Ask HN: What do you talk about in 1-on-1s with your managers?

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1-on-1 meetings with your manager can be an incredibly valuable opportunity to discuss your progress, get feedback, and address any concerns you may have. To make the most of your 1-on-1 meetings, it's important to have a clear agenda and specific topics to discuss. Here are a few ideas of what you could talk about in your meetings:

Goals and objectives: Discuss your current and upcoming goals and objectives, and any challenges you're facing in achieving them. Review progress and talk about what you need from your manager to help you achieve them.

Feedback and development: Ask for feedback on your performance and areas where you can improve. Talk about what you're doing to develop your skills and any opportunities for training or development that you're interested in pursuing.

Career development: If you're interested in moving up within the company, discuss your career aspirations and any potential opportunities for advancement. Talk about what you need to do to prepare for the next step and what the company can do to support you in your career development.

Communication and alignment: Make sure that your manager is aware of what you're working on and that you're aligned with the company's goals and objectives. Communicate any problems or issues you're facing, so they can help you find a solution.

Current projects and work: Give an update on current projects and work, share any successes or difficulties, and discuss any upcoming deadlines or deliverables.

Personal and team updates: Share any personal news or updates and also, if there's any team-level update you've noticed that's worth mentioning.

It's important to keep in mind that 1-on-1 meetings are not just for discussing business-related topics, it's also about building a strong professional relationship with your manager, which is key for career development.

Finally, it's also important to remember that 30 minutes may not be enough time for deep dives into certain topics. If you feel that a 30-minute time slot is not sufficient for a topic you would like to discuss, you can request more time or schedule a follow-up meeting.

* human stuff -- "hows the husband? How are the kids?" or "how bout that $SPORTS_TEAM", etc. Small talk relationship stuff, keep it light but do try to build a bridge, just be cognizant of power dynamics and roles

* what i'm doing this week -- literally, what is on the plate. keep it short, this should be tracked elsewhere, but never hurts to give a summary

* moderate challenge -- what is giving me trouble and may need an escalation or other resources to assist. "status: yellow" sorta stuff, not an issue yet but could be. no action items, just information.

* escalation -- stuff I need manager help with but was not on-fire enough to warrant its own call or breaking the flow. action items for the boss, basically. "I need support on $X, I need you to talk to $OTHER_TEAM to get some traction"

* what are their concerns? what are their code: yellow items and what do they need to escalate or send down to you? "We've got Project Y coming up and it will need some preliminary work on Z, can you brush up on that ASAP?"

* other general feedback, esp. related to performance. If you get fired, rebuked, celebrated publicly, or promoted it shouldn't be a surprise because you got explicit feedback as to where you're at.

Hey there! I feel your pain. I used to be in your shoes at a bigco too. I'm testing an app in closed beta and getting great feedback already. I would love to get your feedback if you're interested. All those who are interested DM me on twitter @muthax I'll send you a link back.

As a hack on this, when negotiating to join a company, you generally want to be at {highest title} + {lowest on pay band for that title}.

Sometimes specific title requirements preclude this (e.g. "We don't give new people X title immediately"), but it's a good rule of thumb.

It makes yearly pay bumps much easier for your manager to justify ("So-and-so is well within salary ranges for their title"), versus them having to fight for an exception to policy.