Remember when they actually wanted you to develop new skills and move up? That focus on employee growth is totally gone now. It's a big change from how things used to be.
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So glad I left Nike. reading this is reminder to trust you insights and leave.
@ee, there is no "right time, right place," only favoritism and nepotism at Nike. Also, DEI is long gone.
@ac “Right place right time” for sure. People sometimes don’t believe me when I tell them I once saw, under the older banding system, a person go from an “A” band role to an “S” band role in just a little more than 10 years. That’s like going from near the bottom to near the top in an absurdly rapid pace.
Was that person unusually talented or otherwise somehow remarkable? No. Not at all. That person was completely “average”. What they DID luck out on was being in the right place at the right time, such that they almost accidentally tripped into each successive promotion. That person’s luck eventually ran out when their last promotion into an “S” role caused “The Peter Principle” to come into play. They were fired about a year later.
Never underestimate how simply being in the right place at the right time can have a powerful impact on your career. Good or bad.
@ac In the mid-south it is so bad with nepotism and relationships. There are so many that are unqualified but have been put in leadership roles because of their relationships or met the DEI criteria. I’ve seen athletes that have moved up to manager in the span of 2-3 years. Now that there was a big emphasis on cost savings these last 2 years they struggled to make any significant improvements so now we have the big layoff. When I first started here it was all about hitting a number. No matter how many people we threw at it. All of the banners they put up for the records hit during peak are so fake. We literally would have so many athletes come in for OT just to stand around and our real CPU is ridiculously low. No other company would run like we did.
What are you talking about? ITC is getting a new campus!
You think that’s new?
Some people advance their careers at Nike and some don’t. A lot of “moving up” depends on networking, who is and isn’t advocating for you, who does and doesn’t like you, and often just being in the right place at the right time. Your actual skills and comparative competence aren’t completely unimportant, but to a significant degree those things often aren’t a primary consideration. You might be well-known for your high competence in a specific functional area but if you haven’t nailed “the people factor” that competence may not matter at all. And I can’t emphasize enough…”the people factor” isn’t always within your control and isn’t always fair.
Most of us have seen untalented or otherwise very ordinary people rapidly advance while at the same time solid & proven performers struggle to ever get recognized with a promotion. I won’t say “You have no control over your career” because that would be hyperbole. At the same time you may have, and likely do have, less control than you think.
In other words OP you’re mostly barking up the wrong tree. If someone wants you to move up, you will. The inverse is also true.
What you absolutely DO have control over is whether or not, and for how long, you tolerate lack of career advancement. If you’re going on more than 3 or 4 years without a promotion that is usually a clue that you have not been selected for career advancement. If you accept that you will likely be taken advantage of. With the added bonus of enjoying seeing other people all around you, who are often no more capable or competent than you, somehow getting those promotions. The biggest mistake you can make in this scenario is staying. Which is exactly what most people do anyway.