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Amy would have seemed as rockstar as Dave in the beginning, as she had to do all his work plus diagnostics plus analysis and fixing. If she made sure to inform
by ASalazarMX 7y ago
Amy would have seemed as rockstar as Dave in the beginning, as she had to do all his work plus diagnostics plus analysis and fixing. If she made sure to inform what is she fixing, management would appreciate her more.
There are nefarious managers, but most times it's our own failings to communicate that makes us invisible.
- Razengan 7y ago> it's our own failings to communicate that makes us invisible. It's not a failing to be introverted and not desire attention/spotlight. > If she made sure to inform what is she fixing, management would appreciate her more. Most people usually get annoyed when you tell them what you're doing for them.
- recursive 7y ago> It's not a failing to be introverted and not desire attention/spotlight. It is a failing if you care about getting recognition. Self-promotion isn't the only reason for recognition. For instance you might want to promote proactive maintenance instead of reactive repairs. > Most people usually get annoyed when you tell them what you're doing for them. That is very different from my personal experience.
- tstrimple 7y agoAnecdotally I have to agree with you. When I worked at Microsoft as a Cloud Solution Architect, my job was to help companies adopt the Microsoft cloud. There were some companies at a fairly famous startup accelerator which everyone here is familiar with who I was already engaged with when a new colleague also started helping companies out of this accelerator. I was quietly doing my job and helping solve problems, he made a big fuss about how he got Microsoft's foot in the door at this accelerator. Naturally he got tons of accolades and even a bonus for his work. This need to constantly be selling yourself internally was ultimately what lead to my departure from Microsoft. I'm here to solve problems, not to talk myself up as the savior of the world. It's also why I much prefer working with startups. Your work is much more evident and you aren't constantly having to tell everyone what you've done.
- Draiken 7y agoMaybe I got unlucky in my career but I've worked with a "Dave" and an "Amy" where the OP's description is spot on. "Dave" got all the hero credit and "Amy" was deemed as nothing more than someone average at her job. While peers might now "Amy" is the real hero, non-technical people don't grasp that very well. And unfortunately normally those are the managers and executives.
- ASalazarMX 7y ago> While peers might now "Amy" is the real hero, non-technical people don't grasp that very well This could be also a failing to communicate effectively. Us developers sometimes have a hard time translating: "the join duplicates records because X table has duplicate values in Y field. We need to add a unique key constraint to it and catch the exception in module Z" into "your report has duplicated products because someone captured the serial number twice. I'm going to add the missing validation so this doesn't happen again".
- nomel 7y agoIf Dave brought up the system and features, from nothing to something, which is where the difficulty is, then he probably should get more praise. I think polishing or even refactoring an existing solution that now has well defined and understood required features, corner cases, and quirks will always be vastly easier than the unknowns involved in building something from scratch.