Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn't, and Why: 10 Things You'd Better Do If You Want to Get Ahead

by Donald Asher

Do your job, do it well, and you'¬?ll be rewarded, right? Actually, probably not. According to career guru Donald Asher advancement at work is less about skill sets and more about strategy. WHO GETS PROMOTED, WHO DOESN'¬?T, AND WHY details exactly what puts one employee on the fast track to an exceptional career, while another stays on the treadmill to mediocrity.Whether you'¬?re new to the workforce or feeling stagnant and overlooked, this book is your ticket to advancement. If you want to know how to begin controlling your own destiny, the solution is not to work harder but to work smarter. WHO GETS PROMOTED, WHO DOESN'¬?T, AND WHY can help you do just that! ReviewsKennedy-Krannich Top 10 career book pick of the "A brilliant book by a top career consultant offers startling new conclusions (timing is more important than talent, for example) based on interviews with hundreds of fast-track careerists who reveal how corporations really make promotion decisions."-Los Angeles Times Syndicate"A little book with a big message . . . Must-reading for anyone who is interested in building their career."-About.com"I doubled my income with the tips in this book!"-Adele Liss, public relations executive, San Francisco

Genres: Business, Self Help, Nonfiction, Management, Leadership, Personal Development, Psychology

176 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2007

Reviews

[Nada | ندى · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب مهم ومفيد ؛ الكثير من المعلومات الجديدة التى غير متوفر بشكل متكرر ، انا متاكدة عند قرأته سوف تستفيد كثيرا، انصح به وبشد خصوصا لمن يعاني من مشكلات في حياته المهنية

[Francisco Segundo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surpreendentemente bom. prático, útil e não dá aquela impressão de que poderia ter sido escrito em 2 páginas

[Bassam Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب من ينال الترقية ومن لا ينالها ولماذا أو بعنونه الانجليزي بلغة اصداره الاصلية who gets promoted who doesn't and why لمؤلفه دولاند آشر أحد رواد الاستشارات المهنية في الولايات المتحدة، يحمل في طياته كما من النصائح والتجارب الناجحة في أغلبها والفاشل بعضها، للمؤلف شخصيا وللعديد ممن ارتقوا السلم المهني بشكل استثنائي ممن سماهم المؤلف "اصحاب المسار المهني السريع".
يركز الكتاب هاهنا تحديدا على موضوع الحياة المهنية وكيفية الارتقاء بها على الصعيد الفردي اما بالترقية الوظيفية او الاناطة بمهمات تتضمن على التحدي وفرص التطوير وزيادة الدخل، او الاثنين معا، وهنا يستخلص المؤلف من دراسته وخبرته وملاحظاته مقرونة بمجموعة مهمة من خبرات اصحاب قصص النجاح وبعض من جانبهم النجاح بشكل مؤقت تحصل عليها من المقابلات والمقالات المرسلة اليه، وضعها في شكل مجموعة ارشادات وتركيبة من السلوكيات والصفات والمهارات التي من شانها أن تميز الآخذ بها وتسرع من تطور حياته المهنية، هناك من الأمور بالغة الاهمية ما كنت شخصيا على علم به، ومنها ما أكتشفته وكان مدعى للتفكير ومراجعة النفس.
ما يؤخذ على الكتاب هو أمريكيته الصرفة فجل الخبرات والمواقف والارشادات بناها الكاتب على بنية وبيئة العمل في السوق الأمريكي وخصائصها التي قد تختلف قليلا او كثيرا عن باقي دول العالم ناهيك عن كون خطابه موجه بشكل اساسي للموظف/الموظفة الأمريكي تحديدا، وحيث أن الجوانب الثقافية والسلوكية لدول العالم الاخرى يشوبها بعض الاختلاف وذلك من شانه أن يغير من طبيعة بعض الارشادات اذا ما اخذت بعين الاعتبار.
ولكن ما قدمه المؤلف في كتابه اذا ما اخذ في سياقه العام وتم تكيفه مع بيئة عمل القارئ، من شأنه أن يقدم المعرفة التي تقود إلى الفائدة في تطوير الحياة المهنية لؤلئك الذين تأتي حياتهم المهنية في قمة الاولويات وحتى من يريد الموازنة بين تطوير حياته المهنية والحفاظ على نظام حياة اجتماعي مستقر فله من الفائدة نصيب في هذا الكتاب.

