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by wiseowise
6 hours ago
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> I also believe that being too helpful leaves you vulnerable to predators. Tech companies are full of people who want to extract uncompensated work from software engineers4. This is different from work that arrives via normal channels, and for which you’re compensated by promotions, bonuses (and just your normal salary). I’m talking about work that arrives via backchannels, from people who don’t have the ability or willingness to ensure that work is formally recorded under your name. For instance, a product manager from another organization messaging you to say “you’re so good at querying data, would you mind pulling some statistics for me about X?”, or an engineer from another team asking you to “pair” on a piece of work that will ultimately involve you writing all the code and them quietly submitting the change under their own name. Put this in a frame. |
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Where I work the title "Principal Engineer" is a coveted, well compensated, and rarely achieved. Those I've worked with are all highly effective and personable, but I interviewed one about how he achieved the title at his previous company.
His strategy had been to help people and actively give away the credit. In 1 on 1s or in meetings with multiple layers of managers, he would consistently emphasized the value of his other team mate's work. This ingratiated him with his team; years later, when a high dollar project was behind schedule and several key engineers had quit, he carried the project to victory with some late nights, and was awarded the title+raise at his next review. While the key project pushed him over the edge, he wasn't the only engineer there working late nights. He credits his promotion to the goodwill he'd built during his tenure by actively giving others credit.