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My experience has been completely the opposite. Becoming the go-to person is a way to become a load-bearing employee that never gets promoted or otherwise has c

My experience has been completely the opposite. Becoming the go-to person is a way to become a load-bearing employee that never gets promoted or otherwise has company mobility because the people who rely on the go-to person need that go-to person to stay exactly where they are.

packetlost 3y ago
Always saying yes to "go-to person" like asks is a great way to never get anything done and never let anyone else become the "go-to person" for a particular topic. So yeah, if you don't manage it right it can cause issues, but IME being the go-to person is only half of the game: offloading your responsibilities is the other half.
immawizard 3y ago
In my experience “Go to person” in a mature product has 2 stages: (1) person who performs somewhat repetitive jobs (2) person who is trusted to own projects in a given area Being able to get rid of (1), either through automation or delegation, allows you to go to (2). If you’re stuck on (1) for too long, it’s better to leave.
wredue 3y ago
This is also my experience. Being a go-to person led to 5 separate instances where a clearly underqualified person was promoted above me, with the company outright stating that I’m too valuable where I am (but also when I asked for more money, I wasn’t THAT valuable). Then when I left they replaced me with 4 people cause losing a decade of deep dive rather than topical knowledge hurts. Had they promoted me, I could have just trained a new person.
- ponector 3y ago
  If they could continue without your knowledge, but with more people - maybe your knowledge was not as valuable as you think? Also they greatly reduced bus factor. Looks like a win for the manager.
- mhss 3y ago
  You do what you gotta do. The only way to learn really how valuable (in a capitalist sense) you are is by getting offers (ideally multiple) elsewhere. I accepted a counter offer once and stayed 2 more years. Ultimately I left for the same reasons, I was hitting a ceiling and they were not budging. I increased my comp 50% and reduced my responsibilities another 50% with the next move.
sanitycheck 3y ago
Yep, definitely. I've known several people who never got promoted because their bosses knew they'd have to hire 2-3 people to replace them, and there was no budget for extra people. Of course they did all quit eventually, and I assume the budget for the extra staff was found somehow - albeit too late to keep their expert.
kingTug 3y ago
Yeah, in my experience developers who go above and beyond (especially in agile sweatshops) are generally rewarded with more responsibilities and the compensation never scales. Promoting these types into new roles is costly bc they can't really be replaced.
ip26 3y ago
A key distinction may be what you become the go-to for. Go-to for correctly operating a dated tool deep in the bowels of the machine? Cog. Go-to for all questions related to the machine, its history, future, and all machines like it? Not cog. Boiling it down, is your recognized expertise high or low in scope?
- peteradio 3y ago
  > Go-to for correctly operating a dated tool deep in the bowels of the machine? Cog. > Go-to for all questions related to the machine, its history, future, and all machines like it? Not cog. The difference between these two is the people you work with. If people come to you to have their questions answered but can't execute on it properly then... you become #1. Of course this can be twisted around to theoretically be a you problem or it could be an endless churn of warm bodies coming through hiring.
  - kdmccormick 3y ago
    I think there is a certain skill in being a go-to person in such a way you regularly unblock other people, but also respect your own time and ambitions. Are you constantly being asked how a system works? Take some time to document it, and then answer future questions by just linking to those docs. It's harder up front, but saves you time in the long run, and also mean that come performance review time you can say "I wrote this documentation <link>!" instead of having to vaguely claim that you definitely answered a lot of questions for a lot of people. Of course, some companies don't respect that sort of work. I would struggle to be happy at those places.
- cpeterso 3y ago
  Sounds like the lesson is to be a go-to person (for knowledge, not doing work for others) but don’t be irreplaceable. Seek to train others so you can scale your influence and you can be promoted without leaving a team or system in a bad place.
  - arcticbull 3y ago
kec 3y ago
Becoming the go-to person in a given area or process will quickly get you to "senior" which is what the article is talking about. It is easy to get stuck at this level as you say but the trick still works to get to staff the flavor just changes a bit, you have to be more of a generalist.
BobbyTables2 3y ago
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draw_down 3y ago
[dead]
znpy 3y ago
I've been there and I know it's true. However, becoming an expert on something is still valuable as long as that something has value outside the company (ie: you can advertise that kind of expertise in an interview). So becoming an expert in something is valuable and if you realize you've become the "load-bearing employee that never gets promoted or otherwise has company mobility" then it's strong signal that you need to start replying to recruiters.
RyanOD 3y ago
Agreed. Most of those I see promoted have been those who have limited practical skills, but are very good at networking, coordinating, and delegating. They are the go-to person for managing projects, but not doing any of the lower level work. Just my experience.
