Ask Tammy

Hi Ed,

One possibility, depending on his interests and yours, would be to evolve into even more of a teaching role—about the business broadly, as opposed to the specifics of his current responsibilities.  For example, you might have some sessions on how your company makes money—how the business model works—including reviewing the Annual Report and other financial documents, explaining relevant terms, and thinking together about how the department your mentee works in affects the firm’s performance.  Perhaps you can invite him to spend some time with you in your department, learning more about the work there.  You might bring in articles written about your company, industry or issues that impact your business for discussion—or maybe an article from a management journal or book.  A number of business books today include discussion guides, (including Plugged In, the book I wrote for Gen Y’s—you can download it from this site.)

I hope that helps.  He’s lucky to have you!

Best,

Tammy

Filed under: Generation Y | Published: 05/11/09

Hi AS,

How frustrating!  I’m sorry that your talents aren’t being tapped more fully.

Let’s jump in.  I would guess that you’re in a role that the company simply needs someone to fill—and clearly you’re performing well. The company’s incentive to make you happy by moving you into a broader role is not as great as the need to get the specific work you perform well done.

First, look at the structural options in the company: Are there other people who could move into your role?  Could you offer to train someone?  Is there a logical new role you’d like to take on?  Can you begin developing the skills required to do that well?  In other words, try to make any transition easy for your boss and the company—a “safe” alternative to take on your work and an option for you to move to that you are ready to do well.

Second, look for ways that you can make your current role more interesting.  Is there some type of added value that you can offer?  For example, one summer I had a job in a book bindery—a pretty unchallenging manual assembly-line set of tasks.  But I spent a fair amount of time thinking of ways we could improve the process—making it either easier, faster, or cheaper.  I ended up learning a lot and making a contribution that went beyond what the company had hired me to do.  The key is that I didn’t ask permission to do this; I just did it.  Are there dimensions you can add to your current role that would be interesting for you—and beneficial to the company?

Threatening to leave is not a great strategy, although I think it is important to communicate clearly with your boss and the company more broadly.  Regarding the latter, you may want to talk with your human resource representative, to make sure that your interests are understood by others.  Your tone should be respectful, helpful, and focused on finding a win-win solution:  “I feel ready to take on a more challenging role as soon as the timing is right.  I understand the importance of performing my current role well, and am committed to doing so, but would like to understand your views on when a change might be possible.”  Any smart boss or human resource executive will understand that this sort of discussion also serves as fair warning that you won’t wait forever.

Good luck—I hope you have an exciting career ahead.

Best,

Tammy

Filed under: Interactions with Your Manager | Published: 05/10/09

Dear Dengjing,

Thank you for reading my blog and writing from China.

It is a harder time for even Gen Y’s to find jobs than we’ve seen for many years.  Here is some advice:
If the Gen Y has some financial flexibility (that is, does not have large loans or family support responsibilities), they might look for jobs that are interesting and challenging, but pay less than the salaries older workers may need.  Even if the jobs are not posted, Y’s should still approach companies or organizations that they admire and propose a way they could contribute to the company, at a modest compensation.  Remember to express your proposal in the language of financial returns, as I suggest in Plugged In.  For example, you might propose that for a fee of “X” you would produce results with a value of “Y” for the company.
Alternatively, if the Gen Y has significant financial flexibility, this may be an excellent time to go back to school, perhaps to obtain a masters degree, or to travel, or to do charitable work—in other words, recognize that the next several years are likely to be difficult, and spend them doing things now that you were planning to do at some later point.

Best,

Tammy

Filed under: Surviving in Today's Economy | Published: 12/05/08

Dear W.,

First, congratulations on realizing one of the most important truths of career success—you have to do well what you’ve been specifically charged to do.  I’ve seen so many people make the mistake of jumping into a new project and falling short on their assigned quotas or objectives.  Ironically, even if the same human being “tempts” you in the new direction—let’s say the head of sales asks if you want to sit in on a marketing strategy meeting—you always need to assume that the invitation includes an explicit “and”—that is:  “would you like to sit in AND still meet your sales quota.”

So, that’s the first step.  Knock the ball out of the park in terms of your sales responsibility.  Think of it like collecting chips in the poker game—the better you do at meeting your sales responsibilities, the more chips you have to play with down the road.  Once you’ve proven yourself, I think its completely appropriate to discuss your shifting career interests.  But only after you have a pile of “chips” on your side of the table—chips earned through strong performance against your initial task.

If you were in the tough position of not being able to accomplish your assigned task and wanting to change into something else, that is, frankly, much more difficult.  I guess, in some ways, you would have little to loose in that situation, since one way or the other, you’d be headed for a tough conversation.  It would probably make sense to raise the issue yourself—“I recognize that I’m not excelling at X, but I think I can do Y well”—but the outcome of that move is far from certain.

By far the best bet is to earn the right to ask for something new and different, by doing the first task well.

Good luck,

Tammy

Filed under: Interactions with Your Manager | Published: 12/05/08

Dear King,

I’m delighted to hear that you love your work.  Coming to the U.S. to work can only further your capabilities.  Consulting firms in general are terrific career stepping stones because you have the opportunity to work on a variety of projects across many industries.  You get to see which approaches are most effective in various environments.

First, recognize that there are many consulting firms—of all sizes and specialties.  McKinsey is a wonderful firm, but if you are not able to get a job there, there are many other options.  Think hard about the type of work you’d like to do—lots of data analysis, lots of interviewing or focus group facilitation, teaching, writing—each firm will require a slightly different mix of skills from its new associates. 

Two sources of additional information on the types of firms out there are:

The Association of Management Consulting Firms:  http://www.amcf.org/
The Vault:  http://www.vault.com/nr/consulting_rankings/consulting_rankings

Be sure to do the background research that will allow you to approach each firm with enthusiasm specifically for their type of work.  Provide examples of things you’ve done in the past that are relevant to their type of work.

And enjoy the experience!

Tammy

Filed under: Surviving in Today's Economy | Published: 12/04/08