Growth at BigTech

Growth at my time at BigTech meant several things to me:

• Become the person everyone in my working radius knows.
• Be responsible for a good chunk of work, and in turn get promoted for it.
• Learn how a big org works, and learn to be effective in them.
• Eventually be in the room that leaders make decisions.

Based on these metrics for growth, here's what I learned you need: Visibility. Visibility Visibility.

Assuming you're already a top tier engineer, a team lead, and a go-to person in your project, here's how you get visibility:

• Be where leaders are.
  Don't try to play the ladder game from a remote office. It's futile. It's like trying to climb an extra greasy ladder. You will eventually get up there, but no one will recognize nor reward you for having climbed the greasy variant.
  
  
• Look where leaders are looking.
  Don't work on things you think are important.
  Don't work on things your users think are important.
  Work on things leadership thinks are important.
  
  The analogy one of my managers once gave me is: "Everywhere I look, there's a pile of shit waiting to be cleaned. So if I've got my torch light pointed somewhere, come looking with me".
  
  
• Sound the alarm bells, often.
  Create a problem, become the hero. If you think there's an important thing that needs to be solved, DON'T do it silently. Make it a priority. Get leadership on board.
  And only then come in and save the day.
  
  
• Perception.
  It isn't your work - it's the perception of your work that's important.
  
  
• Work with as many people as possible.
  The more people support you, the higher your chances that you're able to pull your weight in getting things done.
  
  
• Have a highly capable manager, who is great at representing you.
  This means they understand what you do thoroughly, and they're a great salesperson. Your manager represents you during promotion committee rounds where they convince others why you have to get promoted. If your manager isn't a great salesperson, you have to make sure others know you. 

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I learnt these things the hard way. Getting promoted at BigTech is one of those areas in life that isn't based on merit.
Hard work ≠ reward.
The "smart work" that actually gets you promoted isn’t about pushing your project forward; it’s about pushing yourself forward.