So you want to get promoted ahead of peers at your professional service firm? Perhaps you’re at a law firm, consultancy, or accountancy firm? Professional service firms are full of bright, hard-working ambitious people. All your peers who are working at the same level as you are all ambitious to get promoted. How can you get yourself noticed amongst all this talent? Here are 4 pieces of advice to really think about, and act on if you want to be noticed as “one to watch” early on in your career.
1. To get promoted ahead of your peers, be a delight to work with
At the early stage of your career, your challenge is to get onto the right teams and projects. You also want to be championed by the key influencers in your firm. If you want your partners and managers to notice you, then go in with the attitude that you will be known as a delight to work with. If you follow the list below, you will be on your way to getting noticed and getting that promotion ahead of your peers:
- take the initiative (where appropriate)
- be positive/optimistic/enthusiastic
- put the needs of the team/firm above your own
- take an interest in the commercial aspects of the work you are given, not just the small part of the project in front of your desk,
- remain positive and upbeat regardless of what bad stuff is currently happening,
- demonstrate in your actions and words how committed you are to the firm and its vision,
- bring your work in under budget, and
- communicate in a timely and appropriate manner to your peers, team leader and other colleagues.
If you want to get noticed and get promoted ahead of your peers, really think about the reputation you want to build for yourself. Being seen that:
- you are easy to work with,
- you’re a safe and reliable pair of hands who always delivers,
- you’re great with clients and delivers excellent client service
- you deliver great work with a minimum of errors
Will all help you to stand out from your peers.
Make a start on your career development and sign up to receive my weekly tips here . You’ll find out what you need to be working on as well as how to make the time for your career development, so that you can progress your career in your firm.
2. Seek out mentors in the firm to help you guide your career
If you have any questions you can’t ask “out loud” you should seek out mentors to help you answer them. They will hopefully share great advice on how they got noticed for the right reasons which will be invaluable. If you want to get promoted ahead of your peers, you should be aiming to build a fan base of partners, not just one ‘all-powerful’ mentor. The more partners who know you and think well of you, the better. You can do this in a number of ways. For example, you could build up a buddy network of peers who you call on to help for technical queries. Then make sure (if feasibly possible) that when you have a query that you physically go over and see them. This will get you noticed outside of your own department & ‘bubble’.
3. Continually ask for feedback from people you work with
No-one is the perfect article, whether they are 20 or 50. Your firm knows that and will expect you to be self-aware and be working on plugging the gaps in your skillset. What more you could have done to make their life easier on the case or assignment? Ask the team you have around you, what more you could have done to be a better team member? If you want to get promoted ahead of your peers, you must then act on the feedback to get better! Keep asking for feedback and get the self-awareness to know: 1) What are your strengths that you should aim to exploit to move your career forward? 2) What are your weaknesses? Which ones do you need to fix if you are going to move your career forward? Which ones can you minimise by creating strategies to building on your strengths?
To unlock 12-months access to my resources (videos, recordings, guides, newsletter) that will guide and show you what you really need to do to get noticed in your firm – join my Progress to Partner online Academy .
Premium members also unlock access to our self-study courses including The Go-To Expert, Creating A Cast-Iron Business Case for Partner, How to Delegate Like a Pro, How to Lead & Manage a Team and How To Be On Your A-Game Every Day. Join as a Premium member today and login to your Dashboard to get started.
4. Take an interest in the commercial side of the clients you work with and how your firm runs
Did you know that the partners in your firm (unless they are ‘salaried’ rather than equity) actually own a slice of the firm?They will want to make sure that their successors are a good fit for business ownership. This means that you, regardless of how much ‘ticking and bashing’ that you are doing, must take an interest in the commercial side of what you are doing. For example,
- How are budgets set on the job?
- What profit margin does your firm hope to make on an audit assignment?
- What are the implications to this profit margin if you can’t recharge your time when you over-run?
- How does your client actually make money?
- What are the key drivers for your client to make or lose money?
Chapter 9 “How your firm makes money” in ‘How to make partner and still have a life‘ will be an invaluable help to you to truly understand how your firm runs, and why it runs this way.
5. Learn how to network with a purpose to get promoted ahead of your peers
You won’t be expected to win work for the firm (yet), but this is the time to learn how to network with a purpose. Get to know the people who are working at your level (don’t aim for the board room level!), because they will be the decision-makers in 5-8 years time. If you want to get promoted ahead of your peers, treat everyone as an important client. If you’re seen by decision-makers to be making contacts that could lead to business in the future, that will be vital for your reputation.
6. Get a reputation as ‘Partnership Potential’ When you get the tag of ‘Partnership Potential’ you will find that the partners in your firm will heavily invest in rapidly progressing your career. Chapter 5, “how to become partnership potential’ of How to make partner and still have a life will give you the whole chapter and verse on exactly what you need to do to show that you are a great person to promote rapidly.
Make a start on your career development and sign up to receive my weekly tips here . You’ll find out what you need to be working on as well as how to make the time for your career development, so that you can progress your career in your firm.
