| How to Work Your Way up a Company Posted: 05 Jun 2017 05:00 PM PDT Working your way up a company is an effective way to become familiar with various facets of a company. Mastering a number of tasks and positions and getting recognized for your competence can be reaffirming of your value to the company. Climbing the corporate ladder requires goal definition, commitment, responsibility, and productivity. With a positive attitude and strong work ethic, you should be on your way to the top in no time! EditPlanning Goals for the Future - Define your corporate goal. Your ultimate goal may be to hold a top leadership position in a company or to manage a large department. Be specific about your career goals. Write your goals down and keep them in your desk so that you can remind yourself to stay motivated.
- Ask veteran employees about their experiences. Ask them to explain to you how they worked their way up the corporate ladder. Their advancement paths and strategies might resonate with you and give you inspiration. However, remember that each person's path to success is unique.
- Approach your co-worker when they have free time. Tell them that you admire their work, and that you hope to increase your value to the company. Ask them: "How do you recommend pursuing a promotion here?" or "How did you work your way to your current position?" You could even praise them for a specific task that they recently completed, and ask them how they went about accomplishing it.
- Remain motivated in your position. Understanding your role's value to the overall process and to the company will allow you to demonstrate the proper commitment. Maintain a positive attitude; you never know who is paying attention.
- Understand the company structure. There may be multiple departments with various levels of management within each. Familiarize yourself with the company structure by studying its organizational chart and learning the important players in management.[1]
EditMaking Yourself Invaluable - Demonstrate your commitment. Show the higher-ups that your goals align with the goals of the company. Stuffing envelopes or filing paperwork may seem below your skill level, but remind yourself that your work is important and may lead to company sales. Bringing an executive their morning coffee may seem far removed from your goal of being an executive, but it will allow you to build interpersonal relationships and will help the executive to better perform daily tasks.
- Network with co-workers. Build positive relationships with people at all levels of the company. One of your co-workers may become your boss some day. A colleague with whom you have a personality clash may wind up in a position to chime in about your suitability for a promotion. Treat everyone with respect and fairness, and they will be likely to pay you respect in return.[2]
- Show your appreciation for others. Acknowledge the contributions of colleagues who help you solve difficult problems. When leading others, let them know that you appreciate their individual strengths.
- Greet people warmly. Whether in an elevator with a top executive or standing in the company cafeteria line with an employee from another department, take the opportunity to introduce yourself and strike up conversation.
- Attend company-wide social functions. It might be tempting to skip the company's holiday event, but attending such social gatherings will allow you to interact with a wide variety of company employees. It will also increase your visibility and your chances of being viewed as an integral member of the company.
- Take on additional responsibilities. Lighten your boss' workload by offering to oversee a small project. Stay late to master new software, make sales calls, or organize paperwork. Make sure that the additional tasks that you pursue contribute to greater productivity without jeopardizing your relationships with colleagues.[3]
- Avoid stepping on other people's toes or crossing boundaries. Your goal is not to outdo your supervisor or to highlight the inadequacy of your colleagues, but rather to offer vital support.
EditBroadening Your Skill Set - Enroll in classes to strengthen skills. Learn the information and skills that you need to progress to the next level in the company. If your goal is to work your way up from administrative assistant to project coordinator to project manager to department director, always prepare for the next job in the sequence of promotions.[4]
- Look for courses offered online, or skim your local newspaper for opportunities. Community college courses can also be a helpful and affordable option. Ask your co-workers or your boss if they have any recommendations for you.
- Take courses offered by the company. Some companies offer training and development programs to help employees gain new skills. When given a choice, use these opportunities wisely by choosing classes that will prepare you for a future role. Your boss will be impressed that you are working to better yourself in order to become more of an asset to the company.
- Learn a new language. Many companies will be more apt to promote someone who is knowledgeable in more than one language, since it gives them an edge over their competition and helps them to get their message across to a larger audience of consumers.[5]
- Find out whether your company has an office or market in a foreign country. You will have a better chance at career advancement if you learn the language in that particular country. If your company has an office in Berlin, for instance, it could help you to learn German. Or if your company does business in Madrid, you may want to become fluent in Spanish.
