Movin' On Up!
I was recently asked on Quora: "How do I climb the Marketing ladder?" On the face of it, it is not a bad question. But even leading Marketing experts may not be the best source of info. So I wrote:
There are a whole bunch of resources here and elsewhere online about how to do well in Marketing.
When I was in marketing, I tried to keep focused on the kind of marketing I wanted to do. It’s a very broad range of functions, and each one requires something a little or a lot different.
But the best source of figuring our one's next step or three in one's career progression is two fold:
Second, I like to ask your boss, and her boss, and their boss, and everyone's peers, this question ("How do I advance my career?" or the more neutral "What does success look like?").
First, they have done it themselves, and their experience in this domain, in this industry, in this geography, and in this company is some of the best data you can collect.
Second, they are the ones that are making decisions about me, defining what I need to learn and demonstrate, assessing when I am ready to promote or at least to give more responsibility to, etc. So hearing from them directly about what matters and what they are looking for is the best data possible for answering these kinds of questions about advancement.
There are a whole bunch of resources here and elsewhere online about how to do well in Marketing.
When I was in marketing, I tried to keep focused on the kind of marketing I wanted to do. It’s a very broad range of functions, and each one requires something a little or a lot different.
But the best source of figuring our one's next step or three in one's career progression is two fold:
First, it’s not necessarily a ladder. Sometimes the best way to prepare to move UP is to move sideways and learn new things and demonstrate broader capabilities.
Second, I like to ask your boss, and her boss, and their boss, and everyone's peers, this question ("How do I advance my career?" or the more neutral "What does success look like?").
Why? Two reasons:
First, they have done it themselves, and their experience in this domain, in this industry, in this geography, and in this company is some of the best data you can collect.
Second, they are the ones that are making decisions about me, defining what I need to learn and demonstrate, assessing when I am ready to promote or at least to give more responsibility to, etc. So hearing from them directly about what matters and what they are looking for is the best data possible for answering these kinds of questions about advancement.