11 months ago I almost quit my IT support job with a large Accounting company. Jay, the owner of Dumb Little Man, and my best friend, told me to list 25 things I could personally do to get ahead. I was skeptical because I seriously hated this place but I made the list because I had nothing to lose but time and I didn't want to start to job search.
I couldn't come up with 25 so we settled on 20. He then tweaked it a little saying that it was too easy to fulfill. Anyway, I took the list and posted it on my cubicle wall. I read that damn thing every morning when I got into the office. To this day, I still have it practically memorized.
Last Friday, I was promoted and I actually moved up 2 spots so I am now earning an extra $15K year. Kind of nice if you ask me.
Here are the missions we put together:
- I will work and think as if I were the SVP of my IT group. This will include how I interact in meetings, with co-workers in the hall, etc. This will train me for the future.
- If I ever decide I don't like the company I work for, I will still act like the SVP because that is the position I want. I will not become a complaining, gossiping troll because my reputation will follow me.
- I will look for areas that my company fails. One day I will fix that failure by starting my own company.
- I will be the guy to speak out with new ideas in meetings. If it's going to save money or increase revenues, I will never be out of line.
- I will lead others and show my strengths because someday I may want these people to work for me.
- I will finish everything I start. I am not going to mentally bail on a project.
- I will shut up and listen when I don't know 110%.
- I will study new trends so I am the guy with the good idea.
- Regardless of what my boss says, I will review myself each month and then ask for help where I need it. My company can train me so that I can move on.
- If they ask for 132 TPS reports, I will do them. One day I may ask an employee of mine for similar reports (even though it's repulsive to think).
- I will speak my mind in the face of rejection when I am confident that my idea is a winner.
- I will know how competitors do things so I can suggest better solutions in meetings.
- I will not bend to process bureaucracy. If the customer needs it, we have to figure it out.
- I will learn as much as possible about the roles people play in my company. One day I will have to fill those roles.
- I am able to recite my 5-year goal at any time.
- Resume builders are nice but I am pushing for seminars that will train ME.
- I will dress more professionally then the rest on casual Friday.
- On internal conference calls, I will ask questions. Not dumb annoying ones, but questions that pertain to the company's EPS or EBITDA.
- I will be in the office before my boss' boss 90% of the time.
- I will leave the office after my boss 100% of the time.
A lot of Jay's list irritated me but in 30 days things got a helluva lot better. In retrospect, it wasn't the job making me upset, I just had an ego problem - I felt like I was better than everyone else. After I followed through on my list, I proved I was better.
I know a lot of you may call some of this ass kissing but I was pretty blunt in these meetings and it wasn't my boss that promoted me - it was his boss. The job was never even officially posted. I am now a firm believer that leaders are winners. This list is coming with me wherever I go.
Take it or leave it.
I think these are good lessons to live by regardless of your position in a company.
Whats an SVP?
good stuff
senior vice president
My boss is never in the office because he's a lazy ass. that makes the last point pretty easy for me.
Good tips but have to be careful how you handle presenting these ideas. Personal demeanor and communication style will outweigh the value of even the brightest ideas and best contributor. Have seen it over and over again.
Works sometimes, won't work in some Fortune 1000 corporate culture because you can't kiss the right ass because you're a peon.
i disagree with the time keeping portion of your article.
though the rest looks good. I believe standard hours should be kept. If you stay for unpensioned periods of time it may give the impression that you are having difficulty keeping up with the workload, or worse, the impression that you are trying to create a good impression.
One should make efforts to make things look effortless. If you need to do extra work try and hide this fact.
One you missed: You should make sure your the best at your job. An expert in your company.
Great list, but it needs a little work to adapt to small businesses. Where I am right now there is no moving up, to get anywhere I would need to find a larger company. I am going to be printing this list out though thanks!
does the IT guy (even the SVP) really need to be making comments about EPS and EBITDA?
S/he might talk about cost cutting, but EBITDA? Come on.
Many of these pointers seem almost ridiculously superficial:
e.g.
"I will look for areas that my company fails. One day I will fix that failure by starting my own company."
In essence, you're saying "I don't really *care* about my company and I won't actually try and fix its faults, I'll just take notes until it comes time for my big payday."
Also, this aphorism "If they ask for 132 TPS reports, I will do them...."
seems to fly directly in the face of: " I will not bend to process bureaucracy....."
The rest are ok, tho.
One thing I would add. When doing any major project, do it in very public ways. I don't mean bragging about it at the water cooler...I mean that if you are working on temperature and power management issues in the server room, make a website with rrdtool graphs of the data in realtime and link that from your IT management wiki or home page (you've got a home page for docs and stuff, right? if not, that's public project numero uno!).
