Help with Your Job
Chapter 15: Advancing in Your Job
This post excerpts Help with Your Job, available in paperback and digital as part of the Help with Your Series. Investigate the series at help-with-your.com.
Arlen had just about had it. After nearly a decade at the same job, he was tired of seeing others hired after him advance past him into supervisory and management roles. Arlen was frankly jealous of their greater opportunity, respect, standing, and income. He wondered whether he would ever get his turn. He had put in his time, even if grudgingly and with frequent absences. He had done what the company had asked of him, even if no more than that. Arlen couldn’t figure out what he’d done wrong to get passed over repeatedly. He finally concluded that maybe he just wasn’t cut out for anything other than the modest work he was doing, which was fine with him except for the lost income that could have come with a promotion.
Advancement
Feeling stuck in a job isn’t a good feeling. It’s fine to do the same job year after year, even decade after decade, if the job does well for you and you do well for the job on the measures the prior chapters describe. But if, instead, you’re feeling stuck in the job, then something’s amiss. You have expectations or needs that your job is not meeting, or the job has expectations and needs that you’re not meeting. Life can be a lot about growing in maturity, skill, and responsibility. The same is true for jobs where we can hold the expectation that we are somehow advancing along a path. Your need or expectation for advancement may be particularly acute when others in your workplace are advancing past you. No one advancing is one thing. Others advancing when you’re not advancing is another thing. You are quite reasonable to expect opportunities for growth and advancement when others have those opportunities but you seem not to have them.
Opportunity
If you are questioning your ability and opportunity to advance in your current job, then look around your workplace for advancement opportunities. Make a frank assessment whether your employer offers opportunities for advancement. Some workforces are so small or peculiar that they don’t offer any hierarchy for advancement or other substantial opportunity for a change in roles to reflect growth in job skills and judgment. That’s one of the potential drawbacks of working for a small firm or company, that it may not provide advancement opportunities. If the only supervisors or managers are the owner’s adult children, then you may not have formal opportunities for promotion, although you can still improve your job knowledge and skills. You may also be able to expand your job responsibilities and be more creative and productive in ways that your employer will reward you with greater compensation, additional benefits, or greater job security, even if not formal promotion.
Expression
If, on the other hand, you are questioning your ability and opportunity to advance in your current job when you are sure that advancement opportunities exist for others working around you, then you may need to express your interest in advancement. Sometimes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Employees who consistently request additional training and assignments, express interest in advancement, and apply for promotion, as part of a well-thought-out effort to advance in their jobs, tend to find greater opportunities for advancement than employees who sit back and wait for their employer’s call. Consider what you can do and with whom you can speak, including not only your supervisor and unit manager but also your company’s personnel department, to mark yourself as a candidate interested in internal promotion. Many employers prefer to develop their management candidates from within, with appropriate training and a challenging mix of assignments. Express your interest not to every one of your co-workers but instead confidentially and strategically to those managers who can provide you with the development opportunities.
Credentials
Once you identify opportunities for advancement within your employing company, investigate the credentials, including the knowledge, skill, education, license or certification, and experience, that you’ll need for promotion to those positions. Determine the cost, timetable, and steps to take to obtain those credentials. Assess whether qualifying for those positions is something you can reasonably achieve. Let your unit’s manager or the personnel department know that you are implementing your plan to gain the required credentials, while requesting the company’s financial or other assistance. Whether the company helps you or not, keep your unit’s manager and the personnel department informed of your progress, especially when you obtain the final credential. Even if the company does not have a position open at the time, into which to promote you, the company may consider creating such a position or giving you other opportunities to build your experience using your new credentials.
