Career steroids
A lot of books, films, articles and even songs are devoted to building a career. I read many of them - wonderful works. But ... Some are too correct, or something.
In the works of a lighter genre - for example, in songs and films - it is said about building a career much more prosaic, often with humor and irony. From what comes to mind right away, I’ll name two songs - the “Manager” of the Leningrad group and, sorry for the idiom, “Booty” of the Gaza Strip (the song is really called that),
But, as it should be for the light genre, there are no systematic, complete, and life examples in them. Beautiful, funny - yes. But using the tips from the songs will not work. At least I didn’t have to repeat the story in the Gaza Strip above. But to see how his colleagues repeat - as much as they like.
Now let me give up: I am a careerist researcher. Not at all in life, but in the context of a career - this is so. As befits a software engineer to the bone, I don’t like to do what I don’t understand. Therefore, as soon as I got a job, besides my main duties, I began to delve into, explore, observe and experiment with a career.
The statistics is as follows. Experience reasonable work - 13 years. I worked in 5 companies, 14 people were my superiors at various times (not counting temporary project managers), 11 of them were directors, and 3 were owners. The management positions I held during this time: technical project manager, project manager, quality director (this is the most incomprehensible, including me), head of the IT department, IT director, the inexplicable third person role in the company, Head of the company's strategic development.
Just a programmer, i.e. In the “no career” mode, I was ~ 3 years old, i.e. about a quarter of their experience. Those who think "fu, yes, you are a manager," I will say right away that whatever position I hold, I never stopped programming. Including, I continue to do this now.
There is one important point. It might have seemed to you that I spent three years as a programmer, then climbed the career ladder, and I have been dragging along it for ten years. This is not true.
As mentioned above, I am a career researcher. I had several controlled, conscious, prepared promotions. And, as is customary in any decent study, I had several controlled, conscious, prepared slides. The last fall was a year ago - I left a warm, familiar place where I was a CIO, into a completely different area for myself - I started programming in js.
So, these career slides continued throughout the entire period of my work. For example, after a serious career takeoff in the first company, I consciously and purposefully looked for a “quiet” place for myself - some factory, away from the city center, and in order to do only programming. I didn’t want to think about a career at all, and I deliberately didn’t apply any knowledge about how to get up in office. It was the same during the transition from the third company to the fourth - from the head of the IT department I became a programmer.
All this time I have been closely watching and analyzing what is happening around. Not only his career, but also those around him - who goes up, who stands still, and who slides down. I eventually began to set career experiments not only on myself, but also on those around me.
I put direct experiments on my subordinates - this is when you come up with a plan, explain it to a person, he fulfills and gets a career takeoff.
I put indirect experiments on parallel and higher leaders. This is somewhat more complicated, because the plan and actions cannot be told; ideas need to be implanted into the head gradually, sometimes with help, suggesting a decision or accents at the right moment. And a person's career begins to take off.
There were also reverse experiments, which for me personally were also of tremendous interest. The reverse is when there is a person who wants to make a career, but is a complete ram (in the sense of a die-hard) or a clever man (“I myself know how to”), you give him advice, he consciously does not follow (because the ram) and his career either stays in place or slides down.
For example, I had a subordinate system administrator who desperately wanted to get more money and take up a position higher. All the opportunities he had for this were - and his head was bright, and hard work - you started to rock up, and the motivations were above the roof, but he was a classic ram and a clever man. One, however, I still do not understand - why did he ask my advice all the time if he acted anyway in his own way? What do you think about his career? Nothing. He is still a system administrator for more than ten years. And still madly wants more money and a higher position.
Well, now you know everything about me. It's time to get down to business.
During the years of my own riding on a roller coaster, observing my colleagues, experiments, research, trial and error, I collected, systematized and analyzed a large amount of information about career building. It turned out a few dozen tricks, lifehacks, strategies, practices. I call them career steroids.
Why "steroids"? Because they are on the verge. Right and wrong, permissible and indecent, useful and harmful for the company, ethical and immoral. As I mentioned above, I didn’t have to “lick up my butt,” so I won’t talk about methods “beyond the limits” - I haven’t tried them.
I will tell only about what I have tried or seen myself, personally, with my own eyes. Each steroid will try to follow with an example from life, so that you do not have the impression that I am operating on theoretical concepts taken from books.
