Raise your hand if you know this feeling. You are doing your job and you feel you are ready to be promoted. You speak to your manager and now you wait for the opportunity butttt nothing happens OR a position opens up and you land an interview and you don't get it.
So what now? Well, let's take a step back and look at things objectively. Ask yourself these questions:
1. Have I mastered my current duties? You can check this by going through your performance contract and/or job specification and rating how skilled you are at each duty. If you see gaps then this is your time to work on these. If you don't then hooray!
2. Do I know what the job specification is of the next position I want? You can't just observe the person in the post currently and think "hmmm I can do that!" You might be surprised at what their job actually entails. Now you need to find that job spec and study it so that you can determine a plan of action as to how you can gain exposure to those activities. HR would be your go-to here, or you can just ask the person currently in the position IF you have a good relationship with them (you don't want to come across as someone who wants to steal their job)
3. Am I promotable? Obviously point 1 and 2 need to be sorted here but you also need to have a good work ethic and proper soft skills. The higher up you go in the organization, the less it is about technical ability (unless you are a specialist). An example would be that a senior geologist would need to know how to draw cross sections in a certain software, and how to interpret them. A geology manager would need to know what strategies to use to get his/her whole department to function effectively, and how to communicate the vision for the department so that everyone understands.
4. Do I want to stay at my current company? This is something you should think through carefully, you might have to wait 5 years in your current company for a promotion. Another company could give you an opportunity sooner. Weigh the pro's and the con's.
That's all for now. There is a whole lot more that can still be talked about regarding this topic so leave a comment and we can start a conversation.
Until next time, stay safe!
