Step One of Rising: Reading the Ranks

A 'real-talk' guide to what organizational experience can mean for you as a new hire

As the low man on the totem pole, especially when beginning a new position, the view to the top can be extremely blurry, and yet in the run of daily business, the hierarchy matters. I thought of organizational hierarchies as something like trophic levels: At the bottom, the newest and least experienced employees are the problem solvers, essentially making their own food. Running up the levels, problems become quickly solved and disperse, leaving the Director and C-Suite level Managers entirely unaware of their existence other than the awareness necessary to maintain alignment (AKA so that the food pyramid doesn’t fall over). But, being the case, as a new hire, it can be incredibly difficult to see past all of the problems to understand the future, and when and how you might rise to that Directorship position that you’ve been told you need to get all of your life.

If you’re a Disney lover like me, I think of the journey in more story-like terms. Mulan’s journey to acceptance as a courageous soldier involved relentless failure and a mindset to never accept defeat. It took multiple failures before she was even accepted as another of the worker bees.

The same can happen when you’re first starting out at work. When you’re at the base of the organizational structure, your higher ups will expect certain degrees of respect and recognition for the differences that their roles demand. For example, I do not send anything but final copies of my work to a person who is two, three or four ranks above me. Yet, for a person one or two levels above me, work can be shared with messy edits and vernacular questions.

So what is experience and how does one understand rank?

In my organization, we operate on a level basis, meaning that you are ranked by your experience. You exist between levels 1-7 (I know… what?). Within that structure, entry level associates like yours truly are the bottom level. We have our titles of what we do functionally, for example I’m a communications associate. Moving from there, you gain accolades, increased pay and professional recognition as you move up the ranks. For example level 2 is the communications representative; level 3 is a comms representative senior; level 4 is a comms rep staff; level 5 is senior staff; level 6 is senior management; and ultimately a level 7 is earned when you reach a directorship position.

Each of these years is defined by the amount of time that you’ve been with the company as well as the amount of experience that you have had in the field before coming to the company. I don’t think that a level necessarily means experience, or how well you can actually do your job. It’s a way of understanding commitment, in my opinion.

Here’s where it gets interesting…

From experience with some others my age, I heard that the reasons that you would get a masters (apart from professional development and personal growth yada yada), would be: 1) a pay raise at the completion of your degree and 2) a masters degree typically is seen as six years of experience upon graduation.

The levels, at least in my organization, semi-correlate with an understanding of how many years of experience that you have. For example level two’s typically have around 2-3 years experience; 3’s have around 5 years; and upwards of 4 usually have closer to ten years experience. As a young person, the thought of needing to wait a certain period of time for an advancement feels counterintuitive: if it only takes committing to one’s job to excel, what’s the point of going above and beyond? And will I really be 30 before I hit that position that I’ve dreamed about?

So, when considering enrolling in a master's degree program, the question of bandwidth certainly comes into play, but also what ‘fast-tracking’ might that experience do for your career? Going straight into an advanced degree following college is certainly a pleasing option if you’re thinking that you’d want to fast track into a higher position. On the one hand, it’s not necessarily the same personal experience (to do with your tools for problem solving based on workplace experiences that you might have accumulated if you went directly into the workforce). On the other, it’s one way to guarantee a level of professional awareness right out of the gate.

If you’re considering going straight into the workplace, understand what you’re entering. I’ve found that my internships were a means of getting to the door; my interview and connections were a means of opening it; and working as a ground-level employee will be my way of ‘working-up’ in a sense.

A Final Note of Caution

As a student who has chased prestigious internships, I had a HUGE mental block of feeling like I deserved something that I really didn’t. Initially, it felt like I had studied my tail off just to reach a menial job? What the heck! Certainly there was a level of entitlement that I needed to break down when I first started.

Leaving college, you may feel like you’ve struggled and finally achieved something that was supposed to give you the life that you’ve wanted since you were a child. Unfortunately, the degree is just a key to getting you into an organization, because it means that you have the skills necessary as a prerequisite to take that course. Really, starting out is a test.

When a company hires someone from a fifteen minute interview, they’re assuming a degree of risk, as well as a commitment to a new hire to train them on the job. Certainly, when I first started, I suckeddddd at my job. I needed to learn a lot: from email etiquette to office movements to the hierarchy, I really didn’t know how the organization works. That’s why, I think that starting at the bottom matters. Not only does it break your sense of entitlement and force you to commit to doing the work, but it gives you a boots on the ground view of what the organization at its lowest level really does to keep the boat afloat.

Think about it this way: Categorization of your rank, as well as your ability to leverage the understanding of it will also help you form a pretty great B.S. meter. When people know that you're new, they'll ask you to do things for them, or think that you might not know better. If a level 2 is attempting to give you advice like a level 4, a reference to what their experience and authority might entail will help you sort out who to ask for confirmation as well as how much of their thought to take into account. I do not mean: be disrespectful and walk away. NO. But I do mean, if an ask feels out of the realm of possibility, ASK someone for a second opinion. Is that in their purview, or yours even?

As you rise up the ranks, and I guarantee that you will, you need to hold onto that perspective, because when that new hire comes in and is doing their best to figure it out, you need to award them some grace. I think also being the voice to explain to them how the world of that org really works would be huge. Sometimes you don’t realize that a reality check as to how the world works can help you feel like you really are doing enough and are exactly where you need to be.

So, whether or not you’re going to strive for that masters, or put your head down and do the work, let’s not forget this: you were hired for a reason. Your hiring manager saw something in you and your skills that said: this is the right person for this job. Don’t think that because you’re failing probably a lot right now--that you’re not capable and going to do the work to succeed. Just remember that you’re on the ground floor and the function of that floor is to teach you and honestly break you down a bit so you gain the humility to rise. Don’t attempt to rush that process, but if you choose to fast track a little bit, work hard and excel in your coursework. You can manage it. Remember that on late nights. Light will always lead you to the end of the tunnel, as well as prepare you for the next.