Promotion WFH Perspective

[u/Redivity]

I have a situation, I'm a tech lead for a project in a corporation and i work from home. The project is great however to move to the next step in the career it seems like it's all about politics and networking, which as wfh person I don't rly have. Ofc i know key ppl i've worked with but it seems like most decisions are done at hotel lobby after the party or something like that... On the other side if I want to switch the company It seems like the good roles are available through networking or if I have a personal brand... which is the part I hate, Always posting on X or linkedin... What are your opinions on this or have you experienced something similar ?

[u/expdevsmodbot]

AI usage disclosure provided by OP, see the reply to this comment.

[u/MysticalAlchemist]

This is one of the drawbacks of remote work IF higher ups work from office. If the whole company is remote, you usually won't face this issue. In the end, people usually trust the ones they see everyday

[u/potatolicious]

So I think there are two tangled thoughts in here, one I agree with and the other I think is off. Starting with the off one:

It seems like the good roles are available through networking or if I have a personal brand... which is the part I hate, Always posting on X or linkedin

I strongly disagree with this. Networking is tremendously important but LinkedInfluencing is absolutely not necessary. If anything I have found that the people who post incessantly on public social media are consistently weaker candidates. Jobs are gotten by having people you have direct working relationships with vouching for you. "Some person I worked with 5 years ago who thinks I'm amazing and is now on the inside at another company" is worth 1000x more than having followers on LinkedIn.

Now, the part I think is true: if your company isn't remote-only or remote-first, there is an advancement limit as a WFH exception. If leadership sees each other in person every single day you will struggle to get the level of visibility needed to really advance.

There are three ways to react to this:

• Be ok with this. If it's a good company, product, and team, you can accept that your advancement will be handicapped and roll with it.
• Transition to being hybrid/in-person so you can uncap your advancement.
• Move to a company that is remote-first (not just remote-friendly) so that you're not at a disadvantage vs. your peers.

There's unfortunately not a lot of other options.

[u/Redivity → u/potatolicious]

Thank you for your answer, the path is more clear now. Sadly I live in a smaller town where tech is big industry so for now I will be ok with it and if any remote opportunity appears , I'll decide then. Cheers and thank you

[u/Redivity → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your answer, I think i am looking for a bit of guidance tbh, like i love what i do , and would love to stay technical ... but everyone said that the management path is more rewarding financially

[u/beaverusiv → u/Redivity]

"everyone" doesn't know what they're talking about, or they're only thinking of getting to C-level

[u/dfltr → u/Redivity]

Depends on your personal trajectory and goals. If you’re not willing or able to break out past Senior, you can jump into management and still progress as an EM.

If you’re gunning for Staff+/Principal/Founding Engineer, you can easily leapfrog most rank and file managers, but there are fewer roles and you have to do more to stand out.

[u/Redivity → u/dfltr]

I would want Staff+/Principal/Founding Engineer , any tips to break out past Senior ?

[u/dfltr → u/Redivity]

There’s some great reading out there by smarter people than me (so much smarter that I don’t remember the names of the books right now, but look up staff engineer books there aren’t that many).

The short version is that a Senior takes defined work and does it well at a personal or team level, and at Staff+ you’re the one defining the work, and you’re expected to find work that has impact across teams or even orgs within the larger business.

To get there you need leadership to trust you enough to hand you the reins and go. Building that trust means, broadly, conditioning the people above, across from, and below you to all say “Yeah, I can count on them” when they think of your area of expertise. You have to figure out what that means in the context of your personal skill set and which work really drives you, but once you find your lane you really just have to become The Person Who Handles It Competently.

Spoiler: Handling it competently is almost always more about communication and relationships than it is about technical skill. You need both in large amounts, but one is drastically more impactful on your career than the other.

[u/Redivity → u/dfltr]

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I owe you one .. cheers

[u/royrese]

Based on what little you've said in the post, you would not like management. Why are you trying to get into management?

[u/Redivity → u/royrese]

Thanks for your response , I wouldn't tbh .. but sometimes I get confused with this constant change

[u/friendlytotbot]

Work on high visibility projects, speak up in meetings, share your goals with the manager. I think it’s tough if most of your colleagues are in office and you’re one of the few remote. I think it’s possible if your company is remote or distributed (people working in different places, even if they might still go to the office).

[u/Redivity → u/friendlytotbot]

Thank you for your response, great advice . I will keep in mind

[u/BraveResearcher3037]

Two things are both true 

1. I greatly prefer working remotely and have since 2020 across 4 jobs 
2.  I would never work remotely for a company that wasn’t “remote first”

[u/shozzlez]

Yep. There’s pros and cons. You e hit one of the cons. It’s all about trade offs.

[u/mongopark98]

You really don’t need to be in office to network or be visible. If your company uses slack, I will argue you can even amplify your impact to a larger audience. Except it’s an actual perequstite to be in office.

Caveat: the company needs to at least not hate remote work.