“I want to be promoted, I'm ready for the next level, and I want to get more money.” Well, stand in line, so does everyone else.

At most banking and finance firms there is a formal review process once or twice a year to assess the talent pool and to put those who are 'ready' at the front of the promotions queue. This will typically involve a roundtable discussion, where each aspiring graduate, analyst, associate or consultant's name will be read out and all present (usually everyone above the level of the candidate) will debate whether or not to promote them.

It sounds like a fair and transparent process based on performance reviews and client feedback, but there are some pitfalls that frequently trap otherwise intelligent, professional and hard-working candidates and prevent them from being promoted.

I've sat in a room where a more-than-capable graduate was put on the slow track for nothing worse than being too good at financial modelling. That's right, this person loved fiddling with models and running endless sensitivities, and he was too quick to take over colleagues’ modelling assignments. The roundtable assessing him therefore perceived that he was only interested in the numbers: he would rather model than manage people or sit in front of a client.

Escaping the promotion trap

How do you avoid the trap this candidate fell into? The reality was that he was exceptional at his job, but he wasn’t so good at managing his interactions with senior people at work. If he had paid as much attention to these relationships as he had to financial modelling, he’d be on the fast track to director. As it turned out, he stayed an analyst when most of his peers were moving up the ladder.

In order to get a promotion you need to show you're really ready for it and are not happy to be boxed into the modelling corner. So when you're starting your career in banking and finance – a time when reputation is everything – you have to not only focus on become technically competent (which this candidate had done), you have to show an interest in the 'big picture’.

You must let the people you work with know you are interested in why you are building models and what the client is interested in. You must put up your hand to go and meet clients. And when the summer interns and new graduates show up, you must actively show an interest in mentoring them.

This is how you elevate yourself from your peers. This is how you show you are ready for the next step. It sounds simple, but it's amazing how many otherwise great graduates mess it up. So in summary and in three simple steps:

1) Be great at your job

2) Be enthusiastic for all parts of the business – not just your job, but your bosses’ jobs

3) Seek out opportunities to manage/mentor people

The blogger works for a financial services firm in Australia. The views expresses are his own and not those of eFinancialCareers. If you’d like to leave a comment, use the “React” function below.