Page 38 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

years, because that o≠ers the fastest route to accelerate your
career, since every move will generally represent a shift up in
status, responsibility and salary. If you do not move, that does
not mean you’re not succeeding, but the pace of your progres-
sion is going to be slowed down because of it.

On your own – outside any scheduled internal appraisals –
you should always think about your job every twelve months,
reviewing the progress you have made, a kind of annual career

MOT. Every year set yourself a goal for the coming year: taking
on a new responsibility, mastering a new skill. In any task or any
function one year is long enough to demonstrate whether you
can or cannot add value. At the end of each year intellectually
you are ready to take the next step. You don’t leap from being a

sales manager to an MD, or from a P A to the head of HR. But you
set yourself very clear goals for the end of each twelve months
to go to the next level up, one step at a time, and you keep

notching your way forward.
Ask your line manager, ‘What can I do, what do I need to
demonstrate, to progress in this company?’ People admire
employees who add value to the organization. Always ask
yourself, ‘if somebody was measuring my contribution,
what would my scorecard look like?’

‘Do I make a di≠erence within this company? Do I add value
by what I do?’ If the answer is no, it is pretty obvious that

your career development in the company will be significantly
hampered.

26 get the job you really want