How To Get Promoted — Part 1

I always thought that working hard would be good enough. I figured if I worked hard enough, someone would notice and it would get me places.

When I was a mid-level software engineer several years ago, I did just that. One day, I decided that I wanted to get promoted and be a manager or something. I wasn’t sure what exactly, but I wanted it.

So I worked hard —really hard. I became obsessed with being good at my job and I spent my off hours reading books and other people’s code, pouring through and memorizing the system, and rewriting the software on my own time to make it better.

I sacrificed time with friends and even during the rare times I was around them, thoughts were racing through my head about work and I wasn’t really present.

Even though I was one of the newest people on the team, I quickly became the go-to person whenever people had questions on how to do something. I was a walking encyclopedia — there was no way I wasn’t going to get noticed.

I can’t remember the exact timeline but let’s just say an arbitrary amount of time later, another person got hired. I immediately took a liking to him. He had a great work ethic like me, he cared about his craft like me, and mannnn the guy could code. He was my peer. Peas and carrots, him and I. We were the encyclopedic duo.

A few months later, our manager had an announcement. He announced that the new guy who got hired much later after me was going to become the Development Manager. At first, my heart sank. Later on, anger set in.

Eventually, I decided that I was going to leave. I also had other reasons for leaving at the time, but one of them was definitely the fact that I got passed up for the promotion. During the exit interview with my manager, I asked him “What happened? How did I not get promoted?”

He paused for a moment and looked really, really confused. He responded back “What? Allan, did you ever tell me you wanted to become a manager?”

I said “Well, no… I thought it was really obvious? I worked my butt off.”

And he said something that I would remember and take with me. He said “Allan, do your next manager a favor and let them know what you want. People don’t have time to be mind readers.”

After that conversation, it didn’t exactly all sink in right away. I spent a little too much time fuming about the situation. But after the emotions subsided, clarity followed.

I reflected back and finally admitted to myself… you know now that I think about it, the guy did a lot of things better than me. It wasn’t about being good at the tasks and it wasn’t about work ethic. He knew other things that I didn’t. He knew about subtle concepts that at the time I didn’t know I needed to know, much less pay attention to.

It’s possible he didn’t consciously know everything he was doing right. But he definitely did things that I didn’t. I told myself I was going to figure it out.

That’s when I realized that working hard is not enough.

>>> Next up in Part 2 is Decision Makers, Advisors, and Being Well-Liked