Climbing The Corporate Ladder

[HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL] Forget the notions that all is fair in Corporate World and learn the tips and tricks that get you noticed and promoted quickly.

How to Climb the Corporate Ladder

There were many days when I sat in an office and just wondered would it ever

happen. Would I ever get that important promostion that would get my foot on the

corporate ladder? I looked at many people around me, who I knew deep inside had

certainly less ambition than me, and without in anyway sounding snobbish had less

intelligence than me.

What had they done that I couldn’t work out? This article will tell you how I went

from a standard engineer to Head of Sales for Major Corporation in the United

Kingdom within 4 years. There was no instant overnight success and there was

actually no secret at all. I know now but was completely blinded back then by

something that blocked my path, and would have done for another lot of years had it

not been for a few words from a close friend.

Bear with me as I give you a little background before showing you what made the

difference for me. My seven steps for success are on the last page but I would

recommend reading through this first as it eill help inform your decisions. I started

off in the company as an apprentice and in those younger days our careers were

almost mapped out for us. We would attend training courses, go back to university

and interlink both of these activities by an overall grounding in the

telecommunication’s market.

Sixteen of us started on the same day, and at the end of our 3-year term as an

apprentice, fourteen of us remained with one dropping out and the other moving to a

different country. We had all qualified and I can tell you there was one heck of a

party on the last day.

From there we were all dispersed to different work streams within the corporation.

The typical plan that had been laid out was that we would move from an apprentice

grade to the lowest engineering grade available and with our background and

knowledge we would work our way up to the highest grade of engineer and eventually

management. The hideous timescale to reach a management grade would be at least

ten years and back then that would be considered a fast track approach.

None of us set our sights much higher that the highest engineering grade and out of

around 4,000 employees only 250-300 were at this grade so we considered this to be

ambitious. The actual reality of the situation only came to realisation when it became

more than apparent that promotions were done more by length of service than on any

individual ability. For someone young and ambitious that was not good news and at

the same time it also posed a huge dilemma. The actual job I was doing was

interesting, rewarding and of value to customers. In addition to this the actual salary

for the work I was doing was very good as were the general terms and conditions.

I was convinced that should I give this up, it would be hard to find a replacement job

that was either as lucrative or as rewarding. This was also the time of the Thatcher

years in the United Kingdom so unemployment was high and the risk of not finding a

job overwhelmed any desire I had to gain a quick promotion.

I remained in this position for around ten years and like all my colleagues none of us

even moved to the next grade, never mind the top engineering grade. In the eleventh

year two of our apprentice year got a promotion, and believe it or not because we

started on the same day the promotions were then decided by alphabetical order. That

just made me so angry at the time and I went into a real distressed situation. A “B”

and a “D” had been promoted and I was an “M”. There were at least seven other

people in front of me and unless a miracle happened it would be another ten years

before anyone would get promoted again. That was a pretty depressing moment.

The interesting thing here is that every other apprentice also stayed and some fifteen

years later we were all still there and all still at the same low grade although again it

was a well paid role. However for me that was no longer enough and I started to get

itchy feet. By this stage I was married with a young family and I had already started

to build up a nice pension. You may have heard of a business term called the golden

handcuffs and this was the start of my journey towards those.

All they simply mean is that you are approaching a stage in your career, twenty years

later when you are in a good job, with a family to look after and a nice pension

building. The opportunity to leave was close to no longer being an option and the

handcuffs were on though not tightened.

The First Big Decision

A single opportunity came up as the company was looking for clerical sale’s staff and

looking to downsize the number of engineers. I checked with my other colleagues

and none of them were interesting citing various reasons for their decision. They

liked the freedom of the van out on the road, they didn’t want to do a sale’s job, it was

too risky and many others. For me the risk was none of those but I wasn’t sure if I

could cope with the migration indoors and being seated at an office desk all day long.

The final decision which helped me make my mind up was when working outside one

December a huge lump of ice fell down the back of my neck. That was it for me as I

knew then I was getting too old for all the physical work and I applied to move

internally to the sale’s role. I did my first interview in twenty years and actually got

the job. I will never forget the first day in the office environment in a large corporate

organisation. Outside you were isolated from the whole corporate thing as mostly you

just worked away on your own.

Then suddenly I was immersed in the whole corporate structure and language at a

time when political correctness was raising its head. I was pretty sure I would not

survive this working climate and thought I had made a huge mistake. The only thing

that kept me sane was being sent on a twelve week training course and so I escaped

briefly from corporate town.

The next few months I was kept busy by implementing the learning I had taken but

the whole office thing was a huge struggle for me. It was tough enough having to be

desk bound but the whole internal politics and constant analysis of the many key

performance indicators would drive anyone crazy.

Despite all of this I noticed something I had never seen before. Promotion seemed to

be a lot easier and was actually based on ability and not being the most senior person.

That intrigued me and one day out of the blue I was approached by one of the people

who had trained me and informed me that a manager wanted to speak with me about

doing something for him.

My previous background in engineering and my understanding of the end to end

sale’s process was of value to him and he wanted me to work on a project for him. It

was probably one of the most interesting things that I had ever done and was also very

good for raising my own profile. This was probably the first time I discovered what

the “secret” actually was. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that you need to

have some ability or particular skill, but after that it is all about networking.

Suddenly I was speaking on a daily basis with managers as they discovered the

project I was working on which was about the cost of poor quality. The more I

explained it to them, and then the more they wanted associated with it. I was learning

very fast as so many seemed suddenly very keen to jump on the proverbial band

wagon. That was one lesson I stored away for a rainy day.

