Advance In My Career Were I Am Already Paid Well?

My current career is with a large communications company. I work as a fiber optics technician and make a better than average living. The problem is I am still young and feel like there is no room for advancement with this corporation. I have my BAS degree and strong military background. My problem is I don’t know people that can help open up doors for me? How does someone from humble beginnings find a mentor, or organization that might help?
Thanks for any help you can provide.

1 comment to Advance In My Career Were I Am Already Paid Well?

  • C

    What do you want to do? I’m assuming you want to stay in the same field, but just at a higher level. I’d say, try joining some sort of professional organization that has people in it for the job that you are aiming for. What about some sort of military or veterans type organization? It might not be geared toward your field, but you might meet some retired people who have done what you are interested in doing. In fact, don’t overlook retired people – they can give you some good needed perspective.
    I’d also ask your boss directly about what you need to do to get to the next level. If you know what you need to do, try to get a bit of experience doing it. This might mean volunteering to work for a project where you’ll get those skills. If your company doesn’t want to advance you – take those skills and apply for a job at a slightly higher position in another company. If you choose a smaller company you might not get an increase in pay – but smaller companies usually have jobs that have more components – which can help you in the long run. So you might be able to advance more easily or more easily get the experience that you need to advance later. On the other hand – another big company might be able to put you in some sort of executive program. If your company or another one offers educational incentives, take advantage of it. People who pursue additional education are often thought of as go-getters and people will remember that. You might also want to polish up some of your presentation skills if you need it. Joining a local toastmasters is a good way to meet people while getting executive polish. In fact, I need to join toastmasters myself.
    I don’t know if you believe in God, but if you do, start praying for a godly mentor. You might meet a mentor in unusual places so keep your eyes open. You might find a mentor in the company or outside of it. One of the best mentors for business people is the book of Proverbs in the bible. Read a chapter a day and you’ll gain a lot of wisdom. You will learn how to be ethical. Ethics is everything in business.
    If you find someone who you think might make a good mentor, you might want to consider trying to meet with them. Just ask them for a bit of advice – tell them that you admire their career and would like to ask them for advice on what you can do. You seem like you have a good attitude – and people respect that. You might want to try to ask someone who is a couple of levels higher rather than someone who is just one level higher so that they won’t see you as direct competition.
    And read a lot – about the industry as well as about your job. Try to develop big picture thinking – understand your company and how it fits into the communcations industry and how that fits into global industry. This is part of how executives think. Start networking right where you are. Try to open up doors for other people where you can – put one person in touch with another – help others as much as you can. As you do that, people will often help you right back. But do it because it is the right thing to do, not because you have lots of strings attached or people will feel manipulated.
    All the best,
    C

Leave a Reply

  

  

  

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>