Launching the Career of Your Dreams: How I Achieved My Dream Career Within 4 Years of College Graduation, Part 3

The following is a guest post from Bogey at Back Nine Finance. You can read part one of this series here and part two here.

Climbing the Ladder

Assuming you set your sights fairly high when picking out your dream career, it won’t be too long before you are itching to break free from the entry level position you obtained at your dream company and start moving toward that dream position. The question is - how do you begin your ascension more quickly than most? If you follow my previous advice about developing your professional image and becoming an outstanding communicator, you will be in a solid position to move up the ranks quickly. But merely being in position does not necessarily yield results, just as standing at the plate with a bat in your hands does not mean you will hit a home run. You have to swing the bat.

Pursuing a Promotion

If you’ve been involved in corporate America for very long at all, you know that promotions don’t always just get handed to the most deserving person (rarely?). Sure, it helps to have all the skills needed to perform the new job, and it helps to already be performing very well in your current position. But even that might not be enough. I recommend the following actions to put yourself in the best position:

• As early as you can in your career, let your boss know about your dream job aspirations, and see if he/she will help you lay out a plan to get there.
• If your boss is not receptive, or perhaps feels threatened by this type of conversation, actively seek out a mentor in your company who can help you develop your career plan.
• If your workload in your entry level job is light enough, seek out opportunities to begin taking on extra responsibilities, ideally those responsibilities that are handled by the very next position on the ladder.
• When an opportunity for promotion presents itself, be the first to volunteer to fill the void. In banking it is very common for loan officers to jump ship for another bank. When things like this happen, or perhaps the promotion of someone else creates the void you want to fill, simply walk into the boss’s office and volunteer yourself for the job. At this point in time, it is key to not focus on yourself and your personal career progression. Just let the boss know that you understand the company is in a tough position, and you want to help out any way you can. It is not about you – it is about the company.

This same advice can also be applied to simply seek out new responsibilities that you want, even if you are not pursuing a full blown promotion. Whenever an opportunity arises – someone leaves the company, somebody gets promoted, a restructuring, whatever the case might be – that is the perfect time to ask for the responsibilities that you have been coveting. An employer loves nothing more than having people volunteer to fill needs just as quickly as the needs appear. Just remember to document your new responsibilities and the results you are able to achieve for the company, as you will certainly want this to be a part of the discussion when it comes time for your annual review/raise discussion.

A Note about Being Patient

It is likely that you will encounter several “opportunities for promotion” before you are successful in earning that next step in your career, especially if you work for a very large company with plenty of internal candidates. Don’t become discouraged if your boss declines the first few times you ask to fill a void left by a departing or promoted coworker. It is just like anything else in life, if at first you don’t succeed – keep trying. The boss will likely develop a great deal of respect for you over time if you keep stepping up and volunteering when the need arises. I went through this process three times before finally having success and receiving the promotion I wanted.

One side effect of asking three times for a promotion was that each time my boss rejected me, he decided to give me a small slice of extra responsibility related to the job I wanted. This gave me an opportunity to begin proving myself in small ways, and set me up for eventual success. You may want the whole pie, but sometimes settling for a single slice will eventually yield the desired result.

Dealing with Recruiters

There will come a time in your career that the opportunities outside your company will be more attractive than the opportunities available inside your company. Dealing with recruiters, or headhunters as they are often called, can be a beneficial ways to grow your career. Having had a fair amount of interaction with recruiters in my rather brief professional career thus far, let me share some things that I have learned.

• As soon as you make contact with a recruiter, or if you are contacted out of the blue by a recruiter, be very specific about what types of opportunities you are looking for. Otherwise, they will call you every time something comes up that they think will even remotely interest you.
• Attempt to set some boundaries with the recruiter early, making specific mention of what method of contact is appropriate (personal email or cell phone work best) and what time of day works best to talk (preferably a time when you will not be in the office).
• If you do not have a sincere interest in the job being discussed, let that be known up front. It is not a good idea to use your recruiter contact merely as a source of interviews to “test the market”. Don’t go after an opportunity they refer to you unless you are genuinely interested.
• Take everything a recruiter says with a grain of salt. They don’t make money unless they get you (or someone else) placed into a new job. They will do a lot of selling on behalf of the company. Make sure you do your own homework, and look out for your own best interests.
• One major benefit of working with recruiters is that they typically will have detailed compensation information available early in the process. They are typically paid a percentage based upon the starting salary you receive, so it is in their best interest to be sure you are paid as well as possible. Use this to your advantage.

As you become well known in your field, calls from recruiters will become more and more frequent (although these types of calls have been rare the past few years). Even if you are not interested in the position they are looking to fill, always be cordial and chat with them for awhile if you have the time. They are a very valuable resource when it comes to keeping a pulse on the job market in your field. Plus, things change very quickly, and you might be the one getting in contact with them much sooner than you think (a company I once worked for sold to a large competitor just 7 months after I began working there – and I had absolutely no interest in working for the acquiring company. Plans can change in a hurry).

Knowing what to do is Easy - Execution is the Hard Part

I hope that after reading my series of posts that you have picked up at least one thing that will help you have a more successful career. Most likely, a great deal of the advice I shared is stuff you have heard before – “that’s easy”, you might think. And you’re right, it is easy. But the hard part is actually executing day in and day out to achieve the desired result. We all know the steps to lose weight, or the steps to save more money, but carrying out these “easy” steps on a consistent basis is where most people fail. It only takes one minor slip up, one call that goes unreturned, to derail your career or cause you to miss a career changing opportunity. Learn to “block and tackle” each and every day, do the little things all the time, and you will be well on your way to the career of your dreams.

Comments

[TR]

Very interesting points about recruiters. I didn't know they were that common.

[Walden]

I'm a recruiter (though not in banking) and I think most of those points are spot on. Of course there are shady people out there, but a good recruiter can be great resource. I know I fight hard for my candidates to get them their dream jobs and salaries, as long as they're A) qualified and B) polite and professional!

[Concojones]

Thanks for the interesting series. In principle this should all have been obvious to me, as I'm late twenties with a few years of corporate experience, but you made me look at a few things in a way I hadn't before, and put a name on things I couldn't quite put my finger on.

One question about today's post. What do you concretely suggest when you say we should use it to our advantage that recruiters have incentive to get you a good salary? Asking the recruiter for a salary range and tips on what the client finds important?

[Bogey]

@TR - recruiters are fairly common in the banking industry, and I have heard they are common in several other industries (Engineering). I am sure it is not that way across the board.

@Concojones - "What do you concretely suggest when you say we should use it to our advantage that recruiters have incentive to get you a good salary?"

I guess what I really mean there is make sure you question the recruiter about that salary range for the position, and push them for what the true upper end of the client's budget is. Certainly you will want to ask the recruiter what is most important to the clinet (they should tell you this without asking). Again, most recruiters get paid a percentage of the salary of the candidate who is hired, so the higher the salry, the more the recruiter gets paid. You and the recruiter should be on the same team with the goal of getting paid as much as possible (once it established that the job is a good fit, and you are a good fit for the job).

[Concojones]

@Bogey: thanks for confirming what I thought -- I just wanted to make sure I fully understood your very valuable tip :-)