I wonder if the same is true for other professions as well? Athletes must have to design their entire lives around a few minutes of competition. Surgeons need to train for years, and all that is evaluated is the patient outcome in the operating room. Lawyers need to train, study, and prepare, and only the court outcome matters.

Maybe this is an unfair parallel, but I cannot see why.

Very few lawyers, proportionally, ever enter a courtroom. The vast majority of "lawyer" work never sees a courtroom at all.

Maybe that is a fair comparison for IT as a profit center. If seems that wouldn't work so well for IT as a cost center.

My point is it absolutely does "count"; what your boss values is not what's best for your career. That's extremely short-term thinking.

I guess I've only ever had a job and never a career.