
How to Reach the Director Level
5 steps for going from manager to director.
If you've been a manager for a while, you may be feeling ready for new challenges, more responsibility, and frankly, a bigger salary. If you have your eye on director level roles. here are 5 steps for going from manager to director.
How to Reach the Director Level
Step 1. Be sure that being a director is actually something you want (at this point in time).
The grass isn't always greener in the corner office, so it's essential that you understand what you'd be taking on. Take a look at the current workload of the directors at your company. Is the work appealing to you? Is the workload sustainable? Do directors tend to stay at the company for a while or is there a revolving door for the role? If folks at your company make their calendars public, taking a look at some directors' calendars is an easy way to get a sense for this, but you should also chat with the directors your closest to in order to get a better sense for what they do (if you haven't already).
Take inventory of your personal life. No matter what the role is, a new position can be stressful to transition to, especially in the first 90 days. Would the timing of a promotion and a new workload be good for you at this point in time?
As a director, you're responsible for understanding tactics and managing managers, not just individual contributors. If you're ready for a new challenge and taking a step beyond day-to-day tasks, becoming a director might be the right challenge for you. (And of course, if you have ambitions of one day reaching the c-suite, then reaching the director level is an essential step.)
Step 2. Talk to a mentor or sponsor.
A mentor with director experience in a similar industry and role is a great resource to utilize before talking to your boss about a promotion. Your mentor can walk you through the steps they took to get to the director level and help guide you down the same path. There may be some industry-specific classes or conferences they would recommend that can help you fine-tune your skills.
A sponsor is someone who works at the same company as you who can vouch for you and get you more opportunities before you get the promotion. A sponsor can get you onto committees and in meetings where your voice can make a difference, and can even speak with your boss about you moving up.
Step 3. Take on more responsibility and start talking with the right people.
Talk to your manager about wanting more leadership or project responsibility. You don't have to tell them you are looking for a promotion at this point, but a candid conversation about wanting to contribute more will make you look good and send the message that you're looking for new challenges.
This is also a good time to familiarize yourself with your company's internal promotion procedures; make sure you know how promotions are decided, if any director-level roles are currently available, and who's involved in the decision making process. As you seek out more responsibility, you should also be networking with key decision makers so they're aware of the additional work you're taking on and the results you're producing. This will ensure that your name is top of mind as they consider candidates for promotions (and may even help you bypass step 5 if you get offered a promotion rather than asking for one!).
By taking on more when you're already crushing your full-time job, you'll be better equipped to make your case when the time does come to ask for a promotion.
If your manager doesn't have anything lined up for you to take on, look within your department or company to see if there are any task forces that you can join. You can also check in with your boss to see if you can join in on any director-level discussions where you can listen in and maybe contribute.
If you are having trouble juggling your current workload and are weary of taking on these additional responsibilities, then now might not be the right time to seek out a director level role; play the long game instead and focus on crushing your current role before you make a play for a promotion. Once you've developed the skills necessary to excel in your current role, you can come back to this step.
Step 4. Step up your skillset.
If you have the bandwidth, this is an excellent time to strengthen the skills you need to be a dynamite director. Think of some skills that would help you be a better asset as a director. You can take classes online, join webinars, go to conferences or even pick up books to help you become a subject-matter expert.
A lot of companies offer to pay for all of these options, so be sure to ask your manager if they can foot the bill for new training and tools.
Step 5. Ask for the promotion.
Now it's time to have the talk with the powers at be about your promotion. But remember, you've already done all the hard work! You:
- Checked in with yourself to make sure this role is right for you.
- Stepped out of your comfort zone by getting help from a mentor and/or sponsor to help you elevate from manager to director.
- Developed more skills and took on more responsibilities.
Be sure to make an official appointment with your manager, don't leave this as an agenda point at the end of a one-on0one. Give yourself 30-45 minutes to really talk things through and put it on their calendar.
Make sure that this is good timing both for your boss and also for your department (i.e. avoid right before they leave/return for vacation or when things are chaotic at work). If you have a pulse on how the department budget is doing, keep this in mind as well. If there is any kind of financial struggle, there is a chance that this conversation may not go your way. It's important that you're aware of your company's internal promotion procedures as well so that you're aware
Now that you have the timing right, you need to make your case. You are going to want to explain why you want the position, the steps you've taken to prepare to get there, and why you are the right fit for the role.
