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I was going to call this "Intent to move up in a global organization" but I want to get a few steps from the audience here, so I decided to cal it Steps instead.  I have been a really big fan of Manager Tools for a few years now, but never got to subscribe to their forum. So this is my first post.

I have worked in management for the last 10 years.  Mostly in small or medium size companies.  Recently I switch jobs, to a bigger, global company. In order to do that I had to step down from a Director position (with many hats) to a Project Manager (more focus) position. My intent from the get-go was to move up, but I wanted to learn the culture and at the time of my decision, I knew this company mostly hire management positions from inside.

One of the managers is taking a directors position, and I am intending to approach him and let him know of my interest in interviewing for his current position. I already let my manager know of my interest.  He has been aware of my interest since before I joined.

My question, is simple. What steps do I take to make sure the status quo don't persist?

Thanks, Geo

mmann's picture
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 Hello Geo,

Thank you for joining the forums!

Your question is a broad one.  Without details on "the status quo" it would be hard to say more than, get the manager position and practice the trinity.  Is there something about the status quo that you're not content with?

 

--Michael

 

geo_'s picture

Status Quo is good, not much to complain.  My projects are going well, management seemed happy with me and the projects.  I am working on some auto-improvements for my management skills. I am enjoying the journey, nothing that will be categorized as not content.

To make my question narrower, I should say that I am looking on ways on how to break the news that I am actually pursuing this position.

First, I already let my manager know.

Second, I was thinking of reaching to the person leaving the position (he is going up to director level), to know who is going to be in the interview panel. 

Third, I am going to get practicing on my interview skills. 

I wanted to get a set of steps or bullets that will keep me focused.

Thanks for the question, Geo

Mark's picture
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Let your boss know you're interested.  Tell him how much, and why, and be ready to explain why you'd be good at it.  Find out what you can about the process, and who might be involved. 

And sure, I recommend the interviewing series - it will help you prepare the content of your answers, as well as the delivery of the answers.

Good luck!

Mark

jclishe's picture

IMO, the size of the company has a pretty substantial impact on the appropriate behavior here. Yes, there are some basic fundamentals that will apply across the board, but the larger the company, the harder you need to work at building and executing your career development plan.

I recently (~2.5 years ago) moved from a 14 year career in 3 different medium sized businesses (less than 1000 employees), to a Fortune 50 company (~90,000 employees, ~$55B in revenue). It was quite a culture shock and took a substantial amount of coaching from my manager for me to wrap my arms around how I need to plot my career at my new employer.

At my new company, job pursuits are communicated pretty openly. In a company this large, you must build a wide network and you need to communicate your future role interests throughout your network, they are your feelers. When a job gets posted that you might find interesting, you want to be in a position where you have other people - even your boss -  thinking of you when they see the posting. It's likely that the hiring managers' directs will know of the opening before it gets formally posted, so ideally you want to be in a position where one of the directs says "hey boss, I know a guy that's looking for a position like this and I think he'd be a great fit on the team." You're immediately bubbled to the top of the 50 other resumes that land on the hiring managers desk. But this only happens if you've already put in the work and cast a big net when communicating your interests to your network. Heck, I know the next 2 positions that my boss wants. He's very prescriptive about how he's laid out his career plan, he's been very successful with it so far, and he openly communicates it with us (his directs) and uses it as a sample framework for our own career discussions.

And then once you make it past the phone interview and land a face to face interview, it's common for the candidate to reach out to as many people as possible that interface with the team you're applying for, and with the hiring manager, to gather as much background info about the role as possible.

I realize all of this doesn't directly answer your question, but the indirect answer is that if you've done your legwork than you won't need to think about who you should "break the news to". Everyone that needs to know will already know because they're already involved in helping you get the position. Heck, I know the next 2 positions that my boss wants. He's very prescriptive about how he's laid out his career plan, he's been very successful with it so far, and he openly communicates it with us (his directs) and uses it as a sample framework for our own career discussions.

But in smaller companies this approach may not be as effective, and quite frankly may even be frowned upon and/or seen as campaigning. But the larger the org, the more necessary this becomes. Just because your company is global doesn't necessarily mean it's large.

Jason