There are plenty of opportunities for advancement in the tech world, but determining the right path and approach to landing a promotion means taking the time to figure out your goals, hone your skills, and showcase your value to the business.
"In career management for IT professionals, you need to look forward," says Steve Andriole, Professor of Management and Operations at the Villanova School of Business. "There's still a lot of work that needs to get done that's looking backwards, but if you are looking to move up, you really need to be vigilant about career management and getting on the stuff that's new."
While business functions vary across the technology field, experts say there are clear management and technology areas that offer the greatest opportunity for upward mobility. Figuring out where and how you can fit in is key to getting promoted in those fields.
Figure Out Your Goals
Do you want to get involved more deeply in business management? Are you interested in vendor management or focusing on architecture and governance? These three areas offer the strongest opportunities in growth moving forward, says Andriole, and determining early on what you want to focus on can help you tailor your approach.
For example, if business management is your interest, figure out ways to more closely align yourself with the business side of projects -- developing relationships with business managers and taking a hand at working with business metrics. If it's vendor management that you are most interested in, Andriole suggests investigating certifications you can get to legitimize yourself in the field. If its architecture and governance that you want to pursue, staying up-to-speed on emerging architectures is especially critical to show hiring managers you have a handle on the industry.
Align Yourself With Emerging Technologies
Step back to look at what technologies are most forward-thinking and figure out how you can get involved in those. "If you keep getting assignments in application support for a claims processing system that's 21 years old, you have to go to your manager and say, 'You are giving me stuff the field is running away from," says Andriole. "You need stuff that the field is running toward."
Janice Weinberg, author of the book "Debugging Your Information Technology Job Search" says with more and more companies using cloud computing internet technologies to access web-based services, professionals looking to get ahead in their career ought o spend some time learning about this field. Similarly, Andriole suggests mobility and social media as two other critical areas in which business growth will take place in the coming years. While your manager may not give you opportunities to learn about these technologies, taking the initiative to do so on your own will help you get up to speed when opportunities do arise.
Get Business Savvy
Understanding the business side of technology offers some of the best opportunities for promotion, says Weinberg. While your current position might be heavily focused in putting technology in place rather than assessing its business value, Weinberg suggests taking steps toward getting yourself more in the know about the business impact you are having. It can be something as small as helping put together project budgets and plan staffing requirements, she says, but getting more involved in how the company handles the business side of things will show you are capable of stepping into a line management role where you're responsible for staff and budgeting decisions.
Go Beyond Your Nine to Five
It's easy to fall into the routine of a daily job, but if you want to show you're ready to move up in your IT career path, going beyond what's asked of you is critical, says Kingsley Tagbo, IT Career Coach for Exacticity, Inc., a Missouri-based career coaching firm. "Take on work that no one is willing to take on," says Tagbo. "Everyone appreciates someone who steps up."
Weinberg suggests volunteering to be part of task force committees where you can use your non-technical skills more. Making yourself visible to stakeholders and senior managers is also a critical way to help increase your chances of promotion says Tagbo. During stakeholder meetings, make an effort to give presentations at meetings so that you get on the radar of top managers.
"Prepare yourself for additional duties above and beyond your role," says Tagbo. "It says, 'I can help other people get their work done.'"
Using Mentorship as a Way into Management Opportunities
Often a promotion means moving from a technically-focused role to leading others. But if leadership isn't something you've had experience with, Tagbo suggests seeking out mentorship opportunities as a start. Taking the time to help interns or entry-level employees learn the ropes is one way to show your manager you're capable of overseeing others.
Weinberg suggests you go as far as proposing an internship program if your company does not have one. For example, if you know the company needs to hire two entry level quality assurance software engineers and that the budget is tight, propose initiating a relationship with a local university and establishing an internship program in the IT department. While such an undertaking takes extra work, it also shows you as a self-starter. "[You] could have an accomplishment on [your] resume that would speak to [your] initiative and the fact that it saved the company $60,000 to $100,000 dollars," says Weinberg.
Address Pitfalls
While landing a promotion often means seeking out opportunities that might not be officially out there, if you do have chance to apply for a vacant position within your organization, Weinberg advises that you really take the time to research why the position opened and what areas of need you can contribute to if you get it. "If you know what created the job, it can help you prepare to sell yourself more effectively," she says.
If available, look into customer satisfaction surveys from previous projects to get a sense of where the last manager's weaknesses were. For example, if you know a survey of internal customers came back with negative comments about delays, think about possible solutions you can present during an interview. Weinberg suggests making a handout of solutions to show you've thought through a particular problem and can clearly outline your approach to solving it.
Weinberg cautions against waiting for a position to fall into your lap. "Someone who aspires to a managerial role should not be waiting until they hear of a promotion opportunity," says Weinberg. "They should be approaching their daily responsibilities always with an eye toward creating the impression that they are ready for management."
By identifying the management areas you're most interested in, staying up to speed on technologies that have the greatest potential moving forward, learning the business-side of the job and stepping up to go beyond what's expected of you, you send a message to managers that you're ready to take on the responsibilities that a promotion entails.
(Courtesy: Jane Porter, Fins.com)
