Junior to Senior

When it comes to career advancement, one of the hardest transitions is from junior level to senior level. This isn't because the change in responsibilities is difficult, but because this is the first significant change in someone's career and they usually don't have a full understanding of what it takes to make the transition.

When talking about junior roles vs senior roles, each company could have different titles and number of positions between those levels. For instance at one company, you might find it easy to progress through titles of Analyst I, Analyst II, and Analyst III, but then feel like your career hits a wall because your current company considers Analyst IV to be a protected senior position. At another company, they may only have positions of Analyst and Senior Analyst. Regardless of how many steps there are between them, this episode is focused on that transition from junior to senior level roles.

Those early promotions are often some of the fastest in your career. Back in Episode 017, I discuss the Corporate Ladder (https://www.managingacareer.com/17) and rough timelines that people are typically at each rung. Promotions within the first few years of your career are often driven by just growth in skill and competence at your role and being capable of taking on more work. When your company has several titles within the junior level, you may even receive promotions every year or two setting unsustainable expectations for the rest of your career.

It's these expectations and the fact that the role is changing that makes this transition exceptionally difficult. Those making the transition often don't have the corporate maturity to understand the fact that what has worked in the past is not what will work now. This leads to a situation where a person attempts to take on more and more tasks and gets frustrated when that doesn't lead to the desired promotion.

Why this approach doesn't work

When you are making the transition from junior level to senior level, it becomes more important to take on the right tasks and not focus on more tasks. If you are just taking on more tasks, you will eventually find yourself spread too thin which means that your ability to deliver will be impacted and your previously strong performance reviews may begin being impacted -- compounding the problem of obtaining a promotion. Alternatively, if you maintain your performance levels, it could come at the expense of your work/life balance or your mental health, all leading to burnout. You might also lead people to have the perception of your lack of strategy or focus if the additional tasks you take on do not represent your core responsibilities and don't align with the goals of the company. So, if taking on more work is not the path to advancement, let's define what it means to take on the right work.

The biggest change from junior to senior is changing your focus from the work at hand to understanding the why of the task and how that work fits within the overall process. It's this shift towards more Strategic Thinking (see Episode 049 for more thoughts - https://www.managingacareer.com/49) that shows that a candidate is acting more senior in their approach. Focus on these higher level tasks that have the most impact on the wider, organizational goals.

As you move up the tiers -- junior to senior to management to executive -- you work shifts from doing to influencing and impacting; you shift towards being a force multiplier. When you are task focused, your efforts produce results in a one-to-one ratio. But, there are some ways that you can become a force multiplier where your efforts have a much larger impact. By mentoring your coworkers who are less knowledgeable or experienced, the effort spent helping your teammates grow is multiplied by their increase efficiency. Another way is to work to remove roadblocks that your teammates face allowing them to complete their tasks sooner.

The final capability you should exhibit in order to be viewed as ready for a senior role is to show leadership skills. Being a leader doesn't mean being a boss. It's about being a thought leader as much as it is about leading people. There may be opportunities to show leadership by delegating some of your tasks. This can be a chance to show how you can grow trust and encourage collaboration within a team. But, more likely than not, leadership when you are junior looking to transition to senior means that you are starting to show thought leadership. This could be through learning about upcoming technologies and how they can be applied in your field. Or, it could possibly be about bringing new ideas on how to optimize the processes you support, bolstered by a larger understanding of how your work impacts the business.

Next steps

So, as you look to transition to more senior level work, evaluate the work you do and where it fit within the bigger picture. Prioritize things that have higher impact and look for opportunities to say "no" to things that do not. Sign up for activities that allow you to show your leadership abilities.

Additionally, review some of the past episodes of this podcast where I talk about additional strategies.

Episode 030 - Getting Ahead By Saying "No" - https://www.managingacareer.com/30
Episode 026 - Should You Be Promoted? - https://www.managingacareer.com/26
Episode 006 - Is Your Work Important? Is it Urgent? - https://www.managingacareer.com/6
Episode 003 - Mentoring - https://www.managingacareer.com/3

The promotion to senior level is one of the hardest for someone to achieve, but a career coach can help you work through the transition. If you need a career coach, reach out to me via the Contact Form at ManagingACareer.com (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/). I'll schedule an introductory session where we can talk about your career goals and determine if we would be a good fit for coaching. If we are, we can arrange regular sessions to help you put your career on the fast track to advancement.

Are you looking for a career coach? If you reach out to me via the contact form, I will arrange an introductory session where we can talk about your career goals and how I can help. If we're a good fit, we can schedule regular coaching sessions.