Preparing for Promotion

If you feel your current role lacks challenge or you are in need of a higher salary, now might be the time to see if you can move internally and get promoted. Taking charge of your career in your current organisation means preparing yourself for promotion and beyond.

There are several steps you can take to do this, bearing in mind that if it doesn’t work at least you have flagged up to your company (and yourself) that you are ambitious and want to get on.

Promotion
You may be aiming for promotion in your current department, sector or subsidiary or have somewhere else on your radar within the organisation. Every large, global organisation will have a problem subsidiary or office that you can join to make your mark; they will be forever grateful! You could also look at moving overseas or taking on an international assignment.

So, how do you prepare for promotion? First off you need to decide what role you want to aim for, in what area and then investigate that within your company. This can be through the grapevine, company directories and information or by external research. You may, for example, have always wanted to move into Marketing…

Next Steps

• Review your CV to ensure it is aligned with your target role
  Rather than a generic CV, you need to highlight your achievements, the projects you have worked on, successes and anything you have done outside of your normal job description, particularly if it is relevant to your target job role See our guide to reviewing your CV
  
• Brush up on your interview technique. Try to find out the usual interview format for internal recruitment, whether or not this will include HR or just the line managers concerned and what the selection process is and timescales See our guide to Interviews
  
  
• Network around the business and the line managers in your target area/department
  Use LinkedIn and the company directory/website/grapevine to research your boss, their boss and the department and sector managers across the business, particularly in the area that you are interested in. See our guide to networking
  Be creative: if your CEO or Director has a favourite charity, hobby or business interest see if you can get involved in it. If he is into rowing for example, and you are also, then your networking route becomes much easier!

Get Noticed
You need to ensure that you get noticed by your boss and your boss’s boss.
To do this you need to do something outside of your job role that demonstrates that you have the good of the company in mind. This could include taking on extra responsibilities, volunteering to handle projects that are problematic or leading development or expansion into new areas.

Apply Internally
You should also apply for any internal vacancies that come up, whether or not you are experienced or qualified enough to do them; at the very least it shows that you are ambitious and ready to take on a new challenge.

Above all, go for it!

Links to other pages

CV Review

Interview Skills Training