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Comment by coffeemug | Hacker News Reader

> Work on important projects for the company, build rapport and relationships in the company, build a reputation for getting things done on time with high quality and low drama.

This will not get you promoted beyond the middle rungs.

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Agreed. Being reliable and getting things done is not memorable. Someone who is actively getting in people's faces, pushing along agendas, meeting with others, and on the whole being "visible" as projects move along is more likely to be associated with getting things done than someone who quietly gets work done and is liked by everyone but does not make a big ado about it.

People get promoted not for what they do, but what they appear to do.

There's not a lot of room in the upper rungs. The audience of people trying to nab that promotion from VP to SVP at $FORTUNE500 is an awful small audience to write for.

and the number of people who are actually qualified to dispatch such advice is even smaller.

These pithy, cynical takes are devoid of any real claims or suggestions. What are you actually proposing as a way to the top rung? Gaming the system and being cutthroat?

I am not proposing anything. I am just observing what happens empirically. Doing these things tends to get people soft influence but no formal authority. It's simply what is.

You have never seen someone do good work, visibly, and be promoted for it?

You'll need to say more :)

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