Archive for February, 2022

I know someone who spent years working for an electrical company, starting as a journeyman and working his way up to the to a chief foreman, the top role on the union side of the business. He eventually wanted to move from the union to the management side of the company to continue to grow and advance his career.

He was successfully running large commercial jobs worth millions of dollars and was already performing some of the tasks that the senior project manager is supposed to do. But when he pitched his company to hire him in that capacity, they refused. They said he could only move to management if he started at the very bottom, as an assistant. It would have been a huge pay cut and taken years to move up to the role that he was already capable of.

He very quickly met with a competing electrical company, Prime Electric, and was offered a senior project management role. The people that interviewed him looked at his resume of high-value jobs and got references from people who had great things to say about his work. They saw that he was qualified for the role and that his experience would help them win bids on future projects. Some of those references were given before he spoke to anyone at Prime…one executive makes it a habit to find out who is respected on large jobs in the Seattle area.

I won’t name his former company, but am happy to give a shout-out to Prime as an example of a company that has a practice of hiring people with aptitude and providing opportunities for existing employees to develop.

The former company has lost two other employees to Prime that I’m aware of. One was stuck in an assistant role while performing project manager duties – but they wouldn’t promote her because she didn’t have a construction management degree. Prime hired her, and now she’s the project manager for a multi-million dollar, big-name building. Another person wanted the chance to develop a specialized segment of the business – but they wouldn’t permit it. Prime hired him, and now he’s able to live up to his potential while growing the business.

The former company is still in business, but Prime has continuously expanded, creating even more opportunities for employees.

It’s incredibly shortsighted for companies to underestimate what their employees are capable of and limit their opportunities for advancement. Instead of building morale and creating loyalty, they must replace great employees just to maintain their current rate of business. It’s also ridiculous for hiring managers to insist that candidates come from the same role that they are hiring for, instead of seeking out candidates with the aptitude to excel.

When you’re researching companies as part of a job search, you might not find a lot of public information about how well companies hire and develop staff based on their capabilities, but you can get this information during interviews.

Ask if there are policies and practices in place that help employees advance their careers. An interviewer at Prime would be able to describe a mentorship program, a “university” where staff can learn what skills are needed for various roles, and explain that managers are evaluated partially on staff development. You can also ask if the interviewer’s colleagues were hired from outside the company or promoted from within.

It is worth probing if there is a culture of employee growth and development. Instead of needing to job-hop to advance, you could be building your career from your first day on the job.