Getting yourself noticed : update update update

If woody allen once said that showing up is one half of success, then let me complete the saying ... "the other half is making sure people know you exist !". The incredelous among you might already be saying "Of course I exist ! People see me going in and out of the office daily and I attend all the meetings !!" Wrong Wrong wrong on all counts. In this fast moving and busy world you would be surprised how many times good even great people are overlooked for promotions, salary upgrades and other niceties over their seemingly less capable counterparts. This happens not because of favoritism but because bosses or higher don't even know they exist. I see this all the time among my fellow younger techies. Yes they are the ones hunched in the dark corner banging away on the key board thinking that if they complete their task quietly their bosses will sure appreciate their work and give them equal compensation. Worse still is that they don't even care if this happens ! Bottom line ... you are the greatest promoter for your own work or ability and you should never feel uncomfortable about shining the spot light on yourself once in a while. Why should you ? You are capable and smart and tooting your horn once in a while is a helathy boost for the self esteem.

What is the first step in promoting yourself and your work ? Update. What's the second step ? Update. The third is of course also update ! When you are working on a project assigned to you or your group, it is always in your best interest to update your boss or higher up about what you are doing. Believe me, sometimes they just plain don't know what you are doing ! Expecting your boss to know exactly what your contribution in your project by himself with his already busy schedule is not only plain stupid, it is egoistically stupid ! Your company's world does not revolve around you and leaving the knowledge of contribution to your project to Lady Luck will often leave you unnoticed and disappointed. The key here is to write an update report not to show your results but to show the effort that you put into your work. So if just spent the whole day scouring google without any luck or headway in trying to solve your problem, include that too ! Those stuff are essential in relaying to your management how much you care about your work and how much effort you put into it.

So this concludes the first three steps in getting yourself noticed in your work place. The next time I will go into creating a successful image of yourself at work, so stay tuned.