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08.10
Determining How Your Employer
Measures Your Performance
By
John Hoschette
Do you realize your manager and
other upper-level superiors are evaluating your
performance every day? Do you know the criteria
they are using to rate your performance? Do you
know what they consider as minimum acceptable
performance, average performance, and
outstanding performance? Do you know what they
consider as important and not important? If you
have not taken the time to discuss and find out
what they consider important or the performance
required for a promotion, you could be wasting a
lot of time and energy.
The analogy is one of a person
driving to a new destination they have never
been before and do not bother to get directions.
They rely on their gut feelings and quickly jump
into the car and take off. They know the
destination is located near a freeway exit and
they will recognize it when they see it. They do
not even know if they are headed in the correct
direction on the freeway, but since they are
traveling at a speed of 65 miles per hour, it
doesn’t matter because they arrive sooner. You
can waste a lot of time driving around and
around hoping the exit is just around the next
turn. Just like you can waste a lot of time
working toward a promotion if you do not know
the formal criteria you will be assessed by.
If you don’t know the formal
criteria by which you are being judged, you are
acting like this person. Blindly driving around
on the freeway. You rapidly perform task after
task hoping the next one will get you promoted.
You assume the quicker you get the task done,
the quicker you will be promoted. You hope
everything you do will result in getting the big
raise or promotion. Just remember, it is very
difficult to hit a target that cannot be seen.
It is almost like you are operating with a
blindfold on as far as your career is concerned.
=============================================
Career Tip
Don’t leave your next
promotion up to luck. Take the blindfold
off.
=============================================
In this chapter, we will discuss
the methods you can use to find out the formal
criteria being used to make judgments on your
performance. In Chapter 18, we will discuss the
informal criteria. Knowing the formal and
informal criteria will, in effect, remove the
blindfold. Once you have clearly identified the
criteria by which you are assessed against, you
will be able to see exactly what you must do to
get promoted. With the criteria clearly
identified, it is easier to obtain the raise or
promotion. It should also come sooner since you
can use every work task to your benefit and to
help fulfill the criteria.
FORMAL CRITERIA: WHAT ARE
THEY?
In every company, there are
formal criteria by which you are assessed. You
must understand the formal criteria for
successful career development. The formal
criteria are usually well-defined and
documented.
The formal criteria are
manifested in three ways. The first is through
the job performance review process. The second
is through the job performance criteria or
guidelines. These guidelines summarize the
performance expected of the employee at each
level of the engineering ladder. The third way
the formal criteria are manifested is through
the promotion review process. Each company has
its own promotion review process that all
managers must follow to ensure employee
promotion approval. This process is usually a
very formal one that is well-defined and
strictly adhered to. We will now explore how you
can clearly identify and deal with each of the
three formal criteria.
UNDERSTANDING THE JOB PERFORMANCE REVIEW
PROCESS
The first formal criterion with
which you must become thoroughly familiar is the
job performance review process or job appraisal
method utilized by your company. On a periodic
basis your manager must formally document your
performance on the job. Some companies review
employee job performance once a year or once
every other year. You must find out everything
involved in the job performance review process
for your company. How often do they conduct job
reviews? When is your next review? What criteria
are involved? A good way to clearly identify the
criteria is through the paperwork processed
during your job review. In preparation for a job
performance review, a manager will fill out some
type of form which formally documents your
performance to date. Some companies use a
standardized form and other companies simply
document your progress in a memo.
Ask your manager for a copy of
the form used if you have not yet had a job
review or performance appraisal. Study the form
and make sure you are familiar with everything
on the form. A sample employee job performance
review form is shown in Figure 1. Keep in
mind as we review this form, the criteria
utilized by your company.
FIGURE 1 Sample employee job performance
review form.
Across the top of the form is
usually the employee data. This data includes
the employee name, job title, grade level, years
in grade or job, department, and some reference
to the last appraisal date. Review your form and
see what data the company considers important.
Why do they consider it important? For example,
some companies have a standing policy that an
employee must be in a grade for a minimum of 3
years before they can be promoted. This is the
reason for the time-in-grade block on the form.
If your company has a similar policy, what do
you think your chances are for a promotion if
you have only been in the grade 1 year? Does
your company have any other hidden prerequisites
for promotion of which you need to be aware? For
this reason, you must understand the importance
of all the data on the form.
