Promotion Or Job Change: Which Is the Best Way To Advance In IT? 247
I've had a couple of management consultants tell me that if you want to move into management, it's better to change jobs or change where you work within your current company than to stay where you are. What if you have to fire one of your old friends? Not cool. Or are you better off starting your management career surrounded by people who know and (hopefully) like you? Read the rest .
Re:Job Change (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Job Change (Score:4, Interesting)
to take with a grain of salt since if you're replaceable you can also just be dumped when you ask for a better salary after 5 years.
You have to ask? (Score:5, Interesting)
Subterfuge. It works every time. When I started in this industry nearly 33 years ago it was your attitude and your quality of work that determined your path of promotion and success. Nowadays the people I work with are more interested in Social Networking, gossip and "Diversity." It's not just in IT but all industries within white collar environments. The smart players keep their head down, know when to throw in a political jab and to document failures and whine about the mistakes of others. Don't sell it short but schmoozing pays too.
Don't get me wrong, I still consider myself successful, it's just now I work as a consultant and get to watch this go on all the time. It never ceases to amaze me when my clients promote some of the worst folks that I've ever seen and watch the ensuing anger and confusion it causes. You see if you want to get ahead in an organization you need to not create too many waves. That's for entrepreneurs and companies that want to be progressive. By and large, most organizations just want peace and quiet with the associated slow, I mean really slow, progress that it promotes.
If you're aggressive and talented, don't get into a large organization. You'll be frustrated and upset with the politics that go on and constantly in bewilderment at why Joe down the hall who hasn't produced anything in 4 years and who's last major project was a disaster is now a VP.
Re:Not even sure why people want to be managers (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Job Change (Score:5, Interesting)
Typically promotions in the military come within a unit (so you're much more likely to go from Squad Leader to Platoon Sergeant, or Company Commander to Battalion Operations Officer inside the same company or battalion), but they move you around every few years anyway. So you may get your promotion to SSG or MAJ when you moved inside of a unit, but next year you're going to Ft. Stewart anyway. It's kind of a combination of both promotion from within, and moving around a lot.
The military is also setup in a way that makes continued and regular advancement relatively easy, if not required. Especially for officers. If I decide I really like being Battalion Communications Officer, that's really too damn bad. When the opportunity comes along for company command I better bloody take it, then take the next job to make Major. After more than a few years of the same job (or more importantly the same rank), my raises stop coming; year or two more and I'm looking for a civilian job.
Using the military as a comparison is really kinda flawed for these reason, as well as a few others (the process of "getting into management" in the military (getting a commission) is not exactly straightforward there either).
Re:Job Change (Score:5, Interesting)
This stuff is due to the fact companies fail to take HR as a serious part of the business, they limit their jobs to just handling vacation and making random policies. Employee turnover cost roughly 150% to replace an employee, but will do little in terms of inside promotions and raises often account more of a cost of living adjustment (FYI Inflation averages 3% Raises are usually over 10% a year) then a real raise. HR is limited in actually evaluating each employees skills and making a choice if they should get promoted or not. It is usually left to the local manager who really doesn't want to loose a top performer from their department, and sees your professional growth on a day to day bases and not as overall so they forget that your starting salary that you are getting paid at was for work that you could do then and not what you do now. Because they are not getting paid what they are worth an employee will look for additional work which will give them.
1. An honest assessment of their value.
2. A job that will pay their current value.
Back in the old days when people worked for the same company for their professional life. It was mostly due to the fact that there wasn't much competition for jobs in the area, and most people wouldn't or couldn't travel to the next town and city to see if there is something better. Today it is much different companies need to realize that and invest into HR. It is better to keep the employees then loose them, but they need to keep in mind that they are in competition with more then just there competitors but with the rest of the community for human work resources. During recessions there is less competition so the businesses and get good talent for less but once the economy picks up the tides turn to the employees who have more choices.
Re:Job Change (Score:4, Interesting)
The gaping whole I am leaving has my former employer in a bit of a bind now, since I was the last person with the knowledge and skills to support a key system. They have offered to promote me now, but it's too late.
Well there's your problem. If you make yourself irreplaceable, you'll never get promoted. If you wanted to show your previous employer you were serious about changing positions, you would have trained someone to replace, or at least documented as much as you could, so you could be replaced.
In other words, if you were really ready to move on, you wouldn't be leaving a hole.
I see so many folks in IT and IS who set themselves up as gatekeepers of information and then complain when they don't get promoted. As much as your boss wants to help your career (and many bosses really do want to see people advance in the company) they don't want to leave a gaping hole when you're gone.
Make yourself easy to replace and you make it easy for your boss to promote you.
Some might reply, you make it easy to fire you as well. So be it. Look around. Is this where you want to be, what you want to do, for the rest of your professional life?
Re:Job Change (Score:4, Interesting)
Some people prefer stability and job security which - outside of the USA - a permanent position offers much more of.
It's a lot easier to live with a predictable and constant income stream than one that comes in fits and starts - especially when you have more responsibilities than just yourself.