Professional Services career progression in Higher Education is broken.

Stop waiting for someone to fix it or to pick you. Take control of your next move.

Between the lines of job descriptions, vague feedback, and advice like “you’re not ready yet” or "you're doing great! More of the same please" lies the Hidden Curriculum of Progression. Once you know how to read it, and more importantly live it, you can step into the next grade with confidence in both how you present yourself and how you lead once you get there.

Own Your Next Steps

I believe in an HE sector where:

• people are in the right job,
• doing work they love (or are happy to do so they can live a life they love)
• they're trusted to do their job well and trust themselves to act when things aren’t going right
• decisions are taken by the right people at the right time
• what’s said is acted upon
• everyone knows their role and how it fits in
• everyone feels respected,
• and everyone is paid fairly for their effort.

It's a nice vision, right? But here's the problem:
It’s widely understood that you have to show you’re already working at the higher grade before anyone will seriously consider you for regrading or for a promotion at a new institution.

But most people don’t actually know what “working at the higher grade” means. So they take on more: more projects, more responsibilities, more hours. They overwhelm themselves with volume.

And then, when the time comes to make their case, the feedback lands like a punch to the gut: “You’re not ready.”

It’s devastating and it’s no wonder they feel resentful. They’ve been working so hard to “prove” themselves, but the well-meaning advice they were given was never meant to mean more volume at the same grade.

What they really needed was to show capability and credibility at the next level: to adapt their thinking, their presence, and the way they present their work to align with the expectations of that grade.

That’s what the Hidden Curriculum illuminates.

It’s the unspoken, between-the-lines knowledge that lets you elevate how you work, gaining authority and accountability, not just more responsibility and volume at the same grade.

And it makes sense that you can’t see it yet. If you’ve never worked at that level before, how could you know what it takes?

The Hidden Curriculum bridges that gap. It’s about true professional development, not just training courses and switching the words on your CV from 'doing' to 'managing' to 'leading'. The Hidden Curriculum helps you speak the language of the next grade and live it day to day so you can progress without burning out, battling imposter syndrome, or second-guessing yourself.

I've made a version for each of the grade step changes, from grade 6-7 (individual team contributor to first line manager or equivalent), 7-8 (stepping up to manage teams and bigger portfolios), and 8-9 (moving into leadership with an institution wide impact).

But that's only the first step: once you can see the next step clearly, you don’t have to try to leap it in one go.

You can prepare in stages: building the skills, credibility, and conviction you’ll need not just to land the role, but to thrive in it.

That’s why I designed the Progression Pathway: a set of steps that help you put the Hidden Curriculum into action. It maps the stages you’ll need to move through if you want to progress without burnout:

1. Clarity: understand what is required at the next grade, get a clear assessment of where you are performing at that level already and identify your gaps in skills and experience.
2. Competence: fill those gaps so that you're able to work effectively at the next level. This includes elevating your ways of thinking as much as your ways of working. We want you thinking like someone at that next level.
3. Credibility: be seen as someone who is ready for a role at the next level.
4. Conviction: believe in your abilities and be able to describe them in a way that makes you the standout candidate in applications and interviews.

You can totally follow the pathway on your own or, if you want my help, all of the steps are covered, in a grade appropriate way, inside my programme: Getting Ready for Your Next Grade.

Hi, I'm Fiona, 

creator of the Professional Services Progression Pathway and the go-to authority on the Hidden Curriculum of Progression.

With 13 years inside Higher Education and over 250 clients supported, I know the unwritten rules and subtle shifts that separate “ready for promotion” from “not yet.”

I specialise in the critical step changes from G7 to G8 and G8 to G9, helping you not only look like the most credible candidate but lead like one once you’re in the role.

I’m a certified self-belief coach and workplace mediator, bringing both the strategic insight to map your next move and the coaching skill to help you embody the beliefs, mindset, and approaches the next grade demands.

Whether you’re clarifying your readiness, building targeted skills, preparing your application, or mastering your first 100 days, I’m here to make sure you don’t just move up, you move into a role you can thrive in.

Getting Ready for Your Next Grade.

The Getting Ready for Grade Your Next Grade Programme is where I'll support you to go through the Progression Pathway together to get you ready for your next grade.

We'll work together for 12 months in a small cohort of up to 8 people, all making the same grade shift. Each month there will be weekly calls, monthly masterclasses, and practical tools drawn from the Hidden Curriculum of Progression.

You’ll know exactly what credibility looks like at your target grade, build the competence to fill any gaps, and practise signalling leadership behaviours so recruitment/regarding panels and senior colleagues notice you operating at that level.