Below the general information
employee data is the performance summary
section. This is the bottom line. All forms have
one. This section is where, in a matter of two
or three lines, your entire performance is
summarized. Most people do not realize the
importance of this section. This section usually
summarizes your performance and identifies some
type of overall rating. Your raise is usually
computed on the basis of these ratings; another
way you can think of this section is in terms of
promotability or dollars.
For the example shown, a three
rating results in a demotion or salary
reduction. In other words, it may cost you
thousands of dollars and years of setback. For
example, a two rating means status quo. Exhibit
just average performance and you’ll receive the
average raise and years to the next promotion.
Finally, a one rating means outstanding
performance, you’ve earned a large raise and, by
all means, keep up the good work. You will soon
be experiencing that promotion. After
identifying the hidden meanings behind these
formal performance rating criteria, most people
immediately start to pay more attention to this
section.
Do you understand the section of
the job performance form that summarizes your
rating? How do the ratings get translated into
dollars? What do they mean in terms of
promotions? If you don’t know, you are operating
with a blindfold on. Ask your manager and they
will tell you how the rating translates to
raises and promotions.
Below the performance summary
section is the career development section. This
section identifies your desire to discuss a
career development program with your manager. As
far as I’m concerned, there are only two reasons
why you would not want to check yes in this
section. One reason is that you are making more
money than you think you should and therefore
you don’t feel you need career development. The
other reason is that you plan on retiring next
year and therefore career development is not on
your mind. If you do not fit into either of
these categories then you should be requesting a
career development discussion with your manager.
If your company’s form does not
have a section similar to this, ask your manager
for extra time to discuss your career plans. You
may want to schedule this talk when you both
have more time to discuss your future plans. Do
not try to get through your performance review
and have a career development meeting at the
same time. It is too much to try to cover in one
meeting.
The next section on the form is
the remarks and summary section. Your manager
usually fills out this section. In this section,
your manager will try to summarize your
performance since the last performance
appraisal. Study the remarks carefully. On what
matters have comments been made? What has not
been noted? Do you know why things were missed?
What do they consider important? What do they
consider unimportant? After you answer these
questions, you may come to realize your
manager’s opinion of what is important differed
from yours.
HANDLING NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
AND CRITICISM
At some point in the performance
review you will get to the “Needs Improvement”
part. In this part, the manager informs you of
things you need to improve upon. Make sure you
spend enough time on this subject. It may be
hard to sit there and listen to your manager
spell out all the things you need to improve
upon, but it is a must for career development.
By identifying your shortcomings, your manager
is telling you the very things you need to
improve upon to get the raise or promotion.
Whatever you do, please, don’t
take the feedback too personally. Try not to
find an opening in the commentary wherein you
rebut anything you interpret as detrimental. You
are only going to lose. Your best bet is to
listen patiently to the feedback and make sure
you understand it. From this criticism you can
learn what they consider important that you are
not doing. If the manager lowers both guns at
you, you need to consider whether you really
want to continue working for them or if,
perhaps, it’s time you move on. Most performance
appraisals do not go this poorly even though
they may seem that way. Listening to criticism
is tough but here are some tips on how to turn
this difficult time to your advantage.
=============================================
Career Tip
“Tag-on” statements turn
improvement areas into strengths during
appraisals.
=============================================
One way to turn this difficult
time to your advantage is to use a tag-on
statement after each criticism. Typical tag-on
statements go something like this:
I
understand now. If I improve my performance
doing . . . (state the item your manager just
identified) . . . then do I stand a better
chance for a raise?
Let me
make sure I understand, one of the reasons I did
not get the promotion was because . . . (name
the item your manager just identified) . . . and
if I correct or improve myself there should be
no reason why I would not get the promotion next
time?
Let’s
summarize, the areas I need to show improvement
on in order to get the promotion by the next
appraisal time are . . . (name your improvement
areas) . . . and if I improve these things I
stand a good chance for advancement.
Are
these the only things I need to improve upon to
qualify for the promotion by the next appraisal
time?
By adding these tag-on
statements to the criticism you are doing three
things. First, you are clearly identifying what
has caused you to miss the big raise or the
promotion this appraisal time (removing the
blindfold). Second, you are hopefully getting
your manager to identify everything you need to
do to get the promotion next time (identifying
any hidden agendas your manager may have). And
third, you are sending the message that you
expect the promotion by the next appraisal time
since you will be improving your performance in
each of the identified areas (setting the
deadline for the raise or promotion). You have
clearly sent the message to your manager that
you understand your weaknesses. You will correct
the problems and after doing so you expect the
raise or promotion next time. Remember, people
rarely get promotions they do not ask for.
