As we approach the end of the calendar year, it's the time of year when many employees are evaluated against their goals and considered for merit increases and potentially promotions. Have you positioned yourself to be one of the ones to be promoted this year? Let's take a look.
The first question you have to ask yourself is whether you are ready for a promotion. Early in your career, this primarily means mastering your current role and having "paid your dues" in terms of time. Later in your career, you will need to continue to exhibit mastery of your current role, but also begin to show signs of leadership and eventually to show that you are capable of the next role. Review Episode 017 - The Corporate Ladder for more details on this progression.
If you've mastered your current role and are starting to take on projects with a larger scope and a bigger impact to the company, you may feel like you've done everything you need to do to be promoted. If your promotion is solely within the control of your manager, this may even be enough. As I mentioned in Episode 17, being in a specific level (junior, mid-level, or senior) may have multiple titles such as "Analyst 1" and "Analyst 2". These "in-level" types of promotion are often solely at the discretion of your manager. If that is the case, just by doing "more" you can often justify the promotion. But, when the promotion is across levels, the decisions are often considered by a larger committee.
Moving between levels becomes a harder task. Think of the levels as a pyramid. There is one CEO. There are a handful of Chief "something" Officers that report to the CEO. There are slightly more Presidents and Vice-Presidents. And so forth and so on. Transitioning between levels often means competing against all of the other candidates. And the higher the level, there are more candidates competing for fewer roles. You may even need someone ahead of you to leave a role -- either through promotion or leaving the company -- to even have an opportunity for a promotion.
So, when the next promotion is one that moves you from one tier to another, the next question you have to ask yourself is whether you've done enough to be promoted. Beyond just mastering your role and taking on larger projects, you need help your manager make a strong case. When there are ten people competing for two promotions, you need to be the "obvious" choice.
What does it mean to do "enough" to be promoted? How can you help your manager make a strong case? I think there are six things to consider.
Are you visible? Have you engaged with other teams in your organization in such a way that the other members of the committee know who you are? Do you attend and participate in corporate events and work on your networking? If your name is brought up to the committee, you don't want them saying "Who?" you want them saying "Oh! Them!". Having multiple champions in the room increase the chances that you receive the promotion over the other candidates.
