Here’s what I wish someone had told me in my early 20s or just as I was starting work:
- You never get a promotion just handed to you – you have to intend for it, communicate strongly as much as possible you intend for it to all relevant stakeholders and then fight for it
- Make sure you have a sponsor or sponsors who can create opportunities for you and advocate for you
- You have to be planning what’s next in your career. No one else will. If you don’t plan anything, you will be left stagnant where you are, which might be an acceptable choice. But make it a choice, not a default.
- Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate – titles, salaries, responsibilities, projects. Everything is up for a negotiation. Those who lose the most are those who don’t realize that it can be negotiated
Thinking about your career proactively is especially important for women of color. Take a look at the chart below from a 2019 survey of 329 US-based companies. Women of color face the biggest drop off as we ascend the corporate hierarchy.
I. Ask for promotions
When I started work at 21, I assumed that doing good work was enough to get noticed and get promoted when appropriate. I learnt the hard way this was not the case. A couple of years into my career, peers were getting promoted to the next level, and I was not. I did the best job I could day in and day out, but I never once asked a Manager or HR what it would take to get promoted. Now I look back and realize how naive I was. They never knew I wanted to be promoted, so why would they reach out and just offer it?
II. Make sure you have a sponsor or sponsors
I also didn’t have a sponsor. What is a sponsor? Someone senior to you who has power, who will make the case to promote you. Without a sponsor, you are not getting ahead. Plain and simple.
III. Proactively plan what’s next
It’s your career, your responsibility. No one else is going to be sitting around thinking about what you should do next or where to position you, unless you have an amazingly proactive sponsor. But the secret to finding an amazingly proactive sponsor is to be amazingly proactive in finding them, so it all comes back to you.
Have you thought about the shape of your career? Where you’d like to be in 5 years? In 10 years?
It’s time to get real about these “interview” questions and have answers for yourself.
IV. Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate
We’ve all heard the myth that you can’t negotiate with a big company. Consulting companies, for example, apparently have fixed salaries. But there is always room for negotiation for something, if not salary.
One of the students at Oxford had an offer from a couple of consulting companies. He decided to negotiate with his favorite company. He asked if he could be guaranteed to have one meeting a month with the Partner who had recruited him. They agreed. His rise in the company was very fast – unsurprisingly as he had guaranteed face time with a powerful person every month to showcase his achievements, ask questions, seek guidance and ultimately just be memorable when his name came up to the promotions committee. What a smart thing to ask for before signing the offer!
Line up multiple offers, and when you do get creative on what you negotiate on! Make a list of what will fast-track your career and/or give you professional fulfillment, and negotiate it earnestly.
