How to Get Ahead in Your Career

Do you feel stagnated in your current job, unsure of how to continue growing or developing your skill set? In the following Forbes video, Hearst's Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles reveals specific strategies she took to get ahead in her own career.

While Coles begins with the all-important—albeit obvious—“work harder” and “negotiate for what you deserve,” she offers two more unconventional career tips toward the end of her video:

1. Know when to make a career move

It’s easy to think that if you put in the hard work, you’ll reap the benefits by getting promoted or recognized in some other way at work. However, that is not always the case. Coles points out that it’s important to take stock of your peers at work and compare your success to theirs. In doing so, be brutally honest with yourself—if you truly believe you’re at the top of your cohort and on track to receive a promotion in a reasonable period of time, then by all means stay in your given role. However, if there are a few of your coworkers who are outpacing you and are likely to get promoted before you, then you might consider looking for another job. What’s the point in remaining in a job you’ve stopped growing in for several more years, when you could receive a challenging new opportunity and potential title bump by getting a new job?

2. Don’t fear change

One of the biggest roadblocks preventing many people from beginning a proper job search is their fear of change. If you’ve decided that you need to make a career move, don’t let your fear of switching companies hinder you. The opportunity cost of staying in a stagnant role instead of attaining a higher-level position is simply too great. It may be tempting to rationalize staying in your current job because it’s comfortable—you know everyone already and you’ve mastered your job function. However, the benefits of a career bump from a new job will almost always outweigh any switching costs.

In the end, change is fundamental to business, from new technologies constantly emerging to new business practices being put in place. So you may as well embrace change now, rather than let it impede your career growth down the line.