Will Anfeldt

A survival guide for climbing the corporate ladder without falling off and taking everyone else with you

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Let’s face it: most career advice sounds like it was written by someone who thinks “networking” means having a really good WiFi connection. But here’s the thing about being so good they can’t ignore you – sometimes they’ll try their absolute hardest anyway.

Step 1: Master Your Craft (Or at Least Google It Really Well)

First, you need to become genuinely excellent at what you do. Not “I-can-figure-it-out-eventually” excellent, but “holy-cow-how-did-you-do-that” excellent. This means:

• Actually reading those industry articles instead of just bookmarking them in a folder labeled “Read Later” that you’ll never open again
• Learning skills that make people say “Wait, you can do THAT?” instead of “Wait, that’s your job?”
• Becoming the person others come to for help, not the person others avoid making eye contact with in meetings

Pro tip: If your main skill is “being really good at looking busy,” you might want to branch out.

Step 2: Document Everything (Because Memory is a Myth)

Keep track of your wins like you’re collecting Pokemon cards, except these actually matter for your career. That time you saved the company $50 by finding a cheaper coffee supplier? Write it down. When you solved that problem everyone else was pretending didn’t exist? Document it.

Create a “brag sheet” – yes, that’s the technical term – and update it regularly. Future you will thank present you when performance review time comes around and you’re not sitting there going, “Uh, I definitely did… stuff… good stuff…”

Step 3: Speak Up (Without Being That Person)

There’s a fine line between being memorable and being the person everyone hides from in the break room. You want to be known as the one with great ideas, not the one who has opinions about literally everything, including the office thermostat setting.

Good speaking up:

• “I have an idea that could solve this problem”
• “I noticed a pattern in our data that might be useful”
• “I’d like to take on this challenge”

Bad speaking up:

• “Well, actually…” (followed by anything)
• “That’s not how we did it at my last job” (said more than once)
• “I think the office plants need more attention” (during a budget meeting)

Step 4: Make Others Look Good (It’s Surprisingly Effective)

Here’s a counterintuitive truth: making your boss and colleagues look good makes YOU look good. It’s like career karma, but with better ROI.

When you help others succeed, you become indispensable. You become the person they think of when opportunities arise. You become the one they want on their team, not the one they’re trying to transfer to accounting.

Step 5: Embrace the Strategic “No” (It’s Not Just for Toddlers)

Being so good they can’t ignore you doesn’t mean saying yes to everything. It means being selective about what you excel at. If you’re spread thinner than butter on toast, you’re not going to be remarkable at anything.

Learn to say things like:

• “I’d love to help, but I want to make sure I can give my current projects the attention they deserve”
• “That sounds important – who else might be a good fit for this?”
• “I’m not the right person for this, but let me suggest someone who would be perfect”

Step 6: Develop Your “Signature Move”

Every great professional has something they’re known for. Maybe you’re the spreadsheet wizard who can make Excel do things that would make Bill Gates weep with joy. Maybe you’re the presentation guru who can make quarterly reports actually engaging. Maybe you’re the person who somehow always knows exactly what question to ask.

Find your thing and own it. Become so associated with that skill that people automatically think of you when they need it done right.

Step 7: Stay Visible (But Not Like a Traffic Cone)

You can’t be ignored if nobody knows you exist. But there’s a difference between strategic visibility and just being loud. Strategic visibility means:

• Volunteering for high-impact projects
• Sharing your successes in team meetings (humbly, not like you’re accepting an Oscar)
• Being present and engaged, not just physically occupying space

Remember: you want to be memorable for the right reasons. Being “that person who always brings expired yogurt to the office fridge” is memorable, but not in a career-advancing way.

The Reality Check Section

Here’s the part where we get real for a minute. Sometimes, despite being absolutely fantastic at what you do, you might still get overlooked. Maybe it’s office politics, maybe it’s budget constraints, maybe your boss is threatened by your competence, or maybe Mercury is in retrograde and everything is chaos.

When this happens, you have options:

1. Keep being excellent and wait for the right opportunity
2. Have an honest conversation with your manager about your career goals
3. Look for opportunities elsewhere (sometimes the best way to get noticed is to leave)

The Bottom Line

Being so good they can’t ignore you isn’t about perfection – it’s about being consistently valuable, reliable, and strategic about your professional growth. It’s about building a reputation that precedes you in the best possible way.

And if all else fails, remember: there’s always that coffee shop down the street that’s hiring. At least there, your ability to remember complex drink orders will be properly appreciated.

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Remember: Career advancement is a marathon, not a sprint. Unless it’s Friday at 4:59 PM and someone asks if you can stay late for a “quick project.” Then it’s definitely a sprint – toward the elevator.