| We've all known the person who has the minimum amount of skill get promoted. Skill does not matter. You need the minimum and no more. It doesn't hurt to be exceedingly competent, but not necessary if you want to climb the ladder. If you want to be a one single thing and not rise in the company, but only interested in increasing your particular skill, like programming, that's cool. But the rest of this doesn't apply to you. Communications and being able to meet the right people in the company matter the most to climb the corporate ladder. You didn't come out of the womb programming or doing double-entry accounting. You have to learn all those by an investment of time. In the same manner, you can learn interpersonal skills, but it is just as time-consuming as learning programming and one has to really work at it. But it can be learned. There are a ton of videos online. There are tricks. Like when you first start a job, you do not make friends willy-nilly with the first person who talks to you. You take your time, figure out the power structure in a company - who the powerful people are. Then you set out step by step how to meet them. You can't go around your boss, so that is part of the game is to make yourself noticed in indirect ways. If your bosses bosses boss talks to you first, you are not going around the chain of command - you can't just not answer the person. Depending on how big the company is, it can take years to manuever up the chain. I'm not saying to do this in a dickish way where you backstab or even frontstab people. All you are doing is being sociable, seeing what has to be done, and are noticed by those who need to notice you. Working where you bring dollars in the door is super important. Rainmakers are everyone's friend. So if you are a computer programmer, and can help the sales and marketing team become more effective to make more money, that's a winner. It's amazing, when you meet the right people, they pluck you out of nowhere and zoom you right on up the ladder. It's happened to me a few times. But you have to know how to be sociable, which means sociable to that person. If they are an introvert, you need to know and understand it and adjust yourself to that person, for example. That's what it means to be sociable. Not to be a braying jackass who wants to be the center of attention & holding court. Of course, this is irrelevant if you work in a startup with 5 people. |