Strategies for Securing a Promotion

In this short video, Tim responds to a listener's question about how to secure a promotion in-house.

Transcript

Question: To be promoted in-house, what are one or two things that really make a difference?

Answer: So the most important thing is to be really, really good at what you do. Right? Like, you have to be a very strong attorney to be successful in-house. And it doesn't mean that you have to be strong in every discipline, but you have to have at least one discipline where you're very, very strong and there are basics that you have to have covered. So I think a lot of attorneys that are early on in their career, they come in-house and maybe don't experience the same level of rigor that you'll see in a law firm.

And they're more interested in an advancement from a career and position perspective more than advancement in your hard legal skills, but that is a prerequisite. You have to be a really good lawyer. So that's the first thing.

The second, I think, is your ability to cultivate relationships across the organization. People want to interact with people who have empathy, with people who understand what they're going through, and understand what the business needs.

To the extent that you can build those relationships and you genuinely have that empathy for others, that's something that I think is really important in advancing your career in-house.

Question: That makes a lot of sense. And some people say it's about exposure to decision-makers. What's your take on that?

I think there's some validity to that, but again, I think as you continue to develop your skill set and you get stronger and stronger, as an attorney, you start to work on projects that are more important. More critical to the business. And it's almost like the work pulls you into the decision-making conversations.

It's not like, hey, I'm doing this work that the decision-makers don't care about, but I really want to make the decision-makers feel this way. Like, you can't artificially manufacture it. I think the, the work itself will draw you into those circles. And then when you're there, show that you're competent. Show that you're confident. And, you know, take a position and stand by it.