the bigger picture of the work you do every day – and how it contributes to the company’s goals. Be sure you understand your team’s key performance indicators (KPIs). If these KPIs aren’t regularly shared with you, ask your manager if they could be. A willingness to learn and adapt not only keeps you relevant, but also positions you as a valuable asset to your organization. (Back to top)
Demonstrate leadership qualities
Leadership skills are essential for career advancement. Stretch assignments are a great way to gain experience in new areas of expertise and show initiative. For example, help drive revenue for your company by upselling or cross-selling after a successful field service appointment. Coach junior colleagues or volunteer to lead projects outside of your regular responsibilities to highlight your leadership potential.
Greg Banks, engagement manager at Cirrius Solutions, Inc., worked as a field service technician in the wood preservation industry for many years. His career path included many rewarding experiences, among them participating in disaster relief. He helped restore operations at a facility that generates telephone poles which are extremely critical after hurricanes and tornadoes.
But Banks also experienced frustrations, like showing up at a job site afghanistan phone number list and lacking information about that customer’s problem – which led to inefficient visits and frustrated customers. So Banks volunteered his time to help his company adopt a customer relationship management (CRM) software to improve these issues. Eventually, he was asked to oversee implementation of Salesforce Service Cloud for his entire company. Today, Banks is a consultant in the software industry, helping companies think through their Salesforce field service strategy.
“The things that I learned in [field service] are transferable,” Banks said. “It’s not just about learning to turn a wrench or terminate a wire without electrocuting yourself. The skills and the nature of communication that I had to develop to do that job – without knowing you’re building a really good useful skill set that will transfer into a lot of different options later in your career when you don’t want to work out in the field all day.” Also remember that in field service, customer focus is a leadership quality – it’s something to prioritize at every level of your career.