[noisy_boy]

Sometimes its just about the mindshare. The HR person chatting with the VP: "You know that new girl, what's her name, yeah Julie, she setup a nice onboarding guide, yeah I liked it, very useful..."; casual stuff like that adds the layers of impressions that construct how everyone sees you. And I have observed those impressions to be more lasting and impactful than your last code review.

[rmk]

Meh... Ultimately it has to result in something meaningful; without that, it's just thankless work. Many places (particularly growing companies) have managers who simply do not know how to evaluate technical work (which should be the biggest determinant of monetary or career development rewards). SV has very good technical people (i.e., the foot soldiers are very motivated and above-average people), but the managers are very mediocre at best, way below average or actively malicious at worst (compared to many other industries). It's a curious dichotomy, and I often wonder why it's the case. One reason, that I have seen many times, is that during times of hypergrowth, whoever is just there gets slotted into managerial positions with scarcely any thought given to their managerial ability or skills. This happens less in larger companies, but there, there is a lot of infighting and politics that thwarts good management, not actual incompetence.

[noisy_boy]

I generally agree with you and that kind of solidifies my point. Those mediocre managers won't be as impressed by the milliseconds you shaved off in your clever commit compared to the shiny CRUD front-end or nice checklist or anything else that they can actually understand and relate to. And they are the ones in charge of the comp.