Focusing on Skills, Not Promotions

When it comes to advancing your career, it’s easy to get caught up in external measures of progress, such as your level within the company, your salary, your title, or whether you’ve been included in some prestigious group. However, these external measures are not the true indicators of career success.

Your career is defined by your skills and how you’ve used them, not by any external measure of your progress. It’s common to think of career advancement as getting a promotion, but this is not always the case. Promotions can be a byproduct of focusing on improving your skills and your impact within your organization, but they are not the end goal.

For example, an engineer may be focused on advancing their career by getting a promotion to a senior role within their company. However, instead of just focusing on getting the promotion, the engineer should be focusing on developing their skills and increasing their impact within their organization. This could mean taking on more complex projects, mentoring junior engineers, or developing new technologies that will benefit the company. By doing so, the engineer will be demonstrating their value to the organization and making themselves a more attractive candidate for a promotion.

Instead of asking “What does it take to get a promotion?”, ask instead, “How can I be doing more to help make our customers (or would-be customers) happy?” or “What skills should I be developing to help me increase my impact?” By focusing on these questions, you will be developing skills that are valuable in any organization, regardless of whether or not you get a promotion.

It’s essential to remember that your skills are forever, and nobody can take them away from you. No matter where you journey, your skills and past experiences go along for the ride. This is why you shouldn’t worry too much if your career doesn’t follow some up-and-up external ladder structure. Sometimes taking a smaller position at a faster-growing company, or even a pay cut, can unlock a treasure trove of new learnings and opportunities.

In conclusion, focus on developing your skills and increasing your impact within your organization, rather than just chasing promotions. By doing so, you will be setting yourself up for a successful and fulfilling career, regardless of the external measures of progress.

As an engineer, it’s important to focus on developing new skills and technologies, collaborating with other team members, and actively seeking out opportunities to increase your impact within the organization.

By doing so, you will be demonstrating your value to the company, making yourself a more attractive candidate for a promotion, and setting yourself up for a successful and fulfilling career in the long run.

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