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Career development in small company when your manager doesn't know your job

4 replies

WonderingAboutWork · 24/02/2021 21:23

Hoping for some useful tips or even inspiring success stories...!

As per the title, I work in a small company. I'm a department of one, plus two part-time admin assistants. The person I report to is someone who has never done my kind of work (let's say I look after finance for an arts organisation). He's just glad it's getting done without him having to worry about it. If I was at the peak of my career, this would be fine and expected. But I still have further to climb to reach my peak.

While there are advantages to my position, for example plenty of autonomy, I'm worried there will be a point when it will start holding me back. There's nobody else at the company who would be a more suitable line manager (in terms of their role, disregarding personal compatibility), so it's not that we need to restructure.

I've taken my little department from a mess to something befitting the 21st century, and the more progress I make, the more space opens up for me to potentially add more value to the company by doing bigger and better things here. I'm pretty good at keeping my skills current by googling, doing free online classes and suchlike. However, I don't think that will be enough to give me the higher-level skills I want, to be a real leader in what I do.

I'm not keen on leaving this job any time soon, as it fits well with my life and the conditions are good, but if I do leave I want to go onto something more senior, not more of the same. But how to get that experience and knowledge?

Anyone been in a similar position?

OP posts:
WonderingAboutWork · 24/02/2021 21:28

You know what, I also crave having someone look at my work and say "this bit is really excellent". Or even "this bit is lacking; why don't you try X". Instead, I am the office "good old so-and-so", doing the boring bits that nobody else understands.

OP posts:
Margaritatime · 25/02/2021 00:30

Find a mentor in another organisation, they can help point you in the right direction and also be a useful sounding board.

WonderingAboutWork · 25/02/2021 19:59

@Margaritatime

Find a mentor in another organisation, they can help point you in the right direction and also be a useful sounding board.
Thank you, that is probably a very good idea. It's crossed my mind before, and I do have a few contacts, but I worry about imposing on people. I need to get back out there; I used to network quite a bit but Covid has put a stop to that. Video calls just don't feel the same!
OP posts:
Margaritatime · 26/02/2021 09:48

If you are working in a profession e.g. finance, HR, Legal, procurement, logistics etc. You may find the professional body has a mentoring programme.

Good luck

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