Avoid using the length of time that you've been there as leverage for a promotion. You don't get a promotion just because you are loyal, you get it because you've proven you can take on more, so focus on that. Also, be sure to have your homework done about the salary. Know the range you would be comfortable with and do your research to make sure you're in the right ballpark.
Just like an interview, remember that this is just a professional conversation. While this may be a great opportunity, it's not the only one so release the pressure of feeling like this decision holds your future in its hands. If for some reason the answer is a no, you can take all of your growth and sweet new skills to a new company that would love to have you. Or you can take the "no" as a learning opportunity and ask what else you can do to be considered for a director level role in the next six months; remember, "no" doesn't mean "never!"
Want To Build Partnerships In Remote Environments? Follow These Tips!
đź’Ž Partnerships in remote environments is one of the most important aspects to construct in a company. Watch the video to the end to get good tips on how to do it successfully.
📼Wondering how to create partnerships in remote environments? Play this video to get three top tips that will help you to achieve it. You'll hear from Olga Shvets, HR Business Partner, and Viktoriia Litvinchuk, People Team Operations at Unstoppable Domains, who will explain the essentials of this process.
📼How to build partnerships in remote environments? Tip #1: Communicate Effectively. Communication is the key to enabling your remote team to be successful. Choose the channel that works best. For this, chat with your employees and see what they use to communicate, that's how you find the best solution. Also, make sure your team is on board with your internal tools and they know what, how, and where they need to use them.
📼A requisite for building partnerships in remote environments is Tip #2: Show appreciation. Appreciation is shown through your actions. Let your employees know that you value everything they do for the company. Create a special gratitude channel where everyone can share their appreciation for their colleagues for some contribution. Celebrate some wins, promotions, and everything that is important for the company. If you appreciate the employees, employees do the same for the company.
Create Partnerships In Remote Environments Using Trust - Tip #3: Give Honest Feedback
Use engagement surveys! They are a quick and effective way to receive honest feedback from your team and you can see what's working well and what needs to be improved. Your main priority is to create spaces where managers and employees can share honest, relevant feedback.
📨 Are you interested in joining Unstoppable Domains? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Olga Shvets
If you are interested in a career at Unstoppable Domains, you can connect with Olga on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About Unstoppable Domains
Unstoppable Domains is bringing user-controlled identity to 3 billion+ internet users by issuing domain names on the blockchain. These domains allow users to replace cryptocurrency addresses with human-readable names, host decentralized websites, and much more.
By selling these domains direct to consumers for a one-time fee, the company is making a product that will change cryptocurrency and shape the future of the decentralized web by providing users control over their identity and data.
Careers in Web Development: Which One's For You?
We all have our favorite websites– the ones we frequent, bookmark, and recommend to others. You might even enjoy some website features so much that you’ve found yourself wondering why they aren’t more popular. Or maybe you’ve experienced times where you were frustrated with a website and wished you could add features or even design your own!
If you’ve ever found yourself intrigued at the prospect of designing and developing your own websites, then a career as a web developer might be just for you!
As a web developer you would be responsible for coding, designing, optimizing, and maintaining websites. Today, there are over 1.7 billion websites in the world and, in turn, the demand for web developers is on the rise. In order to figure out what kind of web development work best suits you let’s start with an introduction to the three main roles in web development that you can choose from.
The Three Types of Web Development Jobs
Front-End Web Development: The Creative Side
Think of front-end development as the décor of a house. The color scheme, furniture, manicured lawns, and overall aesthetic. In terms of a website, front-end development is laser-focused on the appearance of a website and its presentation on different devices. If you’re considering a role in front-end development, it’s important to learn programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These three languages go hand-in-hand. HTML allows you to create user interface elements, CSS helps you with stylistic elements, and JavaScript allows you to incorporate online tools and connect your website to back-end functions.
In addition to programming skills, front-end developers need to be detail oriented, creative, willing to keep up with the latest trends in web development, cyber security conscious, and geared toward user-friendly designs. The median salary for a front-end developer can reach well into the $90,000 to $100,000 range.
Back-End Web Development: The Logical Counterpart
While a house can be beautifully decorated, it’s incomplete without a solid foundation and efficient infrastructure. Similarly, a well-designed website depends on logical and functional code to power the features of that website. Back-end web development is code-heavy and focused on the specifics of how a website works. If you enjoy the analytical challenge of creating the behind-the-scenes code that powers a website, then back-end development is for you.