Yes, information is for theoretical study only. I, of course, do not bear any responsibility for the benefits or harm that you may receive, and probably will get if you apply some of their proposed methods.
Also, I do not expect gratitude from you. Not because I don’t care about you or I think too much about myself. Not. I just know for sure that there will be no thanks, all for the same reason: I am a careerist researcher.
Earlier, when I understood the first principles of career growth, and began to share them with others, some colleagues tried to put them into practice. Some succeeded, and I, as a real programmer, that is, the creator, creator and artist, waited for recognition. You used my methods, didn't you? - I thought. - You did it? Well, tell me that I am well done, understood everything and told you correctly, thank me!
But, since career steroids are on the verge, people do not like to advertise their use. Just as athletes hide the use of prohibited and “almost allowed” drugs, or people in the pharmacy wait until there is one left to buy medicine for hemorrhoids or lice, careerists do not like to admit that they used some special methods. Everyone wants to look white and fluffy, and tell beautiful legends about how they “just did their job well”, noticed them, promoted them and now set an example for everyone.
Admitting to a conscious career building is like saying “I pick my nose and smear shrimp anywhere.” Everyone knows that everyone picks their nose. But no one talks about it. Therefore, I do not expect from you and, of course, do not demand gratitude and recognition. I got rid of this disease.
I will answer questions with pleasure. And I will not tell anyone that you asked them.
And further. To build or not to build a career is not good and bad. It is just a choice. You should not treat badly people who have chosen this path. Also, do not extol those who have decided to “just work well”.
I will not say that both ways deserve respect - everything is purely individual, and depends on your system of values. You want to respect a person who decided to work as a system administrator all his life - for God's sake. I will not condemn or support you. Have you decided that the best people in the world are those who have become a big boss? For God's sake!
Who to respect, what to strive for, what is considered important, and what is harmful is your own business. The values of other people are also a personal matter, not only mine or yours, but these people themselves. Let everyone decide for himself, and we, being people adequate, will not hang tags and cut templates.
Yes. I do not pretend to the highest truth and the full disclosure of the topic, only personal experience.
Separately, I will appeal to those who believe that “you just have to do your job well”. I will say this: Good luck! This is not irony, but a sincere message. I honestly envy those who know how to build a “clean” career, without the use of steroids. I can not do that. If I learn, I will share my experience.
Well, they drove.
First and foremost, a career is not built by itself. Let us leave aside the beautiful stories about how Vasya worked well, handed over everything in time, did not make mistakes and eventually became someone else. Why leave aside?
Because I tried it. There were even certain changes - for example, I was paid a salary. But here it is worth making a reservation - not because I worked well, but because I understood how the company works.
It was a company engaged in the implementation of 1C - my first real job. The income there consisted of two components - the salary and the transaction. If you override a salary with a deal, you get a deal. If there was no work, or the client did not sign acts, you get a salary.
Salary depended on formal competencies - the presence of certificates "1C: Specialist". In order to receive them, it was necessary to pass an exam to a teacher from Moscow - to solve a programming problem, and to tell something about the methodological part. What is nice - the hourly rate that a person received on the transaction still depended on the formal qualification.
So, having lit this topic, for the first year of work I passed the “1C: Specialist” examinations for all the decisions of the 1C company, which were then in use. A total of six certificates, and my hourly rate has become the maximum possible.
This experience can, of course, be attributed to a career, but it is more about salary. However, it partially demonstrates the principle we are considering.
So, in order for the career to go up, you need to press the “On” button - to begin, as they say, to move and do something. And not “just do your job”, but to take some kind of action besides the main work. In the example above, this is getting certificates. There were a lot of people around who could also take exams, but they did not. By the way, when I received these certificates for a year, a new wave has risen. Firstly, there were much more people who wanted to pass the exams (in general, no one forced them to receive certificates). Secondly, the company began to force people to participate in certification (for 1C partner companies this is beneficial, as the rating grows).
If you just work and do nothing beyond that, there will be no career growth. Let's just say that the probability of growth will be much lower, and it will take longer to wait.
I have observed approximate dates several times. If a person, being a professional in his field, does not press "On" on the career button, he will receive a management position in a few years. At the same time, several times he saw examples of how a person, not being a professional at all, became a boss in a few months. Although, once he succeeded, he was a professional - in career steroids.
What is the "On" button? These are not concrete actions, or, as is now fashionable, a contract with you. This is a choice. The button turns on when you make a decision - I will build a career.