It takes an extra few minutes to write the scripts and whip up the HTML, but it provides a constant reminder to everyone who ever comes in contact with your department's website that you're doing really cool stuff down in the server room, and not just consuming vast quantities of caffeine and griping about user's weak passwords. And you might even find it useful yourself the next time you lose three hard disks in one weekend to be able to see the 20 degree temperature spike when the building A/C went offline without maintenance giving you any warning (aha! someone to blame....this whole creating lots of realtime graphs and reports just gets better and better).
Anyway, management loves reports...and it's usually easy to add reports to everything you do, if you're keeping the right data. Wikis make you look good, too, because you can keep documentation up to date and constantly increasing without having to get into "documentation" mode as much as writing formal docs requires. There's so much open source software out there that does cool stuff like this--puts a pretty face on ugly IT data--that it makes really good sense to take advantage of it. You don't have to fill out any requisitions to get it so it looks like it magically sprang from your brilliant mind, you don't have to write it yourself so it can be implemented without impinging too much on your real work (which is not impressive looking to anyone who doesn't understand the job), and it's pretty rewarding in and of itself...it sometimes even makes your job easier.
Good comments from everyone. I posted this earlier today and I come home to see that it's bookmarked all over the place.
I will respond to a few of the comments listed now and then hit the rest later tonight.
Gerry - Being an expert at my job is exactly the goal. I am not sure I agree with the first portion of your comment (re: make it all look easy). Doing that may just increase my work load because if I look relaxed all the time, I'd appear unchallenged. I believe there is a happy place in the middle on this.
Sosuke - if there is no room for growth, I would consider looking for another job. Growth opportunity is one of the primary reasons for my work ethic. Knowing there is no growth would certainly demotivate me.
Pablo - It all depends on your goals. I am choosing to NOT be a tech forever and therefore speaking at the level of my superiors teaches me about Execs. Also, if the TPS reports are preventing me from doing top priority tasks, I agree with you. My point was that I am not going to get pissed and pout simply because I don't want to do something.
SwellJoe - great tip that could actually be added to this list. Out of sight, out of mind. No one knows what the average IT guy/gal is working on most of the time.
Starrd - Also, good point. You could have a great idea and spoil it because your delivery was overbearing or demanding.
Booger - Yep. I can understand that. One can only hope that the more you prove your expertise and knowledge the more visibility the execs will have. I would almost check out Swelljoe's comment, that may help in your case.
Thanks for stopping in and sharing your thoughts. If you pick out a couple of things and implement them, let me know how it goes.
Frank
"One should make efforts to make things look effortless. If you need to do extra work try and hide this fact."
I agree with this statement only as far as when your workload can be considered typical.
Once it hits abnormal levels and your productivity/ efficiency starts suffering because you are just one person with just too much to do, then don't hide it.
Your manager will respect you more for alerting them before the whole thing comes crashing down around your ears making all concerned look stupid.
Simon - very good. I tried to explain why I was not comfortable with that either but you nailed it.
Frank
It also depends on the company... I did some of the tips in my company before I read this article but they never offered me anything related to promotions lol, so hopefully the next company will be better...
Except for appearances, what are you trying to accomplish by being in the office before the boss and leaving after him? I think it only encourages a lot of overtime. I try to arrange my hours according to my workload, not to someone else's work habits. As to casual Friday, I've always looked for companies where jeans and t-shirt are normal dress at all times, but I admit that's a personal preference.
i liked your comment about acting like the SVP all the time and not becoming a complainer or gossiper. i am going to do that in the future :)
I'm not at all in your field but I think your list can be translated across any industry. It's basically helping you to be the best employee you can be -- sometimes you're the only thing in your way, but until you implement some change you won't know if it's you or something/someone else blocking your promotion.
In very trying times my mantra was, for lack of alternatives, to put my head down and work as hard as I could, biting my lip on any whining or gossiping about the troublemaking employee. By the grace of God, not only did I make it through, I've been told that I was next in line for the second in command position. I'm not sure that I want it considering management's crappy practices and being a bigger target in a VERY small pond, but there you have it.
Hey Bram - I suppose the answer to your first question is dedication. I am not paid hourly so no one is really concerned about overtime. I do agree with you about the jeans though. However, accounting firms just don't get into that (at least mine doesn't)
Emma - I will tell you now, productive people don't like gossipers (sp) or 'social butterflys'. I agree that if you are a in the gossip group, you should stop. Complaining is ok, just do it the right way.
Ms. Miniducky - sounds like you are in a jam. You are trying to do the right thing but the reward may put you in a worse situation.
Based on what you wrote, you may want to consider putting YOU first. What I mean is that you use the company to get as much experience as possible and then look elsewhere. There are times when your attitude and work ethic are meaningless because your company culture is "crappy".
However, IF you do get that promotion AND you will be in a position to dictate policy and make changes, then that's a different story.
- Frank
This is great.