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The readings of this post is exactly the reason I loathe the whole drive to get promoted, instead of working to do what makes sense to improve your team, your t

The readings of this post is exactly the reason I loathe the whole drive to get promoted, instead of working to do what makes sense to improve your team, your teammates, and your company. As a manager, my goal is to discern the difference between these two, and will do what I can to support those that focus more on improving the team vs. chasing a promotion by focusing more on showing how they’re better than everyone else. Even if this is more effective strictly regarding getting promoted, I would much rather be — and work with — the type of people that care more about elevating the team.

Consultant32452 6y ago
I used to be a "shooting star" developer. I was always the most productive member of my team. I was the go-to person for any complex problem. At some point in my career I decided to change from being a shooting star to being a "rising tide." Instead of being the best individual contributor I focused on making everyone else the best they could be. That's when my income really skyrocketed. My life experience is that there is sort of a karma. I helped a lot of people become better at their jobs and expected nothing in return. Some of those people went off to be extremely successful, and they wanted me to come along with them in making tons of money. Expecting nothing in return is the key. People know if you're keeping score.
- itsmefaz 6y ago
  you became a manager?
  - Consultant32452 6y ago
    I became a partner in a very small consulting firm. But yes, manager positions were widely available.
- jameshush 6y ago
  I cannot agree with this enough. I'm 29 years old now, so not particularly old but not 21 anymore. When I was 16 working as a concert promoter all the hard working musicians from my middle of nowhere home town in Canada became successful, either in the music industry or in another industry. I'm still friends with people I let sleep on my floor during those times. On the tech side I've stayed late to help push projects through. People don't forget. I have friends from 7+ years ago, some who's weddings I've stood at. We _still_ talk about the time we made a miracle happen and got the project out the door the night before. We _still_ talk about the time production went down in front of 1,000,000 users and we rage coded a solution together. Compound interest works with relationships just like it works with money. Real trust builds over years. I've been the tag along for a few projects now that I never would have found without being friendly and helpful in the past.
  - Consultant32452 6y ago
    >Compound interest works with relationships just like it works with money. This is a really great way of putting it because compound interest also works on social debt (being a dick). Build up a lot of it, and you won't go anywhere.
    - ithkuil 6y ago
      It can get you to the oval office, so I guess ymmv
    - jameshush 6y ago
      Hahahaha, I almost spit out my coffee reading this. I never thought about it that way but it's so true! The only thing worse than credit card debit is the compound interest of social debt. And social debt spills over to other circles! There's been times where someone's applied to a job I've worked at and I've noticed they worked at a previous company with a mutual past colleague. I've texted the colleague and asked "Hey, so and so's applied here. What was your experience with them?". Oftentimes it's "Oh so and so's great! We made some miracles happen at HerpDerp Co." but every once in a while I'll get back "So and so is fine." or in a few situations "Honestly So and so was a good engineer but was absolutely terrible to work with on a team. Very negative to other people". It's a small world!
  - giantDinosaur 6y ago
    Are you actually earning more and objectively better off in economic/status terms by doing this? I ask because another common failure mode with getting stuck is to essentially 'rage code' into working free overtime and accepting bad conditions all because of the camaraderie i.e. someone is exploiting the positive characteristics of bonding. If it matches with your goals, that's fine, but often people look back and realise they were essentially exploited in this way (see: team-building exercises in a lot of minimum-wage style jobs to see a pure & distilled form of this kind of thing.) Perhaps just something to be aware of! I don't mean to be overly negative, so apologies in advance if I've gotten a completely wrong impression here, but I do believe the general risk of this failure mode in career/life exists and is common.
- DDerTyp 6y ago
  Thanks for sharing this with us. This advice (change from being a shooting star to helping others to improve) seems to be in contrast to the article. Or am I missing something?
kamaal 6y ago
>>I loathe the whole drive to get promoted, instead of working to do what makes sense to improve your team, your teammates, and your company. Enough with this nonsense. If you/organizations wanted this, they'd put their money on it and hire/pay people for doing good work. Instead of repeating elaborate back channel rituals that involves lobbying/counter lobbying and cartel like work to secure promotions for their people. Heck not even hiring is done on these standards. People ask whiteboard leetcode questions, while what they want is skilled and productive people. They keep hiring unskilled jumping jacks, who barely contribute 6 months to any project/company and then move on. You pay top money for these people and then simultaneously screw raises/bonuses/promotion/rsus's for seasoned contributors. People who have contributed are screwed routinely and noncontributing jumping jacks are showered with rewards to drive the point home that no company or manager ever cares about skill, productivity, learning, work or value any more. >>will do what I can to support those that focus more on improving the team vs. chasing a promotion by focusing more on showing how they’re better than everyone else. Managers say these things because they need to keep the few contributors playing in order to fleece them so that the whole game can be paid for. >>Even if this is more effective strictly regarding getting promoted, I would much rather be — and work with — the type of people that care more about elevating the team. Pretty much no body does this.
dandare 6y ago
Save your loathing. This is possibly the hardest problem in management. It is an open secret that nobody really knows the formula for consistently promote the correct people.

