Initiative · Careers
You were trained to do the job. Nobody trained you for the career.
Experienced managers and senior professionals talk plainly about promotion, first-time management, difficult conversations and staying well — with working professionals who are in the middle of exactly those things.
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The questions get harder after the first job, and there is nobody obvious to ask.
Early in a career the questions are technical, and somebody senior can answer them. A few years in, they change. Why did somebody else get promoted? How do I manage people who were my peers last month? What do I do about a manager who does not listen?
These cannot always be asked inside the company, because the person who could answer is the person the question is about. So they are carried quietly, or taken to the internet, which answers in generalities.
A room of people from other companies, with a few who are further along, is a better place to ask.
Who this is for
- Professionals three to twelve years into work
- First-time managers, and people about to become one
- People who feel stuck at a level and cannot tell why
- Senior professionals willing to say what they learned the hard way
A session may cover
- How promotion decisions are actually made
- The first ninety days as a manager
- Managing people who used to be your peers
- Working with a difficult manager
- Giving feedback, and taking it
- Asking for a raise or a different role
- Workload, boundaries and burnout
- Staying useful as the work changes
The format
A short account from one or two experienced professionals, then discussion in a small group where people bring a situation they are actually in. What is said in the room stays there; nobody is named outside it.
Also available on request
9 further topics in this area. Tell us which fit your group and we will find the right person for it.
- How Promotions Actually Happen
- First-Time Manager: The First Ninety Days
- Managing People Who Were Your Peers
- Working With a Difficult Manager
- Giving and Receiving Feedback
- Asking for a Raise
- Workload, Boundaries and Burnout
- Staying Relevant as AI Changes the Work
- What I Wish I Knew at Five Years In
What you should come away with
- A better understanding of how promotion decisions are really made
- Preparation for the shift from doing the work to managing it
- Practical approaches to feedback, conflict and a difficult manager
- A way to ask for a raise or a role, with the conversation rehearsed
- An honest view of workload, boundaries and burnout from people further along
- Peers in other companies facing the same questions
Who runs them
Sessions are run by people who do the work
Practitioners, not trainers. Nobody here is paid to speak.
Scheduled
Nothing scheduled yet
This one is not in the calendar yet
It runs when a college, company or community asks for it. That is usually how the first one gets scheduled.
How GullyFuture works
What each side brings
Most sessions are free for participants. Institutions provide the group and a suitable space. Contributors give their time and experience. GullyFuture shapes the format, coordinates the people and documents what happened.
Bring this to your group
Tell us:
- Who the participants are
- Their current stage
- Approximate group size
- City and institution or organisation
- What you want them to understand or practise
- Preferred timing
Contribute
You do not need to be famous or senior. You need relevant experience, the willingness to speak honestly, and respect for the no-selling rule.
You can contribute as a speaker, mentor, interviewer, reviewer, facilitator, host, partner or volunteer.
Contribute your experienceWhat we record
Counted from what happened, never estimated.
- Sessions completed
- Participants reached
- Contributors involved
- Practice or feedback activities completed
- Participant usefulness feedback
- Follow-up actions and resources provided
- Participants who later return as contributors
Participation is free for students and individual participants unless a programme says otherwise. Speakers may explain their work, but a session is never a sales pitch.
Come with the situation you are in.
Join a Growing at Work session.