Career Cheat Code: Raise Awareness Where You Want To Go

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Hey folks, I'm just headed to CrossFit here. We're going to go to combination of experienced devs and um I guess like a conversation from the other day that I thought was super I don't know like insightful I guess. Um that was someone's reflection on their career. So sorry I just want to make this turn and this person's going the worst possible speed. Oh, ruined everything. Um, it's going to be the the Reddit um subject line, the title of the post in experienced devs is how to position myself like better my current company. Um, it's a really long post. I'm not going to lie. I didn't even read the post. So, I just thought the title was interesting and I think it really aligns with this topic that was brought up uh from someone's reflection on their career and the the thing that this person said

for the reflection for their career and I'm going to butcher it because it's early and I don't remember exactly it word for word but uh the meta point around it was like making it known the areas that you want to like go drive progress in. And what I mean by that or what this person meant by that was like in their career there were different points in time where they were like for for whatever reason like I'm really interested in going to solve problem X. Like I think that would be super interesting. Like that would be engaging. Might not might not even be a thing we're doing right now, but like that's what I want to go do. and making it known and they were saying that they had like many examples that were some of the most like impactful things in their career where it was the result of doing that.

So, um, one of the examples they were sharing, I won't go into the specifics, but they had basically, you know, looked around and said like what they want to focus on had to do with X. And they were like, we're just like they they're looking at what the team's doing and they're like, "We're not even involved in that." But like that's I think that would be interesting. I want to do that. There's good problems to solve there. And then they let their manager know. And their manager is like, "Cool." Like thanks. Like again, like thanks for the heads up. like no surprise we're not doing that right now, but like thank you. And then within I can't remember if it was like weeks or months, but it was like something came up and it was exactly that. And their manager was like, well, like I know exactly who I should, you know, put in front of solving that problem.

And um again, they had, you know, multiple examples of this from from their career where this let them make these like uh really big steps forward. And I thought that was interesting for a handful of reasons. Um, one of which is like especially as you're gaining experience kind of having I don't know what you would call it like it's not just intuition foresight but like just having this understanding of um of where there are gaps and opportunities. So the mix of being able to identify that in like the the space that you're interested in working alongside what truly your interests are, right? Because just as an example, maybe there's some really good opportunity for the business to go save money or make more money, but you're like, I have no I'm not personally interested in that. I think that would be super boring or whatever. Like, sure, it might still be a really good opportunity.

So, I'm not saying to rule that out. But when you can find the intersection of like, man, that sounds like a super interesting problem. I want to go do and you identify it as a gap um or opportunity in this case, then that's I think it's like a a multiplier like effect where the the kind of work that you'll do in that situation will be very good because you're engaged. Um but also you've identified something that's extremely impactful. And I'm not saying this is trivial to do. I'm not saying like, hey, like every idea you have for something you want to work on is going to be, you know, uh, the most amazing like cost savings or like profit increasing thing.

I'm just saying that like I I think that if you are thinking about the uh the business space that you're in and not like what's a better way to say this like uh not just putting your head down and taking the next ticket from the backlog like kind of kind of looking at things um more holistically kind of looking what problems are are existing in the space and where there's opportunities. I think if you can work towards some of that, um, you'll identify like, I don't know, uh, potentially some really cool things to work on. Now, this person that I'm referring to is not, uh, necessarily a software developer. So, to be fair, the mindset that they have in their career, in their role is probably a little bit different. It's not to say that like software developers don't have this mindset ever, but uh probably how they approach a lot of things is like kind of looking for uh for opportunities like that, you know, problems to solve.

Um but this is another reason why I think, you know, having skills just outside of like writing good code is is very valuable. So, um, so yeah, I think that was like one sort of major takeaway from that was like how do you how do you set yourself up to to have that kind of visibility? Um, and I think there's two parts to that. One is like understanding what you're interested in. That can take time, right? But if you only work in like one very narrow thing and you're like, I don't even know if I like this. Like probably worth trying some things out. And that can mean like working if you're on a team like working on different uh parts of the product, different parts of the service. If there's multiple products or services, can you get exposed to some others? That might mean uh working on different teams over time, right?

