Career Services Quick Start Transcripts

Video Title: Positioning Yourself for Your Next Opportunity (New Job, Raise, or Promotion)

Begin transcript:

SLIDE 1: Positioning Yourself for Your Next Opportunity (New Job, Raise or Promotion) Welcome to Positioning Yourself for Your Next Opportunity. Many Walden students and alumni aspire to securing a raise or promotion within their current organizations or new positions with other employers to enhance their career paths. The strategies for advancement are very similar in both cases and I hope you will find the following tools useful over your career’s entire life span.

SLIDE 2: Your Evolving Career Before we get started, we would like to share a graphic we developed based on concepts from Herminia Ibarra’s book, Working Identity. This visual represents our holistic approach to proactive career management. Our career identities change as we gain new experiences, meet new people, and tell a new story about our academic and professional endeavors. We hope that you find this framework helpful as you progress through your academic program and start the next chapter of your career.

SLIDE 3: Objectives This recording will cover ways to: Assess your strengths, achievements, and gaps related to your desired position, promotion, or raise; Build new relationships and market your qualifications to key individuals regarding your capabilities and accomplishments; and negotiate and accept your next job, raise or promotion. Why is mastering the skill of negotiation important? A Bureau of Labor Statistics study showed that individuals born between 1957 and 1964 had already had 11 job changes. That means many negotiation opportunities over one’s career path.

SLIDE 4: The Key to Negotiation Is Preparation! So don’t let what happened to this sheep happen to you. Obviously, the negotiation for keeping it’s wool did not go well. The key to negotiation is preparation.

SLIDE 5: The Big Picture Before diving into specific strategies, ask yourself the following “big picture” questions: What is your current career aspiration? What’s your next step up the ladder? How do you see yourself in your target organization’s future? What strengths would you like to use more often? What do you aim to achieve in the next one to five years?

SLIDE 6: Complement Your Degree Here are action steps to complement earning your degree: Research external and internal jobs. If your search is external, search target organizations’ websites, LinkedIn, and large job search sites like Indeed.com for job opportunities. If you are seeking a raise or promotion, review job descriptions within your organization to determine what additional skills and experience you will need to be promoted. Set SMART goals – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time specific - to build your qualifications and hold yourself accountable along your career path. Networkvia LinkedIn, meetup.com, and offline meetings. Volunteer to gain additional skills and experience. Simulate your future job by acting “as if…”

SLIDE 7: Dive Deeper into Lifelong Learning Take a deeper dive into lifelong learning: Subscribe to industry blogs and newsfeeds. Read several newspapers and trade publications on a daily basis. You might read Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and other business-related publications online to stay informed of developments in your field. Structure library learning on topics of interest. Use the Walden Library as a terrific resource. Develop soft skills such as leadership skills or emotional intelligence. You may also consider develop hard skills such as language skills or skills specific to your industry. You might consider joining trade and professional associations. Read your employer’s in-house material such as policies, manuals, procedures, and product information to gain insight into new opportunities. And finally, join Toastmasters.com to strengthen your public speaking skills.

SLIDE 8: Develop a Career Plan Through earning your degree and taking a deeper dive into life-long learning , you will generate ideas to for developingyour career plan. First, select specific job titles to pursue and devise a plan to get there. Anticipate the skills needed and develop your specific plan to acquire those skills. Create a self-promotion plan to sell your qualifications. That plan might include strengthening your LinkedIn profile or presenting at a conference. If seeking a promotion, create a plan for your replacement because you want to remove all obstacles to you being promoted. As a foundation for your career plan, aim to be LIKED – develop positive relationships at various levels - Develop a very strong relationship with your boss –make your boss look good - provide information that is important for their decision-making, avoid surprises and gossip, and when you identify problems, offer a solution. Develop friends in other departments and in other organizations – relationships are very important to your professional development and advancement. If you’re a team leader, give your team the credit – if you are a team member, find ways to differentiate yourself to obtain credit as an individual.

SLIDE 9: Targeting a Raise or Promotion? Sell Yourself There’s a saying that it’s not just what you know, it’s who you know. Well, I’m going to add it’s also who knows what you’re doing. Be sure to provide progress updates to your supervisor and other leaders as appropriate. Strive to perform at a higher level than others. Choose a role model within your organization and model your behavior on theirs. Volunteer for projects and build your reputation as a proactive problem solver. Ask for more challenging projects or create your own projects. Chart your accomplishments in a journal for performance reviews using the CAR formula- that is, ChallengeAction-Results. What is a challenge you faced, what was your specific action, and what were the results of your actions?

