Career Advancement

[Mandy]

What steps have you taken in your professional career to advance yourself within a company?  Job hopping, learning new software, acquiring advance degrees, getting licensed or all of the above?  Interested in hearing your stories. 

[Elizabeth Renton]

I would say almost all of the above! Everything except getting the advanced degree. In my 4 years out in the working world I’ve really tried to delve in to all the stuff they don’t teach at school…networking with other professionals, learning about subject matter not directly included in landscape architecture, emerging green technologies, etc. I passed the LEED exam, and have one section of the LARE left to pass. I would say I’ve done all this not so much ‘to advance myself within a company’, but more just to advance myself within the profession. There’s still so much left to learn, and I think it’s a good thing to always keep learning something new.

If you’re more interested in taking steps to advance in a particular company, i suppose it’s most important to find out what the company really values in its employees. Talk to your supervisor and find out what skills are necessary to complete his/her work. Get an idea of what position you’d like to achieve, and start practicing those tasks. Once you’ve demonstrated that you’re capable of fulfiling those needs I’m sure you would be advanced to that position!

[Cliff See]

hi i’m cliff, although i dont work for a firm at the moment either, i would say a good way to advance yourself “within a company” then of course is taking on responsibility that others don’t want, you will get promoted and be admired for taking on tough challenges.

it also depends on your taste, and where you want to commit your skills, maybe its project oriented, maybe marketing skills, maybe in people management… but it would appear the larger the company, the more room for your ambitions to grow.
take care 🙂

[nca]

From my very limited experience and humble experience working in a two-person office I have come to believe there is only one way of true advancement within a firm–bringing in work.

I think there will always be room for small raises with added responsibility, dedication, and workmanship, but true advancement comes when you bring in new clients or clients depend specifically on you. In my opinion, you can even do this without passing the LARE, becoming LEED accredited, or adding a masters, but that’s just my opinion of course.

[Mandy]

Really good advice!

[Mandy]

I agree, but how does one become the “rainmaker”?

[Author]

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