[Chandler Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book

This book OPENED my eyes to many situations that one will face in the corporate world. A good read for sure!

[Noor Abu Hassan · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب اكثر من رائع انثح بقراته....

[R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Donald Asher spent 20 years interviewing successful careerists to distil their advice and strategies, alongside HR people. Remember that some of the techniques discussed are probably done by some unpleasant people.

An awkward book to read, because feeling like a failure in your career is never a good. This book does that, by picking up in minute detail all the small errors most people have probably made in their careers, and the harsh realities of the workforce. Three of the harshest include:
· Promotions are never a reward, they are a prediction. Bosses want proof that you can deliver a specific, clearly targeted future.
· Irreplaceable people cannot be promoted. If you are more valuable where you are, you will not get promoted. Sometimes people make themselves irreplaceable by creating unnecessary complexity in their role that prevents anyone understanding their role, the person who the clients love and don’t want to have to work with anyone else, the project manager who does not share any information. The key to avoiding this is ensuring that your job is documented in detail, and you promise that you will be available to answer any questions from the person replacing you.
· There is a structural bias in favour of hiring from the outside rather from within (very true as new opportunities always seem better). Most people earning £100,000 to £250,000 probably have the same skills, but lots of people get caught in that middle management trap. If it costs more to replace you than to hire somebody new, the latter option will be taken.
· Perception is reality. If you are perceived to be accident prone, you are accident prone regardless of whether it is true / overblown. Be careful of your jocular nature. In reality though, the best thing you can control is being really good at your job.

Getting promoted
Sell yourself constantly. Your name should be mentioned regularly. Documenting your work / achievements can really help.
· If you are ever caught being rude to a waiter / someone far below you that is a sure way to not get promoted by your superiors.
· Do you salt your food before tasting it? If so that indicates a rushed judgement.
· The airport hiring rule; if you were stuck with someone for 8 hours, could you sustain conversation?
· Never pass up the opportunity to introduce yourself to someone more senior. Power flows down from seniors. Be on the receiving end of that power – something you have learnt to your benefit in your Technology Project.
· Needing skills is more about having a basis understand of those skills than actually being a master of those skills.
· Never continually ask for reassurance. It makes you look insecure.
· Write well.
· Speak well. Banish “like” and “you know” and “no problem”.
· Present well. Toastmasters International is a really good organisation to join.
· Nail a special project.
· Avoid jobs that inherently make your unpopular (internal audit and for you potentially reporting).
· Spread the praise.
· Dress professionally.
· Develop a leadership demeanour. If your boss leads a certain way, employ the mirror technique to do the same.
· Remember that your boss is always managing upwards (not downwards). Her boss is the most important relationship, not your relationship with her.

Get noticed
· Anticipating change can ease your way to a promotion. No need to create a role with HR, if you have predicted the skills required to fulfil that role. Your manager will simply give you that role.
· Ambitious people tend to get critical assignments. Even if your career has stalled for years, by simply showing up and playing to win you can recalibrate your career.
· Many people make great soldiers executing other people’s plans. So, when you approach your boss with a problem, offer yourself as the solution.
· Savvy careerists intentionally finish projects just as promotions become actionable. If you are neck deep in a really important project, the promotion that you are currently applying for is likely to go to another person.
· Companies that grow require people to hire. LSEG for you right now is probably a really good place to be.
· The world is set up for early birds. Every minute you arrive early is worth 15 minutes of staying later. It really impresses people who are not morning people.
· Team players in every sense of the word go far.
· Know when to keep your mouth shut (can always be improved). People, particularly managers are adept at finding negatives about people.
· Make your clients love you and you will be bullet proof.
· Deliver when it really matters. If a project matters it is probably when your boss is at her most important / vulnerable. That feeling of relief will be key.
· Manage your review process. Make it easy for your manager to sign off your performance review by writing it for them!
· Always have an up to date CV, and crucially a CV for work, and a CV for job applications. Two very different types of content.
· Selectively volunteer for tasks that get a lot of attention.
· Present yourself well, including by dressing smartly. Regular haircuts also help, as do ensuring you are using a proper pen (ideally the company pen) compared to a stolen one from a hotel.