EditAdvancing Your Career - Apply to relevant job openings. Many companies tend to promote from within, since they value employees who wish to stay with their company for a long time. Ask your employer if there is an internal job postings site, as some opportunities might be shared within the company before they decide to outsource or open the role to new hires.
- Be sure that you possess the right qualifications and experience for any position to which you apply. Be realistic about your capabilities, and make logical progressions.
- Ask for a promotion. If you have been working hard in your position for over a year, and feel that you are qualified for a higher position, it cannot hurt to inquire about opportunity for promotion. Apply for the job before approaching your boss. Be honest about your goals, and about why you think you would be a good fit for the new role.[6]
- Discussing a salary raise or the terms of your employment with your boss can be intimidating. Describe how you have positively contributed to the company thus far, and how you hope to assist the company in achieving its goals going forward. Create a presentation highlighting your skills and your job performance. Say, "I am the best candidate for the role because..." and then list your assets.[7]
- Have confidence in yourself, and remain open to the possibility that your boss may not be quite ready to promote you. Do not give up; instead, use this as motivation to work even harder so that your employer will realize your full potential.
- Be patient. Plan to stay in each position for a reasonable amount of time. Although the right amount of time is largely dependent on the needs of the particular company, staying in a position for at least 1 year is a common expectation.[8] It often takes that long to master the responsibilities, to contribute value to your company, and to train others before being promoted.
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| How to Choose a Cut of Meat for Stews Posted: 05 Jun 2017 09:00 AM PDT Believe it or not, the best cuts of meat for making stew are often the relatively cheap options. In general, look for tough, lean cuts of red meat. There are also specific cuts of beef to look for and different types of meat, such as lamb and pork, you can use. With a little looking, you'll be able to find nourishing cuts from sustainable sources. EditKnowing What to Look For - Look for tough, lean cuts. In a stew, you're going for tender bites of meat amidst a medley of earthy vegetables. In order to soften everything up, of course, stew requires a substantial cooking time. This means that you actually want to avoid the fancy cuts that are considered the best for steaks, because they will turn tough and chewy when cooked in a stew.[1]
- It's not the fat you're looking for in a tough cut, it's the collagen. This is the connective tissue within the flesh itself that will break down over a long cooking period, leaving the meat tender and juicy.
- In general, flesh from the front shoulder or rear end of an animal will be the toughest and leanest.
- Look for meat labeled "chuck" or "roast." If you're getting meat from a butcher or a meat counter at the supermarket, they'll be able to point you towards the cuts from the shoulder and rear end. Even within these areas of an animal's body, however, there are all sorts of specific cuts of meat.[2]
- All of the following cuts will work great in a stew: Chuck, Chuck Shoulder, Chuck Roast, Chuck-Eye Roast, Top Chuck, Bottom Round Roast, Bottom Eye Roast, Rump Roast, Eye Round Roast, Top Round, Round Tip Roast, English Roast, and Pot Roast.
- Do not rely on packages labelled "stew meat." Sometimes pre-packaged meat labelled in such a way are perfect for making stew. However, in many cases it is instead an assemblage of the odds and ends from different cuts of meat. The reasoning here is that those pieces of meat from different parts of the animal will cook at different rates.[3]
- With pre-cut "stew meat" that feature different cuts of meat, you'll end up with some tender pieces of meat in your finished stew, but others that are tough and chewy.
- Further, fat content will differ between pieces of meat, making it hard to tell how lean your meal will be.
- If stew meat is the best option, choose the package that seems to have pieces that are generally the same size, and which contain visible white striping within the flesh.
EditSelecting and Cutting Your Stew Meat - Default to beef chuck roast. Beef is the classic type of meat for stew. Chuck roast, which comes from the shoulder of the animal, is arguably the best cut for this type of dish.[4]
- Since the shoulder is constantly used when the animal is alive, the muscles that make up this cut of meat are initially very tough. After stewing, however, pieces of chuck roast will be especially succulent and flavorful.
