“Well… hmm… just look into it…” 10 commandments of career development

You may be a mega-professional programmer, know all the insights of coding and yet… never be promoted. If you are fine with that – don’t bother to read this stuff. But if career is important to you, there is something you need to know about the system you are planning to grow in.
Slava Pankratov, managing partner and the head coach of the Stratoplan company, has shared with students and applicants of the BIONIC University about how they will be coding the same old things for the next ten years. Or they won’t if they look at their career from a different angle. As the result of the workshop that took place in Kiev School of Economics the Ten Commandments of career development in the unpredictable conditions came out.
1. How do organizations appear? A person with an idea of a product hires some other people and the product gets produced. If due to a miracle the company didn’t die from the start - it grows. New people join the company and it forms a hierarchical structure. The career development means going up within that structure. The healthiest way is when the position above you becomes vacant. Like, for example, if your boss gets a promotion or creates his own project. Attention: your boss will never get promoted unless his team shows the outstanding results. You need to support your boss! At least by performing well.
2. You should not be irreplaceable. You may have some unique skills, you may be a professional, but if it is impossible to replace you, you will never get promoted. Since if it is hard to find a professional like you there is no sense in changing your position. 
3. Manager is being paid for the amount of pain in the neck he handles. Or avoids. Good manager is like a good sysadmin. He keeps calm. And it means that he has everything under control.
4. Manager’s to do list: find (the team) – set (the target) – step aside – don’t get in the way.
5. Make yourself known to a person who makes decisions on promotions – the manager of your boss. Be visible.
6. Develop your Soft Skills. There are always several candidates for a vacant position. And each of them is sure that he is the smartest in the crowd. However among the smartest only a few have managerial skills.
7. Sometimes it’s unpredictable. As a proof – a true promotion story.  Alex was promoted to the position of the COO at a large bank. As he came to the CEO he asked about his objectives and got an answer:  “Well… hmm…  just look into it…”. That was all! Alex was puzzled but approached his job with common sense and seemed to cope with the “task”. Later on, at the New Year’s corporate party Alex greeted the CEO and asked why he had been chosen for the position of the COO. “I just felt like you understood me”, – was his response. 
8. Be able to negotiate. The system is run by its most flexible element. In corporate structures there are usually four types of people: producer (responsible for the short-term result), entrepreneur (focused on the long-term perspective), administrator (organizes the process), and the integrator (brings the team together). If you know how to approach each of these people you will make an amazing manager.
9. Only those who know how to do the job get the position. At first you start performing extra tasks, and then you officially get a promotion. Not the other way around.
10. Start acting! A lot of people want to be someone, but not many actually do something for it. Don’t wait until something happens. Start making steps toward your career development. You will work it out!

Last edit: 26.12.13