How to get promoted at your current job

I am a bit of a job hopper. I am always open to internal promotions, but about the time I have been somewhere long enough I always find something much, much better outside the company. The only time I really thought I had a chance at getting promoted and planned on staying around for it was the job where they shut down the entire office before I got the promotion.

Kevin over at Workplace Life wrote a nice article called 3 Ways to Get Yourself Promoted. I’ll let you go over there to read the details but I would like to comment on each of the tips presented.

1. Take advantage of training. A perk that Kevin did not mention about taking advantage of training is that it puts you on management’s radar as somebody who is going to be promotion material. I got into my current job as a programmer when I was working at a place doing data entry after I got out of the Air Force. I was taking a few programming classes at a community college. When an entry level position opened up on one of the programming teams, my boss new my career interests and offered me the spot. If I had not been actively persuing training within my desired career path, I would have never had a chance at the job that started it all.
2. Volunteer when possible. God, there’s very little I hate more than an office party. But, his point is valid. My wife is very good at planning these things at her office. It is a side thing that she has pretty much taken over because nobody else wants to do it and she does a great job at organizing the events. Her coworkers notice. Her boss notices. It has definitely increased her visibility in the company and helped make her an employee they want to retain. She did not turn that into a promotion, but she has been able to work a part time job at her old full time hourly pay which is amazing for us.
3. Attend networking events. This is another thing that I am very bad at. So bad in fact that it is one of my performance review goals for this year to attend a certain number of them. The people that regularly attend them always seem to be in the know when new positions open up and have often established a good rapport with the people that can help them get that position. People in power positions like to help out their friends. The networking events are your opportunity to make them your friend.

I’m sure there are lots of other good ways to help getting promoted, but I think those 3 are good tips that should work in any office.