My Gen Y Life

Changing your career within the same company can be an incredible benefit for you (and your retirement account), especially in a market where employment rates are down.  Companies love hiring internally for several reasons, but there are some benefits for you too.

Internal applicants get higher priority in the hiring process. Most managers feel obliged and HR recruiters encourage them to interview any internal applicants for a position first, while external applicants are more scrutinized. One note though – don’t tell your boss until you are in the final rounds for a position. You don’t want to cause a commotion when you might not get the job.

Internal transfers are less expensive. You’ll likely not get as big of a raise by transferring internally compared to moving to a new company, but you can interview during your work hours instead trying to hide your mystery appointments. You also don’t have to worry about not having a paycheck right away with the new job, or worrying about losing your benefits. The company benefits from not having to pay as much recruiting costs.

Easier transition period. Instead of leaving the company, you may be able to start training for your new job during work hours and be available to train the person who is filling your old shoes. Careful not to let the latter take away from your new job though. Let your replacement and former boss know that you are not “on call” just because you’re a few floors away, and specify how much time you will spend on transitioning.

Decreased learning curve for new job. Learning how the company works can take a lot of time. While you may still be new to department processes and people, you are already privy to the inner workings of the company and can get up to speed much quicker than if you were new.

So don't be afraid to regularly look at your company's job postings! (More employees do it than you think.) Your next career move could be right under your nose!

Knowing where to cross the line on helping out others can make or break your career. My approach to taking care of my husband when he’s hurt or ill taught me a great lesson about what I should or shouldn’t do at work if I want to be successful.

When I came home from work one day I found my DH sitting on the couch with his hand lying limp above his head and a miserable look on his face. He was supposed to be at class already so I asked him what was wrong. The poor guy had a ‘man cut’ (if you haven’t seen it, view the “man cold” on YouTube). He had accidentally cut his thumb with a razor knife when opening a package and it was making him feel lightheaded so he was holding his hand above his head to stop the throbbing - for three hours. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t get much sympathy from me. My approach is self-service: you do what you need to do to get better and move on. I never got doted on by my parents unless I had a life-threatening injury. With four of us girls in the house my parents had no room for a bunch of whiners – we were taught to “toughen up” and chastened that we “should have known better.” It was a rare incident to be catered on and oftentimes made us miss out on doing what the others were doing, so we learned quickly that there was no benefit to being sick or injured very long.

Some guys may have been brought up with similar nurturing styles from their parents, but it’s common belief that men have less tolerance for pain. Therefore, a minor cut for my husband is suddenly much more severe than if I were to have a cut. At one point his self-pity reached an all-time high when he said that he didn’t feel it was "safe for him to drive," which is why he had to miss his night classes. On the business side, women generally tend to put up with more “pain” than men and are more willing to help people out. I learned from my experience with my husband how important it is not to let others take advantage of you and to set a precedent from the beginning. If I had given in and done everything for my husband when he was perfectly capable, he would likely expect the same thing to happen the next time around. If you’ve ever had to train a new person to do your former job, you know how easy it is to just “do it for them” rather than teach them how and why you did it. For some coworkers the old adage applies where if you give an inch they take a mile – if you step outside your responsibilities to do their work once they will expect it again. Before you know it, you will be extremely frustrated and they will be getting the credit for all of your work.

So next time someone at work asks you to do something for them, make sure you think twice about how you will respond. If you decide to help them out, make sure they know it is a favor and that you normally wouldn’t be responsible for that. Although you may feel “bad” at first, it will be for your benefit in the end.

There is a short span of time where you are no longer a teenager and not yet have all the responsibilities of adulthood, marriage, and mortgages. This can be the best time of your life or it can be a waste. Before you plunge into “full” adulthood take my advice as someone who has passed through this era.

You will make more critical decisions in these years than at any other time in your life. Take a second to let that sink in. Think about it – you decide where to get your degree, what career to pursue, where you will go after college (and possibly meet your future spouse), and what friends you will let influence your life. My life would be so different right now if I had tweaked any of these decisions.

Make the most of your college years. Not just the partying part, but take advantage of the opportunities you have as a college student to travel abroad, compete in a sport or club, take part in a variety of eye-opening experiences, and enjoy every day you have. It won’t be long before every day starts to look the same and the years just fly by.

Open up as many choices for yourself as you can. While this could be a detriment by having too many good choices to choose from, it’s better than not having any. Don’t pigeon-hole yourself into one area or one route because if you change your mind, it may be too late. Although I had to turn down a couple great opportunities, I was able to choose the one that felt right and didn’t feel like I was pushed into it.

Lastly, try not to worry about the “what-if’s” too much. There is a sense of destiny that things will happen and opportunities will present themselves as they were meant to be. But who wants to stand around waiting?  You’re more likely to find what you’re looking for if you try than if you just wait for it to come to you.