Stuck in an entry level position?

Thanks for joining me!

The first thing I would ask you is… What are you doing about it? Are you just waiting for something to happen? Are you thinking… “If I just come in and do my job well something will come my way.”? If this is what you are thinking then you are wrong.

Think about this for a second. Let’s say you are in an entry level position and there are 80 others in this same position with you. When that one supervisor position, that one trainer position, that one quality position opens up, there may be 40 people applying for that one position. Are the odds in your favor? Probably not if you are coming in, doing your job, and going home. You may say, “I’m meeting all of my expectations”. That is great but that is not enough. Those other 40 people are meeting their expectations too. What makes you different? What distinguishes you from your peers? Below are 3 things that you can do to begin to separate yourself from your peers.

Master your current position. 

• I know… above I said that this wasn’t enough. This is true, just mastering your job isn’t enough but if you don’t master your current job all of your extra effort would be for not.
• Master a specific task and be the go to person on your team for that task.
• Make it known to your supervisor that you have mastered this task and you would like to share tips with employees on the team that are struggling with those tasks.

Have a position in mind that you want to shoot for.

• If you don’t have a position in mind that you would like to shoot for then you are wasting precious energy and time in all directions instead of focusing everything in one direction.
• If you don’t know what position you would like to shoot for then do your research. Check out job postings, ask your supervisor what you would be good doing, and even write out pros and cons to see what direction you would truly like to go.
• Don’t worry if you change your mind. You can always refocus if you find something different you would like to go for.

Once you have your position targeted… GO!

• Don’t wait! Your dream position isn’t going to fall in your lap! You need to go get it!
• Make your intentions known to your supervisor.
• Ask them what resources are out there that you can take advantage of.
• Ask to shadow someone in the position you are interested in.

These are some simple things just to get you started. In future blogs we will dig deeper into some of these things and give everyone a guide to getting out of their entry level rut!

Feel free to comment thoughts or questions and I’ll do my best to reply to all of them.

Dale