Sitting in the same job getting annual 1-3% raises might be good for some, but for others it is a source of insanity.
One of the struggles with becoming an adult is seeing your obligations increase.
You get a mortgage, car payments, student loans and more. Then you add children to the mix and the list keeps adding up. Those obligations force you to stay with the job you have because you depend on the income to make all the payments.
So your company kind of has you in a place where they can keep you. It’s difficult to leave a company.
And on the other side, some companies are really great to work for. You don’t want to leave because you enjoy your co-workers and the people throughout the organization.
But if you want to make more money and do something different, something better you have to make some changes.
An option you have is to take a new job within the same company. It might be a job that gets posted on the company website, but the better option might be to create the job yourself.
Here is how you can do it.
1. Identify What You Enjoy Doing
The key word to this step is curiosity.
What makes you curious. Something you’re curious about is something you would look into and research in your spare time, for no compensation. If you’re looking into something for compensation only, at least initially, you may be curious about it, but not necessarily.
At the last company I worked for my job was managing catalog businesses. It was great. I enjoyed it. But in my free time I would read about online marketing especially things like SEO and content marketing. It became obvious to me that I was curious about these things. I enjoyed doing them. I even started blogging every night on a personal website. I guess writing became a passion too.
2. Research People And Jobs In The Area
You’re not looking for job openings.
You’re looking at people that have their own companies or people at other companies that do something related to what you enjoy. You’ll likely find new companies, startups that have appealing jobs for what you’re interested in depending on what that is.
But you should also look at comparable companies to yours. This is especially necessary if you’re looking at a relatively new field, which online marketing was and still kind of is even today.
This will be important later when you go to your boss or bosses to discuss your desires. Seeing that their competition is doing something can be very compelling.
It’s also good to look at the actual people doing the jobs. You can learn a little about their lives. It’s a little glimpse, but it should give you some insight as to whether it’s something you really want to do.
3. Create A Plan To Implement A New Job At Your Business
By now you’ll have a lot of information about your job. The next step is to create a plan on how this job will make your company money.
Executives might be smart people, but they’re fairly simple people. They see through all the BS going on in a business and get things down to what really matters – sales and profit.
Every job at a company helps the company make profit. The salary paid for that job has to be less than the company will make as a result of the work done by the person holding the job. If that’s not the case, the job will eventually be eliminated.
It may not always be possible to figure out exactly how your new job is going to make money and your boss might not expect it especially if it’s a brand new field. But your boss will want to see the potential.
Create a step-by-step process for doing the tasks involved in your job and how they result in profit. Include all the details throughout the progression of the job over a few years.
4. Start The Work In Your Free Time
Now that your plan is set you’re not ready to share it with your boss. You’re going to take it one step further to almost guarantee that your boss will give you the job when you have a discussion.
Take your plan and start doing the work. You’ll obviously need to get your regular work done and this time can get busy. And who has time for more work when we’re already doing regular work and handling things at home?
Something crazy often happens when you’re excited about something like a new job – time appears.
How does this happen?
When you’re excited about something you’ll do your other work more efficiently. You’ll have the drive to get it done so you have time to work on what you really care about.
I can’t explain the science, but it happens.
Start working on your plan. Don’t implement it for your company. You don’t want to start rolling out new products or anything like that. But you can get all the planning and research ready. You can get it to the point where you’re ready to go.
For example, if you want to be the blogger at your company you don’t need to launch the blog, but you can write blog posts that will be published once the blog is approved and ready to launch. You can also find the platform and theme.
5. Have A Discussion With Your Boss
Now that you have the plan and have started the work you can schedule a time to meet with your boss. Make sure he or she has plenty of time for the discussion. This can be difficult, but you want to make sure they don’t have to run out to another meeting as you’re making your pitch.
Another tricky aspect of this is how your boss feels about your time. Some bosses still want to control the work you’re doing. When you tell them, “I’ve been working on something in my free time…” they might immediately think of something they think you should have been doing instead.
Start by sharing articles and information about the comparable companies. You can snap your boss into the right frame of mind with this information. Once they realize the topic is important (and they might already before you meet) you don’t have to worry as much about backlash.
Talk through your research on the topic. Move into the discussion about the jobs the other companies have and finally move into the discussion about the potential for a job like that at your company.
You can share the work you’ve already done and that will push them over the edge.
If all goes well they’ll be ready to hire you, but they’ll have to discuss it with HR. That’s fine. But make sure they schedule the meeting.
It might take a while after this meeting for the job to become reality (they might have to hire someone to do your old job), but you should be on your way to a job you love and hopefully one that pays more. In fact, make sure you bring information on salaries for the people doing the job you want at comparable companies.
Conclusion
Transitioning to new companies can be difficult for a number of reasons. You have to learn new systems. You have to possibly move. And it’s risky especially if you’re with a stable company.
A better option is to build a job for yourself at your current company. Follow the steps above and you can do just that. You’ll be doing something you love, hopefully making more money and staying within a company you like and appreciate.
The first step is finding something you love.