Don’t just complain about the situation, do something about it. I’m much happier when I feel I’m in control.
When something sucks, I ask what I can do to fix it. Not blame people.
Climb the latter if you want bigger organizational impact. Don’t climb for money. Especially going into management is not a step up but to the side. Make sure to know why, because losing a good IC for a bad manager is the worst for everyone.
Find talented people in your org that want to trigger change like you do. Then go for one problem at a time. You can’t fix everything.
To climb the ladder, learn your bosses goals, and her bosses goals (personal and business). Learn negotiation, speaking, presenting. Be visible. Make it easy for others to argue why you should be promoted.
The best investment is in yourself. I thought that’s a myth but it’s true. I have no degree but ~quadrupled my salary in 4 years. Why? I started reading a TON of books on the following topics, took notes, trained, made plans, executed.
Perceived competence, leadership, negotiation, leverage, politics, real goals and how to achieve them, what successful ppl do different, money, productivity, time management, organizational design, team building, group psychology
Education budget (time and/or money) is undervalued and SN leads the field here in Germany IMO.
Ask. Ask anyone you want to learn from. Pick top managers in your org that you look up to and ask honest, deep questions.
You are the sum of the 5 closest people around you. Remind yourself about this every week and start to be selective who you surround yourself with. At work and in private.
This makes massive difference. Pick people that have already what you want.
Speaking of what you want: stop thinking about money. There are many €30k/yr people happier than you and millionaires with depression. Think about the life you want to live. Write it down. What needs to happen to get there? Then execute.
Money is just a part of it - mostly until your financial problems are not your biggest problems anymore. This usually happens around 70-80k/yr.
You need allies and relationships to reach anything meaningful in a bigger org. Going the lone wolf route will distance you and ultimately you will leave and/or other people don’t want to work with you. That’s why collab and politics are so important
Yes, I absolutely hate corporate politics - but understanding the game and the consequences of your actions (aka other people’s feelings) is paramount.
Too many roles are without accountability. Avoid this as much as possible. Show you take responsibility and hold yourself accountable. It will be rewarded, because it’s rare in orgs without business ownership.
Audio is my medium. I talk better than I write. I pick up information from videos and audio-books faster and better than from reading.
That’s why I do YouTube instead of a blog. And it’s why I will go for a German podcast or clubhouse or whatever as well
Being a good speaker helps tremendously inside an org where you want to grow beyond your product team.
When you stop caring about the problems you see everyday, it’s time to move on. Don’t waste your or other people’s time. No amount of money compensates for that.
Working on a product I use myself is the most rewarding work. I love it. And I love and use SHARE NOW every day (outside of a pandemic).
Detached departments are a tough one to tackle. But I have yet to experience it differently. I don’t have a solution to this but it’s something I actively seek other approaches when taking a deeper look at an Organisation.
For high performance teams, one bad hire is worse than no hire. Be very, very selective during recruiting.
Damn, there’s so much more. I learned SO MUCH during my time at SN on so many levels... I’m incredibly grateful for that ❤️🚀.
In a little over a week, I will have my first day at
@stripe and I couldn’t pick a better company to learn from next. Let’s go 🤓
