You Will Get Promoted After You Resign

When I started out in my career, I really worked Night & Day to build as much early “Credibility & Experience” for myself as possible.  This job was fantastic and I couldn’t really ask for a better start (as I was very lucky to go straight from University to such a job with a good Multi-National Company).

My career with the employer was going quite well at the start -but then it hit a very obvious wall all of a sudden.  The company hit some hard times with September ’11 and Head Office overseas was in a bit of hot water.  As a result, wages were frozen, the once limitless advancements were off the table and lots of people were getting retrenched.

After a few more years, I worked really hard and achieved my KPI’s and targets.  But still there was nowhere to move.  People in other divisions were getting great opportunities, but as stated to me “Because I was good at what I did, they couldn’t replace me”.  Strangely enough, I was only 23 – 24 years old and already hit a glass ceiling.  It was a very frustrating time for me personally as my peers in other divisions were on better pay and moving forward (where I would even work more hours than them and get far less).

Then, I had a great break and got accepted for a Marketing Manager role interstate.   Once reinvigorated, I offered my resignation with a smile and was all ready to take the next step.

Then, after moving interstate for the job (about 1-2 months later), I got a call from the employer offering me a Promotion! I was actually quite offended in the respect that after all I have been though and after finally moving on – they then come back to me wanting to talk business.  I gave them the chance, they kept overlooking me but for whatever reason they only seemed to take me seriously once I left and had a “Better Job”.

It’s like the better job gave me the credibility for them to “Value Me More”.  As you can appreciate, I certainly didn’t go back!

Isn’t that funny how humans think sometimes and how people within companies can operate.  They offer people more money when they resign? When you look them in the eye, smile and hand over the resignation letter (that you have been writing in your mind for 6+ months) they then treat you like a person and start valuing you?

It’s a pity they just didn’t take me seriously before hand! (Save us both lots of work and disappointment).  My key lesson here is appreciate things before you lose them!

Nothing like closing the gate after the horse has bolted huh? 🙂

* Thank you to Daniel Johnson from Flickr for the horse image used.