Always be learning
· It is the ongoing, nimble, responsive anticipatory learner who has a career advantage over others. They design their own educational process. This could include MBAs, constant reading, trade associations, management courses and skills development. You are currently 4 /5 out of six when it comes to your learning (anticipates skills needed by society as a whole, and within your company). Slightly contradictorily, Donald then writes to say that book learners (those who primarily get their information from static media) don’t become fast track careerists because books are backward looking. True to an extent. See PG 53.
· A Masters / MBA in of itself will not be reason why you get promoted.
· Early progress compounds the most – as it is likely to earlier in your career give you autonomy, money and choice. The sooner you become a £100,000 hire, the longer you are likely to stay as a £100,000 hire.

Master the art of sales
· Fundamentally understand what the customers (be it your colleague, client or boss) need. Everyone thinks “What’s in it for me (WIIFM)”.
· PG70 talks about selling the idea, not the actual product, essentially what Johnny does to clients. Remember that the most talented subordinates can gives their ideas to their boss and get the boss to think she came up with them first.
· Always remember when preparing your pitch, to rehearse what you think the other people who view your plan will say. It will help you become more creative. It is the same trick you learnt about when rolling out a product. Think about everything that could go wrong with the product launch and then amend accordingly.
· Always note down gossip regardless of whether it is true or not. It can be the differentiating factor if you capitalise on it.

Have an ascension plan
· The key to an ascension plan is not a list of desires, but an honest assessment of where you are as an individual.
· An HR person who has never run a P&L is unlikely to then move into a revenue generating function. Possible, but not particularly likely.
· An ascension plan involves;
o Selecting specific job titles that you would like to get next.
o Create a logical plan to obtain those skills.
o Create a realistic self-promotion plan to sell yourself.
o Create a feasible plan to replace yourself (see earlier note about documenting your role).
o Prepare the triggers and contingencies thought out ahead of time.
· It also involves a huge amount of personal sacrifice. These types of people are forever dissatisfied and never sit around talking about “should / could have.
· Honesty is the key, particularly about the areas that come naturally to you. Remember HR people always look for the complete fit in terms of skills you have, and the skills the role required.
· Tying your accomplishments / responsibilities that you are already doing to a new promotion is a really good idea. That way, the person can visualise already what the promotion they are contemplating giving you looks like. Also ensure you can demonstrate behaviours where possible that you would exhibit, for example leading teams.
· When asking for certain roles / promotions selling your idea in the context of “what would make you delighted” can often work. This is because everyone enjoys making other people happy and loves the idea of hiring a person who is “delighted” to work for them.
· Know how to mitigate your weaknesses. If you are going for a CEO role and finance has never been your strong point, then picking a really experienced CFO will be key.
· You can never overdo the lunches / coffees with work colleagues. The wider your network, the larger the larger the information set.
· Visualise what your manager will say when discussing whether you are a good candidate or not? PG 99 quotes someone who says that having a law degree always impresses people even though he never uses it.

Always make your boss look good
· Always be paying attention to your boss.
· Always present a united front with your team. Bickering and public falling outs are for senior executives and the FT.
· Quickly try to figure out what information your boss requires.
· Bosses always want to hear “I will take care of it” and “you can count on me”.
· Always over, rather than under communicate. Think of the IR emails. Reply all is always best, and prevents situations where Jane misses the email responses you have provided investors.
· Going on holiday is a good look. Company security guards always look suspiciously at people who never take AL. These people are often so incompetent that they cannot let other people see the chaos. SG to some extent is a good example – whereby so much ran through him and nothing was delegated that he was always working.
· An underappreciated fact however is that trying to find the right job, in the right area, within the right organisation is key. That way you will be happier and likely find a boss that you respect, which if you do respect them, will come across.
· A note for the future, but when trying to go above your boss’s head to get the attention of someone higher up the food chain, start by CCing them in emails so they are aware of you. Then make an approach to start cutting them out of emails.

