I was hired at an entry-level position for a big company. During the interview I was told that I was overqualified and was asked if I was interested in sharing tasks between my position and another position at a higher level. I was excited at this offer and agreed. I went through regular training for the higher-level position. After the training was done, I was told that they had changed their mind and would keep me in the entry-level position. The trainer was always happy with my performance during the training. I was also told that I would be strongly considered if there was an opening for that higher level position and I kept my hopes up.

Since then, there were three openings for the higher-level position and I was not considered for any of them. I requested an interview once, after which they told me one of my skills was slightly off and they found someone more acceptable.

The whole situation was embarrassing since the whole work place knows what is going on. I strongly feel I have the right skills since I was trained for this position and I know I can do it well. I have received great feedback for similar duties from other supervisors in the subsequent jobs. I am not sure what to do other than looking for another job! I am unhappy at my current position as I am not learning anything and feel I am wasting my university degree.

Wow — there is a lot going on for you here, and I would normally do bit a bit of editing for the sake of brevity, but you have done a great job in outlining several issues with new jobs.

Pre- and post-hire promises and reality

During the interview process, both sides are usually trying very hard to be on their best behaviour. The interviewer wants to be nice to avoid losing the best candidate, and the interviewee wants to be nice to avoid turning off a possibly great boss and organization. It’s kind of like that first date — many times you’re both not really yourself, you’re being the person you think your date would like you to be. So in the interview process, lots of things can be said on both sides that are more “wishful thinking” and “good intentions” than reality. The trouble is that it can be hard to differentiate fact from fiction, and in addition, things can change very dramatically in organizations very quickly even between the time you are hired and when you actually begin working a few weeks later. It can be hard for you to know, as an “outsider” at the time, how or why these changes were even made.

While you were out…

So in your particular case, the fact that they wanted you to work at a more senior-level right away, could have possibly been perceived by others currently in the organization as a threat to them and their own personal career goals. It’s possible in one scenario that they talked to management about assuming some of those more senior duties and some tasks that you were supposed to take on were moved to other staff members, leaving less senior functions for you. Management could have had a change of heart, or priorities could have changed — there are lots of ways things can get derailed.

Promises and positioning

In the product marketing world, there is a key concept called positioning. Marketers spend millions of dollars to have consumers think of their product first in their time of need, rather than a competitor. So if you have a headache, Bayer wants you to have the Aspirin brand in the #1 position in your mind when making the purchase to get pain relief. The same principle applies in the world of work — before you even start your new job, you have to “position” yourself in your desired role. This can mean thinking, acting, reacting, and performing at the more senior-level right from the start. In effect, you become the senior-level person who is also taking on some junior-level work, rather than the junior-level employee who is trying to do some senior-level functions. Sometimes the only difference between these two scenarios can be your own attitude. Go in confident, ask the right questions, and hit the ground running.

The Principles of Inertia: #1: Once you got it, it’s yours

As Isaac Newton pointed out to us, there are some fundamental principles that guide our natural world, and more or less the same holds true in the work world. The first work principle of inertia maintains that once you acquire a task, no matter how small or trivial, it becomes yours, until someone else is foolish enough to take it on. In your case, you may have been saddled with a lot of the more junior-level work, whether intentionally or not, and little time is left to tackle more senior-level tasks. The perception, and your positioning with management and others, then becomes “junior-level person”. While it is not generally advisable to refuse to take on this work if it is asked of you, you can take a more senior-level approach and try to automate it, for example. This can help position you as someone who understands that the objective needs to be done, but is willing to take a higher level perspective to fix the issue when possible. Make sure you talk to your supervisor about this, and come to them with possible solutions, not simply complaints.

The Principles of Inertia: #2: It is hard to move a salary or any other stationary object

Many people can sympathize with your plight of being offered an opportunity to work on one thing or another that is slightly beyond our scope, or attractive in some other way, only to have it fall apart later. This usually comes with a promise of a salary review down the road if you do well. The employer gets a win by getting a higher level employee at a lower salary, and in theory, the employee wins by getting more rewarding work and the promise of a salary bump later. The reality however, is that due to principle #2, it can be VERY difficult to up your salary after you start your job, no matter what was promised. Your best bargaining position is before you accept the job, so make sure that you are clear on your expectations, and try to get as high a salary as you can at the start.

Being more senior one step at a time

While repositioning yourself from junior-level person to senior-level employee is difficult, it is not impossible. Look around at people in the more senior roles, and start looking and acting like them. Ask them if they could become your mentor to help you move up. You will find that the simplest things can start to change how people perceive you — even a simple wardrobe change. If you do want to change perceptions, always aspire to dress, act, talk, and generally operate at the next level up in the organization, and don’t try to fit in with your peer group as much.

Get more info

Talk to your boss and others (confidentially) who are knowledgeable about what you do and ask for their honest feedback about your performance. You should consider the possibility that there are aspects of your performance that have led them to emphasize your junior status. Work with your manager to come up with a practical plan to get you to the next level.

If this all fails to work, you can consider taking these tips to your next employer, but you will risk nothing by trying them out here first.

Good luck!

Mitchell Stephenson M.A., CPCC, is a senior partner and a certified professional career counsellor at Catalyst Careers, a career transition, counselling, and outplacement firm. Mitch has been involved in human resources, career counselling and coaching in the health and legal sectors for many years. To contact him, visit: www.catalystcareers.ca.

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