5 Ways To Get Promoted Early in Your Career, From a Former LinkedIn Insider
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If you’re a young person in the workforce, you’re probably used to hearing that you must pay your dues. As in, doing great work for many years while learning the unspoken rules of office life — all the while hoping that, once you’ve reached a certain tenure, you’ll be noticed. Sure, you’ve got the skills and ambition to level up now, but you haven’t paid your dues enough to get that promotion.
Cherie Brooke Luo — co-host of the Tiger Sisters Podcast, former senior product leader at LinkedIn, and an MBA graduate of Stanford — argues you should abandon that mindset. We caught up with Luo as part of GOBankingRates’ Top 100 Money Experts series, and she shared five strategies she’s seen help young professionals stand out and move up sooner than they might expect.
1. Realize It’s OK To Be Visible
You’ve probably internalized the idea that nobody likes a showoff. It’s nobler to put your head down and let your work speak for itself. Luo wants you to know there’s a clear difference between bragging about yourself and communicating your value to the people who make decisions.
“Doing great work isn’t enough. You also have to make sure the right people know you’re doing great work,” she said. “The biggest mindset shift in your 20s is learning that visibility is not bragging; it’s a career skill. And it’s hard because no one teaches you this in school.”
Life isn’t always fair. The fastest risers aren’t always the smartest or most deserving. But they’re good at communicating their value, making their managers’ lives easier and building trust with leadership.
Luo puts it bluntly: “Promotions don’t just go to the hardworking employees who keep their heads down and do the job. They go to strategic ones.”
2. Be the CEO of Your Own Promotion
What do good CEOs do? They craft powerful narratives, promote their teams, and make a clear case for investment. Luo wants you to apply that same playbook to your own career advancement.
“You have to be the CEO of your own promotion. Own your narrative, build your case, and make it impossible to say no,” she said. “Advocating for a promotion isn’t a one-time conversation. It’s a strategy you start planning months in advance.”
She learned this lesson the hard way early in her own career. Walking into a conversation about a promotion, Luo assumed her work spoke for itself. Now, she has clear advice for her younger self:
“What I should have done was come in with a clear case like a breakdown of the projects I led, the metrics I exceeded, and testimonials from teammates who could vouch for my impact,” she said. “Since then, I’ve coached others to take this approach.”
3. Communicate Proactively
When you’re new, you might worry about sending too many emails or annoying your manager with updates. Luo says to set that worry aside. If anything, you’re better off overcommunicating than undercommunicating — especially early in your career.
“Employees who share updates without being asked and show ownership are the ones who get noticed and trusted,” she said. “Act like an owner.”
4. Turn Curiosity Into Results
Asking smart questions is a great way to get noticed, but turning those questions into action helps you get remembered.
Luo encourages you to embrace an attitude of “curiosity with bias toward action.” In a nutshell, don’t stop at the question — test an idea, gather data, and report back.
“Show that you’re someone who turns curiosity into results,” she said. “The people who stand out aren’t the loudest in the room — they’re the ones others trust to take something off their plate and actually deliver impact.”
5. Focus on Your Presence
Luo also recommends cultivating something that she calls “executive presence.” No expensive suit required. Executive presence is more about the way you speak, write and show up at the office.
“[Presence] includes everything from your airtime in meetings, to the tone of your emails, to how clearly you present ideas,” she said. “You don’t have to be extroverted; you just need to be clear, composed, and intentional.”
Bottom Line
Young people don’t need to put their heads down and “pay their dues” before advancing in the workplace. According to Cherie Brooke Luo, embracing some positive habits, smart strategies, and confidence-building mindset shifts can help young people reach the next rung of the corporate ladder sooner than they might think.
This article is part of GOBankingRates’ Top 100 Money Experts series, where we spotlight expert answers to the biggest financial questions Americans are asking. Have a question of your own? Share it on our hub — and you’ll be entered for a chance to win $500.
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