SLIDE 10: Show Them the Data! Show them the data. Use Industry and salary association data to make a case for your raise or promotion. Rely on your past work, performance metrics, praise and accomplishment statements. Rely on industry trends, competitor data, current and future needs of employer.

SLIDE 11: Negotiating a Raise or Promotion Performance reviews are a perfect time to ask to advance as your performance is the key topic for discussion and you can showcase your accomplishments and performance in great detail. Other optimal times for negotiation are when things are going well for you individually in your job or for your department as a whole or when you complete your degree.

SLIDE 12: Negotiating a Raise or Promotion To summarize, if you are seeking a raise or promotion, build a strong case using your extraordinary performance, your education educational qualifications, and your company reputation. Benchmark salaries and job titles in your industry, and if there is no potential for upward movement, prepare to move on to another organization.

SLIDE 13: Seeking a New Job – Get Ready! Now we will switch gears and discuss strategies for seeking a new job. Get ready for that by researching: Walden University Career Services Center website Job sites: Monster.com; CareerBuilder, Craigslist.org, The Ladders.com Consult Salary sites: PayScale.com, Salary.com, Glassdoor.com Research information using Social Media: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook About 80% of jobs are obtained through networking so devote substantial time and effort to building good professional connections. Depending on how well you know a connection, you may find it helpful to ask a salary range for a position, factoring in the job duties and your qualifications. Also, talk to professionals via email, LinkedIn, meetups, industry job fairs, as well as conferences. You want to think about preparing a salary research document to make your case.

SLIDE 14: Make Your Case with a Salary Research Document The book, Salary Tutor, recommends making your case with a salary research document . This document includes the lowest, mid-range and highest salaries you would accept based on responsibilities, your qualifications, research and networking. If you choose to share this document with employers, develop this as an Infographic-type document or some other type of visually appealing document to make your case.

SLIDE 15: Timing Is Important The timing of discussing the question of salary is very important. You want to delay the discussion as long as possible so you have ample opportunity to discuss your qualifications and prove you are the best candidate for the position. HERE ARE POSSIBLE SCENARIOUS which Jim Hopkinson explores in his book Salary Tutor – when you are asked direct salary questions, you might respond with: “I’d like to learn more about the job responsibilities and challenges and room for growth before exploring salary.” OR “My current employer would not be pleased with my revealing my salary to a competitor. I’m sorry but I don’t feel comfortable disclosing that information.” For those unemployed or in career transition, a possible response might be: “I’m not sure there’s a direct correlation between the salary at my last job and what my value would be in this new position. I’d like to hear more about the responsibilities of the job.” If they ask you what your range is, you could say: “Based on my research, the salary for a job like this varies widely based on the company, the responsibilities, and the qualifications of each candidate. So what range does your company have budgeted for this job?” If they push you for a range and you’d like $75K, you could state a range with your desired salary in the middle – like “$50K to $100K.”

SLIDE 16: The Power of Silence When Offer Is Made Silence is a very powerful tool – it can prompt the employer to share more information, restate their position or try to guess what your position is. When employer mentions a range – like $40K-$50K, repeat the top figure and use silence, “$50K – Hmmm…” Wait for the employer to speak – they may assume that figure is low so they may raise it. If they don’t raise it, now may be a good time to use your salary research document.

SLIDE 17: Other Negotiable Items Beyond Salary Keep in mind that if an employer doesn’t meet your salary requirements, there are other possibilities for negotiation to make their offer more attractive including: title, benefits, bonus, vacation, flexible work schedule or location, travel, professional development/education, and timing of first review.

SLIDE 18: References In closing, here is a list of references used throughout this session for further information. Asher, D. (2014). Who gets promoted, who doesn’t and why. New York, NY: Ten Speed Press. Barnes-Hemsworth, K. (2010). How to get the raise you want in 90 days or less. Ocala, FL: Atlantic Publishing Group. Hopkinson, J. (2011). Salary tutor. New York, NY: Business Plus. Rezvani, S. (2012). Pushback. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

SLIDE 19: Final Thought We leave you with this final thought. Action speaks louder than words. As Vince Havner said, “The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs.” Best of luck to you as you take these steps to advance your career.

[This text is provided in a rough-draft format in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.]