What to do after pressing the button? Apply career steroids. Well, or act on your own, as the above system administrator.
The main thing is to decide for yourself whether you are building a career or not. Most people whom I know perceive a career as a kind of parallel, probabilistic, flow of life. Like, I will work, and they will notice me and raise me. As mentioned above, this approach works for a long time and, most importantly, not always. Why?
The reason is simple and simple - competition. No matter how smart, beautiful, sincere and clean people are around, many of them want to build a career. If you press "On", it does not mean that they will not press the button. And you will not know anything about this until they suddenly, suddenly, become heads, maybe even yours.
I was so at the second job. I came there to sit and take a break from my career - I wanted to be just a programmer. But I didn’t go there alone - another programmer came with me on the same day, and from the same office as me.
I solemnly pressed "Off", and sat down to work. And he pressed "On". At first, I, fascinated by the automation of planning, production, and economic calculations, did not pay attention to it. But then some rosary signs appeared.
When someone from the management came to our office, I silently nodded my head without taking off my headphones, and continued to work, and that guy openly, parading, distracted from the computer, busily welcomed the visitor and asked what had happened and how he could help.
At meetings, where we were initially called together, he said, and not me, with rare exceptions (when it came to the mechanisms that I did). For any new topic, indicated by the leadership, he grabbed, even if he did, afterwards, me.
I began to watch him with interest. Sometimes it was tempting to - or laugh at him in a friendly way, or press "On" myself. For some, I do not know, wounded pride, that it worked. But I was silent.
So what? I stopped talking. He became the boss, and I became his subordinate. The moment when it was possible to turn matters around was hopelessly missed. Of course, I justified myself - they say, I came here to work in the “Off” mode. But the desire to re-engage in the construction of a career I could not repay.
To build a career in the same place was no longer possible, for moral and ethical reasons. We became friends with that guy, and it was possible to rise only by lowering him. It did not suit me, so I had to go to another company.
So for me the “Off” mode worked, and for it - the “On” mode. He used steroids, and became the boss. I was clean and remained a programmer.
To build a career, you need to build a career. Make a decision for yourself and start using steroids.
Until you build a career, someone else builds it. A holy place is never empty.
As long as you do not build a career, you do not build a career. It will not be built.
In the works of a lighter genre - for example, in songs and films - it is said about building a career much more prosaic, often with humor and irony. From what comes to mind right away, I’ll name two songs - the “Manager” of the Leningrad group and, sorry for the idiom, “Booty” of the Gaza Strip (the song is really called that),
But, as it should be for the light genre, there are no systematic, complete, and life examples in them. Beautiful, funny - yes. But using the tips from the songs will not work. At least I didn’t have to repeat the story in the Gaza Strip above. But to see how his colleagues repeat - as much as they like.
Now let me give up: I am a careerist researcher. Not at all in life, but in the context of a career - this is so. As befits a software engineer to the bone, I don’t like to do what I don’t understand. Therefore, as soon as I got a job, besides my main duties, I began to delve into, explore, observe and experiment with a career.
The statistics is as follows. Experience reasonable work - 13 years. I worked in 5 companies, 14 people were my superiors at various times (not counting temporary project managers), 11 of them were directors, and 3 were owners. The management positions I held during this time: technical project manager, project manager, quality director (this is the most incomprehensible, including me), head of the IT department, IT director, the inexplicable third person role in the company, Head of the company's strategic development.
Just a programmer, i.e. In the “no career” mode, I was ~ 3 years old, i.e. about a quarter of their experience. Those who think "fu, yes, you are a manager," I will say right away that whatever position I hold, I never stopped programming. Including, I continue to do this now.
There is one important point. It might have seemed to you that I spent three years as a programmer, then climbed the career ladder, and I have been dragging along it for ten years. This is not true.
As mentioned above, I am a career researcher. I had several controlled, conscious, prepared promotions. And, as is customary in any decent study, I had several controlled, conscious, prepared slides. The last fall was a year ago - I left a warm, familiar place where I was a CIO, into a completely different area for myself - I started programming in js.
So, these career slides continued throughout the entire period of my work. For example, after a serious career takeoff in the first company, I consciously and purposefully looked for a “quiet” place for myself - some factory, away from the city center, and in order to do only programming. I didn’t want to think about a career at all, and I deliberately didn’t apply any knowledge about how to get up in office. It was the same during the transition from the third company to the fourth - from the head of the IT department I became a programmer.