Application
Apply within your company only for advancement into positions for which you qualify by credentials. If you lack a degree, license, certification, or other key credential for an open position, inform the personnel department or unit manager of your interest in applying for the position, but for your missing credential. The company may be able to waive the credential requirement, keep the position open while you obtain the credential, or modify the position for you to fill without the credential, if the company sufficiently values your candidacy. Otherwise, do not apply for positions for which you clearly lack the qualifications or credentials. Doing so shows your disregard for the company’s standards and procedures. Speak with your supervisor, the unit manager, or personnel department if you have questions over your qualifications for a posted position. If you know that your employer already has a favored candidate for an open position for which you also have the qualifications, consider applying anyway. You may learn something in the application process, or your employer may learn something about you that makes you the preferred candidate.
Record
Your record of work for your employer is generally your greatest credential for internal advancement within the company. Whatever assurances you wish to make about your ability to do the next job likely means far less in your employer’s evaluation than your actual performance in your current job. Thus, beyond expressing your interest in advancement and applying for posted positions for which you qualify, your best way to promote your advancement is generally to do as well as you possibly can with the work that you already have before you, so that you build a record and reputation within the company for outstanding work. Generally, the more productive, effective, skilled, and efficient workers are the ones whom employers promote. Employers do so in part to retain those workers rather than lose them to competitor companies. Employers also advance skilled workers to ensure that their supervisors, managers, and directors have the greatest skill to lead the workforce. Take on special assignments, exhibit your skill and dedication, and assemble a strong work record, to promote your advancement opportunities.
Volunteering
Your willingness to take on additional duties may be your greatest attribute when pursuing advancement. Many employees have little interest in advancement. They’re happy with the work they have. When you express interest in doing more work or more-challenging work, you mark yourself as a potential candidate for promotion. One of the clearest ways to show that interest is to volunteer for extra duties, especially leadership, creative, or hardship duties. Don’t volunteer to do something for your employer for which you are unqualified. Doing something poorly as a volunteer won’t help your work reputation. But don’t hesitate to take on extra work that stretches your skill, especially if the supervisor granting you that assignment recognizes that you may need extra guidance and support. That’s how you learn new skills, by extending your current skills into adjacent areas where you lack experience. Volunteer opportunities may not only prove your willingness to take on extra work but also prove your capability of performing it. Volunteer work can also significantly expand your skill and your network and support within the company.
Recognition
Building a good record at work can be a natural prerequisite for promotion. But sometimes, you don’t get credit for the good work that you do. If you find that your co-workers are dishonestly claiming credit for your good work, then identify, obtain, and preserve the evidence that you, not the co-worker making the false claim, were the responsible party. Then, take up the issue with your supervisor or your company’s personnel department, sharing your concern and evidence. But only do so with substantial special work or creative work of special value. Don’t go running after credit for routine work that all employees perform. Team players generally share credit generously for team successes. Be gracious about recognizing others, while avoiding trying to take individual credit for team success. If a supervisor, manager, or mentor within the company seems willing, bring your special work to their attention. Let them be the judge of whether you deserve special credit and recognition. Self-promotion can backfire. Instead, give others the grounds to promote you.
Discrimination
Your employer has every right and reason to be selective in whom it advances for promotion, based on the knowledge, skill, experience, and dedication of the candidates. Yet your employer has no right to discriminate unlawfully based on protected characteristics like your age, sex, race, ethnicity, national origin, military status, veterans status, or disability. Ordinarily, employers will be able to articulate some lawful reason for an employee’s consistent passover for promotion, whether, for example, a lack of knowledge, skill, experience, or dedication to work. They ordinarily have to give a lawful reason, though, only if your passover appears to be unlawfully discriminatory in its pattern or direct evidence exists of an unlawfully discriminatory animus toward you. If you don’t know why your employer refuses to promote you, when you have applied and appear to have equal or superior qualifications to candidates whom your employer did promote, then ask your employer for an explanation. If your employer offers no sound explanation, and your passover fits an unlawfully discriminatory pattern, then consult a qualified attorney about your legal rights and claims. Don’t cry foul and blame unlawful discrimination without evidence, but investigate the possibility with attorney help if things look to you that way.
