4 Effective Ways to Get Ahead in Your Career

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

All things considered, you really enjoy going to work. You like the hours, the commute is pretty short, your supervisors are supportive and you even hang outside of work with several of your co-workers.

What you are not that excited about are the tasks that you are asked to do and your salary.

After giving it a lot of thought, you’ve decided it’s time to advance your career. To do this, it is worth examining the most effective ways to get ahead, and then deciding which option you want to pursue. Here are four approaches to consider.

Tenure

When you hear the term tenure, you might understandably think of professors at universities being granted tenure. But as Indeed notes, it can also be a way for a company, not just a college, to strengthen a bond with the employee and the business. Basically, tenure allows an employer to commit to an employee who has been there for a long time and/or proven him or herself at work.

If you have been with your company for some time, you might ask if being tenured is an option; it can secure a position and may help you to take on new responsibilities.

SEE ALSO: What Is LinkedIn? How To Use This Powerful Social Tool

Consider an Advanced Degree

Another way to get ahead in your job is by going back to school for an advanced degree. For instance, if your career is in finance, accounting, communications or pretty much anything relating to business, enrolling in a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program would be a good choice for you. Granted, you will have the expenses related to school, and these should be taken into consideration, but also know that the MBA starting salary is not exactly chump change. The median base salary for new MBA graduates is $105,000 a year; this rises to an average of $301,000 three years after earning the advanced degree.

If you decide that you’d like to work at a different company, it is also worth noting that 78 percent of startups plan on hiring recent MBA graduates and 75 percent of companies plan on placing MBA hires into mid-level positions.

Ask for More Responsibility

Sometimes, bosses assume that their employees are happy with their current roles. Ask for a meeting with your supervisor and explain how you really like working with him or her at the company and that you want to take on more responsibilities. If possible, come up with a few specific tasks that you would like to learn and do; you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that someone in one of those roles just gave notice and your boss will be happy to train you to do the new tasks.

Improve Your Work Ethic

Working full-time in a company that is not providing you with meaningful tasks or a great salary might be impacting your performance more than you care to admit. To get ahead in your career, do everything you can to demonstrate your strong work ethic. As Cleverism notes, manage your time wisely by being punctual and having a great attendance record. Of course, there will be days when you are ill and should not go in, but if you are experiencing car trouble, phone your boss to explain the situation and ask if you can work remotely that day.

Showing respect is also a trait that indicates a strong work ethic; working with difficult clients and being stressed by deadlines is no excuse to treat others poorly, so do what you can to stay calm, diplomatic, and kind.

SEE ALSO: Simple LinkedIn Guide

You Will Reach Your Goals

While you are fortunate to like many things about your place of employment, you deserve to be really happy in your career and get the fair compensation you deserve. By looking to see if tenure is an option at your company, going back to school for your MBA, requesting to be trained for more responsibilities and having an impeccable work ethic, you should be able to advance in your career.