| Create a paper trail. Crank out tickets. Document everything. Hit the numbers. No. Add value. It's not your job to quantify it. It's not your job to create an understanding of what you do. If your organization or your manager specifically does not recognize your contributions, be happy to move on. If you get feedback that says "we recognize your value, but we really need x" that's reprioritization. Respond appropriately. If documenting your value in that way prevents you from actually being valuable, be vocal about it. If it's just a pain and you can still do your job, then suck up the pain like everybody else. I've been in large engineering organizations. They want to quantify everyones value so that there's "fairness". BS. There is no large scale way to determine of a software engineer is good at his job or productive. Yes, some people have more opportunities to affect the bottom line than others. Yes, some people have easily quantifiable work. That's how the world works. Have they figured out a way to recognize and effectively incentivize good teachers? Not in my 51 years. Have they figured out a way to recognize and effectively incentivize good CEOs? Nope. What makes you think that we should be that easy to stack together and figure out? I'm senior. I'm experienced. I'm valuable. I'm not always right, and I am not always valuable. In the end, I've had a good and healthy career focusing on the things I'm good at and the things I care about while letting other people figure out if I'm worth what I cost to keep around. Some of those people made good decisions and some bad ones. I still moved forward and my kids have always had food on the table. I say that's enough. |