Table of contents:

1. Get a job
2. Chat up your co-​workers
3. Don’t screw anyone
4. Snoop around
5. Donate your two cents to a worthy cause: your future

Get a job

This may sound stupid but if you have the chance to land a job where your dream-​job exists, take it. Sure you may be the mail room jockey now, but being within a com­pany has two dis­tinct advantages:

1. Com­pa­nies tend to hire inside first. Sounds silly, but most com­pa­nies will hire inter­nally before they hire exter­nally. There are a lot of rea­sons to this to which I can only start to spec­u­late. I know that there’s less paper­work, and you’re already famil­iar with the com­pany so that means less time spent on train­ing. All that aside, it helps secure employee loy­alty and help to pro­vide an envi­ron­ment where one can actu­ally move up in the ranks.
2. Uti­liz­ing what are obvi­ously stun­ning char­ac­ter­is­tics that you pos­sess, such as charisma and charm, you can chum up with those who are in or are near or influ­ence your dream posi­tion. I don’t con­done play­ing office pol­i­tics and being friends with people only to steal their job, but I know people do that and I know it works. Per­son­ally I like the idea of just asking ques­tions and pro­vid­ing input where it’s avail­able. Even­tu­ally people take notice of you and start asking you before you have to chip in. It’s not as fast as shmooz­ing, but it works.

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Ask not what you can do for your company, but ask what your company can do for you

Wher­ever you work, and what­ever you do, see what your com­pany can do to help you do to fur­ther your­self. You would be shocked at some of the pro­grams that exist. I found out that my com­pany will pay for school courses, so long as I get over 80% in the course. Not the best of deals, but it’s still some­thing that is offered to me. If noth­ing is cur­rently being offered, be the trend setter and ask and/or pro­pose your idea. If you’re going to do this be pre­pared to answer a slew of ques­tions. What’s it going to do for you? What’s it going to do for the com­pany? How much? How long? etc. . If you think you need it, write up a report on how this will assist in your con­tri­bu­tion to the com­pany and what the com­pany stands to gain from it. Throw in some pie charts if you know they like them.

The point I’m trying to get at is that many com­pa­nies will assist in edu­cat­ing you in some way. Usu­ally there are strings attached, such as a mark require­ment, or a time-​lapse pro­to­col. As always, make sure you read the fine print before sign­ing any­thing. Com­pa­nies usu­ally want to help their employ­ees but not with­out expect­ing some­thing in return, so be wary.

Make sure to talk to the appro­pri­ate people when trying to get ahead. Some­times asking your man­ager could end up get­ting you nowhere. If you’re com­pany has an HR depart­ment, start there. They usu­ally have the what’s what when it comes to employee offered arrangements.

What I’m saying is that no matter what com­pany you are in, they are usu­ally will­ing to assist their employ­ees if they think it will ben­e­fit the com­pany in the end. Try and figure out the best win/win for this, and you should be good as gold

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Chat up your co-workers

Though office romance may be frowned upon in the office, friend­ship usu­ally isn’t. If people like you, they’re usu­ally more will­ing to answer your ques­tions or indulge your curios­ity (or nosi­ness, whichever you prefer). On top of that, you never know when you’ll need some­one to back your char­ac­ter or could pro­vide you with infor­ma­tion which could help you move for­ward. Make sure to note though that people tend to share only what they are will­ing to give away.

Having made that point, make sure you don’t shoot your­self in the foot with your new-​found chummy-​ness. Being every­ones friend can make you a hap­pier person, but man­age­ment may frown upon your con­stant social­iz­ing so try and keep it in check. Beyond that, You should make sure that you only tell people what you can afford to. If you’re friends with some­one, and you know they have the same career goal as you do, you have to be care­ful with what you share with them. Sure RSS feeds are fine, even a neat pro­gram or tuto­r­ial you found is great. Telling them about a job open­ing you just heard about and are apply­ing for… well that could have adverse effects to your career growth.

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Don’t screw anyone

Again, office romance may be frowned upon, but screw­ing your co-​workers (fig­u­ra­tively), though making you fly through the ranks, will leave you very alone and ripe with the smell of burnt bridges. People hold grudges for far longer than they will admit to, and if you screw some­one to get ahead, they jump on any chance to return the shaft. I’m assum­ing the worst of people here and many may not actu­ally be trying to actively sab­o­tage you. I’m merely stat­ing what could happen and to take heed.

On top of people actu­ally trying to “get” you, you also ruin a very good resource. When you screw people over, you close the door on any infor­ma­tion or tid­bits they would have oth­er­wise been will­ing to pass onto you.The more people you screw, the harder it will become for you to pull any favors. Edu­ca­tion works a lot better when you have many options in which to pull your resources. If you’re down to three con­tacts, you had better hope they know every­thing.

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Snoop around

Don’t use credit cards to open locks. This isn’t 1953, and that never worked that well to begin with. It’s also not what I meant. What I mean is to simply keep your eyes and your ears open. If you’re con­cen­trat­ing so hard on how to get the boss on your side you may miss that memo that was posted on the cork board you walk past every morn­ing. Pay atten­tion to your work­place, and what’s going on around you. Make a habit of check­ing your inter­nal job post­ings, if you can. Check online job post­ing sites to see if your com­pany is look­ing for any­thing you could go for. This will also allow you to see what it is they look for in an employee, which in turn can use to stark advan­tage in adjust­ing your resumé to be more appealing.

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Donate your two cents to a worthy cause: your future

If you are trying to get into an area, some­times being help­ful can go a long way. I have made it my per­sonal goal to get in on any design con­ver­sa­tions when­ever I feel I can con­tribute. Maybe I’m noth­ing more then another pair of eyes, but at least I’m help­ing out. Even better when you can con­tribute some­thing that is taken into con­sid­er­a­tion and/or use. When I can’t con­tribute, I’m still lis­ten­ing to what they say and the obser­va­tions made. If you cannot con­tribute to the dis­cus­sion, let others con­tribute to your mental file-​folder. I’ve learned a lot simply by lis­ten­ing and watch­ing. This has allowed the com­men­tary that I do con­tribute to be both more in tune with what my com­pany wants, and shows that I’m at least slightly knowl­edge­able in the area.

On that note do not, for the love of God, do not com­ment all the time. It gets annoy­ing and your “I only wanted to help!” argu­ment will get you nowhere. You have to make sure to pick your bat­tles wisely and spaced-​appropriately apart.

This is the third part of an ongo­ing series depict­ing my process to becom­ing a graphic designer. The next arti­cle will cover tools and how to use them. Not people in this case.

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three (Cur­rently reading)
• Part Four
• Part Five
• Part Six
• Part Seven