Tag Archives: Promotions

Make your job search into a learning experience 

Posted on April 15, 2022 | Leave a comment

2 1/2 pounds of trail mix per boy each day for a total of 90 pounds. 3 packages of hamburger helper for one meal for 6 boys. Oatmeal every day for breakfast for 6 days on the trail. Coyotes, raccoons, elk and a 20 acre meadow of ripe blueberries. It was a great adventure. By the end the boys learned they had taken way too much trail mix and hamburger helper. They also stopped liking banana flavored oatmeal. They planned, saw, did and learned things they would never have known about without that 50 mile hike. Later most of the boys did 70 and 100 mile hikes. On the later hikes they carried less weight and had even more fun.

Job hunting

If you want to constantly move up you have to stop looking at your job search as an occasional sprint. It has to become a planned excursion. It may become a safari.

Job hunting does not get any easier at the next level up. When you get better at what you do, it takes longer. The number of jobs decreases and the number of good people looking for the great jobs increases as you move up. Moving laterally isn’t hard. Moving up is hard. Getting a promotion is tough. Beating the 20 other people who want to be raised to Executive Vice President or be the highest paid technician in the company is very hard. 

It takes one month of job searching for every $30,000 of salary in today’s market. That’s how hard it is to advance. That is how much harder it gets later.

If you start now and decide to LEARN while you search for a job, you’ll do better next time. You need to study and try different ideas. Find out what works for you and what flops. Everyone is different. There is no reason for you to do things exactly the same as someone else.

My boys started out with 2 mile, 10 mile and then 20 mile hikes. They got better, but kept learning. The 50 and 100 mile hikes were a lot of work, but not as painful as the 20 mile hikes because they had learned and prepared better. Your job searches may get longer, but they don’t have to be as difficult as your current one if you keep on learning.

Something to do today

Go to your job journal. List your employment dates so far. Also list your promotions. You will probably see a pattern. If the new jobs or promotions stopped, was it really your idea or did you just stop advancing? Write down how quickly you really can earn that next 3 raises, promotions or jobs. You may want to set up a personal progress program.

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Posted in Job Boards

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Choosing when to relocate

Posted on February 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

It was a drop in total pay, but for a $125,000 dollar base salary, my candidate moved to another state. Two years later the company was sold and he pocketed an additional half million in cash. That was a financially successful relocation. The opportunity had been even better than expected.

But they had to deal with finding a new house, moving the girls into a new school, finding a new church and new social group. The first 3 months were very painful. The financial reward was great, but they questioned the decision to move as they tried to settle in. They eventually found a school, neighborhood and social group that was even better than the one they left. At work and at home it was an improvement because there was opportunity for a positive change combined with strength and preparation.

One year he made $500,000 in base salary and commissions. The next year he moved again, to another company….for less money. He moved for opportunity.

What if the money is NOT that good?

Opportunity is what is important in considering whether to move or not. More money alone is not that great of a reason to uproot yourself. The opportunity to live near family or to get away from a disruptive family member is a good reason. It may be worth moving just to be where the economy is more vibrant or stable. Getting into a company with a technical or managerial career ladder that suits you is a great reason to relocate to another state. A lot of people move here to Harrisburg because it is a smaller town with shorter commutes, and there are a lot of outdoor activities 15 minutes away.

You need to figure out the opportunities that are most important for you and your family. Talk about it. For the right opportunity, those high school students may even want to move.  

When to delay a move

Running from a problem may be necessary. If possible, take a little while to fix the underlying cause first, then move. Otherwise you merely take your problems to a new location and they reappear like weeds in a garden.

That may mean admitting you need more training, a better attitude at work, better work habits or to build a stronger family. When you are on the road to fixing underlying problems, then a move can give you a clean slate to start over with. 

Relocate for opportunity. That means YOU need to be ready, really ready, to grow. 

Something to do today

This is a good time to talk to your family or a good friend about what is holding you back. Do you need to have more opportunities for work, your family, or both?

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Posted in Finding jobs

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Keep your job without getting promoted

Posted on November 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Not everyone wants to get promoted. I knew an accountant who was approaching retirement who had done nothing but the lowest level accounting positions since he’d gotten out of college. When I offered him a promotion, he laughed and said “I’ve been doing exactly what I wanted for the last 40 years. I don’t want a change.” 

