6 secrets to climbing the NetSuite career ladder
We’ve teamed up with the NetSuite Solution Provider Trajectory Inc, to work on a series of career advice articles based on the life of a NetSuite Admin.
NetSuite Administrator series
- The roles and responsibilities of a NetSuite Admin
- NetSuite Tools – The SuiteCloud platform
- NetSuite OneWorld – An Admin Guide
- Retraining as a NetSuite Admin: 4 things you need to know
Climbing the NetSuite ladder
At this moment in time, your short-term goal might be to land a permanent in-house position as a NetSuite developer, or maybe you’re enjoying being a freelance NetSuite admin, jumping from city to city, working with a diverse range of people.
But what if in three years you want your salary to increase and that just isn’t possible in your current position — what next? Our career advice will help you rise through the ranks, fully immerse yourself within the NetSuite ecosystem and continue to develop a wide range of skills.
Contact our team of staffing specialist and start moving up NetSuite ladder today.
- Diversify your NetSuite skillset
- Keep up with the latest NetSuite news
- Understanding your value in the NetSuite market
- Develop your soft skills
- Consider relocating or working remotely
- Be on the lookout for other NetSuite opportunities
Six quick wins for climbing the NetSuite ladder
1. Diversify your NetSuite skillset
Employers love candidates who can demonstrate an eagerness to expand on their skillset. As a NetSuite professional, you want to become highly skilled within your field, but you don’t want to pigeon hole yourself into one role as they may only take you so far in your career.
For example, let’s say you’re a developer with a massive set of technical skills, but you have an opportunity to move up the ladder, gain a better paycheck and a more respected title. Unfortunately, the position is for a NetSuite admin and requires a more business-oriented skillset than you’re normally used to. Now, you do have a chance of gaining the job. However, it could be a tough sell to the employer, especially if you’re up against someone with a strong technical and business skillset. However, the beauty of working within the NetSuite industry is a strong incentive to be a lifelong learner.
To create an ecosystem filled with high-quality industry specialists, NetSuite provides a series of certification tailored to learning their products. In addition to encouraging practitioners to become NetSuite certified, NetSuite urges professionals across the market to retake the exam every three years to keep updated with their latest products, trends, and software.
Whether you are new to the market or a seasoned professional, the NetSuite industry is an advocate for upskilling and ongoing training. As long as you have the willingness to learn, you will be well on your way to diversifying your skillset and becoming part of the elite network of NetSuite professionals.
Our advice for your NetSuite career is to upskill whenever you have the opportunity to. Even if it may not seem to help you directly at the time, it will come in handy somewhere up the ladder.
2. Keep up with the latest NetSuite news
“Working in the NetSuite community is much more than understanding the mechanics of the job. To truly accelerate your career in NetSuite you must immerse yourself within its ecosystem.
“NetSuite is a product that will always evolve and advance. What you may know as a limitation two to three years ago may have become a supported feature today. As a NetSuite professional, you must know what the latest features are going to be in order to effectively serve the users you are supporting.
“When you are catching up on the latest news in the industry, you’re doing so much more than expanding your knowledge on the product. You are opening yourself to the countless learning opportunities that will help you solve problems, better serve the community of NetSuite users, and finally, attract potential buyers to join your growing list of users.”
Lea Celosa Columna, Founder and Lead NetSuite Developer, LEACC Consulting
3.Understanding your value in the NetSuite market
In our latest independent NetSuite market report, we discovered that NetSuite professionals felt more valuable in the ecosystem after they become NetSuite qualified.
What does that actually mean? Apart from being NetSuite qualified, how else do you measure your worth within the NetSuite market? Lea Celosa Columna broke it down for us:
- Understanding the significance of your accomplishments within the industry.
- Reflecting on the responsibilities you have been given by your employer or past employers.
- Understanding what career milestones truly matter to you in the industry, whether it is a certain salary figure or a particular leadership role. Measuring your accomplishments against your milestones can help you understand your value within the market.
4. Develop your soft skills
As much as technical skills are a huge part of the NetSuite industry, you still need to understand the importance of developing your soft skills and the role they can play in advancing your career to the next level. If you’re considering going for a promotion, don’t just look at the technical experience the company may want, look for what soft skills they are after and prepare a list of examples where you have demonstrated these skills in the past.
An excellent tip is to keep a list of your soft skills somewhere so you can easily pull them out of the bag at your next NetSuite interview.
Here is a list of soft skills that hiring managers will be looking out for:
- Demonstrate how you can see the bigger picture in a project
- Give examples of how you’ve solved problems in previous roles
- Use previous projects to demonstrate efficiency in time management
- Show examples of analytical and critical thinking
- Demonstrate curiosity and willingness to learn
5. Consider relocating or working remotely
You can accumulate all the skills in the world. Yet sometimes the opportunity to move up the NetSuite ladder might not be possible in your current location. Our advice is to expand your job search to other geographical areas.
In our recent salary survey, we discovered that 20% of our relocated respondents moved cities for better opportunities and career growth, with a further 20% moving for a better salary and improved cost of living. We also learnt that some of the top places for NetSuite professionals to relocate are New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Toronto.
To expand your chances of moving up in the NetSuite industry, we suggest looking at the option of relocating.
6. Be on the lookout for other NetSuite opportunities
Even if you’re not thinking about switching jobs right now, it’s always worth knowing what opportunities are on the market.
Maintaining an awareness of the NetSuite job market allows you to:
– Understand your value within the industry by reflecting your experience with the appropriate job applications.
– Leverage the data to gain a promotion at your current company.
– Gain a further understanding of what is going on within the NetSuite ecosystem.
– Utilize job trends to forecast your journey up the career ladder.
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How to advance your NetSuite career?
The key advice we can give you to advance your NetSuite career can be boiled down to three elements:
1. Get your foot in the door
Have at least one relevant factor on your resume; whether that’s the right qualifications or specific experience.
2. Become a lifelong learner
Demonstrate to your employer that you’re eager to pursue any upskilling opportunities that can advance your soft skills as well as your hard skillset.
3. Keep up to date with the latest industry trends
You can stay in the loop by being an active member of the NetSuite social communities and your local user groups, and ensuring you regularly read the latest NetSuite blogs and news resources.
If you can stick to this advice, you will be well on your way to take the next step in your career within the Netsuite industry.
