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One of the best pieces of advice I ever learned was to volunteer for the jobs no one else wants to do. Shitiest job imaginable rears its head? Jump up and wave
by datavirtue 6y ago
One of the best pieces of advice I ever learned was to volunteer for the jobs no one else wants to do. Shitiest job imaginable rears its head? Jump up and wave your hand like a happy idiot. Managers' sigh of relief. Who can compete with that?
- emodendroket 6y agoThis is a great way to end up being the "expert" in PHP, Rails, frontend dev, and other stuff you actually don't really enjoy doing, and have everyone just keep assigning you those tickets instead of lifting a finger to do it themselves. Ask me how I know.
- datavirtue 6y agoHmmm....it landed me as the tech lead for all of IT and development.
- emodendroket 6y agoWell, glad it worked out for you, but I am not the first person to find that doing too good a job at undesirable tasks means everyone thinks of you when they want them done.
- fctorial 6y agoSurvivorship bias?
- datavirtue 6y agoYes. But it is common advice from CEO s and it fits with what my grandmother used to tell me: the boss gets all the shit jobs.
- emodendroket 6y agoCEOs are not exactly a disinterested party here, are they?
- infinitezest 6y agoThis has been my experience and it has left me feeling kind of rudderless. I want to do a good job, accomplish things, and build a solid reputation (and hopefully make more money) but it ends up feeling like getting punished for doing well. Of course, it's easy enough to say that hard work is its own reward or that it'll pay off in the long run but it sure doesn't feel that way sometimes.
- emodendroket 6y agoI know what you mean. It’s hard for me to half-ass things and I hate everyone sitting there with their thumbs up their ass or pretending they’re too stupid to figure something out. All I can say is it try and find a team that’s focused on stuff you want to do and will appreciate your flexibility. Easier said than done.