Advancing Your Career Without Quitting Your Job!

A 2010 survey of nearly 15,000 professionals by the HR consulting firm of Towers Watson reveals a new trend in how employees prefer managing their careers. This new survey upends the previously held beliefs about how employees managed their careers, perhaps because of how the repeated cycles of uncertain economic times continue to now challenge us. This survey reveals that nearly 80% of those surveyed showed their preference to stay where they are rather than moving to another company to advance their career. Just a decade ago, just before the dotcom bubble burst, a similar survey provided exactly the opposite responses: people were ready to move to find new avenues to advance their careers.

Even though nearly 80% of employees continue to be unhappy in their jobs to some extent (and this has not changed in a long time!), this statistics from the 2010 survey is a new revelation of what most  have now come to realize: There is no greener grass! Any gains achieved by jumping from one employer to another are temporary at best with an added risk of getting laid-off if the situation were to change at the new place. People are also increasingly cautious about fitting into a new culture, starting afresh with a new seniority cycle, and about taking the risk of dealing with the unknown.

Now that staying at your current place of employment is the chosen option, what avenues do you have available to advance your career?

Plenty, actually!

One reason why people looked to bailing out of their companies to advance their career in the past was that they did not see ready opportunities at their own companies and were counting on their boss to come to them with an opportunity for advancing their career. Although it is your boss’ job to help you with your career, often the boss is worried about their own situation and is reluctant to push for someone’s promotion, unless it reflects poorly on their leadership not to do so. Bosses are also now taking less time and effort to focus on developing their employees’ needed areas of growth with specific ideas.

The best strategy now is to not rely on your boss to present you with new opportunities, but to uncover such opportunities from the vantage point you already have. The strategy to be used here is to build enough career momentum in your current job with aggressively seeking new assignments that, in a short time, help you increase your value contribution in your current job. If your contributed value exceeds what your role requires for you to do in your job, then you clearly stand out from the rest of the crowd. If that does not make your boss uncomfortable enough to seek some advancement or at least some recognition for you, then you are ripe for making a move to another job within the same company or even outside that company. If you are able to uncover new opportunities and conquer them right where you are, then your ability to generate value in your job becomes a key factor in how you apply yourself in your job and about your leadership. Demonstrating this leadership skill is even more important that showcasing your already recognized skills in your job.

So, acknowledging the recent preference for employees to continue to stay at their current employer, despite their desire to advance their careers, the following suggestions are presented to increase your marketability and your chances for career advancement:

1. Look at your most recent Employee Performance Review (EPR) and look at the suggested areas of development. Make a prioritized list of those areas and identify what opportunities exist within your own area of work to showcase your ability to take on new challenges and to demonstrate that you are developing well in the areas of concern. If you are not able to glean from what you see or know, talk to your boss and ask for guidance and volunteer for some task that will make your boss look good by working in an area already identified in your EPR. If you boss is too lazy to conduct a meaningful EPR please meet with your boss to explore this and find some actionable inputs. They would be too willing to help if you tell them that you are doing this to help them look good and to grow.
2. Keep doing your regular job well and keep making progress on the newly undertaken tasks. Keep your boss in the loop and keep communicating your progress, seeking guidance as needed. If you can “apprentice” in some other functional area find some avenues to engage yourself that way.
3. Be open to taking on new assignments that go beyond what your boss has identified and stay on track with improving your skills documented in your EPR.
4. Manage your LinkedIn Profile by updating your accomplishments and getting Recommendations from those who would benefit from your newly embraced responsibilities. Increase your connections on LinkedIn to reach out to your colleagues at competitors’ companies and other targets that you are interested in. Do this discreetly and on an ongoing basis. A sudden change in Profile, with a slew of Recommendations on LinkedIn can raise red flags to your boss.
5. Increase your visibility in your own company by taking on assignments that go beyond your activities in your job. Volunteer for a company event. Take an active role in the United Way campaign. Join your company’s Toastmaster’s group.
6. Get recognition by giving recognition: If someone has helped you in your ad hoc assignment generously acknowledge them by sending emails to their bosses and copying others in management.
7. Mentor someone: Find someone to mentor within your own group and find yourself a mentor. Do not use the mentor connection to advance your agenda, but to benefit from the mentor’s wisdom.
8. If the outside recruiters/hiring mangers query you as a result of your LinkedIn showcase, keep them interested by responding and inviting them to join your LinkedIn network. You become more desirable to them if you become a passive job seeker, not jumping on their first overture to lure you in!
9. Keep an open mind about how opportunities are shaping for you, both where you work and outside as a result of this strategy.

10.  If you get an offer from the outside that is attractive, talk to your boss and evaluate what options are available. You should keep yourself in the position of having the first right of refusal if you boss comes up with an offer that matches what is available outside as a result of your “campaign.”

Managing your career is not a spectator sport. You must take charge and be in the driver’s seat at all times in how you manage your own career!

Good Luck!