drud.is

The one mistake that hindered my career

I have a confession to make: career progression was never my top priority. Doing cool shit Self-fulfillment and enjoying my work always came first - within reason.
Like many engineers, I believed that doing difficult or tedious work would get noticed and suffice to advance my career. Common wisdom says it doesn’t work, but it does work; just at a slower pace.

I moved around, landed on impactful work that moved at breakneck speed, and I felt compelled to also move quicker myself. As I was ruminating about this, a very senior engineer joined the team. He would ask many questions but especially have many opinions. Most of the comments or suggestions he made that were received with enthusiasm were not new to me. I had thought about them before he joined, some of them thoroughly. I just had never considered them important enough, or thought I’d be able to drive change. Yet, he said them out loud, naturally.

Then it hit me, as obvious as it seems in retrospect: I had to speak up. How would anyone know about my ideas if I didn’t tell them out loud? From that moment on I shared my perspectives and ideas often. Only good things came out of this. First, I could feel how I was perceived in a more favorable way by peers as well as management. This quickly had a positive impact on my career advancement. Second, many of my proposals actually were implemented! Shaping the work that gets done is self-fulfilling. Third, I fixed wrongs. When I became a manager I was easily the most chatty one when it came to calibrations, where managers align on employee performance. See, seasoned managers have all these reasons to pick only the good fights. The old me would have listened and remained silent as he disagreed. But I said what had to be said and made a complex decision fairer, I’m proud of it.

Needless to say you want to say things that are - when possible - new, intelligent, or useful. Almost always backed by actual work being done or results achieved. Being a charlatan is worse than being silent; at least silence isn’t annoying. Just be self-aware and walk the fine line with care.

Arnie understood this too!