Try to take my position: The best promotion advice I ever got

Post by stuaxo » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 11:26 AM UTC

ryanjshaw wrote: post #209

ManlyBread wrote: post #202

Ah, the classic "work even harder and do things you're not paid for with zero guarantee that someone will appreciate what you're doing while the company reaps the benefits". What a novel thought, I am so glad I clicked the article, especially since the author isn't even speaking from experience so he has nothing to back up his blogpost with.

Felt like AI slop. I used to do what it recommends, and it got me nowhere other than more stress and higher expectations from senior management.

Post by wiseowise » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 11:59 AM UTC

ozim wrote: post #41

cephei wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, I've seen engineers try to take on more work to get promoted, but the key issue is that they were doing more work at their own level instead of focusing on work that would be their responsibility if they promoted. If an IC takes on more and more IC work instead of management responsibilities, it's harder to promote them.

If they do that, that's exactly why you don't want to promote them because it is clear they don't understand that doing x+5 work on your own is not as good as x*5 when you become multiplier by helping others.

Post by wiseowise » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 12:10 PM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #163

tmoertel wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's nothing wrong with this choice [to work extra hours to get promoted]. But if there are limited slots for promotion, and that's generally always the case, the resulting competition among deserving engineers makes the extra hours more or less mandatory. Say that Amy is a better engineer than Jim and gets a third more done per hour. If Jim puts in 60 hours instead of the expected 40, then Amy isn't going to be…

That doesn't make the promotion more about grinding because the company doesn't care about how much work you get done in a set unit of time compared to other employees in the same set unit of time. The company cares about how much you get done, period. If the only differentiating factor between Amy and Jim is quantity of work done (this is never the case in real life), most companies will prefer a Jim that works 60 h…

Post by hcfman » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 12:14 PM UTC

Dave_Rosenthal wrote: post #101

crazygringo wrote: post #63

While this is true... it's also letting yourself be massively taken advantage of, and underpaid. Yes, the best way to get promoted is to do work above your level. The problem is, you're not getting paid what you deserve for that . If you're always doing this, you're always being underpaid by a full level . Which is why much better advice is to try to get promoted by switching companies and jumping a level in the proc…

As a boss-man myself, I’ve seen this “don’t let them take advantage of you” sentiment expressed in many discussions about comp and promotions, but I can’t really say I understand it. Am I just out of touch? As I read it, the article is simply trying to help people understand what kind of work is valuable to a company and therefore what they should focus on to make themselves valuable. I presume that making yourself v…

Post by f1shy » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 12:24 PM UTC

ryanjshaw wrote: post #209

ManlyBread wrote: post #202

Ah, the classic "work even harder and do things you're not paid for with zero guarantee that someone will appreciate what you're doing while the company reaps the benefits". What a novel thought, I am so glad I clicked the article, especially since the author isn't even speaking from experience so he has nothing to back up his blogpost with.

Felt like AI slop. I used to do what it recommends, and it got me nowhere other than more stress and higher expectations from senior management.