Career Notes #5: How To Get Promoted, Not - 22 March 2024

It appears to be common wisdom in the technology business that the way to get promoted is:

As one of my managers used to say:

If you want to get a promotion, you don’t need to complete 1,000 tasks; you need to figure out how to eliminate the need for the 1,000 tasks. 

This particular example of the common wisdom comes from the SeattleDataGuy via his newsletter on Substack.   

This is balderdash.  Naive, well intended, perhaps even a closely held belief, but balderdash.  Let us take a look at this in more detail.

If you hold a task-driven job, it may be the right path to eliminate those 1000 tasks on your way to promotion, but a task-driven job is pretty low on the totem pole, so this might get you promoted among the minnows and guppies but it will not help your career much.  Note that I am not saying that it is a  bad idea to eliminate tasks, but it is far from sufficient for promotion and it is not necessary.

If you do hold a mundane, task-bound job, then automating tasks is a good idea, but it becomes part of a promotion case when you share the automating scripts with your colleagues.  You  may get a bonus or an award if you automate your work, but a promotion will be tied to your ability to improve the group, not just yourself.  We can generalize this.

To get promoted, think about the responsibilities that your boss has and help solve them.  Making the group more productive is clearly a responsibility of your boss while your own productivity is your own responsibility -- therefore, creating and sharing improvements is the proper path forward.  Creating improvements is necessary but not sufficient.  You must also make sure that your boss (and collegues) know the source of the improvements is you.  This does not have to be a billboard or major production on a stage, but you do need to be sure that your contributions and solutions are tied to the improvements.  Think of it as "reporting the news".  

Reporting The News is a key concept.  Many people are concerned that they will be seen as braggards or that they will be confused with the people that steal the work of others.  Nope.  I am not suggesting braggadocio, but rather a simple news reporting function.  Put it in your status report (you do not write a status report?  start now!).  Announce the improvement at your next group meeting ("I have found a simpler/faster way to perform this task") and share it with your team.  Put it in the source tree for your project(s).  

To summarize, automate, eliminate, or streamline tasks that are measured by your organization, and report the news of your improvements to your boss and colleagues.  Do not just do 1000 things, even if they are important to you; study the larger picture.