By Christine

What would you do to further your career today?

We’ve previously written about promotions and gone through 4 tips that will help you pursue your next phase in career development. If you haven’t gone through them, you can read them here.

In this post, we go through another 4 tips that may not be as conventional, but equally effective in ensuring you develop your professional career. Read on!

#5: Get a mentor.

If possible, seek out someone senior in your company that’s willing to show you the ropes. You don’t need telling that having strong ties to seniority in a company works well when you’re after a promotion. You’ll gain someone friendly to go to for career advice, someone who’s willing to fight your corner in senior promotional discussions, or someone who would hire you into their own teams, or groom you as a successor for them. Win-win-wins all around.

#6: Demonstrate that you can perform in your new role.

Think about the role you’re trying to get promoted into. Are there any new responsibilities in that role that you currently don’t have? Develop skills that demonstrate that: for example, if your desired promoted role requires some managerial skills and you currently don’t manage anyone, try and push for an intern or temp to manage in your current role, even if it’s for a short time.

#7: Groom your successor.

This is an aspect that many people tend to miss. You need to think about the void that you’re leaving behind if you get promoted. For example, imagine you are the one person that can build kickass financial models for your firm. If you’re trying to get promoted, you may find that it may be more challenging simply because you’re TOO good at your current role. If you get promoted, who will perform your current responsibilities?

So make sure you can present a solution to your bosses by being able to suggest a reasonable replacement or transitional plan. This may include training a colleague in a particular programming skill, or involving more people in a particular project.

#8: Diversify your opportunities.

Getting promoted isn’t the only way to develop your career. You have at least 3 clear alternatives:

Look for other opportunities within and outside of your company. It could be that your team simply doesn’t have the scope to promote you. Looking at other teams, departments and even companies would be an alternative. Yes, getting promoted in your current team might seem the easiest and most trouble-free way to further your career. But growing your career needs a healthy amount of drive, and if it ain’t happening in your team, look elsewhere!
Observe, and seek to create new positions. In smaller companies, the increased flexibility in job descriptions mean that you can also seek to create new positions and teams. You can fain a lot by observing how the company is growing, and spotting areas where it would make sense to create a new role. Spotting new requirements and increasing your responsibilities will push your career forward quickly, even if your paycheck doesn’t see the benefits at first.
Create side income. I know someone in banking that runs a B2B business on the side, creating soundtracks for short films and advertisements. He works about 1.5 days a week running it. He is completely secure in his day job and more or less doesn’t give a shit if he gets promoted or not. Why? He has a counter-balance to his frustrations – even if he’s struggling to get promoted at his day job, his creativity, drive and competence speaks for itself through his flourishing side income.

You can read Part One of this series here, or alternatively look at our Career Insider chats for some career-specific advice:

Author: Zee Tan