All this time I have been closely watching and analyzing what is happening around. Not only his career, but also those around him - who goes up, who stands still, and who slides down. I eventually began to set career experiments not only on myself, but also on those around me.
I put direct experiments on my subordinates - this is when you come up with a plan, explain it to a person, he fulfills and gets a career takeoff.
I put indirect experiments on parallel and higher leaders. This is somewhat more complicated, because the plan and actions cannot be told; ideas need to be implanted into the head gradually, sometimes with help, suggesting a decision or accents at the right moment. And a person's career begins to take off.
There were also reverse experiments, which for me personally were also of tremendous interest. The reverse is when there is a person who wants to make a career, but is a complete ram (in the sense of a die-hard) or a clever man (“I myself know how to”), you give him advice, he consciously does not follow (because the ram) and his career either stays in place or slides down.
For example, I had a subordinate system administrator who desperately wanted to get more money and take up a position higher. All the opportunities he had for this were - and his head was bright, and hard work - you started to rock up, and the motivations were above the roof, but he was a classic ram and a clever man. One, however, I still do not understand - why did he ask my advice all the time if he acted anyway in his own way? What do you think about his career? Nothing. He is still a system administrator for more than ten years. And still madly wants more money and a higher position.
Well, now you know everything about me. It's time to get down to business.
During the years of my own riding on a roller coaster, observing my colleagues, experiments, research, trial and error, I collected, systematized and analyzed a large amount of information about career building. It turned out a few dozen tricks, lifehacks, strategies, practices. I call them career steroids.
Why "steroids"? Because they are on the verge. Right and wrong, permissible and indecent, useful and harmful for the company, ethical and immoral. As I mentioned above, I didn’t have to “lick up my butt,” so I won’t talk about methods “beyond the limits” - I haven’t tried them.
I will tell only about what I have tried or seen myself, personally, with my own eyes. Each steroid will try to follow with an example from life, so that you do not have the impression that I am operating on theoretical concepts taken from books.
Yes, information is for theoretical study only. I, of course, do not bear any responsibility for the benefits or harm that you may receive, and probably will get if you apply some of their proposed methods.
Also, I do not expect gratitude from you. Not because I don’t care about you or I think too much about myself. Not. I just know for sure that there will be no thanks, all for the same reason: I am a careerist researcher.
Earlier, when I understood the first principles of career growth, and began to share them with others, some colleagues tried to put them into practice. Some succeeded, and I, as a real programmer, that is, the creator, creator and artist, waited for recognition. You used my methods, didn't you? - I thought. - You did it? Well, tell me that I am well done, understood everything and told you correctly, thank me!
But, since career steroids are on the verge, people do not like to advertise their use. Just as athletes hide the use of prohibited and “almost allowed” drugs, or people in the pharmacy wait until there is one left to buy medicine for hemorrhoids or lice, careerists do not like to admit that they used some special methods. Everyone wants to look white and fluffy, and tell beautiful legends about how they “just did their job well”, noticed them, promoted them and now set an example for everyone.
Admitting to a conscious career building is like saying “I pick my nose and smear shrimp anywhere.” Everyone knows that everyone picks their nose. But no one talks about it. Therefore, I do not expect from you and, of course, do not demand gratitude and recognition. I got rid of this disease.
I will answer questions with pleasure. And I will not tell anyone that you asked them.
And further. To build or not to build a career is not good and bad. It is just a choice. You should not treat badly people who have chosen this path. Also, do not extol those who have decided to “just work well”.
I will not say that both ways deserve respect - everything is purely individual, and depends on your system of values. You want to respect a person who decided to work as a system administrator all his life - for God's sake. I will not condemn or support you. Have you decided that the best people in the world are those who have become a big boss? For God's sake!
Who to respect, what to strive for, what is considered important, and what is harmful is your own business. The values of other people are also a personal matter, not only mine or yours, but these people themselves. Let everyone decide for himself, and we, being people adequate, will not hang tags and cut templates.
Yes. I do not pretend to the highest truth and the full disclosure of the topic, only personal experience.
Separately, I will appeal to those who believe that “you just have to do your job well”. I will say this: Good luck! This is not irony, but a sincere message. I honestly envy those who know how to build a “clean” career, without the use of steroids. I can not do that. If I learn, I will share my experience.
Well, they drove.
