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I've always found it a bit difficult to fully trust the manager because of the power differential. So that way I've often not done a lot of talking driving the

I've always found it a bit difficult to fully trust the manager because of the power differential. So that way I've often not done a lot of talking driving the conversation.

mk89 7y ago
And I think you are right. However, I wonder how you communicate your needs for... Let's say a raise? Or a better position?
- pdpi 7y ago
  You don't want to approach a promotion by saying "I want a promotion now-ish". Rather, you proactively start the conversation by saying "I want to be promoted in 6mo/1y. How do I get there?", and then you keep that conversation going. For raises, if your relationship with your manager is half decent it's fine to just ask for it. If you're a junior-ish IC your manager is also likely a lower-level manager who feels more affinity for ICs than for upper management and he'll side with you when bubbling your request up to the right people. If you're more senior, you have more leverage and the power dynamics start inverting a bit too. Also, you're expected to have the soft skills to manage that conversation.
pdpi 7y ago
The power differential is often not nearly as pronounced as you think (this definitely becomes much more noticeable as you become more senior). Also, when I say that you should be talking about your concerns and being proactive, I mean that, with my manager, 1:1s revolve around topics like me expressing concern that, as upper management pushes for senior ICs to spend more time working on company-level (as opposed to team-level) work, the more junior members of the team are getting less support from me than they should, and we talk about how to manage that, by reprioritising hiring or by pushing back on some less-important initiatives. We talk about how much babysitting our intern will require over the next few weeks and who'll handle it, and about him asking for my opinion/advice on technical topics his other teams are dealing with that smell weird and he wants a second opinion, or me asking his opinion/advice on whether I'm striking the right balance between individual contributions and supporting others. That sort of thing.

I've always found it a bit difficult to fully trust the manager because of the power differential. So that way I've often not done a lot of talking driving the conversation.

mk89 7y ago

And I think you are right. However, I wonder how you communicate your needs for... Let's say a raise? Or a better position?

pdpi 7y ago
You don't want to approach a promotion by saying "I want a promotion now-ish". Rather, you proactively start the conversation by saying "I want to be promoted in 6mo/1y. How do I get there?", and then you keep that conversation going. For raises, if your relationship with your manager is half decent it's fine to just ask for it. If you're a junior-ish IC your manager is also likely a lower-level manager who feels more affinity for ICs than for upper management and he'll side with you when bubbling your request up to the right people. If you're more senior, you have more leverage and the power dynamics start inverting a bit too. Also, you're expected to have the soft skills to manage that conversation.

pdpi 7y ago

The power differential is often not nearly as pronounced as you think (this definitely becomes much more noticeable as you become more senior). Also, when I say that you should be talking about your concerns and being proactive, I mean that, with my manager, 1:1s revolve around topics like me expressing concern that, as upper management pushes for senior ICs to spend more time working on company-level (as opposed to team-level) work, the more junior members of the team are getting less support from me than they should, and we talk about how to manage that, by reprioritising hiring or by pushing back on some less-important initiatives. We talk about how much babysitting our intern will require over the next few weeks and who'll handle it, and about him asking for my opinion/advice on technical topics his other teams are dealing with that smell weird and he wants a second opinion, or me asking his opinion/advice on whether I'm striking the right balance between individual contributions and supporting others. That sort of thing.