=============================================
Career Tip
People rarely get promotions
they do not ask for.
=============================================
Another tip is to think of each
criticism as a step closer to the next big raise
or promotion. This should help make acceptance
of the criticism much easier. Every criticism
that your manager identifies becomes another
reason why you deserve the promotion after you
have proven to your manager that you corrected
the problem. The more reasons your manager
identifies, the more reasons you will have in
your defense once you have overcome the
problems. When your manager does not identify
areas for improvement, then it is time to worry.
If this happens, you need to get your manager to
open up more.
=============================================
Career Tip
Criticisms, improvement
areas, and lack of skills are the areas to
concentrate on for most improvement.
=============================================
My own experience has shown the
quickest and best promotions came only after I
got my manager to really open up and clearly
identify what I had to improve. It was only
after we got everything out in the open and I
started to improve my performance that they soon
realized there were no reasons not to promote
me.
At the end of your performance
review you should have a clear understanding of
what you need to do from what is recorded on the
appraisal form. From this point on, getting the
raise or promotion becomes much easier.
This brings us to the last
section on the appraisal form — the signature
block. Who has to sign it? The signature block
tells you immediately who controls your raises
and promotions. Do you know who will sign your
appraisal and approve it? If you do not know
them, then they surely do not know you. And most
managers do not promote people they do not know.
Some people do not even know who
will see their appraisal form. Meeting with, and
getting to know, the people who sign your
appraisal form is the key to career development.
The sample form in Figure 1
may not look at all like your performance
appraisal form. I have used it as a guide to
help you study your form(s). Some companies use
appraisal forms that are several pages long.
Some forms require the manager to rate you in
each area of your job that the company considers
important. Whatever type of form your company
uses, make sure you are familiar with everything
on the form. Understand the hidden meanings
behind each block. Only after you have taken the
time to understand the formal criteria defined
on the performance appraisal form can you expect
to use it as a guide for your career
development.
Determining How Job
Performance Is Measured in Your Company
The second type of formal
criteria you must be aware of is the criteria
your company requires you to meet at each level
of the engineering ladder. The starting point to
discovering these criteria is your manager. Your
manager has written guidelines that define the
performance expected at each level of
engineering. Meet with your manager and ask them
for a copy of the criteria. Usually, these
criteria have been developed over time and with
the help of the personnel department. If your
manager does not have a copy, stop by the
personnel department and request a copy. Make
sure you obtain the formal description of your
level and the level you hope to reach when
promoted.
Study the guidelines. Try to
identify all the things you have accomplished at
your level and the things you need to work on.
Next, look at the level above yours and study it
to find out what you have to do to reach the
next level. In studying the guidelines you will
probably generate more questions than answers,
which is good.
Since every company will have
its own guidelines, Figure 2 is a sample
guideline based on several companies. Studying
this guideline should help you in understanding
yours. This sample guideline is organized in a
matrix fashion with the job grade levels defined
in the first column and the criteria categories
defined across the top. For this example, five
levels of engineering are defined and six
performance categories are identified for each
job level. The job levels are ranked from entry
level Grade Level I engineering to the most
senior Grade Level V. The six performance
categories contain two groups of skills. The
left three columns identify the technical skills
needed by the engineer and the right three
columns identify the interpersonal or team
leadership skills needed.
FIGURE 2 Typical engineering grade level
performance guidelines.
First, let me try to show you
the differences between each engineering level
with an example of how the job responsibilities
vary for each level. At engineering level I, you
might receive an assignment that requires you to
analyze some data. The data has all been
collected, the analysis has been defined and
programmed into a computer, and the program
output is on a graphics plotter. Your job is to
enter the data and generate the plots with the
existing program and computer.
At grade II, your assignment may
be to collect the data from the test, enter it
into the computer, modify the program if
necessary, and plot the results.
At level III, your assignment
would be to collect the data. However, first you
have to assemble the hardware, plan tests, and
obtain the help of a technician to collect data,
organize the results for input into the
computer, and plot them out with the help of
junior engineers.
At level IV, your assignment
will be to collect data and analyze it. However
you must first organize a team, get a time and
cost estimate to accomplish the tasks, schedule
tasks and make assignments to collect the data,
write a program to analyze the data, choose a
computer to complete the task, identify type of
language, and define the plots to be generated.