Stand next to superstars
· Good CEOs always surround themselves by people they can trust, but more cynically do not owe any favours to. A CEO who does not come with her own colleagues and spies is simply not politically savvy.
· If you are ambitious and highly motivated, actively look for high performers. However, one type of high performer you should avoid at all costs is the gunslinger. This is the person who puts their reputation on the line every time for every project and often works at 100mph. They drive teams to exhaustion, before departing their role / task from boredom.
· Finally, always ensure you have friends and you keep those friends! A drink / lunch / beer every so often goes a long way. You just never know.

Find Guardian Angels
· A real trump card is to have a real friend two / three clicks up the food chain. For you that is Tam Sanderson / potentially Caroline.
· The term mentor comes from the Odyssey, where Athena the goodness disguised herself as a Mentor to offer Telemachus wise advice. They will also be able to mention your name to more senior people and probably be able to stick up for you when required.
· Ensure you are well liked, but not loved. Well liked people are appreciated, but not clung onto. Well liked people are most likely to do favours for other people that they keep in reserve until needed.
Career or lifestyle?
· Most people have lifestyles with a career (Alice C-C) whereby other people have careers with a lifestyle. You are probably the latter.
· Most companies have a “two-turndown” rule. If you turn down one promotion, the next reassignment you turn down will be your last.

How to repair your career.
· Focus on being a problem solver.
· Take lateral positions if you are bored.
· In a downturn, pickup clients.
· Train / develop your career.
· Get out of your office and network.
· Focus on scalability. That the ability to do multiple job assignments, can delegate (see PG 56) and know when decisions do not need to be taken / delayed. That helps control work as well. It also impresses your boss because she then knows extra work is sustainable.
· Job hopping is allowed if it is clearly for the right reasons. Ultimately the best people move to better opportunities.
· Think two career moves ahead; the immediate one that you would like to achieve and then the reward from that promotion.

[Forrest Pitz · Rating 1 out of 5]

In many ways "Who Gets Promoted" represents much of what I belive to be wrong with modern business writing. It takes what could have been an alright series of blog posts and attempts to stretch them into 200 pages.

The prose is poorly written. It would be easy to remove a third of the words without loosing any of the meaning.

It is also poorly structured, constant asides and anecdoes littered each chapter and muddle the structure of any arguments Ahser attempts to make. The assides often have very little (if any at all) to do with the content of the chapter making them even more frustrating.

The advice given is of two sorts:

1. Good advice hamstrung by a lack of actionable details
2. Bad advice that will be detrimental to your career

The former was the hardest to swollow. The author was so close to something useful and fell short. By example take the suggestion to create a "brag file" to keep track of accomplishments to use on a resume or during your annual review. This is wonderful advice and something I swear by personally. The issue is that is the extent of the guidance. It would have taken just a paragraph or two more to explain some basic parameters of how to structure and describe accomplishments in a way that makes them quickly composable into a review or a resume. Without those details this useful suggestion falls flat and is unfortunately unlikely to be used.

While some of the advice was decent (if unfulfilled) much of the advice is not worth the time it takes to read it.

Some is mostly harmless but unlikely to help ("If you mimic the speech of the people with power, you will be closer to having that power yourself". )

Some is inadvisable like when the author suggests that book learning is somehow beneath the driven careerist (which was especially wild to read in a book. )

The last sort is likely to be downright detrimental to your career like when the author suggests that you you shouldn't excel at your current role focusing your efforts on what's required of the next role. It is of course essential that you look to add skillets of the roles you hope to move into but it's asinine to suggest that you mortgage performance in your current role to do so.

The author describes a world where there is one and only one path to success: a domineering, machavelian process where you scheme to get what you want. This is taken to almost characerature-ish extremes with some suggestions about omitting the truth to make things sound better bordering on unethical. While the book seems to describe the successful person as this hard charging go getter high D (if you are familiar with DiSC) person a later section admits that introverts with different styles are found in similar proportions in upper positions which waters down the argument that the do-whatever-it-takes, ends-justify-the-means approach that he seems to suggest is worth the risk of being driven out of an organization for not being willing to work collaboratively.

