Companies’ priority is to create value, and they reward those who help them do that.

Now hold that thought.

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Starting in a new workplace with little or no experience it’s natural to wait to be told what to do.

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That’s absolutely fine at the beginning.  By all means do the work assigned to you.  Just be aware that you are in effect allowing others to decide how you should add value.

To move ahead fast and set your own direction though, you’ll need to learn to locate such opportunities on your own.

You do this by first combining the best elements from the following two lists:

1. List of things tied to revenue generation or efficiency that the company could do better. For example:

• high employee turnover
• frequently incorrect numbers on reports
• customer complaints about something specific (billing, delivery delays, etc)
• so many more

2. List of things you are good at and ideally enjoy doing. For example:
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• ability to analyze and document processes
• ability to learn fast
• ability to research
• ability to analyze data
• coding skills
• etc

Second, plan out in detail how you could use your list 2 skills to address list 1 challenges. That plan becomes your value proposition.

If you can master this skill and make it a habit you will become immensely valuable and advance quickly.