Have you been doing the same job for several years, you know your position by heart and yet you are going around in circles? According to an expert, seniority is no longer enough. To hope to move up a notch, a strategy systematically bears fruit.
You may have already experienced this situation. You take on one file after another, your colleagues come to you for advice, your manager can count on you… and despite everything, it’s someone else who gets the promotion. Sometimes even an employee arrived well after you. Enough to raise an eyebrow, or even both. Indeed, in many companies, doing your job well does not always guarantee career advancement. Managers are also looking for employees capable of going further.
This is precisely what Jackson Parsons, career expert, points out. According to him, many employees fall into the same trap : they think their results will speak for themselves. They wait for their manager to notice their efforts and, one day, offer them a promotion. Except that in real life, managers juggle meetings, emergencies, objectives and the dozens of topics that arrive on their desk. As a result, great work can sometimes go completely under the radar. And no, they unfortunately don’t have a crystal ball.
In this context, Jackson Parsons swears by the HOT method; an English acronym each letter of which corresponds to a measure to be implemented. The H is about highlighting your contribution so that your work is seen and recognized. The O invites you to take charge of your professional development instead of waiting for the company to do it. Finally, the T encourages taking calculated risks to demonstrate that you are ready for the next level. For him, these 3 steps weigh much more heavily in a promotion decision than just the years spent in the same position.
In practice, this translates, for example, into keeping a list of your main achievements throughout the year and arriving at annual interviews with precise results: “A simple email summarizing your achievements of the week is enough to highlight your contribution to the company and to you position yourself as an ideal candidate for promotion“he emphasizes.
The expert also recommends continuing to develop your skills instead of waiting for training to be offered to you. This can involve certification, management training, project management or even learning artificial intelligence tools. Finally, it encourages you to step out of your comfort zone by volunteering for a more ambitious project, proposing improvements to working methods that have not evolved for years or even applying for a higher position without meeting all the criteria.
You will have understood, it is not a question of becoming the colleague who reminds you every five minutes how essential he is. Jackson Parsons also insists that a good strategy has nothing to do with repeated overtime or displays of heroism in the office. There’s no point accepting every mission at the risk of ending up with a dizzying mailbox. What really matters is showing that you provide value, that you continue to progress and that you are ready to take on more responsibility.
