Help me make a good impression!

[ChickOnaMission]

On Tuesday the CEO and another very senior manager are visiting our office from head office in Europe. They come twice a year ish. At the moment I'm the most junior in the office, each time they come my direct boss says after, yeah, they noticed you and don't worry we're going to move you up a level.... The CEO always flirts with me, I have a good rapport with him but this time I really want something to come out of it. I'm working hard, studying for professional qualifications in my industry. As well as doing an OU degree in my spare time. I'm better than my current role, it's so dull, I have a ridiculous amount of free time, very underworked. I get asked to type stuff up, forward emails, nothing that really uses my experience or professional qualifications. When I interviewed for the role my boss said I could move into this role I want to do within 18 months. It's been that time now and nothing... I actually think he only employed me because I'm female and he wanted a bit of totty in the all male office :-( but I know I can do this job!!

Give me some tips on how I can express my desire for promotion
please!

Well IMO, the combination of your suspicions your boss only employed you because he wanted a "bit of totty" and the CEO flirting with you adds up to your chances of being taken seriously and promoted in this organisation being not that good, tbh. Have you started looking elsewhere?

I have had my eye out for other roles. But this is a good company, and I need more experience before it's worth moving. I don't want to move and go back to the beginning again. I've had a long break for children and come back to work at a low level. This is why I have posted here, I want to be taken seriously and was hoping for some advice.

Change job. Seriously, this may be a good company but you are not in a good office. Ignore the flirting from the CEO (how inappropriate of him), ask your boss for a meeting to discuss your promised career progression and take it from there. If you agree an action plan with timescales which are actually put into place, then stay with the company. Otherwise, start looking for another job. I don't know how you can talk about moving back to the beginning in another company if your current role involves typing and forwarding emails and vast amounts of dead time.

I too say change jobs - if it's a good company, you might be able to move back later in a different position.

• Is there an internal jobs board? It might makes sense to make a sideways move to gain wider experience before moving up, if you're not getting it in your current role. A lot of people at my company have got where they are with quite zigzaggy paths, rather than straight up, and they talk of the career jungle gym rather than the career ladder, because it's rarely a straight path these days. It does depend a bit on your industry, though.
• Are there people in other departments you'd like to work in with whom you could talk, to see what experience you need, and maybe get some informal job shadowing (if you've got all that free time) and mentoring?
• Are there any projects coming up? Push to be involved, and get more challenging things to do.
• Are there any employee groups you can be involved with? We have a women's organisation (and a few other groups), and it's meant I have been involved in organising events that I just wouldn't have been involved in otherwise. Also, I've got to learn so much more about other parts of the business and so on, and met a wider range of people than I ever would in the course of my normal job. And I know more about various professional development resources from HR than my own manager does.
• Are you in LinkedIn, and part of any industry-related groups? I've been on some industry-related events because of that, and been able to network outside my own company, which has meant we've made some useful contacts for the business, and all that helps improve my profile within the company.
• Do you have any sort of competency list? They've been rolling them out with us over the past couple of years, and I'm using that to prove I should be considered for promotion, as it's quite clear about what level of things I should be capable for competencies in my role and the ones above and below, as well as some more general soft skills competencies. I've gathered up evidence from things I've achieved to show against each point how competent I am.

Your current boss clearly isn't going to do anything, so you will have to.

Why would you need to go "back to the beginning again" if you move to a different employer? You have professional qualifications and 18 months experience at a more junior level, so you're in a good position to look for something more challenging.

It's always more difficult to change internal negative perceptions than it is to create positive perceptions somewhere else. Particularly when those negative perceptions aren't anything to do with your job performance and are instead to do with attributes you cannot change.

I'm not sure a company where the CEO flirts with junior female staff and the management employ women as "totty" can be classed as a "good company" tbh, but if you are dead set on staying there, EBearhug's advice is good.