- Cut the meat into same-size pieces yourself. You want to cut your meat into individual pieces yourself for two reasons. First, it will be easier to trim away the gristle from a larger cut of meat, as opposed to small pieces. Further, by doing it yourself, you can ensure that the size of the individual pieces are uniform.[5]
- As a rule of thumb, shoot for cubes of meat that are a bit larger than 1x1in (2.5x2.5cm).
- Try lamb stew. Lamb meat will be sweeter than beef, and will pair well with especially savory herbs and vegetables. Lamb also pairs particularly well with red wine. Almost any cut of lamb will work in a stew, but shoulder is the best.[6]
- Buy a piece of shoulder with the bone removed and cut it into evenly-sized pieces yourself.
- For a slightly cheaper but comparable option, look for arm shoulder chop or cut of meat from the neck.
- Make pork stew with cuts from the shoulder. Pork can be used in stew as well, and has a relatively mild flavor compared to other red meats. The best cuts include those around the shoulder, commonly referred to as the "butt."[7]
- This area of a hog is referenced by many slang terms, but anything that includes the terms "Boston," "butt," or "shoulder" will work.
- Experiment with meat from other grazing animals. There are all sorts of other meats that can be used in a delicious stew. For instance, venison and bison are both especially enjoyable, not to mention lean. Fortunately, the rules for selecting a cut of beef are the same for these animals as well. Go for cuts from the shoulder, neck, or rear end.
- Get a whole chicken for an especially lean stew. If you're making a chicken stew, the rules are somewhat different. In particular, you'll want to get a whole chicken instead of processed cuts of breast of leg meat. This way, the different parts of the chicken will provide a wider range of flavor.[8]
- Watch a video online to learn how to cut up a chicken's body for stew. There are a few tricks, such as how to hold the body, that will make cutting the chicken easier.
EditKeeping Health in Mind - Choose lean meats for better nutrition. The leaner the cut, or less fat it contains, the healthier it will be. Generally, cuts labeled "select" will be the leanest. These cuts will also contain either "round" or "loin" in the name. "Top round" cuts of meat are not only ideal for stews, they are also especially lean.[9]
- Keep in mind that while you do want tough cuts of meat for stew, this does not mean fatty cuts. In fact, the fattiest and most "marbled" cuts, which are also the most expensive, do not cook well in a stew anyway.
- Balance small portions of meat with plenty of veggies. Meat contains some healthy nutrients, such as iron, zinc, and vitamin B12, as well as protein. However, centering meals around meat, especially red meat, is unhealthy. This is because red meat is particularly high in saturated fat. Diets centered on meat are also linked to higher incidences of cancer.[10]
- In order to keep your stew relatively healthy, make sure vegetables and beans are prominently featured.
- As a rule of thumb, use enough meat so that each meal-sized portion contains 3 or 4 ounces of meat. Visually, this amount would be equal in size to a deck of playing cards.
- Vegetables offer variety in flavor and consistency as well. For instance, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and onions go great in most stews.
- Get organic meat whenever possible. A "certified organic" label is given to meat that is derived from animals that were not treated with antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, or biotechnology. Organically raised cattle were also allowed to graze in a pasture for at least a third of every year.[11]
- Keep in mind that the healthiest meat comes from the healthiest animals. Unfortunately, much of the meat available for human consumption comes from farms where issues such as overcrowding, extensive antibiotic use, and forced feeding are common.
- While organic meat is nutritionally comparable to meat from animals treated with chemicals, other methods of cattle raising are objectively unsustainable, and increasingly contribute to the risk of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.
- Note that "grass-fed" animals, unless certified organic, may have been given antibiotics and hormones. The grass fed label means that they were allowed to graze naturally for part of the their lives and were not force-fed grain.
EditSources and Citations
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