How to Get Promoted

axetheone · Oct 5, 2020

Quite enjoyed this post and the one in https://defmacro.substack.com/p/how-to-get-promoted (HN thread on it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24618707).

This post is definitely a breath of fresh air considering all the blog posts (and posts by engineering managers elsewhere) on having separate career tracks for technical and management work and on how they're equal but clearly the perks and rewards are more biased towards one of those.

gofreddygo · May 13, 2021

Another post on promotion hacking ?

Top comment [1] from another good HN discussion [2] about this from late last year. Worth repeating

  Here's some of my learnings about getting promoted for those that really want to play that game:

  - Only the perception of your work matters
  - Attend the social events and get in good with the bosses
  - The countability of your major achievements is important. Make the list long, too long to hold in the mind
  - At the same time the gravitas of your best achievement is also important since that will be the soundbite that is shared about you behind your back
  - Get allies who can proselytize about you behind your back
  - Be the best. The difference between one and two is bigger than that between two and three, as far as promotions go
  - Take credit for your work (use pronouns I and Me when talking about your work, not We) and do not allow others to take credit for your work
  - If it's a teamwork situation with other people on your level, don't do most of the work, because the credit will end up being split 50/50 in the eyes of the bosses even if you did most of it
  - Make a very good first impression
  - Shape the narrative around the role you played in the success of the mission/team/company
  - Get the bosses to make a soft public commitment regarding your competence
  - Even if you have a really good boss, all of the above is still important, because they are fallible humans and aren't omniscient
  - Actually do good work, it'll make the above easier

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24622111

2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24618707