By Ace Starry
Strategies for Avoiding the Corporate Ladder
by Stepping Into the Elevator
If you remember this picture of me, then you are too damn old to
be reading this article for career advice and I'm sure you've
already followed many of my strategies for personal success
throughout your career. I hope that you took some of my advice in
the past and now enjoying a career at the top of the corporation,
and not still struggling to get there. But for those of you who are
first stumbling on to my career advice in this set of articles
entitled "Elevator to the Penthouse," I hope that the
career advice that I am giving here helps you avoid the pit falls
and traps that await all who enter into the corporate struggle to
the middle.
When I first entered the "real world" of business (about
30 years ago) I started out my career on the bottom of the heap. You
see when I started out in the management business I was hired at the
very bottom, as a leasing agent on an ugly little property in the
wrong part of Houston, Texas. After moving from the glamourous world
of entertainment (professional magician.) I discovered very early on
that I really didn't want to be a leasing agent. No I wanted to be a
corporate mogul. Adopting several strategies, using every trick,
(magic or not) that I knew to work my way up the ladder, I received
my first promotion in less than thirty days. Two and a half years
and six promotions later, I was National Director of Marketing for
one of the largest property management companies in the US. I was in
charge of more than five different regions of the country and 22,000
units. That's not climbin' the corporate ladder. That's takin' the
elevator, darlin'.
Really though, I'm not telling you this to ride the "ego
train" up to the penthouse. (How's that for a mixed metaphor?
trains - elevators?) I just want to lend some semblance of
credibility to my often silly advice so that you might use it and be
grossly successful. Then, after you become a corporate mogul you can
pay me "the big bucks" to come into your company and give
your employees killer motivational seminars. Besides I have nothing
else to do right? So once again you will be blessed with my columns
of sage wisdom and advice on how to sidestep the ladder and make
your way over to the penthouse elevator.
Personal Success Begins with Credibility
I realize that I've written more than you want to read while your
surfing through an endless supply of Internet goble-t-gook. Maybe
you've found this career success article mildly interesting to this
point and are still hoping to find some semblance of career advice
before you just give up and click on the Google ads. Well don't
dispare you've reached that point. Here is some of my famous career
coaching. But not to worry because there are links to even more.
Strategy One: Keep a Digital Portfolio
One of the new strategies for personal success is to create a
digital portfolio. If you're really good, then put it on a web site.
In the olden days it was enough to sit down when inteviewing for a
job to put together a portfolio showing some graphs and letters of
reference. I would include any articles which I had written or had
been published about me. Discriptions of projects which you have
directed and notes of "thank you" all work well in a
portfolio. If you are a creative person, be creative here. But now
move it onto the realm of the digital. So much is possible. In this
day and age you should be able to "Wow" a prospective
employer. Why not take the time that you'd usually be using to watch
re-runs of Jerry Springer and work on a computer presentation about
yourself. Imagine the difference when you are compared with other
canditates who have come in with a copy of their resume. When the
employers says something to the effect of "Tell me a little
about yourself." You say, "Well, here let me show you a
few things I've accomplished on my lap top."
Of course, I'm not talking about things that have no relevance to
the work you'll be performing. If you're future job entails making
computer chips, you probably don't need to show how you nursed a
baby squirrel back to health in the fifth grade. Get my point? So
lets start with creating a portfolio of your accomplishments and
making sure that you keep upgrading it all throughout your working
career. Keep adding the important things and recognitions while
weeding out the less important. When you're up for a promotion, let
the boss know what you've been up to and he/she will be able to
point you to the elevator door.
See you next time.
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