Why Promotion Hacks Are A Waste Of Your Time
Focus on becoming an engineer who operates at the new level, not on getting promoted.
You’re wasting time looking for promotion shortcuts.
It’s similar to entrepreneurs worried about gaming the tax system rather than growing their business. You’re spending time on beating a set of arbitrary rules rather than doing the hard work of leveling yourself up.
These hacks are short term wins at the expense of long term progress.
Your career is going to last 20 years or more. Do you really want to build a habit of taking shortcuts? Do you want to be continually racing to the next level?
Anyone promising to teach you how to go from new grad to senior engineer quickly is wasting your time. A roadmap might be useful. But it takes time to walk that path and develop yourself.
There’s nothing quick about developing your craft to earn a promotion.
Look at your career as a craft. Something you can spend your lifetime developing. Anytime you’re looking to do something quick, it implies you’re taking a shortcut.
Shortcuts are ways to avoid doing the work.
In my school athletic career, every coach would say, ‘you’re only cheating yourself’, if you took a shortcut during the drill. It’s the same thing here. You are cheating your long term development by focusing on quick tips to get promoted.
If you accept the journey ahead and stop trying to rush, you’ll build a strong foundation that will carry you further in the long run.
Peter Norvig’s Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years comes to mind here.
Focus on becoming what you want to be.
If you were promoted today - would you feel prepared for the new responsibilities? Are you already acting as this new role today?
If not, you need to close the gap.
Develop the skills, do the work, and “fake it til you make it” for the new role you want to have.
Twice in my career, my promotion was “delayed” because I was not ready. These were the right choices. I worked with my managers at the time to take on the work that would help me grow. And eventually, I developed the skills necessary to be promoted.
Getting promoted too soon is setting you up for failure in the long term.
Slow down and do the hard work of developing yourself.
A Caveat
How to work with your manager on getting a path to promotion is a valid topic that you should learn about. But this is a separate topic on tactics and doesn’t negate the core principal above of focusing on growth first.
I’m also assuming in this post that your company has a fair and unbiased promotion process. If that doesn’t seem to be the case, this is another discussion.
Best of luck on your journey.