You will do this by organizing a team of
engineers, computer programmers, and
technicians.
At level V, your assignment will
be to figure out what has to be done. What tests
are to be done? What data is to be collected?
What does theory predict? First you must
organize a team, get cost estimates established,
brief management on plans, and get approval.
Next, schedule tasks and make assignments to
accomplish your experiments and collect data.
You must oversee the team’s choice of computers
and language as well as plotters. Once the data
has been collected, you must get the team to
write a final report and you must present the
results of your effort to management. If
technical problems arise you are expected to
determine the best methods to modify the
experiments and resolve the issues.
This simple example shows how to
identify the differences between grade levels.
The example also shows that as you move up the
chain interpersonal skills and team leadership
skills become more important. Managers are not
really expecting much in the way of team
leadership skills from junior engineers.
However, you should be developing them as you go
because management is expecting good leadership
skills from the upper grade level engineers.
Therefore, the criteria on the right of the
chart become more and more important the higher
you advance.
All managers interpret these
generalized guidelines differently. Some
managers firmly believe that all you have to do
is be good on the left-hand side of the chart
while other managers believe the right-hand side
of the chart is most important. All managers
think differently. On your company’s guidelines,
do you know what your manager considers the most
important? You could be working to impress your
manager with your technical judgment skills and
they may be thinking that leadership is most
important.
Another common mistake engineers
make when looking at these guidelines is
interpreting the level one should be rated at.
Your job assignment may allow you to perform at
many levels. Let’s assume an engineer has the
following ratings for each performance category:
Technical Requirements Level III
Technical Judgment Level III
Technical Challenge Level III
Leadership and Work Direction Level IV
Cost
and Schedule Level II
Interaction Level II
What level would you rate this
engineer? Most people respond with level III.
However, from a management point of view this is
not an appropriate rating. Engineers are rated
on their lowest level of performance.
To be rated a level III, the
engineer must demonstrate performance at level
III in all categories before they will be
considered ready for promotion to that level.
This level II engineer has a good start on
promotion to level III but some areas must be
worked on before promotion.
Why have I put these guidelines
into this book? Not for you to study them and
learn about engineering levels, or for you to
determine how you are performing. I did it
because it’s a cheat sheet! Copy down these
guidelines on a single sheet of paper, make sure
they are readable, and take them to your
manager. Explain that you got them out of a
career development book and sit down with your
manager and ask for an opinion. How important
these criteria are and what does your manager
see as the real differences between grade
levels? From that point on, don’t talk but only
listen. The guidelines are too general for
anyone to really determine the criteria for each
grade level. Therefore, anything said defines
the criteria as your manager sees it.
Everything they will tell you
will be exactly what you will need to know about
their criteria for development. Have them
explain what they consider the most important
criteria for your next level. How do they rate
you for each category and where do you need to
improve? Remember, you should be all ears at
this point because they will be telling you
everything they consider important. Try and
absorb as much as you can, you should be like a
sponge soaking it all up. As they are talking,
make notes all over the guidelines. Mark them up
together, cross out, and change things to their
satisfaction. When you are done, you will now
have everything on one sheet of paper that
identifies exactly what your manager thinks and
what you must do to earn the next promotion. In
effect, you will have a piece of paper that has
most of the answers on it, a perfect cheat sheet
to help you shorten the time to your next
promotion.
=============================================
Career Tip
Make an appointment with your
supervisor and jointly go over the grade
level performance guidelines!
=============================================
If the sample job level
guidelines are too different from your company
guidelines, then use yours. Meet with your
manager on an informal basis and review the
company’s job grade guidelines together. I
recommend the best place to do this is at your
desk or office, where it is not intimidating for
you or your manager. Your manager’s office can
be too intimidating. You also stand a better
chance of not being interrupted.
Ask your manager to explain the
performance expected by the company at your
level. Then ask them to explain the performance
it would take to be at a level up from yours.
Once you get them talking, don’t interrupt. Make
notes in the side margins for everything you
can. If you do this right, at the end of the
conversation you will have identified the formal
criteria you must meet for your level and the
level above yours.
During your talk try to get your
manager to identify some specific things you
have to demonstrate in your work that will show
that you are meeting the criteria for your job,
and possibly, for the next level. For instance,
you might ask, “If I complete my assignments on
time and within cost, does that signify
performance at my level or the one above my
level? How might I perform my tasks such that I
will have demonstrated I meet the criteria for
the next level? What exactly do you see as the
difference between my level and the one above?
