We are in an extremely interesting market for talent lately.
Especially for roles that are in high demand like marketing, product, and project management.
Top talent now has the power to go to a new company or a team that fits their personal and professional goals.
It seems like they are planning on exercising that power too, with 72% of tech workers saying that they are exploring a new opportunity in the next year. In fact, lack of career progression was the top reason stated for leaving.
We are not surprised. The old playbook of career progression was already on its way out the door as the world shifted to a remote-first workforce.
Now it seems even more outdated because of this increased demand for talent. But what are the new rules? No one is really sure yet.
Thankfully, we talked to some of our EIRs recently about the best ways to up-level your role this year.
After chatting with Stephanie Kwok, Ravi Mehta, and Louis Bennett, we crafted a few tips that we think will help you supercharge your career growth.
5 Ways To Boost Your Career Progression
Meet Our EIRs
Louis Bennett is the former VP of Engineering at VSCO, a photo/video app and social network. Prior to VSCO, he was a Head of Engineering at Intercom and Senior Director of Engineering at Trulia.
Ravi Mehta is the CEO & Co-Founder of Scale Higher and creator of the Reforge Product Leadership program. Ravi was the CPO at Tinder, Product Dir at Facebook, and VP Consumer Product at Tripadvisor.
Stephanie Kwok is an Executive in Residence at Reforge. Previously, she was VP of Customer Marketing at FanDuel, where she also held VP roles in Strategy & Operations as well as Engagement & Retention.
1. Building Your Own Career Path
Viewing career progression as “climbing the corporate ladder” is pretty outdated.
That metaphor was likely coined when someone would work for one company their entire career. Those days are well behind us.
Louis, Stephanie, and Ravi all agree that this view of linear career progression needs to be retooled for the current employment climate.
But each of them uses a slightly different career progression visualization:
Stephanie likens it a rock climbing wall
Louis compares it to a jungle gym
Ravi is fond of an escalator metaphor
There isn’t a right way to view career progression, so let’s break each of them down.
The Rock Climbing Wall
Stephanie likes to picture career movement as the act of scaling a rock climbing wall. This approach empowers people to choose their paths, instead of just following linear career growth.
“Sometimes you’re focused on getting to the top. Sometimes you aren’t.”
Rock climbing is also full of terms that could describe a fruitful career.
When you’re bouldering or scaling rocks closer to the ground, you’re laying the tactical groundwork to do steeper climbs in the future.
Stephanie emphasizes, “you may need to make lateral moves, or even shift down temporarily in order to get to that ultimate spot.”
Additionally, when you are rock climbing, it’s not a race to the top. Everyone progresses at a different pace and takes wildly different approaches to get there.
Career progression can be viewed in a very similar light. Instead of trying to race to the top, take the time to plot out a sustainable path to your goals.
You might find you don’t even want to climb to the summit because the cave you found on the way up is much more interesting.
The Jungle Gym
Louis particularly likes the jungle gym metaphor, which was popularized by Sheryl Sandberg in Lean In.
There’s an aspect of fun and an element of exploration naturally built into the idea of treating your career like playground equipment.
You may swing from one function to another as you explore product and marketing, sometimes jumping from one to the other a few times. Or you may stretch yourself and reach for a position that is neither the easiest move nor the surest bet.
Louis says, “the richness behind the metaphor is that you’re not taking prescribed steps. If you’re like my kids at the jungle gym, you may swing for the next bar and totally miss it. You have to get up and try to get back to where you wanted to go. A lot of career advancement is about resilience.”
That resilience to try again is extremely important because even if you do take a big swing and fail, the jungle gym will still be there for you to traverse tomorrow.
The Escalator
Ravi realized the metaphor that best fits his career journey is an escalator:
“I was reflecting on my career and I realized that when I was the most successful, it felt easier than it should have. And when I was the least successful it felt harder than it should have.
Sometimes you’re on an escalator going the right way and with every step you take, you’re getting carried forward.
