6 Steps to a Career Worth Celebrating

You landed your dream job… now what?  

You’ve worked hard submitting applications, networking, and interviewing… and now you’re in! 

The impression you make within the first several months in a new company (or new role/team) can set your career trajectory.

Now is the time to leverage the momentum you’ve built up in taking the next step toward the future you dreamed of.

How do you go about it?  Take these 6 Steps to Build a Career Worth Celebrating

#1 Excel in your Role

Your road to a career worth celebrating starts with excelling in your role.

My favorite piece of advice to give to anyone starting a new job is to go all-in for the first 6-12 months. Work hard and put in the extra effort to make a strong first impression across your team and the organization.

The work you put in early on to become recognized as a solid performer will make your life much easier in the later months/years of your career. You’ll be offered more support, resources, and opportunities to grow, setting you on a trajectory toward the career and future you want. 

Some things you can do to excel in your role:

• Understand the core expectations of the role and work hard to exceed them
• Put in the extra time to quickly learn your company’s product/services
• Practice! For example, if you’re in a sales role, that means practicing your pitch, your presentation delivery, etc. over and over again until you’re great at it
• Go above and beyond for your customers and teammates

Andy, who went from Music Teacher to Sales Engineer, is an excellent example of someone taking these steps. He worked very hard to make his career transition and quickly landed a fantastic role at a great company. Once he started in his new role, he continued to work hard, doing everything he could to ramp up quickly, learn the product he’d be selling, and establish relationships with team members.

His hard work has been paying off in a big way, as he’s already won awards as a top performer on the team. He’s put himself on a strong upward trajectory for the rest of his career, which has helped him move towards his goals of enjoying his career, spending more time with his family, and having financial freedom.

#2 Build Internal Relationships

Careers are built on relationships. You need strong relationships to help you learn, be productive in your role, and advance in your career. And having good relationships can make work more fun and fulfilling.

To cultivate solid internal relationships, start with the people you work with directly. This includes your manager, teammates, and others you work with within your organization.

For example, if you’re a sales engineer, forming relationships with product managers, engineers, and product support specialists will help you be more effective in your role. When you’re working on a big sales opportunity, you’ll likely need their help to win the deal. If you have those relationships established, you’re more likely to get the assistance you need.  

Next, begin building relationships with colleagues across the company who you don’t work with directly. Join cross-functional committees, employee resource groups, and attend social events to meet people around the company. Be intentional about reaching out to people to network. Set up coffee chats to learn more about them personally, their role in the company, and how you could potentially collaborate and support each other.

#3 Be visible & Broaden Impact

Once you’re excelling in your role and expanding your internal network, visibility will start to happen, and your impact will be noticed. But you should also be intentional about making yourself visible and broadening your impact across the company.

You do this by identifying ways to go above and beyond the base expectations for your role. For example:

• Take on a project to improve a process for your team
• Volunteer to work on a cross-functional initiative
• Host a training session for your team on a topic you’re interested in
• Present at a company-wide meeting or at a conference!

Be sure to share your interest in doing more with your manager. That way, when opportunities become available you’ll be the one they call on.  

When I was an implementation consultant at Apptio, I told my manager I wanted to work on big projects and I wanted to travel. When the next significant (and highly visible) project came up, he put me on it. I got the opportunity to work on a project that took me around the world.  Shortly after that project, I was provided an opportunity to work in London, working with customers across Europe. These opportunities provided me with an incredibly unique experience and the most memorable two-year span of my career. And because the project was highly visible across the organization, it helped me get promoted twice in that time span.

This is just one example, and I recognize that not everyone wants to relocate or travel. However, if you position yourself well, countless doors will open for you, and you’ll have your choice of which ones to walk through based on what you enjoy and where you want to take your career. There are many different types of opportunities that you could be offered, such as promotions, taking on a completely new role, or even doing the opposite of working by earning the opportunity to go on a multi-month sabbatical!

The more visible you are, the more opportunities you’ll be offered.

#4 Keep Learning

This one might be obvious, but its importance cannot be overstated. Especially in the Tech industry, where innovation evolves at an extreme pace, you have to be constantly learning to stay ahead of the curve.

Your company will provide you with the bare minimum with regard to training and skills development.

You’ll want to supplement your learning by:

• Being coachable & seeking out feedback
• Subscribing to publications/newsletters related to your space (e.g. Cybersecurity)
• Setting aside funds each year to invest in training or external programs (some companies will reimburse you or provide a stipend for external education)
• Finding a mentor (internal & external) who can give you insights or share resources with you that you may not be considering

#5 Develop External Network

Quickly going back to #3 - Build Internal Relationships, your internal network will turn into your external network as people leave your company or when you move on to another company.

But don’t rely on that natural transition alone because developing your external network is how you take your career to the next level.

It takes intentionality - putting in more effort and energy into going outside of your day job to build relationships beyond your current company.

Ways that you can do that include:

• Join online or local professional communities. The main reason people join communities is to learn and network with others. They’re great places to meet like-minded folks who are eager to connect and collaborate.
• Reach out to people on LinkedIn and set up virtual coffee chats.

Your external network also gives you an outside perspective that can help you do your job better. For example, you’ll learn innovative ways of doing things that you might not get from inside your company.

Cultivating your external network will open doors for you that you wouldn’t expect.

#6 Mentor & Coach Others

You don’t have to be an experienced executive with 20 years of career experience to be a mentor. No matter how much experience you have, there’s always someone who can learn from you and who you can support in their journey.

An easy way to do this is by supporting new hires on your team or throughout your company. There are also numerous external programs that are always looking for volunteers to act as mentors and coaches. 

Gaining experience mentoring and coaching people will also help you get promoted into management if you’d like to take that career path someday.

A career worth celebrating is one that is full of meaningful relationships. Giving back, sharing your experiences, and supporting others make a career incredibly fulfilling.

Summary

There you have it. The 6 steps you can take to build a career worth celebrating:

1. Excel in your role.
2. Build internal relationships.
3. Be visible and broaden your impact.
4. Keep learning.
5. Develop an external network.
6. Mentor and coach others.

By following these steps throughout your career, you can create an impactful and fulfilling career that you can be proud of.

Keep pushing forward. I’m rooting for you!

Yuji

If you could use help landing your next AE or SE role, we can help! Apply to work with us 1-on-1. We'll personally reach out to chat about how we can help you accelerate your job search.