How to Market Yourself for Larger Paychecks and Promotions

Engineering students often learn all the technical details behind the engineering jobs we begin after graduation. Unfortunately, they rarely learn business aspects behind their roles in companies including marketing and sales. One aspect that students rarely learn is the importance of marketing oneself. The underlying key means understanding that companies exist to make money. Some companies make money for their investors. Others make money to support local communities. In order to earn larger raises and promotions, you need to prove your value to your manager. In this post, I will give on advice on how you can do that.

To many engineers and technologists, the concept of marketing oneself feels foreign and uncomfortable. Many of us exist as introverts: We enjoy spending time alone or among other nerds who share our common likes. (Think about the last time you hung out with fellow engineers to watch The Big Bang Theory or the latest Marvel movie. Did you hang out with any managers?) The idea of bragging to managers scares introverts because they might fear judgement or rejection. At this, I once felt this way. A good manager is a leader who wants their team to succeed. An excellent employee wants to see their manager succeed by showing them positive results. They help the manager move up in the company. Senior Managers look for managers whose teams win contracts, sell products, and make their customers happy. When you show your achievements regularly, you make your manager look good in their managers' eyes. This will reflect positively on you.

Here are several ways you can market your achievements to your manager:

• Regular status reports
• Monthly One-on-One Meetings with your manager
• Communication with Program and Other Managers
• Achievement Emails
• Yearly Reviews

Regular Status Reports

These are often known as Items of Interest or IOIs. Most managers request monthly status reports, and others request them bi-weekly. If you intend on marketing your achievements, you must take your IOIs seriously. Yes, status reports can be a major pain in the butt. However, you must complete them sufficiently if you want your manager to consider your for higher raises and promotions. You might want to give weekly status reports to stay on your manager's radar. According to Veli-Johan Veromann at WeekDone, "weekly reports are an efficient way to communicate all projects, tasks and progresses during a week." They note that reports must be accurate and brief to keep your manager's attention. You could communicate the following topics:

• Major customer presentations given
• Quantitative results including dollar cost savings or product sales
• Contract wins with dollar amounts
• Efforts to fill in any gaps you have
• Achievements that show leadership such as achieving a major team milestone

Quantify your results as much as you can especially if you can show that you brought money into your company, or you saved your company a significant amount of funds. For example, suppose you implemented a process improvement. It might take four hours for a test engineer to test Major Electronic Manufacturer High-Tech Wireless Widget, and your process improvement brings that down to an hour. Per device, this might appear as an insignificant event. However, suppose the test engineer costs the company $25 / hour in labor fees, and your company will sell one million electronic devices. By trimming three hours off the testing time, you just saved your company $75 million! You achieved an awesome achievement, and you must communicate that to your manager during your regular status report. Market yourself!

An important reminder: Keep your regular status reports brief. New employees reason that every achievement matters no matter how small. I should know, as I used to report minor achievements myself. It will take time for you to understand what you should report. If you are unsure, find a senior employee and ask them for advice. You can ask them to review your status report draft. If they agree, get their feedback and trim accordingly.

Monthly One-on-One Meetings

To market yourself, your manager must know you and your accomplishments. Although you will email your manager (a.k.a., boss) your status reports, emails can seem impersonal. You must follow them up with in person meetings. Sometimes, your manager will schedule monthly one-on-one meetings. If they do not, it is your responsibility to get regular time on their calendars. According to Bruce Tulgan, of RainmakerThinking Inc., "The fundamental goal of one-on-one meetings is communicating with your boss about the work you are doing for him. With each boss, decide what to focus on at each meeting." Tulgan suggests that you ask yourself the following questions during each meeting:

1. What problems have not been anticipated?
2. What problems need to be solved?
3. What resources do you need to complete your tasks or your manager's goals?
4. Is there anything that you do not understand? Any instructions or goals that need clarification? 
5. What things have happened since the last meeting that your manager needs to know about?
6. Do you have questions for your manager?

Clear communication is a major component of employee to manager meetings. You want to communicate your achievements, that is true. However, you must communicate any mistakes or errors you made and steps you have taken to correct them. Employees are human, and humans make mistakes. You will make mistakes. The important thing is that you learn from them and make sure you put steps in place that prevent them in the future. Managers expect their employees to screw up from time to time. What they don't expect is for employees to be proactive about their slips and falls. Catch your mistakes early and often, so they do not get repeated one million times and cost the company millions of dollars.