On the flip side, sometimes you can be in a situation where you’re going up an escalator the wrong way, and every step you take you feel like the escalator is carrying you back down.”
Ravi says something that really helped crystallize the escalator metaphor for him was Bangaly Kaba’s Reforge Blog post, “Impact = Environment x Skills.” We will dive into this amazing formula in the next few sections.
In both the formula and Ravi’s escalator metaphor, the importance of having a supportive manager who can bolster your credibility within an organization is emphasized.
A great manager can make sure your career escalator is running smoothly and in the right direction. They can advocate for you to the rest of the company and make sure you are getting the right resources, training, and more.
But a bad manager will flip the switch on your career escalator and make it seem like you are constantly running uphill. Even if you are doing great work, you may feel like that work is not being recognized, or the impact is not translating into progress toward your professional goals or growth.
As you can see, there are a handful of different ways to look at your career progression. Hopefully, these examples will help you plot out a more fulfilling career and grow strategically over the next few years.
As you navigate complicated career choices, it helps to think through your ideal up-leveling trajectory. The free Career Roadmap template, which is part of the Accelerating Your Career module in our Product Leadership program can help you chart what success really looks like to you.
2. Moving Up Strategically
If you know you want to accelerate your career, the next thing you need to think about is where you’re going to invest your time.
A question that frequently comes up:
Is it better to work at a well-known company with a less flashy role?
Or is it better to take a leadership position at a smaller company?
Like most things, there really isn’t a single answer to this common quandary.
But we think the best answer is: go where you’re going to do your best work.
Ravi says, “Company stage is a critical consideration. Some people thrive at the early stage, and some people love the scale that comes with the later stage. If you like working on products with broad reach, like working with a broad range of people across a large company, and like the idea of honing your craft in a mature product organization, then a big company may be for you. If you like innovating on new products, working at a fast pace, and wearing many hats, then a startup may be a better fit.”
It really comes down to where you think you can make the biggest impact at that point in your career.
That said, Ravi has seen many cases of people who have successful careers in product by spending a few foundational years at a big tech company. In those types of roles, you can absorb how big companies approach product development in a sophisticated way.
From there, you may want to transition to a company that’s growing, but it has to actually be growing.
For product jobs, Ravi recommends you ask your potential employer:
When was the last time you had an idea for a feature?
What did it look like to get it live in the product?
Who were the people involved?
What were the timeframes?
Those types of concrete questions will give you a lot of insights into how a company operates behind the scenes.
Another extremely important factor you may want to consider before joining a company is how deep the bench of talent is. This key insight is commonly forgotten about when interviewing with a new company. Especially when looking to move to a larger brand.
Ravi says, realistically, “you have to consider who is likely to advance ahead of you. If you’re at a well-known company, with a deep bench of talent, you may be exceptionally qualified for an opportunity, but it may not come to you.”
For example, Stephanie was working in marketing at Madison Square Garden before going to FanDuel during a time of rapid growth.
When opportunities came up, she volunteered and was able to expand her scope and influence at a much faster pace than if she’d stayed at her marketing job at Madison Square Garden.
You just need to figure out where you think you can do your best work and make a large impact.
Get this Product Leadership template for free and use the Career Roadmap as a foundation for mapping out your ideal path forward. Apply now for an opportunity to enroll in one of our live programs!
3. Accentuating What You’re Good At
Not every highly motivated and skilled individual in your company wants to become a people manager.
Some people want to be building a product, creating content, or optimizing new processes.
All of those are essential parts of a high-functioning team, yet some of those high achievers see a managerial role as one of the only ways to move up in their careers.
We have already touched on how essential a great manager is, but Ravi believes not everyone has to take that singular path — especially if you don’t enjoy that type of leadership role.
Instead, he says that leaning into the handful of unique skills that set you apart from the pack can help accelerate your career growth.
However, Stephanie feels like she made a mistake by trying to specialize too early, and that her most impactful growth came when she had to take on new responsibilities and challenges. This really allowed her to learn more about other departments, processes, and more.
