When I started my career, I had two assumptions.
1. People who were good at their jobs got promoted.
2. The person best qualified got the job.
They are both false.
If, after reading this article, you conclude that you found it helpful, please feel free to share it with your network and subscribe to the Weekly Career Guide. Perhaps we can all learn from one another. Thanks!
I asked my mentor.
Me: There is a guy at my work, Bill, who has been there for 10 years. He is really good at his job. His supervisor left and they hired someone who knows nothing about the systems. Why didn’t they promote this guy?
My Mentor: Aw. You think time and experience have a linear relationship. They do not. Let me draw what people assume.
My Mentor: The perception of a typical career path is that the more experience you get over time, the more you climb the corporate ladder. This could not be further from what actually happens.
Me: How does it happen?
My Mentor: There is a chasm between technical roles and leading people. Jumping from Junior Engineer to Intermediate is easy, it takes time. But jumping from the technical role of Intermediate to Team Lead isn’t easy and it has nothing to do with time. Let me draw you what actually happens.
My Mentor: There is a chasm between a technical role and leading people. This exists for several reasons. Let me explain. There are 5 to 10 people on a team, and there is one team lead. If the company promotes within the team, it has to be an obvious choice to everyone. Meaning, if put to a vote all the team, everyone would vote for one person. If this is not the case, and team members all think they have a shot, that presents a blocking situation. Plus there are different skills required.
Don’t get me wrong, you need to be good at what you do to be promoted, but you need to do other things too. Likely Bill isn’t doing the other things that he needs to do to get that promotion.
Me: How on Earth do people cross over that Chasm?
My Mentor: That is a secret and if you can use it properly, you will have an amazingly successful career.
But the answer will have to wait until next week. I could write a book and each chapter would have a strategy on how to cross the chasm.
