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I have be in the IT side for close to 20 years. I neverr got promoted to manager or any kind of higher level. But in the review every year, they all say I am doing great job. All my college friends, some of them are managers now, one of them is supervisor and other one is IT director. Not sure what I am doing wrong.
what do I need to do to move up in the world?
Kiss ass, be a "team player," and pretend to be your boss's best friend as well as anyone else with power in the organization. Tell them sun shines out of their @ss and carry on long conversations about whatever interests them (no matter how lame the topic). If the boss likes baseball and vacationing in the Bahamas, that is what you talk about with him, and pretend like you really care about what he is saying.
In other words, act DAMN fake all the time.
I'd say about 25% of what makes up your typical corporate job is hard skills and the other 75% is made up of soft "people skills." It isn't just being polite to others. You have to get them to like you to the point that they consider you a "friend." (I felt nauseated typing that.)
Bottom line: If you want to make it in the corporate world, you have to be popular. That's just how it is.
Last edited by statisticsnerd; 12-22-2012 at 06:56 PM..
Kiss ass, be a "team player," and pretend to be your boss's best friend as well as anyone else with power in the organization. Tell them sun shines out of their @ss and carry on long conversations about whatever interests them (no matter how lame the topic).
In other words, act DAMN fake all the time.
If you want to make it in the corporate world, you have to be popular. That's just how it is.
Glad to see we are in agreement.
That's how it is at my employer... you can be totally clueless but as long as you have a home location either under the bosses desk or within 18 inches of him when he's making his rounds you are management material.
You need to create face time with the people making the decisions on promotion. Throw in some buzzwords, be enthusiastic, but don't be cheesy.
You need to make it known that you are interested in moving up - not hinting, asking "what do I do to move to the next level?" In many organizations, this means a development plan.
Look into changing jobs; you won't be pigeonholed at a new place, and you can recreate yourself as you want to be seen.
I have a friend who was in a mid level position and attempted everything he could to move up in the company he worked for at the time.
He also had access to quite a bit of sensitive information that he obtained via what his superiors thought was a closed access internal file area in the company's computer system.
Since he was unable to legitimately move higher in the organization he took the information he had access to and sold it to an intermediary for a decent amount of money.
He never was caught. He then moved on to another company.
This was in 2000 so it's been a very long period of time and the statute of limitations has long since past.
The moral of the story is be careful who you ignore for promotion because that person just might be the most cunning and gutsy of all.
It's not what you know but who you know. I have had managers that were horrible and I have seen people be promoted to management who were incapable. Network with the higher ups if possible. Go out with them to a happy hour, play golf with them, just find a way to know them on a personal level. Socializing can open a lot of doors. That being said it is sometimes easier said then done.
i don't play golf and I don't drink, and I don't feel the need to do either in order to advance my career. More weight needs to be given to qualifications and less weight to who play golf with the boys. That being said, I recognize what you said is true, but I'ld be a happier person knowing I haven't had to change who I am in order to advance.
Kiss ass, be a "team player," and pretend to be your boss's best friend as well as anyone else with power in the organization. Tell them sun shines out of their @ss and carry on long conversations about whatever interests them (no matter how lame the topic). If the boss likes baseball and vacationing in the Bahamas, that is what you talk about with him, and pretend like you really care about what he is saying.
In other words, act DAMN fake all the time.
I'd say about 25% of what makes up your typical corporate job is hard skills and the other 75% is made up of soft "people skills." It isn't just being polite to others. You have to get them to like you to the point that they consider you a "friend." (I felt nauseated typing that.)
Bottom line: If you want to make it in the corporate world, you have to be popular. That's just how it is.
Unfortunately, things do not change from high school. It could be why our economy is doing so much worse than Germany's, a country where employers actually value hard skills more than personality and don't treat employees like crap.
I have a friend who was in a mid level position and attempted everything he could to move up in the company he worked for at the time.
He also had access to quite a bit of sensitive information that he obtained via what his superiors thought was a closed access internal file area in the company's computer system.