devjab 3y ago
I work in an organisation that has a list of essential people and I happen to work close with one of them. The entire 300 people company would seriously cease to exist if this person found a new job, got sick or whatever can happen. In my 20 years of working as a software developer and manager, I’ve never before witnessed someone who wasn’t replaceable. As you’re taught in MBA, “anyone is replaceable it’s just a matter of cost”, but that just doesn’t apply to this person because of how much operational knowledge they have. Both about the businesses, the finances and also the technical aspects. This person doesn’t make much more money than I do as a software developer. Which isn’t bad, but also nowhere near their value. They’ve also been sort of shifted around the organisation because nobody really know where to place them as they are essential to everyone. No effort is being done to document or train anyone in case they leave. This is obviously anecdotal, but this sorry isn’t atypical from my experience. People aren’t credited (or promoted) unless they ask and work for it. My own strategy was sort of silly, I let my bosses know how much more money I could make if I took up one of the offers I get (there is a severe lack of developers in my area or the world), and well, it worked well enough to get me good raises and into management before I decided I didn’t want to be a manager at all. I’ve cruised by people who sacrificed themselves way more than I’ve ever done, simply by playing the social and political aspects of working, and I’ve seen so many people not get their due, that I really doubt the articles point. That being said, it’s easier to position yourself well in an organisation if you’re genuinely nice to work with and being a go-to person obviously helps with that. Not only because of your knowledge and willingness to help, but also because people who have that last part are generally just more approachable. But unless you figure out a way to turn that into money, then I really double it’ll help you much in the modern job market. Quality of work doesn’t even really do a lot for people. I’ve worked with three people who did exactly the same job, and the one who produced the best quality work was paid 50% less than the two others because they were “bad at negotiating” pay… I’m sure their manager was happy about that, and it wasn’t even too dangerous as the person was simply “content” which was really a MBA way telling me the person was so uncomfortable with big life altering changes that they would likely work that job until retirement.
Shalle135 3y ago
I agree, whenever other senior / mid-level employees quit you’ll have to pickup the slack as it’s hard to find the right competences - specially at a discounted rate. Personally I did manage to get promoted, but not before giving notice.
coding123 3y ago
Until you ask for a counter offer.
mort96 3y ago
I think the headline is correct, but the content isn't. Becoming the go-to person for the people with more authority than you is great. Becoming the go-to person for some people at or below your seniority level won't. Being the "python expert" who all the juniors ask python questions of won't help you, but if you can be in a situation where you frequently (probably informally at first) discuss higher level things with people above you and they value your input, I think that's a good thing. Get them used to the idea that they can go to you for input on important higher level things.
- light_hue_1 3y ago
  Not in my experience. Then you become an invaluable resource that those above you need to get things done. Why would you ever give that up? That's a recipe for being stuck forever.
  - mort96 3y ago
    That's the thing, you're not discussing your job responsibilities but higher level things. And not with your technical manager, but at least the person above them.
- ivanmontillam 3y ago
  I think the article misses the point on the whole spectrum soft skills really are. Becoming a technical domain expert doesn't automatically make you helpful to others. You might not have the ability to communicate knowledge, or the ability to foresee how being helpful is ley to moving ahead the corporate chess board. There are unspoken rules of corporate ladder advancement, which are not discussed in OP's article.
nimbius 3y ago
100% agree. "promoted" to management happens under two conditions: - ladder climbers: people who drift from shop to shop or team to team in search of the next promotion. Theyre on your team just long enough to get real visible with the boss and then theyre gone. they make terrible leadership decisions because the only thing they have to offer is charisma and feel-good meetings. - walking wrecking-balls: people who complete about 30-45% of a project and cant communicate what theyre doing or the outcomes from their actions. they are unaccountable even to their peers, they walk away from hard tasks or challenges and if something fails they make up excuses before anyone can walk back the root cause to something they did. these get promoted to get them out of the teams way or they spread like a cancer to some other team thats never heard their name before. these people care about having an office, but nod through meetings like a supreme court justice. their direct reports will never encounter them. this is a quarantine promotion.
op00to 3y ago
I noticed this happening in my current role and I am managing what I agree to more to make sure it’s something that clearly aligns with things that will get me promoted.
rubyfan 3y ago
Right, generally the people who benefit from the expert enjoy mobility. I think being known for learning quickly and making good decisions under pressure is what gets you promoted. At senior levels not being an asshole is also a prerequisite.

