You worked very hard in your job and surpassed every metric that your boss had stated. Your boss always wanted you by his/her side for key presentations and even asked you to make the selling given your communication skills. You participated in every important event in the organization and helped organized these events. You took leadership roles. You were a great citizen of your organization and everyone thought very high of you. They acknowledged how wonderful it is to work with you.
You are on Cloud Nine and everything is going smoothly as planned. You are now dreaming being promoted to the next level with a big paycheck. You also realized none of the peers had accomplishments like you on paper and you were a natural heir to the next level.
Then reality hits you. Someone you knew who socialized with the senior bosses and key customers gets promoted with a huge raise. There was nothing wrong with that person but you and others knew that his/her performance wasn’t that exceptional even though that person was closer to the powerbase.
You drive home dejected thinking that your bosses were unfair and the world is unfair to you. You question your own ethics and motivation to give everything you had for the organization. You are tending to become cynical. Yes, you will lose sleep over this and whine to peers why no one ever asked you what you wanted. You wonder how someone like you with great track record be ignored like this. You are now getting angrier by day and complain endlessly to colleagues.
Sadly you realize colleagues distance themselves from you except for a few who think like you that the system is unfair.
You recollect that famous quote – “You are judged by the output and not by the input” and you scream out loud that neither matters!
Welcome to reality! It takes more than satisfying the metrics within an organization. You are not promoted for meeting or surpassing the metrics, but how well you are connected to bosses and key people outside the firm. Your influential champion inside the firm will fight for you and gets you promoted in a competitive world. You have to ask how many times did you spend time outside hours with bosses on golf courses or in social setting. You have to make your intentions known at the right time to your champion and bosses.
For some my above advice is depressing. But wake up and realize this is how the world works J It is the mindset of what you want and work towards that. You have to recognize that system can be unfair, but will most likely be fair for those who play the game well.
Congratulations on your graduation and wish you the best! And, always remember “What Starts Here Changes the World!” Now go conquer the world. Remember to give back J