So you can find some things that you that you're like, "Wow, like this is actually like pretty pretty interesting for me." I think that's important from a reflection perspective. And then I think um what was the other part I wanted to say on that? Oh, it's early. Um yeah, I don't know. But I think the the next thing I wanted to segue into was um like again the importance of bringing this stuff up and like talking to your manager about it because uh I say a lot on this channel and we kind of have like a bit of a a running joke about level set expectations and stuff but that really comes down to just like if you're if you're in uh a working environment where you feel like you can't have a solid working relationship with your manager despite how much you're trying. That's probably ultimately going to be a very limiting position to be in and uh you know longterm probably not a good spot.

Um and that's because you're probably not being supported in a way that is going to help you grow. So again, I'm not saying like every working relationship with a manager is going to be perfect, but if you're like, "Hey, it doesn't feel like we can have conversations about career development." Um, and you are trying to improve that working relationship and despite your efforts, nothing's moving. Like it might it might just be the manager. um it might be your your communication style with your manager's communication style, but um ultimately when I look at this kind of stuff, if I think if I have teammates that came to me or sorry team members I would say like people that report to me, if they came to me and said, "Hey, like I'm really interested in this problem space and I'd like to go solve problems here." If

it's not something that we're actively pursuing either based on priorities or team scope, I'm not going to be like upset with them or be like, "Wow, like that's dumb." Like we don't even do that, man. Like that's absolutely not how I would look at that. For me, that's it's helpful information no matter what, right? If it's not something that it's in our scope or something that we can prioritize right now, cool. like at least at a minimum I know that this person has an interest in it. I know that I would want to talk to them about um like why they see that as an opportunity area or or maybe it's not right. Maybe they think that it is. We're talking through it. They have a misunderstanding, but they're still highlighting it's an interest. There's in my opinion there's only valuable information to gain from a conversation like that.

So, I would highly encourage direct reports to be able to like come talk to me about stuff like that, even if they're like, "I'm kind of on the fence cuz like I don't know, like I'm already tasked with this kind of work in this space, but like I really want to do this or I don't even think our team really does this, but I think that there's a cool opportunity." Um, why not? like I I would love to hear that kind of stuff because I think that there's only valuable information to be had. So, um, I I wanted to what's a good I don't have a success like a an obvious success story off the top of my head right now, but there's one that's potentially in the making and um there's someone I've worked with before that expressed interest in kind of doing some

other things and uh there's an opport like literally an opportunity came up uh like was presented to me not for me, but um for someone who would be a good fit. And it came up to me yesterday and someone said, "Hey, do you know someone that would be good for this?" And I said, "I actually do. Um I don't know if their mindset or perspective has changed cuz maybe it has. It's been a little while, but because we had had conversations about it and their interest before, I'm like, if nothing's changed, then I think this person would be great. So, I'm going to follow up and maybe we create an awesome opportunity for someone. And it's all because someone was willing to come talk to me about like in this case it wasn't even um you know here's an area that I think the company should invest in or whatever.

For them it was just expressing like where their interests are. And so I I think that there is going to be something cool that can come out of that. I'm hoping. So all that to say that um at least you know for my working relationship with this individual I think that we had a strong working relationship I think that they were very comfortable coming to me and talking to me about things trusted me respected me so that meant that they could have those conversations and that's why I think that going through you know a working rel building up a working relationship with your manager is incredibly important. Um, you know, I feel like I feel like right now, um, like if I were to think about my working relationship with my manager, uh, I'm especially after being on this team for about a year and a half now, uh, def I'm definitely getting a lot more comfortable with like proposing things.

It's taken quite some time because there's uh Oh my god, this guy. You got to stay in your lane, buddy. Uh it's all over the place. Um especially just because of some of the stuff that's been uh focus areas for the whole team. uh since I've been on the team, there's been in some situations I've been kind of forced to go learn about the broader team, even beyond the three primary areas I'm responsible for, which has been good. Um, but in some cases that means I can't go as deep on the areas that I own, if that makes sense. So, not a complaint of mine by any means. Learning about the greater system in more detail is super helpful, but that also means less time for me to go uh focus a lot more on my areas. So, now that I'm personally feeling like for the areas I own, like I'm I'm feeling a lot more confident.