How do I get broader assignments so I can
demonstrate performance above my level? What
exactly do I need to do on my present assignment
to increase my chances for a raise or
promotion?”
Your manager’s response to your
questions will help lift off the blinders and
provide guidance for your career advancement.
You now have a clear vision of the formal
criteria you must meet for career advancement.
The guidelines are usually
written in such general terms that anything
defined specifically is really what your manager
thinks you need to do. Ask as many open-ended
questions about the guidelines as you can. The
reason for this is that any answer given you
will define the criteria. Hopefully they will be
describing exactly what they believe you have to
do to get the raise or promotion.
Most managers will not feel
apprehensive about discussing this with you in a
relaxed, informal setting. If you wait until job
review to have this conversation, it will be too
late and too formal. Your manager may be as
nervous as you are in a formal job review and
may feel you are trying to second-guess them.
You must have this conversation well in advance
of your job review. This way your manager will
not feel like they are being put on the spot and
you will have enough time to demonstrate the
performance needed before the formal job review.
In any case, make sure you listen and ask them
to clarify anything you may not understand. The
more they talk, the clearer the picture you have
of the formal criteria you must meet. Take as
many notes as you can and be sure to review them
often.
Most engineers believe that the
minute they are performing at a level above
theirs the company will immediately promote
them. It is very discouraging for them to find
out that this is not the case. The engineer must
go through a formal promotion review process and
be assessed “ready for the promotion.” In larger
corporations this formal promotion review
process often takes months and may involve a
multitude of other people. Therefore, the third
group of formal criteria you must be aware of in
your company is the promotion review process.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROMOTION
REVIEW PROCESS AND USING IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
The formal promotion process
identifies the steps your manager must go
through to get approval. For the lower levels on
the engineering ladder, this process may just
involve your manager and their superior. As you
move up the engineering ladder, the promotion
process becomes more complex and may include
promotion review boards made of several people
as well as the use of company totems. For career
advancement, you must have a clear understanding
of the promotion process for your company.
=============================================
Career Tip
Learn everything you can about the promotion
process for your company.
=============================================
To help you better understand
the steps companies go through to promote
someone, I will describe two examples that
represent what most companies follow for
promoting people. These processes are
generalized in nature but show the dynamics that
may be occurring in your company; this should
help you to identify and understand your
company’s process.
To aid in this discussion, I
have diagrammed the spheres of influence often
involved in the promotion review process. Figure
3 shows the spheres of influence you need to
be aware of in the promotion review process. The
sphere at the bottom is you, the next highest on
the ladder is your immediate lead engineer, and
above the lead engineer is your manager. Above
your manager are their superior or manager as
well as the company totem and promotion review
board.
I have drawn the spheres in
relation to how you most likely perceive them.
Your lead engineer has the responsibility for
assigning the daily tasks and doing most of the
interfacing with you; their responsibility is to
take care of most of the problems. Your
supervisor simply has too many people reporting
to them to spend the amount of time that they
should with everyone. Therefore, your supervisor
calls on the help of the lead engineers to hand
out assignments and make sure everything is
being accomplished.
FIGURE 3 Promotion review process and
spheres of influence.
Behind your supervisor are three
spheres you need to be aware of, usually these
spheres are not very visible to the engineer.
However, knowledge of their existence is a must
for career advancement. The first sphere is your
supervisor’s superior or manager. The manager
must approve all the raises and promotions your
supervisor requests. In addition to your
manager, there are two other spheres: the totem
board and the promotion review board.
The totem board is usually
comprised of second level managers and possibly
directors. The purpose of the totem board is to
compare and rank the performance of all the
engineers in the company. The managers meet and
rank the performance of all engineers relative
to one another. You can think of this as similar
to class ranking. Totems are usually done once a
year. Usually, the top-ranked individuals in the
totem are the first to be promoted. The bottom
ranked employees are put on improvement plans or
laid off.
In addition to learning about
the ranking process, do you know what your rank
is for the grade level you are in? One simple
way to know is to ask your supervisor. While
most supervisors will not tell you your exact
rank, you can ask which quartile are you in?
First, second, third, or fourth?
