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Question from a "Staff+" engineering/product IC/leader in startup-like companies... > [...] demonstrate their value by solving the hardest assigned problems. T

by neilv 24d ago

Question from a "Staff+" engineering/product IC/leader in startup-like companies... > [...] demonstrate their value by solving the hardest assigned problems. That can absolutely lead to promotion. But the projects that have made the biggest impression in my career were the ones where I found and solved an important problem my leaders did not yet realize existed. This is framed in big-corporate worker motivation terms: being valued by the company, getting promotions, boosting career. Is it generally possible to operate in big-corporate environments focused only actual success of the company and customers, and have all your needs (money, status, security, etc.) taken care of, without needing to think about them? Or is playing to big-corporate reward mechanisms -- such as hitting known metrics, getting on high-profile projects, doing role performances, and getting credit with the right people -- the closest that you'll get to alignment and contributing positively?

ip26 24d ago
It’s a cop out, but depends on the company and it’s somewhere in between. Even with success-of-the-company as your compass, other stuff always matters. Good work done invisibly can’t be rewarded. Working on the lowest-profile projects is often interchangeable with working on the least important projects to the company. And if you are building credit with the wrong people, maybe you aren’t working on the right problems. There’s obviously the dysfunctional form of all this, but it’s also rare that there’s one simple and obvious “do this thing and it’s best for the company and everyone will automatically understand what you did”