Overview of Stages of Career Growth

[Psihusky]

Overview of Stages of Career Growth

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This isn't a guide but is useful those looking to progress in roles and real life careers.

Introduction

I wasn't sure if this was better as a guide or not, it's off-topic but it's relevant within our community and any jobs you may be looking at getting, or wanting career growth. So hopefully you find something useful out of it.

The pay is a guide as typically you're not able to move up to the next pay level until you have a certain skill set.

This is also a very high level overview, if people are interested in this type of content I'll look to fleshing it out a bit more.

Stage 1 (30K-50K)

When you first start your career, your success is defined by following directions and how well you do that.

But you're never going to be able to make it to Stage 2 unless you can learn what needs to be done and start doing it on your own without being told.

Stage 2 (50K-75K)

Stage 2 is about seeing and solving problems. You have to be able to see what do I need to do and accomplish those things with just having the broad outcomes defined to you by a manager.

So this requires you to really put steps in place and a plan in place to get something over the finish line.

Stage 3 (75K-100K)

Stage 3 is an interesting transition for people because here you practise independance, and Stage 3 is learning to rely on people again, but for a different reason. You're not asking them what to do, you need other experts in other fields in order to get the input you need to make really good decision, and it's a hard transition for some people to ask someone else, they feel like it's a sign of weakness but it isn't.

Remember before we get to Stage 4 which is a Director level, you really have to be able to surround yourself with people and not be afraid to ask when you don't know something.

Stage 4 (100K-200K)

Stage 4 is typically reserved for when you become a director, you're managing a team, or you're a pretty high level individual contributor. Either way, you have to be able to at this stage be able to be comfortable with conflict. That means you don't put it off, you don't slow roll it, you're not afraid to have conversations with people that think differently than you, and you have to be adept at being able to get people to  agreement and get over the finish line on conflict.

You cannot be a senior senior person in an organisation if you can't do that, because it's fraught with conflict.

Stage 5 (200K+)

Stage 5 is really reserved for VPs, Senior VPs, Chief Executives. This is a really tough role for a lot of people. It requires you to get buy-in, to sell your ideas and to create champions for your ideas so they can get support. You really are a salesperson of sorts, because you have to sell the ideas you need funding for so they can be prioritised and done in a company.

You also have to really start thinking ahead, not just a week, not just a couple of months, but you're building budgets a year in advance and you can't be managing day to day, you're managing for the future. And that's a really hard transition for some people.

 

Credit: @jobdoctortessa

Discussions

What stage are you at? Where would you like to see yourself grow to? Are you happy at a certain level?

I personally with my own business and the community feel I'm am at Stage 3 and looking to Stage 4.

For those in Leader roles on the community, I'd be liking them to look at Stage 3 and Stage 4 as well.

If this sort of stuff interests you, and you'd like to learn skills for your career or to help you within the community, check out our Free Online Soft-Skill Courses offer, that gives you access to over 350 unique courses here:

Look forward to your thoughts.

Cheers,
Psihusky