Careers today are very different than they were 100 years ago, or even ten years ago. The internet almost takes geography out of the equation. You can apply for an internship in London if you are sitting in a small town somewhere in North Carolina. If you are based in Europe and looking to hire a bookkeeper, you could find the person in India. There have also been shifts in attitudes. The parents of baby boomers (Westerners born between around 1945 and 1962) expected a job for life, but later generations have experienced waves of downsizings.
Switching careers is more common – not only out of necessity as one job disappears, but also because people are living longer and retirement savings may be insufficient, so people extend their working lives. I’m a good case in point: I’ve switched careers, sectors and countries several times over the years, having gone from being a European general manager at Procter & Gamble based in Germany to writing this book, and have been a FTSE 100 executive board member, an entrepreneur in America, a global business services director and social enterprise CEO in between.
I’ve always learned things from previous positions I can apply in new roles. Equally, I can say with conviction that the principles and practices of good management – and bad – are very consistent across sectors, cultures and careers.
When you join an organisation you should always ask about career opportunities within it. Many organisations, including professional services firms and multinationals, will have set, transparent career paths and promotion levels – so make sure you ask this question before joining and before any job transition, so you know what it looks like. Smaller, growing firms also have career paths, although these are much less predictable. But whether you are in a large or small organisation, one common characteristic applies: you own your promotion opportunities.
The people who spend their time working hard, head down, hoping to get noticed will almost always lose out to those who keep their head up, market themselves and their results and actively seek out new opportunities and challenges.
Here are five simple things you can do to maximise your chances of promotion:
When you apply for a job, one of the best techniques you can use is a matching checklist. This takes the key requirements in the job description and lists them on the left-hand side of the page. For each of these, list on the right-hand side of the page your relevant examples and experience. This is a very effective technique as it impresses recruiters with how well you have thought through your suitability for the job and provides them with concrete examples of why you’re the best choice.
Source: As adapted from Stork & May
Today’s managers are far more mobile than their predecessors. Indeed, the average manager will change jobs every three to five years, and even CEOs only last an average of two and a half years. In part this reflects a more global, plugged-in workforce; and in part the climate of economic austerity that makes redundancies and downsizings more prevalent. These same factors make job switching easier than ever before. So if you are stuck in your current job, have discussed advancement opportunities and done the above all to no avail, it may be time to look elsewhere.
As mentioned above, gaining additional qualifications can signal that you are interested in developing yourself and hence ready for promotion. They are also a great way to help make you better at managing.
Less than one in five managers in the UK is qualified, and that percentage is about the same globally. So what are your options if you aim to be one of those in the qualified elite? The most common is the MBA; however, there are also other qualifications, including undergraduate degrees in business studies, professional qualifications, and other sector specific awards and certificates. In a recent survey, managers rated MBAs and professional qualifications such as Chartered Manager the most effective.1 Here I offer a brief summary of the most popular.
Back when I was in business school in 1985, most considered the MBA an automatic entry ticket to a high-paying management job. No more. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of MBAs in the US has risen by 75 per cent in the last decade, and the costs have risen by almost 25 per cent in the last three years.2 Increasingly, competition comes from a rising number of global business schools and online offerings. Some of the most common reasons given for doing MBAs include:
MBAs are still regarded by most as the most worthwhile business degree, but it is important to examine what the main reason is for choosing your MBA, and that you do some thorough research. The FT ranks all business schools, and maintains separate rankings for global business schools, European business schools and executive education MBAs. Studies have shown increases in salary post-MBA,3 but these are not as great as they once were. If you are not fortunate enough to be able to gain admission to and afford a top-tier business school, you may want to consider other qualifications. There have also been several criticisms of the MBA, most notably by the management guru Henry Mintzberg. He argues that there needs to be more focus on learning from and using one’s practical experience.4
Many of the advantages of MBAs, such as making contacts, can also be gained by undertaking alternative qualifications. One interesting alternative to consider is a professional qualification in management such as Chartered Manager. Research by professional bodies shows that the public trust the chartered designation more than any other. The UK offers a broad palette of professional bodies, as do many other countries. Many of these are recognised internationally. There are also numerous short course, executive courses, and, increasingly, specialised courses to consider.
Research by CMI on Chartered Managers shows an impressive satisfaction rate of over 90 per cent, and 68 per cent say it has improved their performance.
Source: The Impact of Chartered Managers, CMI, 2012
Today you can search for information on any company, almost anywhere, from work or your own home. You can locate decision-makers, potential customers, suppliers and subject-matter experts and contact them. You can highlight your interests on LinkedIn, job sites, and alumni associations. You can build your own brand by posting blogs, or tweeting regularly. A 2011 report from Experian found that 91 per cent of online adults used social media at least once a month5 – but how many of us really reflect on the networks we are using and what we use them for? Social media can be a powerful tool for career advancement and continuing professional development. So how do you make sensible use of technology in managing your career?
