If you’ve been stuck in the same role at work for a while, it’s understandable that you’re itching for a change. Of course, you can always look for another job, but most people don’t want to leave a company and colleagues they have become familiar with and enjoy. The natural course of action is to seek a promotion.
Most people prefer that a promotion comes their way through the recognition of their hard work and loyalty to the company, but unfortunately, it rarely works out that way. If you want something, you’ve got to ask for it, and a promotion is no different!
So, if you’re ready to fight for what you deserve, here’s a six-step guide to help you get a promotion at work.
Describe Your Role
Employees seeking a promotion need to review their specific goals. Some intend to achieve more skills and money in a specific title, while others are happy to gain more experience that might benefit their careers.
If you think you can handle specific tasks and have the necessary skills, you can browse for job openings at your company similar to the role you have in mind. If you feel you are suitable for a position, you can often create your own job description. This shows initiative, prompting higher-ups to recognize the value of promoting you.
Assemble Your Resume
Highlight your accomplishments in your resume, especially those you have added to your repertoire after working at that particular company. Analyze the job description to determine how your previous accomplishments have prepared you for more responsibilities. You must mention how your actions have helped fulfill both team and personal goals.
To prove to your manager that you are the perfect fit for the promotion, you can use your regular tasks to showcase how well you are carrying out your present responsibilities. Make sure to assemble the resume attractively with all the necessary details that are convincing to top management.
Do Your Research
Have a discussion with your colleagues and friends who got promoted recently. You might want to discuss their strategies, such as timing and how they presented themselves to their managers, which helped them land the promotion. Gathering information can also help you go into the discussion more confidently, helping you negotiate terms and salary increments, knowing that it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.
Upskilling
If an employee gets too comfortable in their current role, they likely don’t see the need to learn new things or skills. This can be detrimental to their pursuit of a promotion. After all, if the management does not see your potential to add more value to the company, why would they consider giving you more responsibility? So, it’s essential to look inward to identify areas where you can improve yourself, take the initiative to learn new skills, and increase your knowledge in ways that can benefit the role you hope to undertake.
Schedule an Official Meeting
After informing your manager about your desire to be promoted, schedule a meeting. An official meeting might show how serious you are about this rather than an informal discussion, and it helps put things on record. Discuss the position you are looking forward to taking up and how your skills and achievements can contribute to successfully managing the new job role.
Follow Up
It is also essential to follow up after the official meeting with your manager. However, it would be better to wait a week or two giving some time to the manager to ponder about the meeting so that he can make a wise decision about your promotion. If the manager has conveyed that the company isn’t in a position to promote anyone at the moment, make sure to revisit the topic a few months down the line to ensure that you are at the top of the list when the time for promotions does roll around.
In Conclusion
A promotion, or anything else in life, for that matter, doesn’t come easy. It’s integral to work towards any goal that you wish to achieve actively, or life will pass by before you know it!
Moreover, working smart goes a long way. Some less competent employees who lack specific technical skills often get promoted because they work smart, which helps them progress faster than top performers. They possess the political, social, and soft skills that make up for their actual performance, which allows them to get promoted faster. Therefore, working on these things might help employees get that promotion.
