You’re growing tired of the daily routine and want the challenges your job once held to return, the current workplace is a dream come true and you don’t particularly want to move elsewhere, so you’re after the elusive promotion. Unfortunately, there aren’t many people that don’t want a promotion, but the majority won’t actively seek the next step. How can we change that desire into a pursuit?
Grasp if the wanted role is for you
There’s no point longing for promotion into a job you’d be completely useless within. Take yourself back to the day you applied for your current role, what skills and experience earned you the position in the first place? What skills have you gained since then?
Brainstorm what you can do to improve upon those skills and what sort of role they would match, plenty of promotions come from being ‘too experienced’, so become the best in your position and you’ll likely be asked to do the same elsewhere.
Check if there are any vacancies
It’s incredibly easy to overlook the basis. Your second step to promotion is to check if the position you’re after is actually needed; if Jim already has the job and is performing well, why would anyone promote you to do exactly the same role?
Treat promotion as if you were amongst the sea of unemployed people, thankfully you were born as the brightest tropical fish near the shoals of cod, so you’ll have a noticeable advantage over your competition just by already being part of the company, use it to your advantage.
Analyse your past performances
Remember when you secured THAT deal? Use your free time to break down everything that made it exceptional, get the cold-hard facts down on paper and use them as proof of your 
superiority. Write yourself a post-project debrief and take yourself back to school by assessing what worked well, how you went about everything, what you’d do to improve – you get the point.
Do this with some of your biggest achievements (hopefully within the current company) and have the document sneak its way to your boss.
Brag
There’s a fine line when bragging about your achievements. We’re not saying you should be writing a Facebook status and tagging everyone within the company so they’re aware of it, just simply passing any good feedback you’ve received from clients or colleagues onto your boss will do the job; people may even actually like you after, who’d have thought?
If you’re the sort of person that wants to buy everyone a round because of deal you’ve just made, be my guest, but don’t expect it to encourage a promotion.
Help out around the office
If a few of your colleagues have been saying you should all go out for drinks, or for a work trip away, become the person that organises it all, If the printer is out of ink, refill it – Become the person that goes the extra mile to assure the workplace remains efficient and happy.
If you’re going for a managerial role, this is proof that you can organise and manage a group of people, albeit on a smaller scale. Not to mention it makes it look as though it was your idea from the start, so if your boss receives the invite from you, it’ll be you they thank for it.
Network
Introduce yourself to people all over the organisation, make your face one everyone will recognise and become ‘that guy’ to anyone that doesn’t already know you. Outside of the company, get yourself known by creating a blog or growing your social media profile, attend networking events and assert yourself as an integral part of your company. If you can prove you’re a worthy representative of company, promotion may edge closer.
Ask
If all else fails, just ask. Your boss may not even be aware you’re actually after a promotion so hasn’t approached you about it, there’s nothing wrong with being forward about your intentions and as long as you’re doing your current job to the highest possible standard, it’s unlikely you’ll be laughed out of the room.
Remember these are only a few of many tips to follow when seeking a promotion, there’s no way anyone can guarantee you’ll start moving up the career ladder upon following these simple steps, but they’ll certainly go a long way to helping you achieve it. Go get ‘um!
