When Is It Time To Take Off ‘Junior’ Out Of Your Job Title

If you’ve listened to our episode with Francesco Fabiani – Education Manager at Tom Ford Beauty – you know we discussed about growing within the same company in fashion and beauty. Chatting together, we discovered that beauty and fashion operated differently when it was about promoting their workers. You can have a listen to the episode to know more but, to stay in topic today’s post is all about knowing when it’s time to say goodbye to your junior status and move on to be a mid. More than often, I have seen people being promoted rather than asking for it. Nonetheless, the people I witnessed asking for what they thought they deserved always almost had what they wanted.

When you start off in a company finding your place isn’t easy, especially if you are a junior. You need to adapt to the office environment, understand what your job is about and find your place within your team. After three to six months, you’ve adapted to your new working place, understand your job well and fit well within your team. After one year/one year and a half, you are familiar with all the processes, can form the newcomers and are able to give your point of view to improve working processes.

Being for one year in a company doesn’t guarantee you’ll be promoted. You need to prove it. Being passionate is one thing but after a year, your manager should be able to see you’re autonomous, can take care of some parts of the job without them and are proactive. It’s a combination of all those things that will get you where you want.

One of my colleague went from Digital Editorial Assistant to Fashion Writer after a little bit more than one year. And it wasn’t because she made her time as an Assistant, it was because she deserved it. She was doing the job of two people, translating, managing social media, writing for the blog of the brand and occasionally writing copy for the emails. The posts she wrote for the blog always hit a high number of views hence why she was asked to be in charge of the blog’s report and one thing leading to another she started writing not only for the blog but also for the homepage of the site. Soon enough, she was promoted to fashion writer and started writing editorials for the brand and leading interviews with actresses, singers etc. Her attitude towards work was always positive and you could see she clearly enjoyed what she did, and the manager at the time noticed her for that.

I think it is important to see in that story two things: the motivation of my colleague and the eye of the manager. She was lucky to be in an environment in which the manager noticed her positive attitude and encouraged her to develop her skills. I am saying this because not all managers notice their team members potential. And if you don’t have that type of manager not to worry, you still have hope!

You can be doing all the work possible to get promoted but some managers can be oblivious of all your efforts. Sometimes a project can take all of their minds to the point that they won’t notice what you brought on the table. That’s is why appraisals are great to remind them how good you are at your job! If you are a junior, most chances are you are not paid a lot, and at some point, you’ll start wanting more. Wanting more because of your experience, the time and passion you invest in your work and the results you bring to the company. And all this translates into a pay raise. During your appraisal, just don’t start by talking about money though.  Instead, take the opportunity to tell them ‘look this is what I have accomplished so far and this is what I am able to do now and I can do even more.’ The goal of doing this is to show them your evolution so don’t forget to back up your appraisals with tangible data.

In the case of my colleague I mentioned above, part of her promotion was possible because she brought visible and impactful results. Each blog post she wrote brought more views than any other writer in the team and the dwelling time on her posts was also longer. The numbers talked for her only to reveal she was good at finding topics for the readership the brand was targeting as well as writing well. This is the kind of data you need to bring to an appraisal to take that ‘junior’ off of your job title. If everything goes well, the money talk will follow.

I started as a Junior Fashion Product Editor to then become a Digital Editorial Assistant and finally be a French Sub-Editor. Have you noticed the evolution in all my roles? First I was Junior, then Assistant – which is an upgraded version of Junior in certain companies – and now mid. I stayed one to two years in the first two companies I worked for and left them because evolving within them was difficult. I believe if you work in fashion – especially in digital – it is difficult to pass beyond a certain stage, above all when my line of work is so niche. So to keep on growing, so far I always had to change company. I started understanding I needed a change as soon as I felt stagnant in my job. That was always the signal I was ready for the next step.

Now, you don’t need to make such a drastic move. You can stay in the same company. In London, so many people start off their career in a field and then change to another one within the same company. Fashion businesses are evolving really fast with new opportunities. Each time there is a new position opened, HR will encourage employees to apply internally. That’s where your chance is. Say, you’re a junior writer but want to be a junior buyer, well applying internally gives you a major advantage compared to an external applicant: you already know the company. This will assure you you’ll understand the job quicker. But what about this idea to change job and to stay junior you’ll say to me. Well, I’ve learned some companies write junior on their job title, but the responsabilities you have and the salary coming with it might be worth keeping your junior title. If a junior writer starts off with £18,000-£22,000 gross a year, a junior buyer salary starts at £30,000. The two professions I took are polar opposites but if you have a diploma and past internships/student jobs that can justify your application, go for it. Currently, I have a colleague who went from size&fit in the styling department to retoucher so that’s quite the change!

I don’t mean to do it for the money but to want to stay junior, you need a good reason for that. And in London, I have learned that people stay junior when they want to do what they always wanted to do.  So not  taking off  ‘junior’ of your job title can be a great strategy to learn a new job as well as earning more.

You don’t know yet if it is time to go from ‘junior’ to mid? Write me at [email protected] and I will answer you.