I need some career advice and I'm not sure who to go to... NSX Primers always seem to offer pretty good insights though, so I was hoping to get some input from some of you.
I got a job in corporate expense planning straight out of college in June '06. Was supposed to assist an MBA who had been doing it for the company with an assistant for 4 years. I was the replacement for the assistant. She unexpectedly moved to China 6 weeks later, shortly before the annual expense planning period (when we develop our next year's expense plan, by far the busiest and most important time). I was stuck with executing the expense plan for a 7,500-employee company with $1B of expenses by myself, although I did get a company veteran (new to the dept. however) to help about halfway through. Today we just about split the work 50/50, but suffice to say with both of us new, it was complete chaos last year. A nightmare. My boss understood fully and even rewarded my struggles with a small spot bonus (hard to come by in the company).
This year, with our feet on the ground, we pieced together the process and then totally reworked it, and the feedback was quite positive - most agree it is one of the smoothest and best planning years ever, with any company. I am proud of my work, and believe I have earned a promotion to Sr. Analyst. My boss just got promoted to VP, the expressed reason being how smoothly and solidly planning went this year ("hey, didn't I do that?!").
I actually plan on job hunting in the spring/summer of '08, because I want a different experience (preferably in an investing type of role) before I apply for MBA schools for the '09 school year. My review is due in mid-March, about when I plan to start looking. Should I ask for a promotion now? Wait to see what happens at review time, and then ask if I don't get what I want? Last year I got a generous 10% raise, but my real improvements came after that, and I feel I deserve more than a similar raise this year. Particularly, the promotion and title change are highly desirable to me in both interviewing for other jobs and for schools. It's more of a launching off point than a short-term desire. If it's a really sweet deal and I don't find any other good opportunities, who knows, I might even stay with the company - I don't mind the job at all, I just think it would be wise to get more diverse experience before grad school.
Any advice? This is my first time asking for a promotion so I'm kind of nervous and not sure how to go about it, but then again I feel with my body of work and value to the company, it's quite justified and I have nothing to lose really. If I were to quit, I'm 98% sure I'd receive a counter-offer. I've documented a large portion of my work, but they know they'd still be hit pretty hard if I left. I guess I just feel a little silly/overambitious asking for a promotion to Sr. at age 23, but again, I feel it's justified and several of my co-workers (older who are Senior Analysts or leads in other areas) have told me I deserve it.
I got a job in corporate expense planning straight out of college in June '06. Was supposed to assist an MBA who had been doing it for the company with an assistant for 4 years. I was the replacement for the assistant. She unexpectedly moved to China 6 weeks later, shortly before the annual expense planning period (when we develop our next year's expense plan, by far the busiest and most important time). I was stuck with executing the expense plan for a 7,500-employee company with $1B of expenses by myself, although I did get a company veteran (new to the dept. however) to help about halfway through. Today we just about split the work 50/50, but suffice to say with both of us new, it was complete chaos last year. A nightmare. My boss understood fully and even rewarded my struggles with a small spot bonus (hard to come by in the company).
This year, with our feet on the ground, we pieced together the process and then totally reworked it, and the feedback was quite positive - most agree it is one of the smoothest and best planning years ever, with any company. I am proud of my work, and believe I have earned a promotion to Sr. Analyst. My boss just got promoted to VP, the expressed reason being how smoothly and solidly planning went this year ("hey, didn't I do that?!").
I actually plan on job hunting in the spring/summer of '08, because I want a different experience (preferably in an investing type of role) before I apply for MBA schools for the '09 school year. My review is due in mid-March, about when I plan to start looking. Should I ask for a promotion now? Wait to see what happens at review time, and then ask if I don't get what I want? Last year I got a generous 10% raise, but my real improvements came after that, and I feel I deserve more than a similar raise this year. Particularly, the promotion and title change are highly desirable to me in both interviewing for other jobs and for schools. It's more of a launching off point than a short-term desire. If it's a really sweet deal and I don't find any other good opportunities, who knows, I might even stay with the company - I don't mind the job at all, I just think it would be wise to get more diverse experience before grad school.
Any advice? This is my first time asking for a promotion so I'm kind of nervous and not sure how to go about it, but then again I feel with my body of work and value to the company, it's quite justified and I have nothing to lose really. If I were to quit, I'm 98% sure I'd receive a counter-offer. I've documented a large portion of my work, but they know they'd still be hit pretty hard if I left. I guess I just feel a little silly/overambitious asking for a promotion to Sr. at age 23, but again, I feel it's justified and several of my co-workers (older who are Senior Analysts or leads in other areas) have told me I deserve it.