packetlost 3y ago

Always saying yes to "go-to person" like asks is a great way to never get anything done and never let anyone else become the "go-to person" for a particular topic. So yeah, if you don't manage it right it can cause issues, but IME being the go-to person is only half of the game: offloading your responsibilities is the other half.

immawizard 3y ago

In my experience “Go to person” in a mature product has 2 stages: (1) person who performs somewhat repetitive jobs (2) person who is trusted to own projects in a given area Being able to get rid of (1), either through automation or delegation, allows you to go to (2). If you’re stuck on (1) for too long, it’s better to leave.

wredue 3y ago

This is also my experience. Being a go-to person led to 5 separate instances where a clearly underqualified person was promoted above me, with the company outright stating that I’m too valuable where I am (but also when I asked for more money, I wasn’t THAT valuable). Then when I left they replaced me with 4 people cause losing a decade of deep dive rather than topical knowledge hurts. Had they promoted me, I could have just trained a new person.

ponector 3y ago
If they could continue without your knowledge, but with more people - maybe your knowledge was not as valuable as you think? Also they greatly reduced bus factor. Looks like a win for the manager.
mhss 3y ago
You do what you gotta do. The only way to learn really how valuable (in a capitalist sense) you are is by getting offers (ideally multiple) elsewhere. I accepted a counter offer once and stayed 2 more years. Ultimately I left for the same reasons, I was hitting a ceiling and they were not budging. I increased my comp 50% and reduced my responsibilities another 50% with the next move.

sanitycheck 3y ago

Yep, definitely. I've known several people who never got promoted because their bosses knew they'd have to hire 2-3 people to replace them, and there was no budget for extra people. Of course they did all quit eventually, and I assume the budget for the extra staff was found somehow - albeit too late to keep their expert.

kingTug 3y ago

Yeah, in my experience developers who go above and beyond (especially in agile sweatshops) are generally rewarded with more responsibilities and the compensation never scales. Promoting these types into new roles is costly bc they can't really be replaced.

ip26 3y ago

A key distinction may be what you become the go-to for. Go-to for correctly operating a dated tool deep in the bowels of the machine? Cog. Go-to for all questions related to the machine, its history, future, and all machines like it? Not cog. Boiling it down, is your recognized expertise high or low in scope?

peteradio 3y ago
> Go-to for correctly operating a dated tool deep in the bowels of the machine? Cog. > Go-to for all questions related to the machine, its history, future, and all machines like it? Not cog. The difference between these two is the people you work with. If people come to you to have their questions answered but can't execute on it properly then... you become #1. Of course this can be twisted around to theoretically be a you problem or it could be an endless churn of warm bodies coming through hiring.
- kdmccormick 3y ago
  I think there is a certain skill in being a go-to person in such a way you regularly unblock other people, but also respect your own time and ambitions. Are you constantly being asked how a system works? Take some time to document it, and then answer future questions by just linking to those docs. It's harder up front, but saves you time in the long run, and also mean that come performance review time you can say "I wrote this documentation <link>!" instead of having to vaguely claim that you definitely answered a lot of questions for a lot of people. Of course, some companies don't respect that sort of work. I would struggle to be happy at those places.
cpeterso 3y ago
Sounds like the lesson is to be a go-to person (for knowledge, not doing work for others) but don’t be irreplaceable. Seek to train others so you can scale your influence and you can be promoted without leaving a team or system in a bad place.
- arcticbull 3y ago

kec 3y ago

Becoming the go-to person in a given area or process will quickly get you to "senior" which is what the article is talking about. It is easy to get stuck at this level as you say but the trick still works to get to staff the flavor just changes a bit, you have to be more of a generalist.

BobbyTables2 3y ago

[dead]

draw_down 3y ago

[dead]

znpy 3y ago

I've been there and I know it's true. However, becoming an expert on something is still valuable as long as that something has value outside the company (ie: you can advertise that kind of expertise in an interview). So becoming an expert in something is valuable and if you realize you've become the "load-bearing employee that never gets promoted or otherwise has company mobility" then it's strong signal that you need to start replying to recruiters.

