Sorry but what year and working environment is this post from? Things have radically changed in the last 5 years.
^this 100%
Try to take my position: The best promotion advice I ever got
281–286 of 286 posts
Re: Try to take my position: The best promotion advice I ever got
#282Good advice, in general. But there is a risk here, which is that you're encouraging people to do something which isn't their job.
Are you sure you don't want this person working on the things they are supposed to be working on?
Further, even if it all goes well, you're encouraging someone to do a more stressful job and not (yet) compensating them. Given the fact that you can't practically promote everyone you want, this risks your senior-with-junior-title feeling taken advantage of and prone to look for their title elsewhere.
Re: Try to take my position: The best promotion advice I ever got
#283This is also documented in an old 1-page military paper called the "Doctrine of Completed Staff Work"
Re: Try to take my position: The best promotion advice I ever got
#284"Here's the thing most people miss: promotions don't fall off the tree and land in your lap. You've got to show that you're capable of handling the responsibility for a sustained period of time." Some classic management gaslighting. You have to work for a few years at the level of the higher position to get it. I will trust your work at this level, profit off of it, hold you responsible for it but not pay you appropr…
"Seriously, ref, I'm good enough to win. No need to play the game, you can just hand me the gold medal now!"
Not really related to what I said but I'll bite. Let me try phrasing it in a different way, if someone asked you to, in addition to doing your own job, do someone elses, but instead of paying you for that additional work said you'd get great "exposure" and a future reward, would you jump at that chance?
I know many people that have because they care, they are hungry, they want to advance, they can do higher level things and want to prove themselves, etc. and the vast majority of them have gotten nothing for their trouble but extra work. We live in a world where working hard is always encouraged and its virtues extolled but rarely rewarded.
Re: Try to take my position: The best promotion advice I ever got
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> Somehow the idea of going to work and not trying your best You make a great point -- let me further explain so I'm not misunderstood. If the person is putting in the same 40 hrs/wk (or whatever is standard) but just "doing their best", then there's no problem. But in my experience, your manager is expecting you to do all of your assigned role (e.g. write code), but then also do a bunch of stuff on top -- e.g. leadi…
I don't think that's how it works. Otherwise, a level 3 engineer would be working 40 hours a week but 4 engineer would be working 60 hours a week, which isn't the case.
These additional things a senior does that a junior doesn't aren't "write more code", they're "coordinate with people outside your team more", "be more self-directed", "be more reliable", etc. Things which don't take more time, but which juniors don't do.
Re: Try to take my position: The best promotion advice I ever got
#286Promotions are given to people who know other people and will not upset the order.