On and Off
First and foremost, a career is not built by itself. Let us leave aside the beautiful stories about how Vasya worked well, handed over everything in time, did not make mistakes and eventually became someone else. Why leave aside?
Because I tried it. There were even certain changes - for example, I was paid a salary. But here it is worth making a reservation - not because I worked well, but because I understood how the company works.
It was a company engaged in the implementation of 1C - my first real job. The income there consisted of two components - the salary and the transaction. If you override a salary with a deal, you get a deal. If there was no work, or the client did not sign acts, you get a salary.
Salary depended on formal competencies - the presence of certificates "1C: Specialist". In order to receive them, it was necessary to pass an exam to a teacher from Moscow - to solve a programming problem, and to tell something about the methodological part. What is nice - the hourly rate that a person received on the transaction still depended on the formal qualification.
So, having lit this topic, for the first year of work I passed the “1C: Specialist” examinations for all the decisions of the 1C company, which were then in use. A total of six certificates, and my hourly rate has become the maximum possible.
This experience can, of course, be attributed to a career, but it is more about salary. However, it partially demonstrates the principle we are considering.
So, in order for the career to go up, you need to press the “On” button - to begin, as they say, to move and do something. And not “just do your job”, but to take some kind of action besides the main work. In the example above, this is getting certificates. There were a lot of people around who could also take exams, but they did not. By the way, when I received these certificates for a year, a new wave has risen. Firstly, there were much more people who wanted to pass the exams (in general, no one forced them to receive certificates). Secondly, the company began to force people to participate in certification (for 1C partner companies this is beneficial, as the rating grows).
If you just work and do nothing beyond that, there will be no career growth. Let's just say that the probability of growth will be much lower, and it will take longer to wait.
I have observed approximate dates several times. If a person, being a professional in his field, does not press "On" on the career button, he will receive a management position in a few years. At the same time, several times he saw examples of how a person, not being a professional at all, became a boss in a few months. Although, once he succeeded, he was a professional - in career steroids.
What is the "On" button? These are not concrete actions, or, as is now fashionable, a contract with you. This is a choice. The button turns on when you make a decision - I will build a career.
What to do after pressing the button? Apply career steroids. Well, or act on your own, as the above system administrator.
The main thing is to decide for yourself whether you are building a career or not. Most people whom I know perceive a career as a kind of parallel, probabilistic, flow of life. Like, I will work, and they will notice me and raise me. As mentioned above, this approach works for a long time and, most importantly, not always. Why?
The reason is simple and simple - competition. No matter how smart, beautiful, sincere and clean people are around, many of them want to build a career. If you press "On", it does not mean that they will not press the button. And you will not know anything about this until they suddenly, suddenly, become heads, maybe even yours.
I was so at the second job. I came there to sit and take a break from my career - I wanted to be just a programmer. But I didn’t go there alone - another programmer came with me on the same day, and from the same office as me.
I solemnly pressed "Off", and sat down to work. And he pressed "On". At first, I, fascinated by the automation of planning, production, and economic calculations, did not pay attention to it. But then some rosary signs appeared.
When someone from the management came to our office, I silently nodded my head without taking off my headphones, and continued to work, and that guy openly, parading, distracted from the computer, busily welcomed the visitor and asked what had happened and how he could help.
At meetings, where we were initially called together, he said, and not me, with rare exceptions (when it came to the mechanisms that I did). For any new topic, indicated by the leadership, he grabbed, even if he did, afterwards, me.
I began to watch him with interest. Sometimes it was tempting to - or laugh at him in a friendly way, or press "On" myself. For some, I do not know, wounded pride, that it worked. But I was silent.
So what? I stopped talking. He became the boss, and I became his subordinate. The moment when it was possible to turn matters around was hopelessly missed. Of course, I justified myself - they say, I came here to work in the “Off” mode. But the desire to re-engage in the construction of a career I could not repay.
To build a career in the same place was no longer possible, for moral and ethical reasons. We became friends with that guy, and it was possible to rise only by lowering him. It did not suit me, so I had to go to another company.
So for me the “Off” mode worked, and for it - the “On” mode. He used steroids, and became the boss. I was clean and remained a programmer.
We summarize
To build a career, you need to build a career. Make a decision for yourself and start using steroids.
Until you build a career, someone else builds it. A holy place is never empty.
As long as you do not build a career, you do not build a career. It will not be built.