“Work long hours, do a good job, be nice — and you’ll be rewarded with promotions and new job opportunities.” Right? Wrong.

You do have to do a good job to get promoted, but that’s only part of it. There are other ways to increase your promotability quotient.

Many of us have the idea that taking credit for success is like bragging. And we were raised not to brag. We aren’t talking about bragging here. We are talking about a planned proactive way to let people know what you are doing — so they will give you more opportunities. The goal here isn’t celebrity … it’s opportunity.

Connections and Visibility Within Your Company
Connect with others in your company or organization. Kathie had one boss who taught her this important lesson. Kathie’s habit was to stay at her desk and work through lunch. (She knows that is a counterproductive way to work. You work less effectively and accomplish less when you don’t take a break!) Her boss, however, pointed out another reason that Kathie’s methods were ineffective.

“Kathie,” Becky Patterson said, “You do good work, but that’s not the whole picture. You need to get away from your desk at lunch and get to know other people in the company, not just in the HR department but across all divisions, sales, marketing, production. Promotions aren’t just about good work. They are also about working relationships and visibility.”

Connections and Visibility Within Your Industry
As we mentioned in our last column on networking (archived at military.com) Lynn Edwards is an Army spouse who managed move up in the hospitality industry as she moved with the military over many years. Edward says, “The management and sales jobs rarely make it into an ad. It’s always through networking. It’s who you know who knows how well you work!” This can impact job-finding, and it can impact your promotability on the job as well.

Edwards volunteers to speak and teach classes on the leisure industry for community colleges, universities, and at conferences. She has volunteered time on the boards of the state chapters of her professional associations. That’s a great example of making sure your good work is visible to others throughout your industry as well as in your current company. That industry visibility is key to anyone moving up in a career. It’s even more crucial to military spouses who move so frequently.

No matter what your position, you can find opportunities to write or speak about what you know best. Most organizations and professional associations have a newsletter or other publication. Kathie has edited newsletters in the past. Here’s a tip … editors are always looking for copy. In many cases, you don’t even have to be able to write … just pass on a good idea and be a good interview subject.

Be Proactive with Your Boss
You need to answer “Am I promotable?” and if not, why not? But don’t wait for your annual review. Ask your boss for a quarterly meeting to review your performance and to discuss specific ways to improve your performance.

By taking the initiative to ask, you show your interest in moving up (and you avoid any unfixable surprises at annual review time).

In between quarterly meetings, keep track of your accomplishments. This can be as simple as jotting a note on a slip of paper or dropping a copy of completed projects into your “Accomplishment File” at work. That way, you are ready to present your case at each meeting, and you are building your resume at the same time. Plus when you have a quarterly plan and know you are meeting with your boss, you are more focused and purposeful with your work. Additionally, your boss will be better prepared when it comes time for a letter of recommendation when you move.

If your boss isn’t available for quarterly meetings, you can still provide him or her with a quarterly report of accomplishments. That keeps you on task and adds to the visibility of what you do. Kathie had one position where her boss was open to these quarterly reports — with his boss copied in.

There is one other big plus to this quarterly method for military spouses. When you do get ready for yet another move and you need to update your resume, everything you need will be at your fingertips.

Excerpted with permission from "Help! I’m a Military Spouse — I Want a Life Too! How to Craft a Life for You as You Move with the Military" by Kathie Hightower & Holly Scherer.