This past week I’ve heard the same sad story over and over again…
People who reached out to tell me that they had been heads down, put in long hours, took personal time to learn a new skill, and then sat back and hoped all the efforts would impress their teammates and bosses.
They didn’t.
They got passed up for the promotion they had been coveting.
I get it, because I’ve been there too…
I once spent 3+ years in a job. During that time I too was heads down and hard at work. But despite all my efforts I never received a promotion. Meanwhile all the people who joined after me got promoted!
I finally realized that putting in more hours and working harder wasn’t going to help. There was only one thing left to do: speak up and showcase the work I had done.
I learned how to promote myself.
I know what you’re thinking, “Ew self-promotion is slimy… It’s what politicians do!”
Yes it’s true, but that’s one style of self-promotion.
Or maybe you’re thinking, “ZOMG that sounds scary, I’m not an expert. I’ve only been coding for 2 weeks, 2 months, or 2 decades.” Or, “I’m new to a role… Who would want to hear from me?”
And maybe you took the plunge but it didn’t work out, “Ugh Poornima I’ve tried that, and it just falls on deaf ears!”
Yup there are definitely people who just don’t care, and no matter how often or loud you speak it seems like they aren’t listening.
I’ve personally experienced all of this, and decided to try a different approach…
Bus Factor
I started by sharing my work inside my company. To kickoff the talk I’d begin by providing some motivation as to why people should listen and how it would help them.
Since I was on a small team I realized that if something happened to me, no one else would know the code base, and it would set them back. You often hear of this as the bus factor. So I’d start each internal talk by merely saying, I want to share the work I’m doing to educate others, and spread the knowledge to avoid any hairy situations.
This got their attention, and once I had it, I then moved on to explain the impact of my work on the team, company, and to our customers.
When people understand the impact of your work, they naturally want to support you, because it makes them look good.
There are those who may want to undercut you, but it’s hard to do when you’ve assembled a group of decision makers, not just one!
Own Your Work
During my talks I’d give credit where credit was due, but I learned to say things like “This is the work I did.” And, “This was my contribution.” Followed by, “Here were the results of my work.”
Finally, I walked them through a step-by-step process for how they could come up to speed quickly.
Share It Internally and Externally
Often people will just share their work inside their own organization. That’s a great first step, especially if you are nervous. I decided to take it a step further. I shared everything I did (that wasn’t proprietary) with others.
And no I didn’t worry about being a so-called expert. I shared what I knew, and owned up to what I didn’t. Surprisingly no one called me out. They were just impressed that I had the chutzpah to speak as a junior engineer.
Can you guess what happened next?
People wanted to work for my company! Others wanted to hire me. But most importantly people started to see me as someone who was credible that they could learn from, and once that happened I didn’t think of self-promotion as being slimy, sleezy, or scary.
So I leave you with two choices:
Choice A: Stay heads down, and hope that someone will recognize your work, because you’re scared of speaking up and being called slimy or sleezy.
Choice B: Showcase the work you’ve done, how it benefits people, and teach others how they can do it too.
Let me know your choice in the comments below, and feel free to share additional strategies that have worked for you!
Did you enjoy this post and want more help improving your presentation skills? Then check out Karen Catlin’s and my new book: Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking
Great article!
I think one thing that I have come to understand about sharing what I’ve worked on with others is that even if I’m not an expert in anything, there are things that I go through to understand a problem that others can learn from, even if they are experts. Most of us have had times where we’ve gotten really stuck on something that seemed to make no sense for hours until we finally discovered the reason we were getting the confusing results, and a lot of times, that realization is something that many other people can benefit from. Often I will just post what I’ve learned on Stack Overflow or ExpertsExchange or something – if for no other reason, at least so that the next time it happens to me, Googling it will produce more helpful results! 🙂 And a few times, other people in my company find my posts on Google when they have the same problem – how’s that for organic self-promotion?? 😀
This is really helpful! As another junior engineer trying to gain traction in my career and gain professional credibility, this article really resonated with me. I’ve been debating whether or not I should (1) speak up and (2) seek external speaking opportunities. Thank you for the confirmation and being willing to share!
Thanks for sharing your awesome post about what I refer to as “the art of self-promotion.” I can’t wait to share this w/my community! I also thought you’d appreciate this quote attributed to Baltasar Gracian, which I have sprinkled throughout my website’s copy: “To excel and to know how to show it is to excel twice.”
Hi Sandy thanks for sharing that great quote, and sharing the post with your community! Do you have any additional strategies you’d be open to sharing?
That is wonderful to hear Thomas! Do you have a topic in mind that you’d like to speak on?
Thanks a lot Joe! You’re absolutely correct, sharing problems helps everyone learn. Do you find that you end up referencing your own posts when you forget? I know I do that 😀
Curious to know what your colleagues tell you after they come across one of your posts?
Thank you for sharing your platform, Poornima! I recommend starting a blog on LinkedIn and/or repurposing the posts from your own blog and publishing them there. It’s a great way for professionals to showcase their inspired thinking or savvy know-how. In fact, I just repurposed a post there on a similar topic titled: 4 Ways to Leverage LinkedIn When You Have News Worth Sharing. Here’s the 1st tip from it:
Create a version of an email you might send to close friends and colleagues that you can also use for the copy in your LinkedIn profile Summary section. I’d leave it up there for 30 days or so and then change the Summary back to a more traditional version of your professional story incorporating the new credential.
To read the rest of the post (don’t want to take up too much of your Comments section!): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-ways-leverage-linkedin-when-you-have-news-worth-jones-kaminski