> - If it's a teamwork situation with other people on your level, don't do most of the work, because the credit will end up being split 50/50 in the eyes of the bosses even if you did most of it
These are truly awful pieces of advice, not just because they’re adversarial toward your team, but also because they undermine most or all of the good in the other points.
Doing good work includes supporting the people you work with, in fact sometimes that’s the most important part. And just from a basic psychology perspective, no one will want to speak well of you behind your back if you strategically refuse to speak well of them in their presence.
If you are not a team player who helps each other out and still manages to get promoted then that’s a problem to be in such an org.
What I’m talking about is that these two pieces of advice effectively include being a dick, and that being a dick undermines several of the others.
> You can be collaborative and still ensure your own work gets its due credit.
Of course. And you can ensure your work gets credit while crediting others, and while pulling additional weight to support others. I’m saying this from experience helping numerous teammates—especially mentees—advance their careers, and having been helped in my own career advancement by those same teammates because they were happy to share how I’d helped them. Even behind my back, per the list of advice.
I’m saying that there are plenty of ways to both advance your own career and champion/help your colleagues at the same time. And that treating those goals as a conflict is a great way to lose the conflict you create.
And that's precisely the point. Because that's the kind of behavior that helps you get ahead in many environments.
When you talk to the bosses in promotion mode, you dont say we or what does it even mean ? That you want them to pay a pizza to the team ?
No you feel you re not at the pay level you desire, you alone, while probably the rest of the team is, so you must show why paying you more will provide an advatage to the bosses, the team, maybe even the company.
If you re not in promotion mode, promote your good colleagues. Use their name, not the team name, if you want to accomplish anything.
Doing good work is entirely unimportant when discussing salary. What matters is who is doing the good work, precisely.
I’m... astonished by this response. Of course the team matters. What the heck do you think you’re “senior”ing? A calendar??
You’re demonstrating your ability to lead, mentor and support your team. That’s what it means to be whatever that next role is called.
This isn’t shark tank.
> Take credit for your work (use pronouns I and Me when talking about your work, not We)
This doesn't apply to everyone but having worked in Product and in a team lead and managerial capacity, I can't imagine this coming off well at all.
> do not allow others to take credit for your work
Of course that's dreadful, but there's a difference between a coworker taking credit and a manager taking credit. In some tech companies and many older-style companies (law firms I can say with certainty), the latter is super common and it may be bad for your career to protest too hard.
> If it's a teamwork situation with other people on your level, don't do most of the work, because the credit will end up being split 50/50 in the eyes of the bosses even if you did most of it
There are ways to privately and without placing blame make clear that you did most of the work in a way beneficial to your career. I can't imagine trying that hard to not do more than 50%.
The sauce to performing successfully is to add value and to communicate clearly - and to also do these two things outside your "box" (intentionally vague).
This stuff on the other hand seems completely disingenous.
Top comment [1] from another good HN discussion [2] about this from late last year. Worth repeating
1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=246221112: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24618707