The L-word
Outside of work: I've been sorta kinda active in the community wherever I have been (school, college, local community).
Nothing tremendously impressive (like executive-director-of-a-non-profit)
but demonstrable and consistent with my interests in general.
BUT...
I have exhibited *no* signs whatsoever of leadership potential at work!
mainly because well..err..how do you put it..umm..i have been..what do you call that..uhhn..
GOOFING OFF!
1. No raise or promotion in the past 3 years.
2. Not seen as anything more than a lowly and asocial *wince* software engineer.
3. Hardly any social capital at work.
*dark clouds of depression brooding around these brutal facts*
So what can I possibly do now to rebuild my professional self?
and more disconcertingly, why is there such a disconnect between my work-self and the other-self, in performance and personality.
Does this mean I can't really succeed at things-that-really-matter?
posted by yukta at 1/13/2005 12:30:00 PM
2 Comments:
Honestly, I think its hard to *shine* as a Software Engineer ... like I can either 1) Write perfect code, that does the same as my co-worker's piece of shit, or 2) Write as much code and implement as many new features as I possibly can (with disregard to coding standards and style). Either way, I'm not really going to get noticed ... at least not in a good way!
That's why I pushed really hard on other things. I wrote a lot of internal and external documents. I also volunteered to go on buiness trips and handle support calls. My first year at work, I was in at 7:30 till 8:30, doing all the work that no one else wanted. I think it was these extra things that I did that caught the attention of upper management.
End result? Two raises in two years; one promotion to Consultant, the youngest at my company; pioneering a new Engineer/Consultant role while training others to do the same.
CalGrad: How savvy!
I wish I had the sense to do something about my career earlier. :(
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