The final issue is the most grave. While Asher claims that he wrote the book "for women" a number of the assides and examples are problematic to say the least like an example where Asher forcibly marches a woman into a clothing store to change her outfit to fit his personal tastes. There is value in dressing the part but the way this anecdote was delivered left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Please don't spend your time on this book.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this does contain some very interesting anecdotes and great suggestions as to why people do or don't get promoted in private industry, I found it not very helpful for those of us who work for the government. Not totally useless, as the tips for introverts were helpful, but not a book I would read again unless I changed careers.

[Robert de Guzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The gist of the book is that, promotion is based on your future value, and not the present. Your achievements are just for credibility of what you can do for the company, but not the sole basis of the decision to promote you. Other things also play like your availability, the skills needed in the position, how well are you perceived by your boss and your peers, etc.

[erjan avid reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book has given tremendous value to me!

it tells the LAWS of career building - plan/work + luck.


must read for everyone who wants to know how to get good job.

h.r dept does not CARE about your promotion and problems!

you have to make yourself noticed!

[Sonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read -- does a good job of outlining tips with very specific examples of how to combat social/political issues in the workplace. Getting promoted is about more than putting your head down and getting the work done, and this book helps illustrate that.

[Omar M. Khateeb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book that will help you reflect on how much political capital you have at the office and whether you have enough to move up the ranks. Biggest take away is that the best/irreplaceable in their job rarely move up. Develop a succession plan, befriend the powerful, and don't be a wild card.

[Shiraz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Be replaceable
Teach coworkers
Be ready before you're lucky
You never deserve a promotion, it's not a reward for past but for future contributions in a new position.

[Clurtle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This really proves the point that sometimes you have to revisit some books later in life when you’re in a different headspace. This book was incredibly elucidating about the process for promotions and what outside consideration go into promoting someone into a position.

Some important perspective shifts:
- don’t feel like you been slanted just because some promises fall through. That’s the nature of business. Instead set your mindset on taking advantage of as many opportunities to succeed and gain visibility as possible
- set trigger deadlines for when things should happen by. If you want a promo by next promo season, then set it and even subtly vocalize it if you truly believe yourself to be valuable. The closer you arrive to the date, the more you may see opportunity open.
- if you’re incompetent, you’ll never get promod even when you’re doing lateral transitions. Take the hint and get a mentor and improve your skills.
- you HAVE to think like the next role and above. Stop just focusing on the work at hand. You have to think at surpivisor, manager’s, director, executive and top leader’s level to truly guide your path accurately. A career is long and complex. Focusing on just the things you naturally run across in the day will leave you way behind.
- follow in the coat tails of extraordinary workers. Be the 2nd for the absolutely extraordinary people if you can. The pace will be picked up but you’ll get lots of praise from even taking up the work that they leave behind.

That being said, many of these notes really only help when you’re under a bad manager, which sure is most of the time, but there’s a tone of assumed incompetence of your boss throughout the entirety of the book mixed with a smattering of 2000s era career code.

- don’t be presumptuous and schedule an annual review without first asking your boss.
- don’t just settle for someone being agist or sexist and take on they’re work and yours. You will stay in that position until you quit if you don’t tell someone and try to work through HR. I agree to not let someone ruin your career, but don’t just grin and bear it without telling your boss and cohorts what’s happening.
- interviewing all the time is a brutal way to live. Sure there’s no loyalty in corporates these days, but giving up what little personal time this book prescribes to you for interviewing and taking every meeting that comes across your email feed and brutal. You won’t make it very long. Jump enough times and your career is essentially done by the 4th jump. DO NOT believe the hyped up tiktok nonsense.

One thing that bugged me was how so many of the anecdotes come from a place of extreme privilege. I don’t just mean that most of these people sounded white. I mean they all sounded white, american, high middle/upper class, elite university grads who’s dad knows someone. Those are VERY bad people to take advice from especially when the advice is watered down and generalized so as to lose much of its context. I was stunned to hear the presidential scholar describe his career like it was his own, when I understood that even getting the chance to be a presidential scholar requires you to live in a high tax payer bracket area with great public and private schools. And people don’t just talk to you if you’re unimportant and can’t offer them anything. It was criminally oversimplified.