Since this role is more code-heavy, it’s important that you learn numerous programming languages and understand algorithms and data structures. Some languages that are essential to back-end development are Ruby, Python, SQL, and JavaScript. Back-end developers also ensure that users can successfully retrieve and access data. This requires creating and using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which act as messengers that relay data related requests. Additionally, developing the code for the inner workings of a website also requires back-end developers to be conscious of the user interface features designed by front-end developers and to internally mitigate potential security risks. Due to the increased technical aspect of this position, back-end developers normally earn higher salaries than front-end developers. The average median salary for this role is around $118,000 per year.
Full-Stack Web Development: A Little Bit of Everything
A full-stack developer is essentially the Jack (or Jill)-of-all-trades in web development. Full-stack developers need to be knowledgeable about both front-end and back-end roles. This does not necessarily imply that you would need to be an expert in both roles, but you should fully understand the different applications and synergies they each imply. In order to work in this position, you will need to know the programming languages used by front-end and back-end developers. In addition to these languages, full-stack developers also specialize in databases, storage, HTTP, REST, and web architecture.
Full-stack developers are often required to act as liaisons between front-end and back-end developers. Full-stack developers need to be both problem solvers and great communicators. The end goal for a full-stack developer is to ensure that the user’s experience is seamless, both on the front-end and on the back-end. In return, you can expect to earn a median salary of $100,000 – $115,000 a year for this role.
Taking the Next Step
Web development is both in-demand and lucrative! All three roles described above contribute to specific aspects of web development and the scope of each one can be customized to the industries and positions you feel best suit you. Regardless of which role you choose, all of them need a foundation in programming.
To gain the programming skills needed in each role, you can enroll in courses or learn independently. Coding bootcamps are a great way to boost your skillset quickly and efficiently.
Click here for some of our highly rated programming bootcamp options! Make sure to check out the discounts available to PowerToFly members.
Want to join the engineering teams at Workiva? Learn more about them!
đź’ŽWant to know what engineering teams are like at Workiva? Watch the video to the end to find out!
📼 Engineering teams at Workiva are constantly hiring. Marie Yue, Senior Engineering Manager at the company, tells you what they look for in a candidate and what the dynamics of teamwork are like.
📼 The typical path in the engineering teams at Workiva is that you grow into a senior, and then you move into a lead role. From there, there are a few different tracks that you can take depending on your interest. You can become a staff engineer, an architect, or even an engineering manager. What are you waiting for to apply?
📼In the engineering teams at Workiva every member should feel empowered to do their job effectively. For this, each has to understand how the work they do day to day solves customers’ problems. Managers will always seek to be aware of members’ career path aspirations so that they can look for opportunities and projects to help each person reach the next step in their career.
Engineering Teams At Workiva: A Safe Space
Marie Yue’s team is a safe space for people to make mistakes and ask for help, and each member feels a sense of belonging and inclusion. She wants to make sure that everyone is individually empowered to lead and make decisions. For this, the team has regular meetings where they do fun things like play virtual games or eat lunch together, and they also like to re-review and add to their team working agreement once a quarter.
đź§‘đź’Ľ Are you interested in joining Workiva? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Marie Yue
If you are interested in a career at Workiva, you can connect with Marie Yue on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About Workiva
Workiva was founded to transform the way people manage and report business data with various collaborators, data sources, documents, and spreadsheets. Today, people all over the world use their platform to seamlessly orchestrate data among their systems and applications for transparent and trusted connected reporting and compliance. At Workiva, they are innovative in everything they do—from how they build their software, to how they serve their customers, to how they treat their employees.
Never Done Shining — ​Introducing the 2022 NIKE, Inc. Internship Program
After two years of remote programming, we’re excited to welcome the 2022 NIKE, Inc. Internship Program back to our U.S. offices this week!
This year’s class of 318 represent the top 1% of 34,000+ applicants from 113 universities – including 10 Hispanic Serving Institutions and five historically Black colleges and universities. And that’s not all! Many of this year’s interns are Division 1 student-athletes, representing Track and Field, Rowing, Soccer, and Volleyball, to name a few.
During the nine-week internship – built around the theme of Never Done Shining – interns will work across Nike, Jordan and Converse taking on meaningful projects for the business areas they’re supporting. We can’t wait to watch this talented, diverse group kick off their Nike journey and shine!
Want to learn more about the program? https://jobs.nike.com/internships
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