Create Your Own Role
Combine internal value and external visibility until a new role becomes obvious.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 86%
Create Your Own Role combines internal usefulness, cross-functional visibility, and external proof. First, take on work that materially helps colleagues and makes you valuable beyond your formal duties. Next, volunteer for an initiative leadership already wants, using it to build relationships across the organization. In parallel, develop public evidence of the specialty through writing, projects, or a personal brand outside work. When those signals converge, propose a role that formalizes the value already being delivered. Dan followed this path at EMC by writing marketing plans for multiple groups, becoming a Six Sigma Green Belt, and publishing heavily outside work. A Fast Company profile supplied external validation, and EMC hired him into its first social media role.
Origin
Inspired by Tom Peters' article The Brand Called You, Dan combined extra internal work, Six Sigma participation, and an external personal brand until EMC created a social media position around him.
Core principles
- 01Employees can create career paths instead of waiting for them
- 02Extra value builds internal support and job security
- 03Company priorities create openings for visible stretch work
- 04External recognition can validate an internal role
How to run it
- 1
Create surplus value
Do useful work beyond the minimum that makes teammates and leaders more successful.
Pro tip Choose work visible to several stakeholders rather than invisible busywork.
Watch out Do not let extra work undermine the responsibilities you already own.
- 2
Join a strategic initiative
Volunteer for a methodology or project the company wants adopted and use it to build cross-functional relationships.
- 3
Build external proof
Publish or practice the emerging specialty outside work so independent recognition validates your capability.
Pro tip Use scheduled publishing or support where appropriate so visibility does not look like neglect of your job.
Watch out Visible side work can trigger jealousy if colleagues think it happens on company time.
- 4
Formalize the role
Show how your internal contribution and external credibility support a role the organization now needs.
Pro tip Draft the job description around demonstrated value, not aspiration alone.
In the wild
Dan wrote marketing plans across the department, completed a cross-functional Six Sigma project, and built his personal brand through frequent blogging and social posting. After Fast Company profiled him, EMC recognized the capability and hired him into a new role.
→ He effectively wrote his own job description inside a Fortune 200 company.
Common mistakes
Waiting for a vacancy
A unique role may never appear on an org chart unless someone first proves that the need and value exist.
Building visibility without trust
External attention can create resentment when it is not paired with strong internal performance and relationships.
Is it for you?
Best for
Employees in supportive organizations who see an unmet need matching their emerging skills.
Not ideal for
People in rigid cultures that punish initiative or whose health and workload cannot support extra projects.
From the transcript
“the smartest people within an organization would create their own unique rules”
“I literally wrote a job description as a 23 or 24 year old within a fortune 200 company”
From the episode
Dan Schawbel Teaches the Art of Talent Stacking