The promotion review board is
usually made up of a cross section of people in
the company. The board may contain senior staff
engineers and upper level managers and Human
Resources personnel. The purpose of the
promotion review board is to review each
candidate for promotion and determine if they
fulfill the criteria established. The promotion
review board is a nonbiased third-party group
whose function is to ensure that each candidate
meets the criteria. Usually, your supervisor and
their manager present to the review board on
your behalf the reasons why you deserve the
promotion. The review board evaluates the merits
of your case and makes a decision based on the
evidence presented.
Lower Level Engineering
Promotions
To understand all the dynamics
involved in getting a promotion, let’s first
review an example of a lower level promotion
where only your supervisor and manager are
involved. Generally, for a lower level promotion
only your supervisor and manager need to decide
that you are ready. The first thing your
supervisor does is to check with the lead
engineer about your performance. How do you get
along with your lead engineer? Do you support
the lead engineer and follow their direction? Or
are you on poor terms with the lead engineer and
constantly in disagreement? What do you think
the lead engineer’s recommendation will be about
you? Correspondingly, do you have enough
visibility so that your supervisor can see that
you are ready for a promotion or does the lead
engineer do all the interfacing? This is a
delicate situation you must keep in balance. You
must follow the direction provided by your lead
engineer and get visibility with your
supervisor. Going around your lead engineer and
always directly interfacing with your supervisor
can cause problems; you can hurt your chances
for a promotion by doing this.
Try to maintain a balance in
this situation. Make sure your lead engineer is
always aware of what you are doing. If you have
to discuss things directly with your supervisor,
make sure the lead engineer knows why you are
doing this. On the other hand, if your lead
engineer is not giving you the chance to report
your progress to your supervisor, discuss the
situation with the lead. Try and get them to
allow you to report progress at least once in a
while. Every lead engineer and supervisor differ
in how much interfacing they allow the junior
engineers to have.
=============================================
Career Tip
Make sure your lead engineer and supervisor
know what you are accomplishing on a weekly
basis.
=============================================
Once the supervisor and the lead
engineer decide you are ready for a promotion,
then comes the job of convincing your manager.
The supervisor usually carries forward a
recommendation for your promotion. You must keep
in mind that the manager may have anywhere from
30 to 50 engineers reporting to them and at any
given time, four or five of those engineers may
also be up for promotion. What will make the
manager approve your promotion over others? This
is the question, or problem, you must address.
The dynamics involved in
obtaining the approval for your promotion from
the manager will depend upon several things.
First, does your performance warrant a
promotion? Second, what is the relation between
your supervisor and manager? If they have a poor
relationship, it could be years before you are
promoted. Third, who else is up for promotion?
Often, a limited number of promotions are
allowed at any given time due to budget
constraints. Is this the first time you have
been nominated? Are there others who have been
waiting longer? And, finally, how well does your
manager know you? If you have never met, you can
rest assured they do not know you and,
consequently, unless your supervisor does a
wonderful selling effort, you will most likely
not get promoted.
Higher Level Engineering
Promotions
Now let’s look at the dynamics
involved in a higher level promotion where your
manager must utilize the totem board results and
present your case to the promotion review board.
What happens here is that the manager, with the
help of your supervisor, prepares a small brief
or summary as to why you deserve a promotion.
The brief contains a description of your
accomplishments and shows how you meet the
criteria for promotion. In addition to the
brief, your ranking on the totem is reviewed.
This is a check and balance process. If you meet
the criteria then you should be performing at
the top of your grade and ranked accordingly. If
you are ranked at the top of your grade then
your performance should normally meet the
criteria for promotion as defined by the
promotion review board. If you’re not at the top
of your rank or do not meet all criteria then
your chances for getting the promotion approved
are not good.
Once you understand this
process, you will quickly realize you must know
two things. The first is where you stand on the
totem and the second is what the board’s
criteria are for promotion. Determining what
both of these are may seem impossible, but it is
doable. Finding out where you rank in the totem,
or in relation to others, takes tact and
patience. Your manager knows where you rank in
the totem and does not like to tell anyone.
Therefore, you may have to do a little fishing.
Find out when the last totem ranking occurred
and when the next is scheduled. If your company
does not use a totem then you must explore how
the company ranks engineers. Your supervisor
should have this information. Most supervisors
will share with you how and when ranking occurs.
The next thing you must find out is where you
stand on the totem ranking or in relation to
others being considered for promotion. The best
approach is simply to ask. Most supervisors will
inform you that this information cannot be
shared. You might find out something by asking
what quarter you are ranked in: the top, upper
middle, lower middle, or bottom. Your manager
may share this piece of information with you
since they are not telling you the exact rank.