Some businesses have an “up or out” style of promotion. Get passed up for a few promotions and you may find yourself out of a job.

How do you get respect and a chance to keep a job that people usually get promoted out of?

Wrong ways that keep you from getting that promotion

Keep dice in your drawer.  Whenever your boss asks for a decision, roll the dice.  Pull out a chart and run your finger down the rows.  Then give the correct answer, not the one from the chart.  That will keep you from getting promoted, even if it only LOOKS like you’re using the dice to find a solution.  Of course you may lose credibility with your boss, but not all plans are perfect.

That’s a terrible idea. Don’t do it. 

The right way to prevent getting promoted

You can keep from getting pushed out if you don’t want a promotion.  First of all, let your boss know you love your job and don’t want a promotion.  

Next, don’t get stuck in place.  You should become the company’s greatest mentor. You can be a mentor as a technician, manager, HR specialist or assembly line worker. Just help others with their careers. 

Keep an eye out for complainers and whiners.  Avoid them.  There is usually very little you can do for them.  Look for people who sincerely want to advance.  Find the diamonds in the rough.  These are people who put in extra work, take night classes and are always helping others.  Find the one or two shining examples in the workforce and help them advance.  

Often the biggest thing you can do is to recommend one of your diamonds for a project.  Then help them to see the critical path for the project and follow it.  Give them encouragement along the way.   Make sure they know where the levers of power are.  They need to know who really makes things happen in the company.

As a person who doesn’t want a promotion, you need to help the people blocked by your permanence.  Help them move up beside you or to hop over you.  If you get a reputation for developing leaders, you will never be laid off.  Good companies covet good leaders.

Something to do today

You should be developing leaders whether you want to stay where you are or not.  In your job journal write down the names of the top one or two candidates for promotion in your group.  Help them out.  Be a mentor even if you aren’t above them

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Posted in Career choice

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How to know your company might be in danger

Posted on September 1, 2021 | Leave a comment

Some signs of trouble in your company are easy to ignore. They aren’t obvious signs of trouble. They can even look like progress.

In the great Indian Ocean tsunami some people survived because they knew the signs of a tidal wave of disaster waiting to happen. They learned, “When the sea retreats far past the beach, run for the high ground. It will soon come roaring back.” It is a natural occurrence before a tsunami.

Job disasters have signs of impending doom like the tsunami causing water to retreat from the shore. Think about it. What happens before a car plant closes down entirely? Work is cut back. Minor layoffs occur. Sales are obviously dropping. Cars stay on dealer lots for longer and longer. Rebates and special incentives are used to sell cars. Managers, supervisors and foreman are laid off. Finally the plant closing is announced.

An old Thai proverb says, 

At high tide fish eat ants. At low tide ants eat fish.

A healthy company succeeds by doing effectively what a dying company struggles to do over and over without success. 

Signs of doom I have seen where I worked included: 

  • A new quality program annually 
  • No more flowers sent to funerals of workers and their family members 
  • Business travel is cut back 
  • On-the-job training is cut back to “just in time” training 
  • Payments for outside tuition is cut back 
  • Technology innovation specialists moved back into production jobs 
  • Promised bonuses cut back or not paid 
  • Refusal to let employees transfer to other areas in the company 
  • Relocation expense reimbursement eliminated 
  • Sudden personal interest in the workers by the company president and chairman. 
  • Empowerment training during declining markets. 
  • Not replacing people who quit. 
  • Reorganizing more and more often. 
  • Stock price dropping. 
  • Replacement of salespeople at a quick clip. 
  • A frenzy of competitor acquisitions.
  • A sudden focus on getting “good press” or being in trade publications.

When you see the signs of impending problems, you may still have years to prepare. Or you may have days. The important thing is to start preparing without being part of the problem. Take positive steps in your own sphere of influence.

When the water retreats from the shoreline, it may look like a great time to go out and pick up the fish left behind. When your boss is sacked, it may seem like the perfect time to get into management. And it may be true. But be careful and look for signs that a tsunami is coming to wash your whole company away.

