[bgribble]

I ran face-first into this effect at a successful startup where I started as employee number 9.

When everyone can sit around one big table, you don't have to consciously polish your "brand" all the time -- most people have direct experience with you and base their opinions on that. You do good work and you will have a good reputation. If you have a conflict with someone who is a jackass or have a project that fails to launch, people know enough about the context to judge pretty fairly.

When there are hundreds of people on the engineering team, especially in a remote-heavy workforce, most people don't have direct experience with you and can only base their opinion of you on what they hear from others, i.e. your reputation. This goes for peers as much as leadership.

You have to be aware of how an org changes over time, and how things that were once not important are now essential skills for success.. and decide if any new essentials are skills that you are interested in developing.