Consultant32452 6y ago

I used to be a "shooting star" developer. I was always the most productive member of my team. I was the go-to person for any complex problem. At some point in my career I decided to change from being a shooting star to being a "rising tide." Instead of being the best individual contributor I focused on making everyone else the best they could be. That's when my income really skyrocketed. My life experience is that there is sort of a karma. I helped a lot of people become better at their jobs and expected nothing in return. Some of those people went off to be extremely successful, and they wanted me to come along with them in making tons of money. Expecting nothing in return is the key. People know if you're keeping score.

itsmefaz 6y ago
you became a manager?
- Consultant32452 6y ago
  I became a partner in a very small consulting firm. But yes, manager positions were widely available.
jameshush 6y ago
I cannot agree with this enough. I'm 29 years old now, so not particularly old but not 21 anymore. When I was 16 working as a concert promoter all the hard working musicians from my middle of nowhere home town in Canada became successful, either in the music industry or in another industry. I'm still friends with people I let sleep on my floor during those times. On the tech side I've stayed late to help push projects through. People don't forget. I have friends from 7+ years ago, some who's weddings I've stood at. We _still_ talk about the time we made a miracle happen and got the project out the door the night before. We _still_ talk about the time production went down in front of 1,000,000 users and we rage coded a solution together. Compound interest works with relationships just like it works with money. Real trust builds over years. I've been the tag along for a few projects now that I never would have found without being friendly and helpful in the past.
- Consultant32452 6y ago
  >Compound interest works with relationships just like it works with money. This is a really great way of putting it because compound interest also works on social debt (being a dick). Build up a lot of it, and you won't go anywhere.
  - ithkuil 6y ago
    It can get you to the oval office, so I guess ymmv
  - jameshush 6y ago
    Hahahaha, I almost spit out my coffee reading this. I never thought about it that way but it's so true! The only thing worse than credit card debit is the compound interest of social debt. And social debt spills over to other circles! There's been times where someone's applied to a job I've worked at and I've noticed they worked at a previous company with a mutual past colleague. I've texted the colleague and asked "Hey, so and so's applied here. What was your experience with them?". Oftentimes it's "Oh so and so's great! We made some miracles happen at HerpDerp Co." but every once in a while I'll get back "So and so is fine." or in a few situations "Honestly So and so was a good engineer but was absolutely terrible to work with on a team. Very negative to other people". It's a small world!
- giantDinosaur 6y ago
  Are you actually earning more and objectively better off in economic/status terms by doing this? I ask because another common failure mode with getting stuck is to essentially 'rage code' into working free overtime and accepting bad conditions all because of the camaraderie i.e. someone is exploiting the positive characteristics of bonding. If it matches with your goals, that's fine, but often people look back and realise they were essentially exploited in this way (see: team-building exercises in a lot of minimum-wage style jobs to see a pure & distilled form of this kind of thing.) Perhaps just something to be aware of! I don't mean to be overly negative, so apologies in advance if I've gotten a completely wrong impression here, but I do believe the general risk of this failure mode in career/life exists and is common.
DDerTyp 6y ago
Thanks for sharing this with us. This advice (change from being a shooting star to helping others to improve) seems to be in contrast to the article. Or am I missing something?

kamaal 6y ago

>>I loathe the whole drive to get promoted, instead of working to do what makes sense to improve your team, your teammates, and your company. Enough with this nonsense. If you/organizations wanted this, they'd put their money on it and hire/pay people for doing good work. Instead of repeating elaborate back channel rituals that involves lobbying/counter lobbying and cartel like work to secure promotions for their people. Heck not even hiring is done on these standards. People ask whiteboard leetcode questions, while what they want is skilled and productive people. They keep hiring unskilled jumping jacks, who barely contribute 6 months to any project/company and then move on. You pay top money for these people and then simultaneously screw raises/bonuses/promotion/rsus's for seasoned contributors. People who have contributed are screwed routinely and noncontributing jumping jacks are showered with rewards to drive the point home that no company or manager ever cares about skill, productivity, learning, work or value any more. >>will do what I can to support those that focus more on improving the team vs. chasing a promotion by focusing more on showing how they’re better than everyone else. Managers say these things because they need to keep the few contributors playing in order to fleece them so that the whole game can be paid for. >>Even if this is more effective strictly regarding getting promoted, I would much rather be — and work with — the type of people that care more about elevating the team. Pretty much no body does this.

dandare 6y ago

Save your loathing. This is possibly the hardest problem in management. It is an open secret that nobody really knows the formula for consistently promote the correct people.