My first job out of college was at a software company where I was a Marketing Associate. I started in this position literally one day after graduating college, so to say I was green is almost an understatement. Sure, I had completed plenty of internships while in college, but even though I worked really hard at those internships at most they were a 20 hour a week job and I had specific tasks assigned to me.

At this new job I had a short list of core responsibilities, and I would complete my daily tasks by lunch time each day. I would spend the rest of the day bored and I would often ask for more responsibility or more things to do.

I ultimately left this job because I wanted a position that would allow me to be more creative and that would offer more responsibility. Looking back I realize it wasn’t the company that needed to change it was me. Instead of sitting around waiting for more work, I would have been more successful creating my own projects. In fact, as I move along in my career I find that the best jobs out there offer this kind of opportunity.  Unless you are a heart surgeon or some sort of stock broker there will be times in any job that you find yourself without a lot on your plate. Use this time as an opportunity to develop project that you find interesting and that will benefit the company in some way. Not only will you be more satisfied in your career, you’ll be seen someone with initiative and drive.

Some of my best ideas have come to me when I am sitting around at work with not much to do. Instead of checking Facebook surfing other sites, I try to “create work” for myself. I can honestly say it works, and it does impress your boss when you knock on their office door and say “I have an idea”. Of course you can’t just have the beginnings of an idea, you have to have a well thought out project with goals, objectives, benefits and a plan on how you will execute the project.  Try creating work for yourself when you have little or nothing to do, and watch your career bloom. I’m also willing to bet that if your organization needs to “down size” at some point they are less likely to cut the person who comes up with creative and beneficial projects on their own.

What are your experiences with creating work for yourself?

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We all dream of the moment when someone recognizes our hard work, and this is one of those moments.  Your boss, and sometimes his/her supervisor will realize that they have a valuable employee on their hands, but he/she is incredibly underpaid, therefore they go for these “Fake Promotions” to keep us happy.

But Promotions are like Santa Claus, you can believe all you want, but if that Fat Jolly Bastard don’t bring you some toys, he won’t be getting any cookies next year, because you stop believing (we could use the analogy of “The boy who cried wolf” also, but let’s save that one for some other day).  Promotions with no monetary or benefit increment are as useless as a new pair of “Business Socks”, they will make you feel good for a couple of days, but that’s it.

I’m not complaining, but I like to share with the new generation, that though these Fake Promotions are a big compliment, I advise everyone to let their superiors know that they are not naive enough to fall in love with your company because of your new title, and though you are flattered, you will continue your search to achieve your goals, monetary or otherwise.

This may be a good time to ask for a raise, you may not get it, but after all, it was their idea to promote you, not yours.

Related Posts:

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• August 6, 2010 -- Go back to watching “The Hills” (1)
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