How to know if your work has good career progression?

Posted by Obvious_Armadillo_16@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 9 comments

Hi everyone I've recently entered the world of work and I work an office job. I enjoy the role and would like to continue working in this sector. I've seen a few people including my own manager get to a managerial role within a year. However he is good at the job. I've seen others who also was good at the role but no contract was extended or new role offered and they had to leave Is it really just luck of the draw? Do you only get to climb higher if you're relying on someone to leave. Because at my current workplace all of them are very content in their roles and don't want to leave. That makes me think there's no point trying or putting in effort to my best ability if they'll just sack me off at the end of the contract

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9 Comments

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Temporary-Zebra97@reddit

So many variables to consider, has the current Mgt team risen through the ranks, hows the business doing, whats the growth looking like, is there a good pipeline of work, are they investing in training/new systems/equipment, do they offer the jam tomorrow model whilst chucking work at the capable, whats staff retention like, whats the package like and many more variables to decide whether your likely to progress. My tip for what its worth - if you haven't moved up in 2 years it's time to move on.

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idateyourmother@reddit

Mate you are just a number to them, if you dont get a bumb after a couple years, move on. At least your salary will climb higher than if you stay at your current company. Better yet, start your own business, you are young enough to have ten failed busineses and not have it effect you in any way. 1 in 10 will succeed.

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BaldyBaldyBouncer@reddit

If you started your job in 1964 and the role was secured with a firm handshake and a couple of whiskeys then staying with that company has probably paid off by now. For everything else, the only way to really improve your career is regularly jumping from one company to another.

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Obvious-Water569@reddit

Feel out how many people in management positions or higher have been with the company for many years. For example, where I work, there are a lot of people who have been with the businss for over 20 years and most of them are in more senior positions than they started in. I'd call that a good sign.

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Obvious_Armadillo_16@reddit (OP)

Those in management have been with the company from 10-20 years

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Vitalgori@reddit

I think a few ways: If it's a small company, they likely will value things beyond performance when promoting people. I.e. "Ed has been with us for 10 years, he lives two streets down, and knows the job and other teams inside out." If its a big company, then there are two main ways: \- Some specialist roles, e.g. software engineers, have set out career development plans with grades, tiers, etc. and often operate as semi-contractors internally. I.e. they have some freedom to move between established teams to gain new experience or to work on exciting projects. They are often viewed as a "necessary evil" and tolerated up to a point. After that point, there are few people who will be making truly serious bucks (e.g. 150k+) without working at least a bit with office politics. \- Some roles closer to revenue will have very strong performance metrics associated with them, so more sales == promotion in most cases. \- Some roles, like IT, might *look like* software development because the people have the same skills, qualifications, work ethic, etc. - essentially the same work. *However*, if they aren't considered part of the "software developers", then they are mostly slow to progress and have impact because they are viewed primarily as a cost centre. TL;DR - the closer you are to the revenue-generating side of the business, i.e. selling, making deals, making the product, the easier it is to progress if you are good.

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Jaraathe@reddit

You never know how a company is going to change, either structurally or personal wise. Just make it clear to your manager that you’d like to progress into higher positions in future and ask how that can be achieved. That way you can work on things together, and you stand a much better chance when something comes up.

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mas-sive@reddit

If it’s a contract role then it’s highly unlikely they’ll move you up, unless you’re really good at what you do. But, since you’ve just entered the world of work build up the experience to skill yourself up and just keep at it. You don’t say what industry or job function you’re doing, so it’s hard to say. But, the quickest way to work your way up is to keep changing jobs every few years. Build your experience and move on. There are companies who do invest in career progression, but it’s a lot slower.

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