1. Look for what interests you most about what you are doing now. Focus in on that and do the best you can at it. Learn some things around it. So, if you're wri

1. Look for what interests you most about what you are doing now. Focus in on that and do the best you can at it. Learn some things around it. So, if you're writing tests for something but you realize the thing you're testing could be better, lean into that. Alternatively, just do your work but pay attention to what others are doing and talk to them about it. See what their pain points are or what they don't have time to do, and see if that lines up with something you're interested in. Either way... 2. Come up with some interesting ideas that can benefit the business. Keep it simple and do your due diligence. Do some little experiments using around 10% of your time, or during time you're not expected to work (yeah, it goes against the anticapitalist program, but it's a great way to get ahead.... Anyway, you're a knowledge worker not an assembly line person). 3. Try to get buy-in. Bring up the problem that you're solving and be ready to provide the solution along with your due diligence or even a prototype. You might only get a "keep looking into this" but that's your toe-hold :) This was my basic strategy at the job I had before officially becoming an engineer. I was sooo tired of filling in simple reports, and I realized that I could probably automate it. I took a risk and spent some of the time I had alone at the office writing a script to make some batch edits.... And it worked! Then I was able to get buy-in to build a GUI for it. So if I was able to do this when my job description wasn't even "engineer", I know that you can do it as a SWE :)