A few weeks ago I talked about how a weak economy like the one we’re in now should make you re-evaluate your current job and determine if there is a different place in the company that would make you more valuable (and hence, less expendable).
Taking my own advice, I decided to start looking for jobs that would move me into a more business critical role. I applied for a few positions and on September 17th I’ll officially start my new position within my current company.
My old job was great and I had a really awesome boss, but it was a support function. If the company decided to start saving money, my position wouldn’t have been considered essential and could have been on the chopping block.
My new job is one of the most important programs in my company. We’ve set a global strategy and this new job is smack dab in the middle of delivering on that initiative. As long as we are committed to doing this program, my job should be pretty safe.
Not to mention I get a promotion and a raise!
Make Yourself More Valuable
If you want to keep your job in a bad economy, you have to make yourself as valuable as possible to your company. Here’s how my promotion makes me more valuable:
- With every new job comes new skills. Your ability to do things other people can’t is what makes you valuable, and I’ll be learning a whole new set of skills with this new job.
- I’m moving from a support function that was important but not critical into a position that is essential to completing my organization’s goals
- I’ll be meeting more people and building more relationships. The business world is all about who you know, and the more people you know the better chance you will have of keeping your job or finding a new one if necessary.
- As the new guy, I’m also probably the cheapest guy on the team. I was probably making an average salary at my previous level because I had been there a few years. With the promotion I’m now the least expensive resource at my new level. When trying to save money, it’s the people with the bloated salaries that need to worry.
I’m feeling really good about the new job. I think I’ve made my job more secure while I’m also advancing my career. Plus the raise doesn’t hurt either.
I have to admit there are a few dangers of taking a promotion in a bad economy. Sometimes the last one hired is the first one to leave. Tomorrow I’ll talk about what I’m going to do to make sure I don’t get put on the chopping block if my company needs to save money.
Readers: When is the last time you got a promotion. If it’s been over 2 years, have you thought about applying for a promotion within your company or looking for new jobs at a new company?
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
Congrats man! What a great feeling right?
And wow, I just noticed your 24,000+ subscribers! Good stuff! How’d you get up there that high? Please share!
There is a Yakezie gathering on Thurs at 5:30pm if you are free.
Cheers, Sam
I wish I had 24,000 subscribers. That’s my stupid website. When it can’t get the right number of subscribers it defaults to 24,000. I can’t figure out how to set the default to something more realistic like 450, which is where I am usually hovering around.
We’ll see about the 5:30 gathering. I’m hosting the Plutus Awards at 8:30 and will probably be peeing my pants from nervousness at 5:30. If all the preparation is complete then I’ll be happy to join the gathering.
Congrats on the promotion. How did you go about looking for a new position within your company? Did you talk to your boss about wanting to move into a different role before you began applying? I’m in a similar position, where I’ve been doing the same job for a couple of years and think it’s time to make a move, but I would like to stay with my current employer. However, I’m unsure on how to go about it.
My job has an internal site that posts all the different opportunities, but I actually found this job because a guy I used to work with had moved into a new role and told me when a position came up on his team.
I did tell my boss I was looking, and he’s a great boss and is really interested in my personal development, so he was all for it. If you have a boss who doesn’t care about you as a person and only wants to get his job done, you might not want to tell him. However, when you are looking internally there’s a good chance word will get back to him anyway, so it’s a fine line. I would personally start putting feelers out there without telling my boss, but once I felt I had a good lead I’d tell him before actually applying.
Nothing like calming the nerves through heavy drinking beforehand! Worth coming out for just an hour at least. 15 min walk from the hotel. If you ain’t ready by 5:30 to do the MC, then might as well party!
Congrats, dude! That’s huge!
I got a promotion about 3 years ago and it was a 2 level jump. I am actively looking for a new position, but not necessarily a promotion.
One tactic that I utilized was to constantly ask, in performance reviews, what should I be doing to achieve the next level?
Congrats! And you get to MC an awards show – September’s a big month, heh. Good luck!
That is awesome Congrats. I haven’t ever gotten a promotion within my company but I have switched companies and moved up! Congrats on the raise too! What do you plan to do with your new money?
Wow, that’s amazing. Congrats! Did you negotiate a higher salary or just take what was offered to you?
If I were to move up internally, I’d have to be the Pres/CEO so I don’t know how possible that is presently. I am, however, getting a raise this week. Second one in a year! Congrats on your new position! Have you ever thought about doing your job freelance? Not sure what your exact position is so I don’t know if there is a market for it or not. Maybe in 2 years you’ll start working for yourself!
Congratulations!!!!! 😀
To answer your questions: I work for a the UC system, which is basically a government corporation. They give annual cost-of-living raises– 3%, which they then take back and put into the shared retirement fund– but no merit raises. We are not given promotions, but rather, if you want a different position you need to apply for it. This is a super sticky situation, because in order to qualify for a new position, you need to be working a position that is that level or higher… So basically the only option is to apply for a job that is a cross-transfer, and then negotiate a higher pay if offered the job (you are able to negotiate 5-15% above the pay offer, depending on what you’re bringing to the table.
I really like my job, though it sucks that it’s so hard to move up, and I really want to stay with my company because of my benefits and the retirement plan… So what I’ve been doing is applying for jobs that I don’t want, hoping that they’ll offer me the job, at which point I’ll negotiate a higher pay– and then go back to my own office to ask that they match the newly offered pay in order to keep me.
It feels like a terribly immoral strategy, since I’m wasting plenty of other people’s time and energy (and my own) but they don’t offer much of a choice if I want to get a salary increase. I’m an indispensable member of my team, but due to these bureaucratic regulations preventing promotions and salary increases, many of the people that I supervise make more than me because they negotiated a higher pay when they began (while I am stuck with essentially the same salary that was offered when I started 7 years ago!).
Congrats! That’s awesome.
Wow Congratulations! That’s pretty incredible 🙂
As for me, I’m seriously thinking of jumping ship. While the company I work at is a decent one, the local politics isn’t to my liking, plus a change of scenery would be nice too! I just wish the economy was better…
Congratulations. Anything with “global’ in the job description is bound to be interesting.
Congratulations!! That’s awesome!!