She goes on to say, the further you move up in a company the harder it becomes to learn the basics of other areas.
Being in a position where you can gain a lot of cross-functional experience and tackle new challenges early in your career will set you up for success later.
So by avoiding specialization too early, you can build a really strong foundation for your career to grow from.
As you continue to move up in your career, your toolbox of skills will continue to expand. But that doesn’t mean that you have to do all of those things at a high level.
You don’t even have to be great at every skill in your toolbox to succeed.
But having a collection of relevant skills will help take some of the pressure off your shoulders at the beginning of your career and allow you to find out what you actually enjoy doing.
The more you’re exposed to the different types of work and job functions, the better you will be equipped for future growth.
This is where the idea of a T-shaped skillset comes into play. This concept has been around for a while, but it still has a lot of value as you plot out your career progression.
Ravi goes on to say: “I think this idea of being T-shaped is a good way to think about how to preserve some of your optionality while also specializing in areas that you are truly great.”
It will likely take some time and hard work to find what you really enjoy doing. A startup is a great place for you to gain a ton of early general experience in your career. There are so many things to be done, so you will be exposed to new responsibilities rather quickly.
Stephanie's experience at FanDuel is a great example of this idea in practice. She joined during a time of rapid growth and was able to supercharge her growth by taking on new responsibilities and teams!
One of the best things that you can do for your career is to take on those new challenges and opportunities when they arise. You never know where they might take you.
4. Finding the Right Environment
Everyone wants to make an impact in their next role, but they don’t realize how important the environment is.
According to Bangaly Kaba, your potential impact should be measured by looking at both the environment and your skills:
Even the most skilled operators and creators won’t make an impact on the company if the environment isn’t right.
Bangaly says that the environment at a company is made up of the variables outside of your control that allow you to do your best work.
Those environment variables include:
Manager
Resources
Scope
Team
Compensation
Company Culture
On the flip side, skills are the things that you can control to drive growth and success.
Those skills variables include:
Communication
Influence
Leadership
Strategic Thinking
Execution
When both the environment is right, and your skills are being put to good use, your impact will soar.
In Bangaly’s equation, he makes a point to empathize that impact is a product of both skills and environment.
No matter how hard you work, if the environment isn’t right for you, your impact won’t be as meaningful.
Ravi takes it a step further by saying:
“I don't think it makes sense, unless you're very early in your career, to spend time in an environment that you don’t like just for the experience of it. In general, I think people will be more successful in environments that are matched to how they like to work.”
Sometimes you just need a new environment to help take your skills to the next level.
We would highly recommend checking out the entire post from Bangaly. In this masterclass of career growth advice, he breaks down exactly how to evaluate each of the variables in the Impact = Environment X Skills framework.
One of the things he outlines in that post is that the MOST important variable in the equation is actually your direct manager.
A great manager can advocate for you, request more resources, help develop your skills, and a whole lot more. The manager is the only environment variable that will actually impact all of the other variables.
All of the EIRs in this article agree that with a great manager, you can accelerate your career growth and accomplish amazing things.
With a supportive manager, you gain a ton of credibility in the company too. They will go to bat for you when you need more resources, team members, or time to work on a project. That confidence that they instill in you can be a massive multiplier when you are at a new company or in a new role.
They also can act, excuse our language, like a “shit umbrella.” Shielding you from the chaos coming from the rest of the company and allowing you to focus on things that actually matter.
It might not be the most eloquent metaphor, but it does paint a powerful picture.
Without that umbrella and support structure, you might not be able to grow in your role because you are too distracted by the daily problems at your company.
So when it comes time to make the jump to a new role, take the time to really evaluate your manager. And don’t get distracted by perks or shiny objects.
5. Speaking Up When You Get the Chance
There are a few pivotal moments that can define your career. When those moments happen, will you be ready?
Sometimes it comes down to being the right person, in the right place, at the right time. Even if you don’t feel like the right person, should you take the risk or stay the course?
