Secret to Being a Super Employee, Part II

Before I discuss the Real Job Case #2, I forgot to mention, if you are doing all the things to achieve your Boss' goals, make sure you keep a record.

• April, I helped close 4 deals.
• May, 6 deals, etc.

This will all help during Performance Review/asking for a Raise time.

Job Case #2: Tape Vault/Library to Vault Supervisor

This was an entry level postion that paid a little over minium wage, even though I had a college degree. There was very little training, and most of the employees in the department were community college dropouts. The college graduates usually lasted a couple months at the most.

My nominal responsibilities were: check in/out tapes. It was like working at a Blockbuster store but with a lot more formats than DVD and VHS. My "true" responsibilities, based on my read of the Big Picture, were: help the clients achieve their goal -- a finished show. How did a lowly vault guy figure that out? I took a class. Not on vault management but about the whole process, from the clients' viewpoint.

The clients were bringing in tapes, working on it, copying it to other formats, tweaking and tweaking until they had a completed product. Kind of commonsense, but once I knew what they were trying to do, I was able to help them better, which contributed my little part in keeping them happy and coming back to the company. Which added to the Bottom Line (revenue).

Showing Initiative:

When I started, there was a hard-working guy who was soon to be promoted. I asked how he did it. He said, learn another job, on your own time. That's what I did. I learned how to operate different machines and learned more skills. So when someone was not available, I was able slide in and do the job.

Eventually, I got a raise, a small promotion and was on my way to the more technical job. Then I left to work for a bigger company.

Big Picture thinking

It all comes down to making the company money or saving the company. And how you can contribute to one or the other or both. Here are some examples, they are very general, some you should be able to grasp the gist and apply it.

• Paralegal: You're a support person for a lawyer. Find out how they make money. Help them do that efficiently.
• Customer Service: Solve customers' problems in a friendly, efficient manner.
  
• Auto mechanic: Do quality, honest work. That reputation will spread by word of mouth.
  
• Publicity/marketing: You have to increase awareness in clear measureable ways, meaning increasing businsess/sales.
  

As with any job, learn all the skills/duties of the jobs under you and one job above you.

That's it. Go get that raise and promotion.