My last knock is that we spent no time discussing real tactics. We don’t give resume examples, 360 examples, career pacing objectives or even success stories. We’re offered maybe one, but the book cuts off right where the author could have done the most gloating. I’d also say the callout section on women is just awkward and reeks of old white man talking down to a woman. Just leave it to Sandberg like you reference at the beginning and try to give advice that’s applicable to all.

At the end the book was a page turner but perhaps not for the best reasons. I think the points were REALLY good but not because of the exposition offered in this book. I think it’s because i’ve done my own reading from many many other sources, so these small points have much more meaning when i’m reading them. I’d never recommend this book over the likes of Manager Tools, Effective Habits, Effective Executive and other pillar works in executive prep books. These books tell you what’s at stake at the levels you want to be promod to, and if you free yourself of ego, you naturally fill in the gaps for what’s required with work and self improvement.

Don’t let your job title define you, and don’t lust after power like one of the anecdotes. Most people should never live outside of the lifestyle provided at their most junior role in their career, assuming you may have a major career change every 10 years ( hint: economic cycles ala Dalio)

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a book opens with brand new information on page 2, you know you've got a winner. I've read a lot of business books that simply don't apply to women. "Be extremely assertive!" "Don't be afraid to argue!" These are not methods that will ever work for a woman. Asher's advice universally applies to everyone. There were tips for young people like me, older workers, people who had been fired or out of the workforce. This book helped me plan out how to ask for a raise and get a 5 year plan together for my career. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who wants to start planning out their career rather than taking whatever life throws at them.

[Nael · Rating 3 out of 5]

As good as these self-help books get.
point to keep in mind
- you don't get promoted on what you did in the past but what kind of future value you can give in the future
- choose who you are associated with
- make your boss look good, he will do the same
- make yourself replaceable otherwise it will be difficult to replace you and external people will get hired for the promotion (costs money)
- showing that you are a hard worker is very important otherwise who takes the credit?
- be social, meet people (give and take)

[Ohkeun Kwon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Practical but moral killing book

If you have to meet people in this way and work that way, if you need not to be you, it will disappoint you. I want a promotion and power to do something but not that much maybe. I don't know :)

[Jody Ellis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book read just like a 'get rich quick' scheme. It was loaded with unrealistic expectations and I wonder if any of their scenarios were even based on real people. Some of the pointers were just downright insulting to your manager and would get you fired!

Absolute trash.

[humble.observer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical examples

Down to earth examples of real life. Makes ones think over and over again. Could go more depth in challenging situations.

[Haya Bader · Rating 4 out of 5]

الكتاب جيد للناس المحتاجة مرشد يغششها المهارات المطلوبة في بيئة العمل،ويساعدها في التفاصيل الجديدة عليها، بحيث يبني لها أرضية ويعطيها طاقة ايجابية❤️

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a few helpful nuggets of info in this book, but for the most part it’s High School guidance counselor advice.

[Mohamed Kamal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas and open your eyes for challenging careerists life

[Vanessa Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for those searching for their next opportunity.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and persuasive points for what it takes and how to get promoted at work.

Worth buying.

[Liam Vo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book

The perfect book that shows what you should be doing to get promoted and I wish I knew some of this advices earlier in my career. Highly recommended!

[Jody Nichole · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Second Edition of Donald Asher’s, Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t, and Why, Donald Asher, a career consultant, sets out to provide the fast-track careerist with high level or non-remedial information on how to advance their career in a quick, professional manner. He provides tips on timing, getting noticed, learning new skills and the art of sales, among several other areas that business professionals will need to succeed in today’s business environment. Each chapter, or “tip”, is peppered with a further breakdown and additional tips or tools like, keeping a brag sheet, don’t go above your boss’s head with information or ideas, take as many trainings as you can, belong to Toastmaster’s and other professional organizations. In one of the last chapters he focuses solely on women in business, giving very specific tips and tools for women to take control of their careers and advance more like a man. The tips and tools provided in this book are geared towards all levels on the career ladder. Some tips or tools are more advanced than others, for those further into their careers; while others are geared more towards those just entering or re-entering the work force.