Stephanie ran into a similar situation while leveling up at FanDuel. This pivotal moment happened when the company wasn’t doing well and some of the marketing leaders were leaving.
With a lot of new openings in leadership positions, she says she probably could have massively leveled up in that key moment and taken on new teams. But self-doubt got in the way:
“I declined because I thought I didn’t have the right experience, or I thought I didn’t have enough time to do my current job as well as the new job.”
She describes turning that opportunity down as one of her biggest regrets. Yet, she also believes it was one of her biggest learnings because she realized volunteering to take on greater responsibility was probably relatively low risk and high reward.
So, when a similar opportunity came around a year later, and three different departments suddenly required new leadership, Stephanie says she took the opposite approach.
“I raised my hand and said, ‘give me all these other departments to lead. I think I can take this on.’”
She says that although one of those opportunities went to an outside hire, two came to her. She emphasizes that if she hadn’t raised her hand, it wouldn’t have been obvious that she was interested.
It’s really that simple, if you don’t speak up no one is going to know you want to take on a new role or responsibility.
Another place it’s important to speak up is when you are job hunting.
Stephanie says that once you start interviewing, talk to everyone you can at a company.
Try to tap folks in your network who have information about the company because they will likely tell you a lot about their current company. More than you might have even asked for.
Ravi also recommends asking specific, sometimes tough questions to assess how supportive a prospective manager will be. He suggests asking, for example, what it was like the last time they had to let someone go.
If you receive a thoughtful response that suggests the decision was painful, and the result of a careful process, it’s a good indication that they value individuals.
Finally, Louis reflects on how valuable it was to learn that speaking up about what you don’t know can lead to tremendous and rapid growth.
He says, “it’s really helped me to be able to tell someone, ‘I have no idea what I’m doing. Can you help me?’”
When he found himself managing a team based in a different country, he realized he needed people to give him some real guidance. He believes it’s immensely valuable to put yourself “in a position where you can take on advisors,” and to listen to them.
Again, without speaking up how are people going to know you need help?
5 Quick Tips For Career Growth This Year
Let’s quickly recap what we’ve talked about. While there are many ways to up-level your role, it’s useful to consider the following strategies and tips.
Build your own career path. The career ladder is dead, so feel unburdened to start thinking about your journey to leveling up more as a rock climbing wall, a jungle gym, or an escalator. Sometimes you need to take a step sideways or down. Sometimes you’ll feel like it’s easier than it should be. Embrace the journey and don’t fight to ascend a downward escalator when one heading upwards is out there.
Move up strategically. First and foremost, go where you’re going to do your best work, where your skills and interests best align. But, if you’re in a phase of outpaced career growth, consider spending time learning the management and production systems of big companies. Then, take your skills to a place where you can rapidly broaden your scope. Be thoughtful about what opportunities you’re likely to have and the skills you’re likely to acquire.
Accentuate what you’re good at. Early in your career, you might not know what you’re good at yet. Being a generalist in your field at this point can really help set you up for future successes. Exposure to different types of work and job functions will help you figure out what you enjoy doing as well. From there you can double down on building those skills as you work towards a T-shaped skillset and become more of a specialist.
Find the right environment. Bengaly’s framework emphasizes that Impact = Skills x Environment and there are some environmental factors that are beyond your direct control. Before you take on a role, ask difficult questions and assess whether or not your skillset will be valued and your manager will be supportive.
Speak up when you get the chance. Stephanie emphasizes that one of her biggest regrets and learnings arose when she failed to raise her hand for a leadership opportunity that could have accelerated her career. Another time it’s important to speak up is when you’re job hunting: talk to everyone! Finally, as Louis says, telling people you don’t know something and that you need help is liberating, normal, and can lead to an expanded skill set once you get help.
Thanks to Stephanie Kwok, Ravi Mehta, and Louis Bennett for sharing all of these great career progression tips today!
Get this Product Leadership template for free and use the Career Roadmap as a foundation for mapping out your ideal path forward. Apply now for an opportunity to enroll in one of our live programs!
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