[kexari]

Totally agree on the personality and grooming points you made. You need to be good at making people know exactly what you have achieved. Shout about it on slack, fire up google docs and write some brief documentation on a new feature you implemented. Others within the company won't be actively looking at your contributions. They will notice who stands out, who is taking initiative and touching base regularly. Unfortunately this trumps true programming talent in startups - EVEN if you are one of the gods.

[groby_b]

If you believe you're one of the gods, you're likely delusional. If you don't communicate well and hold that belief, you're certainly delusional.

Programming talent is useless if you can't communicate. Because your main job as a company grows is to grow the people around you, not cranking out more code. Communication overtakes pure coding skill the moment more than one person works on a project.

It's not about "trumping talent", it's about the fact that communication is part of the talents you need.

[sammydavis]

Also, ask for the new, interesting work, make designs, talk to others about your ideas - don't just show up with a complex multi week/month solution.

I've never understood why more people don't ask for the interesting, fun, challenging stuff. I've always done that, and been glad I did.

[walljm]

I agree. Its also worth noting that the need to publicise your work should not be taken so far that people perceive you as boastful. So there is a balance, but you definitely can't just be quiet all the time.