Get up to speed.
"Most people—and companies—overestimate the extent to which industries have changed," says Timothy Butler, PhD, head of Harvard Business School's just-launched New Path program. Read The Wall Street Journal, take a continuing education course—finance, computer skills, spreadsheets—and follow the trade publications. "It doesn't take much to keep up-to-date," Butler says, "and that action proves to management that you're serious."