Use online resources to help cultivate good relationships externally. Take industry associations, professional bodies and the trade press, for example: offer to be helpful in connecting them with others, joining, providing background information, and contributing to message boards. If you are in a position of responsibility, identify the key associations and trade journalists in your space and share information that you think will make their lives easier. If you are given the opportunity, offer to speak at events, or help to organise them, or summarise their outcome and share with the organisers. You are creating content for others that will also build your brand.
Whether you are looking to recruit, find a job, build customers or network, a LinkedIn profile is vital. It will bring you to the attention of others. When you create your profile, look at others’ – find one you like and emulate it. You might want to consider keyword searches; people are looking for concrete key words. Recruiters are typically looking for information on: job title, job sector or industry, function, and size of budget, staff, or other concrete dimensions of responsibility. Terms like: CMO, CEO, IT Software programmer, leading innovation, global, are more likely to get searched.
Think about people you know. They are easy to find on LinkedIn. You can then send out invitations. And most profile settings will give you access to their connections. Scroll through those to see if there are people whom you know that you can connect with. It’s always best to connect with people you know. This is because otherwise your connections may not be meaningful. Of course, if you have a specific request for information, LinkedIn allows you to send a message asking for advice. Look for quality not quantity. And don’t be afraid to reach out to your contacts when it is useful. If you use the endorsement feature, be wary of having too many.
Continuing professional development shouldn’t just mean attending training courses.6 Via social media you have the chance to learn from some of the best people in business and public life. You can read blog posts from thought leaders in your industry; you are also able to gain a real insight into the views and opinions of colleagues, employees and stakeholders. Consider taking part in online conversations via Twitter or the groups on LinkedIn. You can also sign up for and get regular free content from thought-leadership institutions such as McKinsey and the Harvard Business Review. Try Googling what you are interested in – B2B marketing, for example – and you will find free white papers to download, emails to sign up for and discussion forums to join. Of course they are using this to generate leads but that is not necessarily a downside; there may be material that is worth paying for. This kind of use of the web can lead to genuine ‘win–win’ connections.
It is vital that you consider carefully what information you put online, and who can access it. For example, do you want to add your colleagues as friends on Facebook and have them see personal photos and communication with your non-work friends? It is well known that most employers will Google anyone they are thinking of hiring. There is no right or wrong answer to what information you share, but you need to think about how your manager or a recruiter might perceive your online profile, and whether your organisation has a social media policy. The safest rule is: if you wouldn’t want your boss or grandmother to see it, then don’t put it there. More companies are springing up that allow you to manage your own online reputation. They do this by allowing you to place your preferred content higher up on Google.
Every good manager I know has been fired at least once! I’ve been fired for reasons such as a boardroom coup or cost-cutting. It does not carry the stigma it may have once done. Try not to take it personally – bounce back and do something better! Take time to do so. The following tips can help:
Most of us are aware that job hunting, like much else, has been transformed by the internet. But plan your approaches as if you weren’t online. Think about what you want to do and why. Write down your activities and things you have done; be sure to focus on results, outcomes and stories you are proud of and can share. Focus on your strengths; the things you are good at. Make sure you have facts to prove this.
Think about the kind of job and company you would like: Are you looking for freelance virtual work? Or are you looking to join a company? Large or small?
Think about companies that might fit your bill. And then search for information on the people that might run the areas you are interested in.
Once you’ve got their names, see if you can find a way in using your networks. If not, consider approaching them directly, by doing your research about them and highlighting an area of shared interest or expertise. Email them a personal cover note and your CV, and follow up with a phone call. Ask for their advice rather than a job. If you can get in to see them great, otherwise, a phone call can work. This is more likely to work than posting your résumé on countless job sites.
There are a number of other tools and methods that could be of use:
Very few people have the same job or work for the same organisation throughout their career, and some seek a career change. Members of the armed forces, and of the police and fire services, for example, have always retired early enough to have time for a second career. This could include starting your own business or becoming freelance: one former executive I know successfully reinvented herself as a children’s book author. Another former retail professional pursued her dreams of becoming a scuba diving instructor in the Maldives. More commonly, many professionals choose to enter into careers as executive coaches, consultants, charity workers or teachers. As you plan your second career, ask yourself these questions:
So-called ‘parallel careers’ can end up creating second careers. The term ‘parallel careers’ relates to a secondary job or activity that is undertaken by an individual alongside their existing career. There are many examples of people whose second career remains a rewarding hobby – such as the CEO who coaches little league baseball – or those whose second career eventually overtakes the first, such as the TV producer who became a bestselling author having begun writing fiction as a hobby, and self-published Fifty Shades of Grey.
1 Value of Qualifications, CMI, 2012.
2 Wall Street Journal, 12 Dec. 2012.
3 Walker, L., The MBA Equation, Professional Manager, 2012.
4 Mintzberg, H., Managers Not MBAs, Pearson Education, 2004.
5 http://www.experian.com/assets/simmons-research/brochures/2011-social-media--consumer-report.pdf
6 See Hyland, L., ‘Move aside CPD – UPS is on its way!’, Training Journal, June 2009.
7 Adapted from Dealing with Redundancy, CMI Checklist Series, no. 218, 2011.
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