Later I will talk about how businessmen in India cope with far worse problems than Americans can even begin to understand, and do it with a smile.

Something to do today

Draw a line down the middle of a sheet of paper. On the left side write signs of company strength, reasons for optimism. On the right put a list of troubling signs of decline. Now pick how you can help accentuate the positive or eliminate the negative. Not only will your actions help your company, they will insulate you from layoffs and prepare you for a new job if disaster strikes.

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Posted in management, Promotions, Quitting or Fired

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It’s easiest to become an expert in a NEW technology

Posted on August 25, 2021 | Leave a comment

If you focus on the innovations happening around you, it can change your career. When an idea, technology or procedure is new, it takes a week to become an expert. A year later it takes a year to become an expert.

Startup, Whiteboard, Room, Indoors, Adult, Office

I became a database expert in a week when Oracle 1.0 (yes, I’m that old) came out. I talked my boss into springing for $100 to get a copy. I parlayed that into becoming a DB2 guru by buying a book. One book. I became a data modeling expert because no one else had a clue what that was. One innovation led to another, and my bosses had no desire to stop me. All the industry magazines and experts were using the buzzwords I could implement. I was on the leading edge. I was riding the wave of innovation. Every career progression was caused by taking two weeks to prepare for an upcoming, essential, mystifying technology.

Do a little internal innovation and focus on using other’s ideas and new technology. It is always easier to become an expert when technology and techniques are new. What is new in your field?

Something to do today

Try it again. The greatest lunch topic you can talk about with your boss is, “What is the emerging world changing technology, technique or skill in our field?” Figure out what the buzzwords are that people are barely starting to define in your field.

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Posted in Career choice, Finding jobs, Interviews, Promotions, Resumes, talent, Training

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Use raising technology and new techniques to get a great job

Posted on August 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Fingerprint locks are used by tons of people on a daily basis, whether on computers or phones. People use them more often than the number or word locks because of convenience. They even have fingerprint locks for doors, and eventually I can see new locks like these being used more often than the everyday lock and key. The world changes a lot around us, and with that there are new ideas and new ways of life. 

Your job search should be like the world, always changing, always improving.

Every year thousands of people get great new jobs with massive pay raises because they have learned something new and exciting. I know average programmers who are earning $120,000 per year. They learned the latest technology and tools and have been riding the gravy train for 3 or 4 years. Accountants that can implement brand new systems are still worth their weight in gold. 

Adding a fingerprint lock helps sell thousands of new electronics to geeks like me. New technology, techniques, and skills can sell CEO’s and managers on your value.

What can you learn today? 

Something to do today

The greatest lunch topic you can talk about with your boss is, “What is the emerging world changing technology, technique or skill in our field?” Try it today.

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Posted in Finding jobs, Interviews, Promotions, Raises, Resumes, talent, Training

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How to be persistent with your job hunt

Posted on August 16, 2021 | Leave a comment

Kids can be a practically irresistible force. I have 10 children. Usually I can resist them. Not always. Sometimes they have to admit defeat, but with kids they don’t admit defeat till they have exhausted every avenue towards success. Here’s how they win.

  1. Be totally, irresistibly, and eternally committed to a world changing idea
  2. Jump up and down with enthusiasm
  3. “No” means not now
  4. “Not now” means try again in 5 minutes
  5. Laugh, smile and tickle your dad
  6. Run around and get all the other kids excited out of their minds
  7. Ask dad for help to figure out how to do it
  8. Cry if dad is not listening
  9. See if you can turn it into a school project
  10. Ask mom to talk to dad about it
  11. Bring a partially completed task to dad to be fixed
  12. Change your plans and try again in an hour
  13. A small explosion in the yard will get dad’s attention
  14. Make it a game

Kids win because they are too excited to accept defeat. They are willing to try every possible way around an obstacle. When I am the obstacle and they are really really determined, they know they can win.

Is there a job you really really want? Why not job hunt like a kid?

Something to do today

Take a pen and paper and translate each of those 14 things into something you can use for job hunting or working for a promotion in real life.

