For a long time, the home office was seen in many companies primarily as a possible work option for working mothers whose top priority was not their career but the compatibility of work and family. There were also reservations for a long time that one would be overlooked more easily in a home office and that a career was therefore not feasible.
Likewise, the prevailing prejudice in many cases was that those who wanted to work from home did not have a strong interest in a career. But all these are now relics of a bygone era. Since all companies have sent their employees to the home office and also manage and lead them from there, most of the doubts are outdated.
If you go about it the right way, you can certainly pursue a career from home. The best chances are for those who manage to stay in touch in many ways, even virtually, and to build and maintain their networks with the right decision-makers. In order to remain visible, digital attention should be drawn to one’s own performance and competence. In doing so, it remains important not to remain alone in the domestic comfort zone, but to position oneself externally.
External means actively contacting everyone from the home office: Customers, superiors and colleagues. A regular exchange with the management, a daily meeting with the team and active communication via messaging apps as well as a regular exchange with customers are simple ways to avoid being forgotten. It is particularly advisable to hold conversations via video conference. Being able to look your counterpart in the face during the conversation creates closeness and a much more personal atmosphere.
As everyone is working remotely these days, it is highly recommended to stay visible and to ‘network’ actively. Most of our clients are also in the home office and it is completely normal to exchange information via video conference and to discuss open issues in a quasi personal exchange. We also do this with regular frequency with our own teams at Horton International Germany. Many business units even arrange to meet every day for a coffee break or small talk, just to be able to see each other briefly and exchange ideas – just like in the coffee kitchen.
This is much more personal than just picking up the phone. And so far this has done no harm to our careers, either in our own ranks or with our clients. On the contrary, since the Corona pandemic, we have become acquainted with many new career paths for our clients. Especially in the field of IT and digital transformation, there has been a lot of movement in recent months.
