Go where your skills are valued

Swtizerland, 1998.

When I started working in the business world, I quickly learned that one thing I loved doing was mentoring my co-workers, both those who reported to me and others in the company.  I would help them develop their skills, advance their careers, and generally increase their contributions to the company.  I quickly became quite good at it.  The only problem was, the company I was working for didn’t put much value on developing its employees, so when it came time for my performance reviews, all the hard work I had done mentoring wasn’t taken into account.  My mentoring skills were helping the company, but the company didn’t recognize their value.

Once I realized what was happening, I began to take this problem into account as my career progressed, and steered my future job searches towards companies that valued and rewarded mentoring.  And eventually I founded Core Allies LLC, which is all about mentoring and helping people with their careers.  Finally, I had found a company that put a high value on my strongest skills – even though in my case I had to create the company myself.

Find a company or client that values your skill set.

Different companies and clients value skill sets differently, even in the same industry.  Consider your own position, and ask yourself what skills your company or customers value.  Look at the people being promoted, and observe what got them the promotion.  Examine who is being hired, and figure out why.  Do your boss and other people in management respect or value your skill set?

If you find there is a disconnect between what you contribute to your company, and what your company values, you might be happier finding a new company that puts a higher premium on your skills.  And certainly when you are looking for a new job, you should find out if a potential employer really values all your skills before accepting a position.  Even if you don’t go as far as creating your own company, if you can find a good fit you will have a happier and more successful career.

I had one client at Core Allies LLC, a software engineer, who came to me after constantly being passed over for promotion.  As we reviewed her fit at her current job, it became apparent that her company did not value her greatest strengths.  She was highly talented at tackling difficult programming problems and coming up with elegant solutions.  Unfortunately, her company just wanted her to write code quickly, even if the result was sloppy – they valued speed over quality.  With this insight, she researched other companies that would value her abilities.  After a hard search, she found a new position in a company that didn’t put a short-sighted value on speedy coding.  In her first year at her new company, she earned a valuable employee award.