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The unfortunate reality is that if you don’t sing your own praises, you will miss out on opportunities in life. Most people don’t have the time to really pay at
by ashelmire 8y ago
The unfortunate reality is that if you don’t sing your own praises, you will miss out on opportunities in life. Most people don’t have the time to really pay attention to what you’re doing (bosses, interviewers, dating interests, etc), so you have to make them aware - or you’re just off in the corner being unseen.
- amelius 8y agoOr you have to be so good that nobody can ignore you.
- PakG1 8y agoUnless you're really lucky, that puts you at the peril of sociopaths who will just take advantage of you without rewarding you or giving you credit. Easy path to bitterness, unfortunately. People need to be able to stand out from the crowd in multiple ways, like it or not.
- saiya-jin 8y agoIt may work in smaller companies, but in corporations this often ain't true. Marketing beats raw skills easily, since those promoting/increasing salary are usually quite far from technical aspects of daily life.
- maxxxxx 8y agoExactly. If you don't make sure that you get credit for your own work others happily will do so and reap the benefits.
- maxxxxx 8y agoThat's bullshit. If you don't promote yourself you will always wonder why others who aren't as good advance in life while you stand still and are taken advantage of.
- the_clarence 8y agoThis. Had a colleague who kept telling everyone how good he was doing. He started at the same time a lot of us did but got promoted extremely quickly.
- malmsteen 8y agoCorrelation doesnt imply causation though
- castlecrasher2 8y agoGood work + effectively and frequently talking with others is usually a recipe for success. Heck, even without the "good" modifier that's true.
- baxtr 8y agoOf course marketing on your own behalf is helpful, but I’ve found that the most successful people don’t brag about their achievements. Instead, somehow they get other people to talk about their merits within the organization.
- justaguyhere 8y agoIs this before they became successful or after? Once we reach a certain level of success, it gets much easier to get other people to talk about us. But when we are just starting and unknown, who is gonna sing our praises (assuming we are good at something) other than our moms? :P
- castlecrasher2 8y ago>But when we are just starting and unknown, who is gonna sing our praises What I've noticed is just conversing empathetically with others a la How to Win Friends and Influence People and having technical discussion is enough for others to sing my praises, from my time as intern through middle-manager. Basically, be interested in others over yourself. For more on the nuance of "interested" I'd suggest the above book.
- netcan 8y agoThis easily gets to a semantic argument. Bragging is making your achievements known. Bragging poorly is doing this in a way that's too obvious & grating to the listener. If you're accused of bragging, this means you are bragging poorly.
- baxtr 8y agoWell, that’s only true when talking about past achievements is the only tool to get people excited about you. But superiors working with you, observing you in action, will come to a conclusion too.
- maxxxxx 8y agoSome people are smoother than others but they still do something to make sure they get noticed.
- Delmania 8y agoDo great work and tell others.
- brianmcc 8y agoAgreed. There's a real art in promoting yourself without resulting in everyone hating you. Not everyone manages that - or even tries to avoid the "annoying one's peers" part. In business unlike socially it's actually part of the job - or it should be if you want to achieve certain goals: bonus, promotion, peer recognition. Even avoiding layoffs could come down to how well you communicate the good work you're doing. This does not come naturally to many of us in this sector, but once you are aware of the need for it, there are ways to promote yourself authentically and without being too much of a show-off.
- refurb 8y agoThe ideal way to brag is have others do it for you.
- amelius 8y agoIs it possible to hire an agent to do this for me for a reasonable price?
- titzer 8y agoThe timing of telling might be as important as the doing. If, for example, someone asks about X and you did X three months ago, and you only tell them now, after they mention it, you might put it into their heads "holy shit, this person did X, which I thought was hard, and either forgot about it, or forgot to brag, wow..."