Since he was unable to legitimately move higher in the organization he took the information he had access to and sold it to an intermediary for a decent amount of money.
He never was caught. He then moved on to another company.
This was in 2000 so it's been a very long period of time and the statute of limitations has long since past.
The moral of the story is be careful who you ignore for promotion because that person just might be the most cunning and gutsy of all.
That guy should be arrested, not promoted. If he had been caught he would have faced some severe penalties including a lawsuit. Revealing corporate information is not the way to get ahead!
To the OP, I wonder what your educational background is. Have you considered doing something like an evening MBA, if that is available in your area. I do sympathize with you. I worked in IT for a while. I really wanted a management position in one job but they ended up hiring a CIO who brought in 5 of his friends to essentially replace me. I only stayed for another year because I had stock options. Now I work as a project manager. I really miss being hands on. I still think about getting into management. I haven't given up on that dream. I have an MBA now from a good school. I don't plan on staying in project management but I think it's good preparation for a technical manager position.
Kiss ass, be a "team player," and pretend to be your boss's best friend as well as anyone else with power in the organization. Tell them sun shines out of their @ss and carry on long conversations about whatever interests them (no matter how lame the topic). If the boss likes baseball and vacationing in the Bahamas, that is what you talk about with him, and pretend like you really care about what he is saying.
In other words, act DAMN fake all the time.
I'd say about 25% of what makes up your typical corporate job is hard skills and the other 75% is made up of soft "people skills." It isn't just being polite to others. You have to get them to like you to the point that they consider you a "friend." (I felt nauseated typing that.)
Bottom line: If you want to make it in the corporate world, you have to be popular. That's just how it is.
Going to build on this.
Do everything statisticsnerd said, but not for the reasons he said. Be a team player because you are part of a team. You should want to contribute to your organization in the best way possible for yourself, and in many cases that means you need to be the man who chats up a coworker who is having a bad day. Or the man who can break the room into laughter during a particularly tough day. Because at the end of the day, we are all human beings and we all want to feel good about our lives and where we are going. You should strive to be that type of person period, whether you are in the workplace or just out hanging with friends.
I mean honestly, are you really going to promote the antisocial programmer because he writes good code? Or the guy who may right average code but can inspire his fellow coworkers to churn out their best possible work, including the better coworkers? Honestly, those who become managers are already practicing the art of managing others long before they get promoted. There will never be any aspect of your job that is more interesting than the people that make it flow. So don't be fake, just push through and be the team player.
However, as other posters said, our country nowadays tends to overvalue people skills and undervalue the hard skills - a successful company realizes that good workers and good managers have and need both to build a thriving organization.
That's the challenge I'm taking though with the new job. As said I'm leaving the old job because of poor management... the new job is a better opportunity and I'll have one guy working under me. I am getting my first taste of "management" even though it's a very small one.
This is a good for you, getting some management skills in with a small team to see how you like it or not. Good luck with that opportunity, I am glad you could leave on your own terms with a company with sorry management. Management is definitely a totally different game than being an average office worker. Some people are not cut out for management, no matter how good of an employee they are.
To the OP and similar to other posts you see here, you have to be "popular" with your peers much like it was for you in high school. If your co-workers generally like to be around you because of your personality, that is how you move up. You exude a positive attitude all the time and become a "cheerleader" for the company. You "kiss-up" the management and become "friends" with them for the most part to get the promotion you want. People are rarely promoted based on their skills as usually promotions tend to be in the managerial ranks. If it is not happening where you are now (meaning you don't have support to get promoted), go to another company and start fresh. In the US corporate environment for the most part, the average employees tend to get promoted based on their "awesome" people skills and not their ability skills.
The big drawback to management is your technical skills often get stagnant. However, at most organizations in order to advance, it is going up the management level, not the technical one.
Be careful what you wish for. The extra money is sometimes not worth the level of stress, overtime, and the ensuing drama of dealing with babysitting grown ups.
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