If you are in the top quarter, you’re in great
shape. If you’re below the top quarter, you have
your work cut out for you.
The second action is to find out
the criteria used by the promotion review board
to determine if someone is ready for a
promotion. Sometimes this information is closely
guarded and sometimes it is readily available.
The first place to start asking is your
supervisor. If your supervisor has the
information and shares it with you, you are in
great shape. Study it and determine where you
exceed, meet, or fail to meet the criteria.
=============================================
Career Tip
Find someone in the company who was recently
promoted to the level you want to be and
network with them to discover their
experiences!
=============================================
The next place to check is with
someone who was just promoted to the level,
which you are looking to get promoted to.
Chances are they did not make it on the first
try and needed to do some additional things to
meet the criteria. By talking to others who
recently received a promotion you can get a
pretty good idea of what the promotion review
board criteria are or what is involved in the
promotion review process. If you do not know of
anyone, check with personnel and find out who in
the company was just promoted. People who were
just promoted are usually glad to share this
information with you. They know how hard it can
be to get promoted.
The important point here is to
check all the available sources you can about
the promotion process. The promotion process
will vary from company to company and manager to
manager. It is a waste of energy and time to go
after the promotion blindfolded. You can
literally remove part of the blindfold by doing
research on the promotion process used in your
company. Your challenge is to find out all you
can about the promotion process in your company,
and what the formal criteria are that you will
be judged against. The information is all there.
It’s up to you to do the legwork and find it.
SUMMARY
Your manager and other upper
level superiors are evaluating your performance
every day. In every company, there are formal
criteria by which you are judged. You must
understand the formal criteria for successful
career development. The formal criteria are
usually well-defined and documented.
The formal criteria are
manifested in three ways. The first is through
the job performance review process. This is
usually a yearly assessment and review of your
performance as determined by your supervisor in
meeting the company expectations. Understanding
this process and the form used is a key element
for career advancement.
The second is through the job
performance criteria, which is the performance
expected of engineers at each level in the
organization. The third way is through the
promotion review process. The promotion review
process and actions your supervisor has to
follow to get you a promotion are usually well
documented and strictly adhered to large
corporations. In smaller companies this formal
criteria may not be as well documented. Your
career advancement will depend on you
understanding all three of these and knowing
what actions you need to take to show that you
are ready for the next promotion based on this
formal criteria.
If you are in doubt about any of
the formal criteria the best person to seek help
from is your supervisor. Sit down with your
supervisor, clarify the formal criteria by which
you are being measured. Use the tools suggested
in the chapter to help you identify the formal
criteria and any potential improvement areas.
Next, visit with your mentor — he or she should
be able to help you also.
Have you identified any career
actions you want to take as a result of reading
this chapter? If so, please make sure to capture
these ideas before you forget by recording them
in the notes section at the back of the book.
ASSIGNMENTS AND DISCUSSION
TOPICS
-
Study the forms your company uses for job appraisals or job reviews. Do you
understand each block of information and what it means in terms of your
performance?
-
Who signs off on your job appraisal? Do they know you?
-
Make a list
of all the things you were critiqued on during your last job appraisal and
identify something specific you can do for each one to show improvement.
-
Does your
company store job definitions and performance criteria on a website? Review the
criteria for the level you are and the next level you aspire to achieve.
-
Meet with
your manager and discuss the criteria you are expected to meet for your present
job level as well as the performance expected from you for the next level.
(Remember the cheat sheet.)
-
What is
involved in the promotion review process for your company? Are totems or
rankings used? If so when do they occur and what is your rank? Is a promotion
review board used? Who are the members? What criteria are they using?
-
How do you
find out who was recently promoted? (Hint: Human Resources has all this data.)
The
content in this article was adapted from Chapter
17 of John's new book, "The
Engineer's Career Guide," from
Wiley-IEEE Press.
The material is reprinted here with permission
of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright
© 2010 John Wiley &
Sons.
 John Hoschette is an IEEE senior member and
Technical Director at Lockheed Martin. He is
also an author, career coach and adjunct
professor. His career articles have appeared in
Today’s Engineer
and IEEE Spectrum. His new
book “The Engineer’s Career Guide” published by
Wiley-IEEE Press is available online at
www.careerdevelopmentcoaches.com or through
the IEEE bookstore. John can be reached at
j.hoschette@ieee.org.
Comments may be submitted to
todaysengineer@ieee.org.
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