When you hit mid career, which you would at some point, the realization would dawn that the hard skills which stood you in good stead so far and got you the job in the first place are simply not enough. You would need additional skills in order to get promoted.
Effective Career Advice
It is quite usual to hire an employee primarily for their hard skills at the beginning of their career. They are evaluated for things that are relevant for the particular career, this continues for a few more years, certain things like the soft wares they have mastered, or the knowledge they have picked up as a newbie, things learnt in college and during internships matter quite a lot as also the technical credentials. The initial hiring is for skills that are significant at that point in time, this is what everybody would share with you as effective career advice.
Skill Evaluation
What nobody would tell you though is the fact that these skills gradually tend to matter less and less as time goes by. Truth be told, early on in your career, you are hired mostly for your skills, and somewhat for your like-ability, till the junior level you are still assessed exclusively on your skills, during mid career, evaluation is not just carried out on your skills and like-ability, another dimension of the ability to get things done is added to it, and when you reach senior level you are exclusively evaluated on the like-ability factor and the ability to get things done.
Get Better as Well as Faster at Your Craft
The above may not be construed as something which renders your technical skills as unimportant. On the contrary constantly working on your technical skills is o f paramount importance. Over the course of a successful career you ought to get better as well as faster at your craft, no matter it is writing, researching designing, coding or maybe something else altogether. Given the import don’t delude yourself into thinking that technical expertise is the only area you need to seek advancement in, you will find growth all the more elusive than you might have expected, if you do so.
Things That Really Count
Fact remains improving your technical skills could surely be enough in getting you promoted from your current level to the next level, however in order to advance higher you would invariably need to show significant improvement in other crucial areas as well. A sure and slow shift towards honing the all important soft skills is quite important, now the next important thing is how to accomplish the same. It starts with the realization of things that really count , towards advancing your career at each stage.
Recipe of Success
Each and every role is inherently different, the secret recipe of success is to invest in the crucial soft skills, essentially it is your ability to get things done, it is all about your leadership qualities, and of course your like-ability at the workplace. You got to enhance your soft skills for career advancement, without losing sight of your hard skills. A simple assessment would be quite helpful, when it comes to your ability of getting things done.
Produce Quality Work
Are you able to produce quality work, well this is tied to your hard skills, and others which are not tied to your hard skills are the ability to work independently and collaboratively, being able to resolve conflicts and meet deadlines. As far as the leadership traits go, you must be able to mentor others, volunteer from time to time, participate in external industry events, taking on and shoulder more responsibilities than is asked of you.
Climb the Career Ladder
Talking of your like-ability, have you been able to build the reputation of a great mentor, as well as a collaborator and a leader, are able to cultivate strong working relationships, gain visibility for your work beyond the eyes of your manager. The moot point is that the farther up you climb the career ladder the more important and decisive these traits would become. Have a game plan for shoring up your soft skills, self assessment is the best thing to begin with, discuss things with your manager and gain currency for climbing the internal career ladder.
Final Words
Go ahead and explore the possible opportunities and that exist for collaboration as well as displaying leadership traits at your current workplace itself. Never shy from assuming more responsibilities at your present position. Bulk up on your soft skills. If your present company values technical skills more than people skills, it’s time to jump ship, in that case find another organization that values your soft skills as much as you do, which is a good match for you as you would be better off at the new place in terms of career advancement and career fulfillment.
