How to Succeed in Your First Job

Every spring, millions of ambitious women graduate from college and walk into workplaces that weren't built with them in mind.

In school and college, you know how you'll be graded and what it takes to succeed. The criteria are relatively clear and consistent. Women earn nearly 60% of all U.S. college degrees.

Then comes work. Criteria for advancement are vague or lacking, or vary for each manager and employee. That ambiguity doesn't affect everyone equally: research consistently shows that when evaluation criteria are vague, bias has far more influence on how employees are judged. Men get labeled "high potential." Women—equally qualified—tend to get passed over.

Partly as a result, more men than women are promoted out of entry level, despite having similar track records. This is the broken rung: the first step on the corporate ladder, where women are often overlooked. According to Lean In’s Women in the Workplace 2025, for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 93 women are promoted—and the gap is even wider for women of color.

You can fight back by creating your own rulebook. Make the criteria for your advancement unambiguous: make your manager’s goals your own, align with them on what success looks like, and earn visibility with the people who make decisions.

Key Takeaways

• Make your manager's goals your goals. The people who rise fastest are the ones who make everyone around them better
• Earn visibility with senior leaders by bringing genuinely useful ideas and doing great work that moves their priorities forward — this is also how you build the sponsor relationships that nearly double your chances of promotion
• Align with your manager on clear, written promotion criteria—research shows vague criteria open the door to bias, which affects women more than men
• Raise your hand for stretch assignments—they drive promotions, but are offered less often to women
• Tell your manager you want to advance—men are more often assumed to be ambitious, so women need to say it explicitly
• Build your AI skills now. LeanIn.Org research finds men are 22% more likely than women to use AI daily at work—a gap that, left unaddressed, puts women at a significant disadvantage as AI becomes increasingly central to how work gets done.

How to succeed in your first job: 6 steps that work

Step 1: How do I build a strong relationship with my manager — and impress them with my work?

• Your manager is the person most responsible for whether you get promoted.
• The single most important thing you can do early in your career is understand what success looks like for them, and help them get there
• Ask your boss what their top priorities are and offer concrete ways you can drive them forward. The people who rise fastest are the ones who make everyone around them better, and it starts with asking your manager: "How can I help?"
• Focus your best energy on work that is both visible and directly tied to your manager's and team's goals. Research shows women are more likely than men to be assigned support-function work rather than strategic, revenue-generating projects—so be intentional about where you invest your effort
• Ask for specific, actionable feedback from your boss after key projects: "What could I have done differently?" Women are more likely than men to receive vague feedback that doesn't help them grow—and asking directly helps close that gap
• After you receive your manager’s feedback, follow up to show you've acted on it

Step 2: How do I make sure I get credit for my work?

• First of all, work on building a close relationship with your manager and regularly check in with them live.
• Just as important, keep a running list of your wins, big and small. Update this weekly and keep it focused on what your manager cares about, whether that’s business impact or contributions to the team. Make it as objective as possible by including success metrics or quoting feedback from others.
• Concrete, objective evidence of impact is the foundation of any promotion conversation–but it’s especially important for women. Due to unconscious bias, women are still more likely than men to have their competence questioned or their accomplishments overlooked at work
• How to use your “wins tracker”:
  
  • Turn it into a cheat sheet for your manager at performance review time
  • Send brief updates after major milestones, and share results proactively for goals your manager cares about. Don't wait to be asked. This builds trust and keeps your contributions visible
  • Ask your manager if they’d like a monthly update on your impact–a quick email or document with short, scannable bullets. Some managers love this, and it’s an easy way to keep them aware of your great work
• Sharing these progress updates is even more important for women than for men, as women are more likely to have their contributions missed or underestimated

Step 3: How do I ask for more responsibility — and actually get it?

• The research is clear: men are more often assumed to be ambitious and "high potential" than women with equivalent track records, which means women need to express their goals rather than waiting to be noticed
• Raising your hand works best when it's backed by strong performance and a genuine commitment to the team's success. The goal isn't just to be seen, it's to be seen doing great work
• Tell your manager you want to take on more responsibility, and revisit this regularly. Frame your ambition around your contributions and impact:
  
  • Do say: "I want to take on more strategic responsibility so I can have a bigger impact on [team goal]." This communal framing is less likely to trigger the likability penalty: a pattern of negative judgment women can face when they voice their ambitions
  • Don’t simply say: “I want more opportunities to advance”
• Volunteer for high-stakes projects and stretch assignments even when you don't feel fully ready — research shows these are offered less often to women, so asking is how you level the playing field. Then deliver, and make sure the results are visible
• If you're passed over for a stretch opportunity, ask directly: "What would I need to demonstrate to be considered for something like this?" This turns a setback into useful information

Step 4: How do I know what it takes to get promoted?

• Once you're delivering great work, make sure you and your manager agree on the criteria for you to advance
• This step is essential: Research shows that written promotion criteria reduce the impact of gender bias
• By contrast, when criteria are vague, inconsistent, or not put into writing, women are often judged more harshly than men
• Frame your ambitions around what you can offer the team, not personal advancement–similar to the communal framing you used in Step 3:
  
  • Do say: "I want to have an even bigger impact helping the team accomplish goals X and Y. What would you need to see from me for me to take on a manager role [or role at the next level]?"
  • Don’t simply ask “how can I get promoted?” as this can come off as transactional
• After the conversation, document what you agree on and share it back with your boss so you’re both on the same page. AI can turn your meeting notes into a clean criteria list
• This step is vital: without it, you or your manager might forget or misinterpret the criteria for your advancement.
• Then deliver on those goals, and keep your manager in the loop

Step 5: How do I earn visibility with senior leaders and why does it matter?

• The relationships that lead to advancement — with mentors who advise you and sponsors who advocate for you—are built organically, through doing great work, making sure it’s seen, and making yourself genuinely useful to people more senior than you
• Employees with sponsors are promoted at nearly twice the rate of those without—yet only 31% of entry-level women have a sponsor, compared to 45% of entry-level men. The gap closes when women are visible, contributing, and sitting at the table
• The way to find mentors and sponsors is not to ask for them, or even go looking for them.
• Instead, impress more senior colleagues with your work. Bring genuinely useful ideas to important meetings. Send sharp follow-ups that move senior leaders' priorities forward. AI can shape your rough thinking into something polished and memorable — use it to help you show up at your best
• Present your work in team meetings whenever there's an opportunity
• Ask trusted colleagues to speak up about your accomplishments or ideas, and do the same for them. Research shows women are significantly less likely than men to have their contributions recognized in group settings

Step 6: What skills should I invest in to move up faster?

• Strong performance in your role matters—but the skills most associated with faster advancement go beyond technical excellence. Right now, two stand out: the ability to communicate and influence, and AI fluency
• Build your AI skills proactively. LeanIn.Org research finds men are 22% more likely than women to use AI daily at work (33% vs. 27%)—and entry-level women receive significantly less encouragement from their managers to build these skills. That makes investing in your own AI all the more important
• Build your communication and influence skills. Find opportunities to practice by offering to lead important meetings or give presentations. Being able to steer conversations well can signal your leadership readiness to decision-makers
• In addition, focus on the skills your manager cares most about. Ask: "What skills can I build now that would make me most valuable to this team in the next two years?" Then act on the answer–and update your manager on your progress
• Consider joining a Lean In Circle—a small group that meets regularly for peer mentorship and skill-building. According to LeanIn.Org’s research, Circle members report getting promoted at twice the rate of employees overall