#HardWork #Promotions #IndustryInsider #CareerAdvice
Hey everyone! 👋 Who else has heard the phrase “hard work takes you places” and really taken it to heart? 🤔 I’ve been putting in the hours and going above and beyond in my industry for 15 years now, but I can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to promotions. It feels like no matter how hard I work, someone with less experience or knowledge always ends up getting the promotion over me.
I’m starting to think that it’s more about who you know than what you know these days. Have any of you experienced this in your career? Any advice on how to navigate this frustrating situation?
Here are a few possible solutions that might help us all move forward in our careers:
– Networking with industry insiders and decision-makers
– Seeking out mentorship from successful professionals in your field
– Taking on new challenges and projects to showcase your skills and value
Let’s discuss and support each other in reaching our career goals! 💼💪
There’s a lot more to compensation than “hard work”
It’s always been about who you know
Hard does take you places: its more work while the slacker works at the specified pace. Best promotions are at the new employer.
Let me be brutally honest with you here.
There’s a concept called “too valuable to production.” This concept is most commonly associated with manufacturing & other similarly undesirable, manual labor fields. (Before anybody jumps at me, I worked in manufacturing for six years. It’s undesirable work.)
It essentially means that the hardest working individual who produces the most numbers isn’t necessarily a fit for elevated positions based solely on the merits of their work.
While a person might be an absolute monster on a shop floor, they may lack critical thinking skills, have poor interpersonal skills, be short-sighted, or have a litany of other characteristics that make them unsuitable for promotion.
Not only this, if you were to promote them, your numbers on the floor would take a hit, no matter how you handle it.
The best promotion is a new job, and I wish I would have realized that years before I finally did. If not that, then the best way is to pursue additional education, and be sociable.
Also, the best advice I can offer you: Always be willing to learn something from everyone. Everyone has a lesson they can teach you, even if that lesson is what not to do.
It’s always been about who you know but hard work is still needed to move up faster. The only way I’ve seen dumbasses land management positions is strictly because they had family at the top and greased them in. I know two large companies here where literally a family has been working at each for a few generations now so unless you marry into that family, no way you’re going to land a top management job at either one. Is it illegal, hell yeah it is, but good luck proving it. All they need is minimum quals and nobody can prove it was unfair hiring practices.
But I can dispute your example, where I’m at right now, it only took me a little over 6 years and I’m arguably in the best paid spot for someone in my line of work. Six figure salary and I’m still not topped out at the top of my pay range, 100% employer paid benefits and a pension. No private company vsm ever match what I get and I beat out others who and more years of experience than me in my interview according to my boss. But, I’d be lying if I said I did it purely out of my accomplishments. While my resume is stacked with what I’ve done, I knew where I wanted to go and yeah, had to schmooze a few people to make sure my name was remembered.