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Posted in Finding jobs, Interviews, Negotiating, Promotions, Resumes, talent

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How to survive a promotion that’s too high

Posted on June 28, 2021 | Leave a comment

Investment, Concept, Business, Finance A woman I know well was promoted to a level way above her comfort zone.  She had never failed in the past with her last position, but this new promotion was stressful and a big deal to her. One of her friends gave her this advice:

“Congratulations. 
Relax.
Cool it. 
Just do good work daily and before you know it, it will be a career.”

That is good advice any time you find yourself in a job, or interview for a job, that is way beyond where you expected to be.

Something To Do Today

Do your best every day, and you will quickly grow into the position.

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Posted in Attitude, Promotions, Raises

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Give up and go elsewhere when things are good

Posted on July 30, 2013 | Leave a comment

(Before you lynch me, read tomorrow’s column about giving up when times are bad.)

Most revolutions happen as things are getting better.  That happened in the Marxist revolutions and the revolts against the Communists.  It happened in the American revolution.  Things were getting better and people rebelled.

People seriously think of quitting their jobs as things get better.  As life gets worse they are afraid to change.  They want more stability, not more change. When life is bad, they tend to stay where they are. It’s easier. When life is getting better is when they think of change.

In reality, it really is time to change when life is easy and the economy or your company is soaring.  That is when people start slacking.  You are most likely to get noticed when you are the new guy on the block with something to prove.

In your current job push hard. If you aren’t getting raises and promotions, ask for them.  If not now, when? But start looking.  If you are pulling ahead as a superstar, others outside your company may be even more interested than those who know you well.

It is probably time to get a new job even if you are getting raises and promotions.  Career advancement, pay raises and opportunities usually come more quickly to those willing to change jobs in good times.  There is an immediate raise upon taking the new job.  There are also faster raises for the first 3 years.

Yes, it is a fact.  People who change jobs get raises and promotions faster for a few years.  It may be that there is no history to judge against, only current need and performance. It is likely that you are “irreplaceable” at the position you have had for 5 years so they don’t want to promote you or give you a new opportunity.  Whatever the reason, raises and promotions come faster for the first 3 years with a company.  Someone already there and doing the same job will NOT get the same pay raises, promotions and opportunities you get by coming in fresh.

Another reason to leave when life is good is that when life is good, people are hiring.  It is much easier to get into that company or job you always wanted. There is money to pay for your eager attitude.  It is easier to find a job when you are employed than when you are laid off.

Life is good now for 90% of Americans.  Think about changing.  Position yourself for change even if you don’t make a jump to another company.  When the economy eventually turns ugly for your company, those who have been making minimal progress will be laid off

Something to do today

Really assess where you are.  Are you coasting?  Have you relaxed?

Then start pushing hard in your current job.  Set a personal goal and meet it. Get ahead now while others coast.

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Coming up

Give up and go elsewhere when things are bad

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Posted in Economy, Finding jobs, Quitting or Fired, Uncategorized

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How to get a great job at your biggest competitor

Posted on December 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

Jason has had 3 promotions in 2 years.  His pay has gone up 50%.  His attitude is a delight.  If there is a tough job, he’ll rally the team and get the job done.  Jason not only gets the chance to fix disasters, he fixes the problems behind the disasters.  No one has ever done that before.  He is having a huge impact. He seems to whistle a magic tune that improves attitudes and gets unbelievable results.

Jason also just quit.  He took a new job that pays a little less than he earns now.

Two things happened.  First, Jason realized his boss would always be a loose cannon and Jason would always get to clean up. Second, with a boss like that it was obvious the company would never go out of business, but it would never get much bigger either.

The best part is that all the things he got done looked great when he applied for a job.  He applied at their strongest competitor.  Jason is going to a company that is really growing.  It is a company with a plan and a history of doing things right the first time.

Wherever you are, whistle a happy tune.  Put an accomplishment list together that will carry you into a better job, and if necessary, get that job in a better company.

Something to do today

Just for the record, all the stories I tell are true, but the names are changed.

Document your accomplishments for each week.  Give a copy to your boss in a format he can use for his reports.  That way you can be sure he knows why you are the best employee he has.

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Later:              Hustle while you wait

The $5 call girl

Where to fish

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Quitting or Fired, References

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