It’s possible to climb the ladder faster than you think. For most entry level jobs, I believe that you should only be in that role between 1-2 years. If you stay shorter than 1 year, you may appear uncommitted. Stay longer than two years and you’re likely to get bored and your productivity will decrease.

There are five primary stages to the promotion s curve. They are:

1. Training
2. Building
3. Growth
4. Mastery
5. Stagnation

The best way to get promoted is to always jump to the new job before you reach the stagnation phase. You’re chances of getting promoted are highest during the growth and mastery phases. Promotions become less and less likely the longer you stay in the stagnation phase.

Picture an S curve. When you start in a new job, you start at the bottom left on a nearly horizontal line. For the first couple months you will struggle just to wrap your head around what you need to be doing. You’ll have a mountain of names, projects, and processes to learn. After a few months though it will start to click and you’ll find yourself being able to start adding real value to the organization.

As your learning curve starts to move more towards vertical, life gets exciting. During the growth phase, you’ll be of most worth to your team and you’ll learn the most. Because your previous job is still fresh in your mind, you’ll be able to make new connections and come up with innovative new solutions. Your excitement will be contagious as you feel yourself developing each day.

The excitement phase can last anywhere from 12-18 months depending on the level of complexity and variety in your job. At some point you’ll enter the mastery stage. You’ll notice that people will start coming to you first when they have a question. You might also perhaps find yourself in a team lead role.

Your chances of promotion will be highest during the mastery phase. If you do it right, you’ll find ways to delegate the more repetitive aspects of your job to others while you focus on more complex problems. This is good for you as well as your business. It is at this phase when you want to be actively looking for new opportunities and marketing your WSPs to leadership.

If you wait too long, the organizational politics, limitations of resources, and the repetitiveness of the job will start to get to you. As soon as this happens your productivity will start to drop as you become increasingly more jaded and bored. If this happens you will become a burden to your team. Management will also start to notice. If this happens, you’ll become less and less desirable as a candidate for a promotion.

Also the longer you stay in a job, the more that particular position becomes part of your identity. It will be harder to leave because you’ll get comfortable. The organization also won’t want you to leave because you’ll have a mountain of organizational knowledge in your head that they won’t want to lose.

Is it impossible to move after you hit the stagnation phase? No, but it just becomes increasingly difficult.

What stage are you in? What stage would you like to be in? If you’re ready to take the next step in your career, let’s get in touch and start making a plan to help you achieve your next promotion.