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Self-Promotion on the Job (continued)

Step-by-Step
According to Robbins, there are four simple steps to successful self-promotion:

• Meet regularly with your manager and in addition to project updates, clarify what an A+ performance is in the eyes of your manager. Get specifics -- what, by when, etc.
• Update your manager on your progress on deliverables and expectations.
• Verbalize the career track you'd like to be to your manager (be specific!).
• Ask for your manager's advice and support.

One added bonus to self-promotion: IT pros can choose to move up the IT ranks or springboard to other departments in the organization, a career choice that did not previously exist. "While employees were once able to start at the bottom and have a fairly easy time following a career path, IT positions may no longer be a necessary or even desirable end point for them," says Laurie Orlov, research director and vice president of Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. "Process knowledge and diverse educational backgrounds enable IT workers to move to other functions in the enterprise or into and back from providers in the tech industry," meaning that a career path isn't necessarily pegged to a single company.

In fact, Forrester Research says its CIO and CTO interviewees confirmed that, despite a lingering nerdy image and the fact that it might still be called IT, the role of the IT group has morphed sharply from all back-office work to the front-and center interaction with business unit clients and the customers.

"Therefore, it is very important that IT pros play up their business and other experiences outside the strictly technical role in their self-promotion efforts," says Orlov. (article continues)

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