TheCareerGrid

Three major publications used the same word this week.

Forbes called visibility “the career lesson no one tells you.” Inc. Magazine said the visibility gap is a money problem. TalentLMS research found that 56% of employees say their career development needs, including visibility inside their own organisation, are not being met.

I have been saying this for two years. But there is something more important than being right. It’s telling you that I know what invisibility costs. Because I paid it myself.

The thing about being invisible in your career is that you can still get jobs. You can apply, get hired, perform well, and nothing goes obviously wrong. So you actually think you are fine and doing well.

What you can’t see is everything that you missed. You missed conversations that happened without you, the roles that were not advertised that would have accelerated your career, or your career pivot. The salary negotiation where you had zero leverage because nobody was competing for you and the promotion that went to the person everyone already knew, even though you were the stronger candidate.

For ambitious people, I know this hurts. It hurt me a lot when I figured it out and I spent a lot of time dwelling over it. You cannot see what you missed in real time, you only start to understand it years later, when you look at someone who is ten years ahead of you, financially and professionally, and realise they are not more talented than you.

What they are/were is more visible. They talk about themselves, they rate themselves, they’re confident and it makes them powerful. People know who they are, because people know powerful people.

That is the cost of invisibility. It is invisible itself, until it is not.

What I know from my own career

I spent way too long putting my head down and working. Believing that because I am good enough, someone will notice, and see how capable I was and reward me for it.

I stayed with the same employer(s) for too long, same role for too long. I did not talk about what I was achieving, didn’t build relationships outside my immediate team. I was waiting to be found.

That cost me a lot, in salary and in progression. But also in business opportunities I will never know existed, because my name was not in those conversations.

But what stays with me is that there are people in my industry right now with less experience than me, less expertise than me, who are further ahead. Because they took risks and bet on themselves. They told people who they were and they networked before they needed to, which built visibility before anyone was watching.

I cannot get those years back. But I can make sure you do not spend yours the same way.

This is what three publications confirmed this week

The research is catching up to what career professionals have been observing for years. Visibility is not a branding exercise, it’s a career strategy with a direct financial return.

It shows up in salary negotiations, in calls before any job is posted, in referrals from people who carry weight, and in jobs created specifically for them.

The professionals who are invisible apply and wait, and sometimes they get the job, but  they almost always never know what they missed.

It’s not about whether you can survive being invisible, yes you can. The question is what it is costing you that you cannot see.

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