Climbing up the corporate ladder in a down economy

Don’t let the recession knock you off course

What do you do when your well-thought out career plans come to a screeching halt due to a down turn in the economy? You rethink your strategy and remain agile.

The traditional hallmark of rising in the corporate world has been a steadily increasing salary, along with expanded responsibilities, promotions, and higher-ranking titles. When a company is struggling, raises are expendable, but you still have the opportunity for non-economic gains. If you take it in stride, maintain an optimistic attitude, and assume additional duties without complaint, you will be well positioned to reap the economic benefits when the economy turns around, as it always does.

A sophisticated professional knows you can advance your career in numerous ways outside of income, and looks at the hard and soft markets as natural occurrences and plans accordingly. Pauses in monetary rewards don’t mean your upward career track has to be stalled; when the recession is over you will recover from the temporary economic stagnation. Here are some strategies to employ that will help you stay the course:

• Pursue continuing education and certifications, and finish your degree if you don’t have one yet.
• Join, contribute, and assume leadership roles in industry associations. Make friends with your competitors.
• Assume more difficult or advanced positions, and accept promotions even if there is no salary increase immediately attached to them. You should not be in the same position more than two or three years, so don’t wait for money to be available to move up.
• If you are asked to take on a larger workload or consistently more challenging projects, ask if you can have a promotion, at least by title as compensation. Or, negotiate bonuses based on performance returns.
• Reflect honestly on where you need to improve and make changes. Are you taking care of your appearance and health, keeping up with technology, and embracing web 2.0?
• Maintain an open dialog with your manager. Ask what you can do to make their job easier. Take on as many high-profile projects as you can, particularly if it gives you exposure to other departmental executives.
• If you don’t already have a mentor, establish a relationship with one now. Offer to be a mentor also; you never know who your next boss will be, and it may be someone you influenced on their way up who will remember.
• Keep track of all you achievements, and include them on your resume as you update it periodically.

Your career will take place over most of your adult life, so make sure you take a long-term view while remaining flexible during the inevitable short-term cycles. Think of other roadblocks in your life and the coping mechanisms that worked for you. While they caused despair at the time, now you can reflect back with hindsight and perspective, pleased that you made it through with no permanent negative consequences. Have confidence that with dedication, perseverance, and planning you will keep climbing the ladder of success.

Career Advice with August Cohen of GetHiredStayHired.com
August Cohen is a distinguished Raleigh-based resume writer and career consultant that holds the prestigious Certified Advanced Resume Writer (CARW), Nationally Certified Resume Writer (NCRW), and Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) credentials. August leverages the talents she acquired in her successful corporate career to assist professionals with high-impact resumes, confident interviews, and effective job search strategies.
 

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