Um that kind of thing. I feel like if I wanted to talk to my manager and say, "Hey, like, you know, this is an area that I own and I really think that we should uh start driving like in this direction kind of thing." Um, I I strongly Sorry, I'm just switching lanes here and trying to look forward and back at the same time and not hit my wife who's driving my other car. um and my wife's in it. But um I I think that he would be very supportive, right? Like I think that even if he was like on the surface didn't agree with it, if he was like, "Oh, like that's not something I would have thought of.

Uh you know, I don't know how that seems relevant." I I feel like he would still very much be willing to listen to me, talk through it, and genuinely if that was something that didn't make sense right now, if he was like, "Hey, like that opportunity is coming up, I very much feel like he would support me and saying like maybe we should go do this now." Um, and again, that's taken work on his part so that I trust and respect him, right? It's um it's one thing to carry the title. It's one thing to have the the role where like inherently because he's my manager like I should trust and respect him. But but he's also proven that right like he had to work at that not he had to work at that not because like I'm being stubborn but I mean like literally to demonstrate that he is someone to trust and respect and he has done that over and over again.

So I do trust and respect him and then it takes work on my part so that I can show him that I am an accountable person that he should be able to have respect for me that he can trust me to carry out things that I say I'm going to do. Um that takes time and effort from both sides but now that that's done or you know has been worked on up to a certain point we have a solid working relationship for this kind of thing. So yeah, I feel like in my current position, my current role and my current, you know, working relationships that Oh my goodness, this person. No, you can't do that. Sorry. This person's in the left turn lane. Absolute idiot in the left turn lane and then like in the last second they put their right signal on. So we're all like h just some people man commit like you've already done it just make the turn you can turn around you're not the center of the universe.

Um anyway, all that to say that because of that uh you know current setup for me I feel very supported that I can propose ideas uh that I am personally interested in and would be like you know eager to solve those challenges. So to give you an example u I don't know if I can do that going into details. Anyway, I I operate the firewall for Office 365 and um there's, you know, from doing that for a year and a half now, there's a couple of uh scenarios where I'm like, "Hey, I see this as an opportunity or I think that this would be good for like our security posture. No one has like come to me and said, "Hey, you better go do that." Like it's not just a thing in the backlog. But now I feel very comfortable being like, "Hey, I want to go make a proposal for this.

Like I want to I want to go solve this problem. I think it's helpful. I'm going to go talk to my manager and my skip level and say this is an initiative I want to drive." And um again like it feels it's empowering when you have built up the working relationship to have or feel like you will have the support. So, um I think you know I've been talking a lot about what this person said when they were reflecting on their career, but to bring it back to this Reddit title, they were saying like, "How do I how do I get ahead?" And I I honestly think it's like if you're able to, you know, complete with high quality the work that is being assigned to you, right? And this is going to change at different levels, right? Like I wouldn't necessarily expect this from someone who's very junior.

Uh but if you're very junior, I say like you know you're getting through the work that's assigned to you and uh demonstrating that you have more and more independence um able to solve more and more ambiguous problems. I think that's like natural progression. But at some point what I think is really helpful is that you are thinking outside of the box. you are able to identify the opportunity areas um I think between that and then expressing the areas that you're very interested and engage with will keep you ideally um able to operate on stuff that is highly motivating for you and that way oh this is still that's so weird sorry the light turned red except it's it's still I could turn left But all the oncoming traffic was coming. So I don't know why our light turned red. But anyway, you can't see that. Yeah.

Um it's uh it's the cross-section, right, of hey, are there opportunity areas that are like of high value and um things that I'm interested in? Because I think if you can get those doubled up, you get high impact work that you're going to do an awesome job on. Oh, and there's no parking spots. My god. Okay. Well, we're parking over here. Am I even in a spot? Yeah. Cool. Thanks for watching. Um, if you want questions answered, leave them below in the comments. Uh, otherwise you can go to code.com and submit a a question anonymously. And I have other YouTube channels. So if you want car.net and AI programming tutorials, head on over to Devleer. If you want your resume reviewed or you'd like to learn about how to write a better resume, go to Devleer Path to Tech. And finally, the Devleer podcast is my other channel where I interview other software engineers so you can see about their career journeys.

And there's a live stream every Monday 700 pm Pacific. So I would love to see you there. It's topics from code commute generally and then it's an AMA format. So you can hang out with me in the chat and we can talk. So I will hopefully see you there. See you next time.