I moved from one project to another and I did deliver some impressive results along

the way. This type of work had got me noticed and also the manager who had

engaged me initially had formed a great working relationship with me. We became

great friends and are now golfing buddies but it was him that taught me all about

corporate world and how to move quickly up the chain.

My grade when I moved over was of a similar pay scale to the one I had left as an

engineer, so financially I was no worse off. In addition to this however overtime was

plentiful, and I also made sale’s commission from time to time and I was doing work

that I thoroughly enjoyed. Life at that moment was pretty good and I would have

settled for that, which would of course have been a huge mistake.

I had realised quickly that most, but not all, of the managers were actually nothing

exceptional yet they had moved up the ladder. That caused me a bit of head

scratching at the time and once again it was the manager who had brought me in to do

the projects who set me on my way. He told me in very clear terms that my ability

was high but that I needed to learn to play the game. At first I wasn’t sure exactly

what that meant but it didn’t take me long to work it out.

Only a few months later I applied for a new role and got promoted to a training

position. I can’t tell you how good that felt having waited so many years. What made

that even better was the fact that the new role was yet again a very satisfying job to

come into every day. I had also realised that it was important to understand the

interview techniques that were being used and how to make sure you had all the right

answers. Once again it would have been a very easy option to sit back and just enjoy

the new role and the extra money. However now that I had the taste for promotion I

was still very hungry.

Climbing the Coporate Ladder

I remained in the training role for around a year and I have to admit I enjoyed it a lot.

I did however keep a close eye on any other jobs that were being advertised and one

day I noticed a training manager role. Before I would not have applied for this

believing I was not qualified, but with my new background I thought I would give it a

go. I went back over my interview techniques and applied. I have to be very honest

and tell you that I was surprised when I was informed I had been successful. It also

taught me a sharp lesson and a simple one that if you are not in then you can’t win.

This was my first step on the managerial corporate ladder and although a very junior

management position, it was a start and I had done this all within the space of a year

since I moved across from the engineering side. There were actualy times when I

thought it was all a bit too easy and something was going to go wrong. It is very

strange how easy it is to allow self doubt to come in so please never make that

mistake.

After a year of doing that I then transferred across to broaden my experience by doing

a service operational role and managing a service team. That was all about widening

the management portfolio and after that I started to look around again. A higher

management post was advertised but this time within Marketing. As part of my own

self development I had attended various courses and marketing had always been an

interest to me. This was the next step up the management ladder so I mad my

application and was unsuccessful. That was my first set back and I was confused

because I had done in my opinion a very good interview.

The element I had not realised was that being good at interviews was no longer

enough and having great ability was not enough either. In corporate world and to

move to higher levels in management I had missed out the obvious thing –

networking. Where other caniddates had visited the marketing department and got to

know a few of the people I had remained isolated believing that my track record,

ability and interview skills would be enough to get me through. Let me tell you now,

nothing could have been further from the truth.

Climbing the Corporate Ladder – The Next Level

This was a different level and required a new approach. There is no question that you

do need to have a good track record and that you do need to have your interview skills

in top condition, but to move to the next level was so much more than that. My goog

friend and now mentor explained it rather easily. This is now about what you know

but all about who you know. I had not known a single person who was either doing

the interviews or who worked in that department.

I soon resolved that issue and went about developing realationships with various

different departments. No longer did I stand around with existing colleagues at the

end of management conferences, preferring instead to meet new people and find out

what they were doing. This proved to be a great tactic and is something I still do

today. I cannot stress enough how imprtant it is to do that.

A few months’ later two positions were being advertised in the same marketing

department and I was successful in obtaining one of those. When in that post I

continued to do what would be considered high profile work and also to network

constantly. I found that by asking people’s opinions and engaging them they were

very willing to help and it opened up many new doors.

I also continued to extend my width of knowledge by involving myself in projects

outside my normal marketing role. Width of experience is vital to allow you to meet

key job application ciriteria and volunteering for work that gives you this experience

is very important indeed.

The next role I applied for was a senior management position with bonus and

company car perks so I was keen to get there quickly. Again after a year in the

marketing role a new and challenging role was advertised in channel management. I

networked with the people involved, got my head around what would be expected and

came up with a plan to deliver that if asked at the interview. This proved to be the

clinching winning strategy for me. Whereas before all the interviews had been

primarily based on achievements and working examples of success, this interview had

also included a “What would you do” aspect.

Thankfully I had thought that through in tremendous detail and the promostion, the

company car, private medical health care, car parking space and bonus were now

mine. I have never forgotten the day I got my company car and drove it into my

reserved car parking space. I felt like I had just won the lottery. In just under three

years my wages had doubled from the time I was an engineer and I had not finished

yet.

With reference back now to my other fellow apprentices, one did eventually get

promoted to a junior management role many years later. Two people left the business

and made their careers elsewhere and sadly the remainder are still engineers at the

same grade as when they started.

I won’t bore you with the details but I was promoted twice again in two years and

now lead our sale’s organisation. The principles used to get there were exactly the

same. I have now captured below what I believe are the seven key things you need to

do if you want to climb the corporate ladder quickly and with success.

1. Always be prepared to change, embrace change and don’t avoid it as that

is how business is today.

2. Do not become invaluable in your own job as this is a major drawback.

You can be very good at your job but do not empire build to secure your

job or you will be stuck there or replaced by automation.

3. Learn, understand and revise your interview techniques every month.

4. At the lower levels of promotion you need a good track record and good

interviewing skills.

5. Learn how to diversify and broaden your skills base.

6. At the middle level you need the above and a whole lot of networking.

7. At the senior level it is 100% networking as it is all about who you know.

I hope this has helped those of you who are considering moving up the corporate

ladder. I found this programme was the best way to achieve quick success so why not

try Corporate Success.