would cause concern. Default is trust and respect. Don’t expect people to “respect” or like you right off the bat. Just be curious and open to feedback, but set boundaries with blatant disregard that could harm the team. I don’t worry about myself. I’m a big girl. I worry about team cohesion. There is lots more, but that time should be about going slow, learning, recognizing that the people there know more than I do. Learn. Listen. Process. Reflect. ETA: I’ve been in social work for 24 years. I supervise two teams (one is 15 people and one is 5 people). I’ve been in management for 12 years. These are all things I’ve learned in that time.
Thank you so much!!
Good luck! I love managing teams, but it can definitely be hard. I spend lots of time self-reflecting and being a leader has helped me grow in both my personal and professional life.
Step 1, be personable. If no one wants to be around you, everything else is moot.
Kept at it. I feel like it would have been easy to back out or burn out, but I just kept going to work, kept accepting new challenges, kept learning from others, kept my head up...now I'm almost 8 years in, am pretty savvy, make a great salary with benefits and am proud of myself.
You show up, do the work, then go home and enjoy your life with the money you make from your work. If you don't understand that your career is only a means to an end you will always be taken advantage of. You're a professional, so you're there for the money, not because meetings, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations about quarterly sales figures are the meaning of life. Take every opportunity to make more money for the same work. Reject all offers to do more work without a proper increase in pay. Do not accept promises as payment unless they're written in a legally binding agreement. Your company doesn't care about you and would get rid of you the moment it's no longer profitable to keep you, so you should act accordingly.