RyanOD 3y ago

Agreed. Most of those I see promoted have been those who have limited practical skills, but are very good at networking, coordinating, and delegating. They are the go-to person for managing projects, but not doing any of the lower level work. Just my experience.

devjab 3y ago

I work in an organisation that has a list of essential people and I happen to work close with one of them. The entire 300 people company would seriously cease to exist if this person found a new job, got sick or whatever can happen. In my 20 years of working as a software developer and manager, I’ve never before witnessed someone who wasn’t replaceable. As you’re taught in MBA, “anyone is replaceable it’s just a matter of cost”, but that just doesn’t apply to this person because of how much operational knowledge they have. Both about the businesses, the finances and also the technical aspects. This person doesn’t make much more money than I do as a software developer. Which isn’t bad, but also nowhere near their value. They’ve also been sort of shifted around the organisation because nobody really know where to place them as they are essential to everyone. No effort is being done to document or train anyone in case they leave. This is obviously anecdotal, but this sorry isn’t atypical from my experience. People aren’t credited (or promoted) unless they ask and work for it. My own strategy was sort of silly, I let my bosses know how much more money I could make if I took up one of the offers I get (there is a severe lack of developers in my area or the world), and well, it worked well enough to get me good raises and into management before I decided I didn’t want to be a manager at all. I’ve cruised by people who sacrificed themselves way more than I’ve ever done, simply by playing the social and political aspects of working, and I’ve seen so many people not get their due, that I really doubt the articles point. That being said, it’s easier to position yourself well in an organisation if you’re genuinely nice to work with and being a go-to person obviously helps with that. Not only because of your knowledge and willingness to help, but also because people who have that last part are generally just more approachable. But unless you figure out a way to turn that into money, then I really double it’ll help you much in the modern job market. Quality of work doesn’t even really do a lot for people. I’ve worked with three people who did exactly the same job, and the one who produced the best quality work was paid 50% less than the two others because they were “bad at negotiating” pay… I’m sure their manager was happy about that, and it wasn’t even too dangerous as the person was simply “content” which was really a MBA way telling me the person was so uncomfortable with big life altering changes that they would likely work that job until retirement.

Shalle135 3y ago

I agree, whenever other senior / mid-level employees quit you’ll have to pickup the slack as it’s hard to find the right competences - specially at a discounted rate. Personally I did manage to get promoted, but not before giving notice.

coding123 3y ago

Until you ask for a counter offer.

mort96 3y ago

I think the headline is correct, but the content isn't. Becoming the go-to person for the people with more authority than you is great. Becoming the go-to person for some people at or below your seniority level won't. Being the "python expert" who all the juniors ask python questions of won't help you, but if you can be in a situation where you frequently (probably informally at first) discuss higher level things with people above you and they value your input, I think that's a good thing. Get them used to the idea that they can go to you for input on important higher level things.

light_hue_1 3y ago
Not in my experience. Then you become an invaluable resource that those above you need to get things done. Why would you ever give that up? That's a recipe for being stuck forever.
- mort96 3y ago
  That's the thing, you're not discussing your job responsibilities but higher level things. And not with your technical manager, but at least the person above them.
ivanmontillam 3y ago
I think the article misses the point on the whole spectrum soft skills really are. Becoming a technical domain expert doesn't automatically make you helpful to others. You might not have the ability to communicate knowledge, or the ability to foresee how being helpful is ley to moving ahead the corporate chess board. There are unspoken rules of corporate ladder advancement, which are not discussed in OP's article.

nimbius 3y ago

100% agree. "promoted" to management happens under two conditions: - ladder climbers: people who drift from shop to shop or team to team in search of the next promotion. Theyre on your team just long enough to get real visible with the boss and then theyre gone. they make terrible leadership decisions because the only thing they have to offer is charisma and feel-good meetings. - walking wrecking-balls: people who complete about 30-45% of a project and cant communicate what theyre doing or the outcomes from their actions. they are unaccountable even to their peers, they walk away from hard tasks or challenges and if something fails they make up excuses before anyone can walk back the root cause to something they did. these get promoted to get them out of the teams way or they spread like a cancer to some other team thats never heard their name before. these people care about having an office, but nod through meetings like a supreme court justice. their direct reports will never encounter them. this is a quarantine promotion.

op00to 3y ago

I noticed this happening in my current role and I am managing what I agree to more to make sure it’s something that clearly aligns with things that will get me promoted.

rubyfan 3y ago

Right, generally the people who benefit from the expert enjoy mobility. I think being known for learning quickly and making good decisions under pressure is what gets you promoted. At senior levels not being an asshole is also a prerequisite.