3 ms·

I'm kind of jaded from the work world and part of it is that it took me forever to recognizing the promotions don't really reflect your skill at your craft. The

by allenu 3y ago

I'm kind of jaded from the work world and part of it is that it took me forever to recognizing the promotions don't really reflect your skill at your craft. They're more a proxy of how visible your impact is at executing the company's goals. You can be the greatest technical wizard and be good at helping your teammates get their jobs done, but if management isn't around to see it (or no one else makes a peep about it on your behalf), it doesn't matter. I feel like career ladders are more likely used as a tool to justify not promoting you rather than promoting you. Doing everything that's required in the next rung of a career ladder doesn't mean you'll be promoted, especially if budget is a concern or the company has a quota of promotions or senior/principal people. But if you aren't promoted, it's an easy thing to fall back on to say "well, you didn't do these things", and even if you did do those things, you might not have made it visible enough to the people with the power to promote you.

hospitalJail 3y ago
This is why I basically decided entrepreneurship was going to be my shot at 'greatness'. You basically need ~7 years (at best) to get into management at a big company. After that, so much is luck/politics/seniority based. As someone who has always been a top performer(in school, in wages, in professional achievements), I don't want to put all my eggs in 1 corporate basket. I make more money than managers being contract, I am never worried about unemployment, and what were my odds of making 1M per year at some large company? There are a lot of talented people competing for those positions. Doing the numbers, I can create ~1M per year in value and I don't even need to be a manager. It seems being a programmer in a high value niche seems more certain than hoping your card gets called.
- gedy 3y ago
  > It seems being a programmer in a high value niche seems more certain than hoping your card gets called. What niche though? Glad it worked out for you, but not every contacting gig pays that much
  - hospitalJail 3y ago
    (Real) Engineering has some difficult/time consuming problems, I automate those.

by allenu 3y ago

hospitalJail 3y ago

This is why I basically decided entrepreneurship was going to be my shot at 'greatness'. You basically need ~7 years (at best) to get into management at a big company. After that, so much is luck/politics/seniority based. As someone who has always been a top performer(in school, in wages, in professional achievements), I don't want to put all my eggs in 1 corporate basket. I make more money than managers being contract, I am never worried about unemployment, and what were my odds of making 1M per year at some large company? There are a lot of talented people competing for those positions. Doing the numbers, I can create ~1M per year in value and I don't even need to be a manager. It seems being a programmer in a high value niche seems more certain than hoping your card gets called.

gedy 3y ago
> It seems being a programmer in a high value niche seems more certain than hoping your card gets called. What niche though? Glad it worked out for you, but not every contacting gig pays that much
- hospitalJail 3y ago
  (Real) Engineering has some difficult/time consuming problems, I automate those.