Breaking the barrier from graduate to full time employee can be difficult. And can be even more so if you are remaining in the same organisation.
You might be lucky enough to work somewhere that is keen on pushing you and seeing you grow your breadth of skills in tougher and higher level roles, but sometimes you might be faced with superiors who will always see you (at least for a long time) as the graduate they hired within the past year or two.
I don’t think there is a simple solution other than saying it’s all about putting in the time and hard work consistently to build up your brand. Prove you have what it takes to be a member of the team. Don’t consider any task too small to show you can take it on and knock it out of the park.
Sometimes you might have to make a move to another organisation to be recognised for the value you can offer.
From my own experience, I found it best to seek a role outside of my organisation so I could take a significant leap forward in my career. I had continued to work hard in my final year graduate placement and had built my knowledge, skills and reputation as someone reliable who could ‘do the job’. I built excellent relationships with my teammates and bosses.
When the time came for me to apply for a permanent role, my manager offered me a role with a very decent pay rise, one and a half times more than what I had been earning as a grad.
To minimise my risk of not finding a job, I had also been applying to other roles. At the same time as receiving the offer from my manager, I was offered another role that offered different experience (which I admit was not as exciting) and it was double the pay.
It was an extremely hard decision to make. I remember feeling upset and overwhelmed at what I should do. One of the things I did think about was how I would be perceived in both workplaces. I knew that if I stayed where I was, I would still be the ‘grad’ in their eyes but if I were to move into this new organisation, I would have the chance to be seen in an established role with a clean slate, at that level of competence for the role (even if I wasn’t so confident in it at first!).
I let my manager know about the offer I had received and I asked whether it was at all possible to match the offer so I could remain in the organisation. He told me it unfortunately wasn’t possible at that time.
So I decided to take the role in the new organisation.
I knew it was the right thing to do in the end because about a year later, the team advertised the role I was originally offered. I saw the pay on the advert and it was the same as the role I had accepted in my new organisation.
It was a shame I was not recognised for the value I could bring at the time. I would have loved to continue working for the same organisation. Even though it didn’t feel it at the time, taking the risk in a new organisation where I didn’t know anyone was the right choice in the end. It was my way of breaking the barrier to no longer be perceived as a graduate.
