One of the biggest myths in the job market is that the quickest way to move ahead in your career is to move from company to company. Anybody who feels stuck in their job and that they are not being fully appreciated starts polishing up their CV as they seek a more senior position in a different company. The new company will know how to appreciate their abilities and give them the opportunity to move ahead. Some only get as far as polishing up their CV and just carry on moaning while others start scouring the job market in the pursuit of new opportunities.
But it is only the foolish who after polishing up their CV, quit and confidently step out to look for a more senior position. In most cases, after a while it dawns on them that they have made a mistake and they are happily prepared to compromise by finding a job, which is equivalent to the one that they left, but then they discover that even that is not such a simple matter.
It's colder outside
Most readers will certainly strenuously disagree with this claim and will bring forward countless examples to undermine it. Before trying to persuade you that this really is a myth and a mistake, I'll present some of the errors that lead up to it:
A. The illusion of volume: The fact that outside an organization there are more open job opportunities at any given moment creates a feeling that outside the chances of moving up are greater. But that is not the case (this will be explained later in the article).
B. The illusion of competition: Within the organization the competition seems tougher, and sometimes less fair, only because it is more tangible. Inside you know the rivals, are expose to their efforts to gain promotion, the intrigues, the power struggles and the politics. Therefore, the tendency is to interpret the competition as such that the chances of beating it are small. Sometimes, it is indeed so, but outside it is much more difficult and cruel, it's just that from inside it doesn't seem so.
C. The illusion of promotion: This is in actual fact the reason that created the myth and the source of the mistaken interpretation that relates to every move to a new job. Practically every such move is seen as promotion when in actual fact most moves to another company are a regression and stagnation in the best case scenario.
Almost always such a move is subject to a tremendous compromise on the size of the company, and in the nature of things the actual size of the job, and its strength as a future career springboard. Despite the 'seniority' of the job, such a move sometimes hits professional positioning, the value of your brand, and of course the value of your market.
D. The illusion of prominence: This error is inspired by rare high-profile promotions, usually of CEOs hired from outside to head very large companies.
This meteoric rise from a company that is often small in comparison to a much larger company is indeed splendid, but it proves nothing. The only thing that can be learned from it is that when large companies want to hire a CEO from outside, they have almost no choice but to recruit him or her from a smaller company. There are not enough people who have served as CEO of companies on this scale unless this small group constantly switches between the group of large companies.
The prominence of such meteoric promotions is what makes people mistakenly assume that they are much more common. As in many other situations, the more extreme the result (for better or worse), the more we tend to exaggerate the likelihood of it happening, for example that we will win the lottery or, God forbid, die in a plane crash.
Cyber networking is not enough
Why don't companies promote people from outside? Because they are risk averse. Let's start with the fact that organizations justifiably prefer to promote people from inside. They are already familiar with the merchandise, including its advantages and disadvantages. The learning curve is shorter and the hiring costs are smaller, not to mention the message to employees: "You can go far with us." In short, it is more efficient, cheaper, and safer.
At the same time, when a company is forced to hire from outside, it will prefer someone with as much experience as possible, not as little as possible, because it has plenty of those inside the organization. Other than exceptional cases, the preference is for a person who has already filled a position on at least the same scale, not someone "with potential."
There is no lack in the market of people with proven relevant experience, so there is no need to insist on someone who is more likely to fail. Don't forget that such a choice also constitutes a risk to the image of the manager doing the hiring. When an experienced person with credentials is hired, even if he or she fails, it is easier to explain than hiring someone with a "great deal of potential" who does not supply the goods.
Of course, hiring someone with a proven record does not guarantee success, nor does hiring someone without such a record ensure failure. Sometimes it is just a question of what is perceived as a greater risk - an unnecessary risk, given the sufficient supply of experienced people.
There are unusual cases of a genuine promotion from outside, most of which were propelled and supported by topnotch networking, one of the chief benefits of which is minimizing the perception of risk. This obviously does not refer to Facebook or LinkedIn.
Cyber networking alone cannot bring about such promotion; at best, it will not prevent it. Without superior networking, even if you label yourself nonstop, it will not happen.
On the other hand, there are moves that began badly and continued with tremendous success. For example, there were people who went backwards (deliberately or not) to a position classified as more senior in a very small unimportant company that within a few years became meteoric, and they took off together with it. It can happen, but this is a kind of gamble. Unfortunately, this situation is rarer than people think - another case of people assigning too high a probability to an event merely because the result is prominent and desirable.
Beware of easy promotion
Another example of promotion that begins badly and is likely to succeed later is when the person doing the hiring is deliberately looking for someone who will not threaten him or her too much by hiring someone from outside who is not experienced or assertive enough. It is also frequently the case that the person doing the hiring was himself promoted from inside and is now looking for a kind of "puppet" to take his or her place, so that he or she can continue controlling the territory now left empty. Such a promotion is far from complimentary, but this opportunity can also sometimes be made into a serious promotion, unless they looked for and found a real rag.
Does this mean you must stay in the same company in order to get ahead? Certainly not. There are situations in which you won't be promoted in the organization you are working at, even if hell freezes over.
Advice for career advancement
1. Do not resign: it is much more difficult to find a job, especially a good one, when you are not working.
2. Where the problem lies: try to analyze whether the problem is in the organization or in you.
3. A plan for promotion: if the problem is in the organization, devise a career advancement plan passing through other organizations - a plan that will probably be carried out through a lateral move to a corresponding position in another company, sometimes even with an inferior definition, as a basis for promotion.
4. Beware of imaginary promotion: every job offer should be carefully examined in order to avoid imaginary promotion and damage to your market value. Keep in mind that most of the offers that you get are for inferior positions, as it is said, "If things are too easy, you are going in the wrong direction."
5. Whether the problem is temporary or permanent: if the problem is in you, it is important to clarify without fear whether it is temporary, or whether you are no longer promotable.
6. Spotting a weak point: if you have concluded that the problem preventing your promotion is temporary and that potential for promotion exists, you have to spot your weak point and address it as soon as possible.
7. If not promotion, at least survival: if you discover that you are not promotable, it is important to urgently devise a completely different plan that will deal with your survival in the labor market, whether in the current organization or in other organizations.
8. Self-branding: in all of these cases, correct self-branding is likely to help you.
The writer is a career management consultant.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 19, 2018
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