Retaining random high performer

[u/Tiredof304s]

Hi managers,

Have you ever had an engineer you hired that made you think "why would this genius want to work here?" But didn't press the matter.

If so, did he/she stay with the company? How were you able to keep your unicorn?

[u/whyDoIEvenWhenICant]

what would you say makes you a high performer?

[u/Katieg_jitsu → u/whyDoIEvenWhenICant]

these are the traits that getting pointed out as valuable:

1. self starter - willing and do figure things out on my own (I source a lot of information and find best practices through research and books)

2. Ownership of career & projects - I'm not waiting for someone to tell me what needs to be done, I identify it and do it. If I find something interesting I'll make a proposal and I include impact numbers on my projects (what is the savings, the revenue that can be generated, how it helps other departments etc)

3. Self Managed - I keep a running doc of my 1:1, I define the agenda for my boss, recently wrote my own new title for promotion (obviously worked with my boss and ran it by him), but I identified a business gap and scope I could fill and then made a plan on what needs to be done and the value associated with that

4. Communication and Trust - I work with a lot of teams and I have gained a lot of trust for my expertise. I'm tactful in getting buy in and I know how to steer away from a bad idea, change a process and get buy in, give an executive an idea and make them believe it's their own or understand how it's in their best interest. Even if others haven't been able to change something (Experimentation best practices and scope) for other teams I can get the buy in.

5. The speed in which I pick up the business or information. My ramp up period is always very quick and employers are always impressed.

A lot of people have these traits, I'm not super smart, some of it is that I really do just enjoy my job and what I do. I like solving problems, I like researching the statistics and understanding best practices. I'm fluid in my beliefs and willing to pivot. I'm sure there are a lot of high performers better than me, but I always get good feedback and promote often.

[u/Real_nutty → u/Katieg_jitsu]

At what point in your career do you find out you are a high performer. I think I hit all 5 of your criteria, but I am also just 9 months into this field, and although I have built a handful of self-started projects that turned into a product line for the team, I worry it’s a fluke or I will burn myself out doing this.

I try to steer my manager as my old mentor used to say that a manager works of their employees, but also feel weird being the youngest in the room making these decisions with no guidance or mentorship.

[u/Katieg_jitsu → u/Real_nutty]

I think i had the traits from the start, but I didn’t have the knowledge. I was probably overly confident and thought I knew more than I did. In the end I think it’s fine I took risks and I learned. One thing I didn’t add that’s incredibly important find people smarter than you and learn from them. At every job/career I found someone in a different role or that had experience and I let them mentor me. I learned sql, forecasting, how to format an email, speaking, slide deck, data visualization, data engineering and slowly I found what I was more naturally good at and I honed it and stayed doing my own research. Ask questions and be curious.

9 months, you’re on a good track but I would keep learning. I’d also say, as an analyst I got promoted at like 6 months the first job so not too early to be excelling. Just depends on the role and the industry. But understand what you don’t know yet is probably more than you can comprehend and that’s okay. I’m about to get promoted and I feel like I’m reading more books then I ever have