I am a big believer in investing in your own career. I hear people say they won’t buy something for work because their company should pay for it. Granted, I don’t think you should be expected to bring in your own desk and chair if you are hired to work in an office. However, if you can do your job more quickly, efficiently, and effectively by spending some of your own money, why wouldn’t you? For the purpose of this, let’s assume that we are talking about a small amount of money compared to your salary.
Back in the early 90’s, before radio stations went digital, they were still analog (as opposed to sending smoke signals). I had thousands of pieces of audio, and no real easy way to get access to it. I hired a programmer from MTV to come in and put all of my audio in a database. I bought a laptop to keep in the studio, so we could type in a keyword and find audio we needed in seconds. I don’t know of anyone else that did that back then, and it cost me some money. However, it added value to my show, my career, my bonus, and so I considered it a good investment. Over the years, I have spent a fair amount of money on all kinds of products, courses, and equipment that I thought would help me improve, do my job better, and make more money. Just because the company wouldn’t do that for me didn’t mean I couldn’t get it done. You need to look at yourself as self-employed. Whatever you do, you need to think of yourself as a product. Regardless of what you do for a living, if you improve your product (you), you improve your chances of career advancement and more income.
About a year ago, I was recuperating from an injury. My doctor was concerned about leg swelling, so I needed to have custom fitted compression stockings. The woman measuring me had the exclusive contract with the facility where I was treated, as well as several other facilities. While measuring me, she complained about not having a laptop to input my information. The company she worked for was set up where she could log in from anywhere, put in all the information, and the stockings could start being processed. However, the company did not provide laptops. So she would have to go home every night and type in all the information. We could argue how cheap the company was, but that is not the point. For $400 she could buy a cheap laptop, type in the measurements on the spot, and since almost every facility had wireless internet, the order could be sent before I could get my shoes on. As a side note, she screwed up my order, and I never got my stockings. Sale and commission lost. A $400 investment would save her hours of work. Her aggravation with her company caused her to not see the bigger picture, that she was did not value her time. We figured she could buy five hours of her time back every week, for a one time payment of $400. Let’s say she had two weeks vacation, and the laptop would last for two years. That is 100 weeks at 5 hours a week. She could buy 500 hours back for $400. She would have paid $1.25 for her time. I don’t know about you, but my time is worth more than that. I would take that play every day.
I encourage you to invest money in your own career. If you don’t think you are worth it, how will any one else? I have met very few working people that are perfectly happy with their salary, and their job. The quickest way to be seen as valuable is by being efficient, and willing to do the little things others aren’t. And don’t be shy about letting your boss, or your customers, know what you are doing to stay on top of your game, and ahead of everyone else. That being said, I understand the people above you have to be bright enough to pick up on your efforts. Let’s be honest, some bosses are dip shits. But in this economy, it never hurts to be the person getting it done.