You can express concerns during one-on-one's with your manager. If you feel your performance slipping, meet bi-weekly. Your manager can coach you into better performance. According to Christine Zust at Kent State University, "a good coach recognizes the gem that lies beneath the surface. The coach can often see things that the protégé can’t. If you are helping your protégé to become a greater leader, then make an honest assessment up front. See where the gaps exist. Work with the protégé to create an action plan for improvement. Support the protégé’s goals and action plan." A novice employee might think that reporting bad news to a manager will poorly reflect in their yearly review. I argue that the opposite is true. You must give yourself an honest assessment, so you can communicate skill gaps to your manager, and your manager in turn can offer advice for you to close those gaps. (Click to Tweet). You want to communicate this during in-person meetings well before your yearly review. You give yourself time to improve and show how brightly you can shine in challenging situations. Otherwise, your manager will give your a poor review.

See: "The Top Complaints from Employees About Their Leaders" Published on HBR.org by Lou Solomon on June 24, 2015

In short, you must meet with your manager regularly. Not convinced yet? According to Lou Solomon at the Harvard Business Review, "data shows that the vast majority of leaders are not engaging in crucial moments that could help employees see them as trustworthy." From the graphic above, the top complaint about managers is that they are "not recognizing employee achievements." Regular face to face meetings with your manager give you opportunities to close these communication gaps. If your manager is not proactive in meeting with you, you must insist on arranging those meetings. Your career depends on it!

Communication with Program and Other Managers

What is the fifth employee complaint according to Solomon? Managers who take credit for their employees' ideas. How can you overcome this? Meet with other managers. If you work for a small company, it might be difficult for your manager to steal your ideas because ideas spread quickly in small groups. However, it becomes difficult to prove origins of ideas in larger companies if employees do not speak up. Your direct manager assigns you to work on specific projects or programs. You report to team leads, project managers, and program managers. Talk to them as much as you can! They speak among themselves, and your ideas cannot get claimed by someone else if you tell multiple people about them.

If your employer uses a stakeholder based feedback system, you might list your program manager as a stakeholder who gives feedback to your manager. You want to make your program manager happy. Establish face to face / one-on-one meetings with your program manager especially if you are a team lead. You want to ask yourself the same questions that you asked before meeting with your manager. Who knows, you might take on a position under that program manager. Although you will make mistakes, and the relationship might sour at times, you want to communicate any issues you face during the project cycle. Do not be scared of getting negative or critical feedback from your program manager. Instead, think of it as opportunities to improve yourself. Set goals to report improvements back to your program manager, so they know you heeded their warnings and advice.


Achievement Emails

Often, we receive kudos from program managers for milestone achievements. Perhaps, you led a team to a successful software delivery. You gave an important presentation to a customer or client, and you pleased them with your results. You helped the company win a multi-million dollar contract with a major customer. Whatever the achievement, forward the email notice to your manager. If possible, mention this achievement in passing when walking through the office, and make sure to include them in your regular status reports.

Your manager can list your achievements in status reports to their managers. Remember, you want to make your manager look good. Your manager wants to show positive results because they reflect positively in their yearly reviews. Help your manager succeed by showcasing your success. Do not be afraid to toot your own horn. You achieved something great, and you have the right to tell people about it. This is a key to marketing yourself.


Yearly Reviews

Few employees enjoy yearly reviews, and surprisingly few managers like giving yearly reviews. However, fewer managers show willingness to do away with them. (An alternative to yearly reviews are 360 reviews as discussed in Performance Reviews Are Dead. Here's What You Should Do Instead by Thomas Koulopoulos, Founder of Delphi Group.) Until that happens, you must summarize your yearly accomplishments during this review. Focus on major accomplishments. Go through your monthly or bi-weekly status reports. You saved them, right? Look for the biggest accomplishments in each of the areas your company's yearly review process ranks its employees. Keep it short and sweet. Do not repeat yourself because you want your major accomplishments to stand out. Remember, do not make your diamonds hard to find by hiding them in the mine. Put your diamonds on pedestals and shine bright lights on them!

If you continually meet with your managers, you will shine bright during your yearly reviews. They should be an informality, yet you must not neglect them. Many companies still use yearly reviews to rank their employees and to decide how much salary increases go to each. You will compete with your fellow employees. Many of them will be friends. This does not mean that you throw them under the bus. In fact, if you are in an engineering leadership position, it behooves you to help them succeed and showcase their success to their managers. A good leader looks for employees with potential, and you summarize yourself during the yearly review to maximize your potential for growth and value.


Summary

It will take time for you to achieve a promotion. If you are a new hire, it might take several years to achieve a promotion. However, if you communicate your achievements with your manager regularly, you do not allow them to forget you as a person and employee. You put a face to the name, so your manager sees you as someone valuable to the organization. Do not fear discussing setbacks or receiving negative feedback. If you meet with your managers regularly, you will have opportunities to correct your errors well before they become issues. You will succeed because your manager will coach you to success. You must get out of your shell and be willing to market yourself by consistently communicating your efforts and successes. You will get used to marketing yourself, and you might find yourself writing about it!