I originally chose this book to read and review because a little less than a year ago I was denied a promotion that I had been promised for over a year; funding just had to come available. I was curious as to what I might have done wrong so I began reading this book. As I read through the book, I realized that I had actually followed the majority of his steps to getting promoted. I had proven that I could deliver not only the specific goals that I was provided with, I could anticipate what was needed next and provide that information in a timely manner. I had also trained several employees to do the job that I was doing so that when the promotion came, I could hand some of it off to them without any disruptions to the actual work flow. Because I was curious as to why, after doing several of the things suggested in this book, I didn’t get the promotion I made an inquiry with my former manager. What I found out was that I had apparently said something, at the beginning of my time with the organization, that had offended someone high up and that had blocked my promised promotion. Because I was not made aware of this, I had no way to make amends to this person, therefore not being able to move any further in this organization. So, following additional tips in the book I changed departments, updated my internal and external resumes and put myself back out on the market.

Because I currently work for an organization that highly values professional development for its staff, even requiring ALL staff to have 15+ professional development hours each fiscal year, I found the majority of this book to be a review. I find nothing wrong with reviewing information, it’s always good to have that information fresh in your mind; I did however find several little nuggets of information that I plan on implementing from now in my career; a brag sheet, an always updated resume, putting on myself on the market, looking for assignments within my current organization that might get me a bit more recognition. I believe that for professionals this book will be more of a review or a way to refresh information they may have forgotten or let slide. But, for those just entering the work force or reentering the workforce this book will be invaluable. If provides several wonderful tips and tools to advance a career in a quick and professional manner.

DONALD ASHER is the author of eleven books on careers, job search, and higher education. He is a contributing writer for numerous publications and career sites and is a tireless speaker, making more than 150 appearances at college and corporate campuses across the United States each year. Recent teaching engagements have also taken him abroad to India, China, South Korea, and Germany. When he isn’t traveling, Donald Asher divides his time between northern Nevada and San Francisco, California. Visit www.donaldasher.com.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

[Rafael Bandeira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want to make your way into that raise or promotion? This book is certainly a good asset for that. Definitely not a kick-off step, and also not a map for it - you ought to be on your way already, doing a superb work, and willing to go that extra mile for a career boost.

This is a delightful reading: easy, quick and fun. Information is consistent, and the concepts are really interesting - also, related topics and real world examples are highlighted throughout the book, which makes it for a very informational resource on how others made career moves in different industries.

Recommended! 10 concepts to incorporate right now to keep climbing the big corp ladder to more challenging positions and better revenue. Also, really inspiring to put you on the way to become a careerist, which seems a really good idea!

Chapters/Hints
- timing is as important as performance or talent
- you have to get noticed
- lifelong learning is required for lifelong success
- all business is sales
- you need an ascension plan, but...
- always make your biss look good
- suction -- it pays to stand next to superstars
- find guardian angels and benefactors
- move - dammit - and here's why
- find the right mix of prepared and lucky

[Matthias · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is basically just one takeaway from this book - most organizations are very risk-averse, so, if they can, they won't put people in role X without being 100% sure the person will be able to do it.
That's why your best bet, if you want to get to role X, is to stay in your current role Y, but, on top of doing everything that's expected from your role Y, stretching out and doing as much extra work related to role X as possible at the same time. For a combination of decreased perceived risk and simple inertia, the decision-makers will then probably pick you for role X (because 'hey, you're basically already doing it, so why not').

[Jeff Lampson]

An excellent guide for those interested in career advancement. Asher provides an insightful blending of dignified approaches combined with street smart actions. It is written within the context of ten proven strategies. Getting promoted really is a combination of smart positioning, form and content.

[David Pretola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent advice for whomever would like to understand career management and what it takes to be promoted within an organization. Asher does an outstanding job describing techniques and attitude necessary to be noticed and ultimately to be successful in a work environment. This is required reading for anyone who is serious about their career.