7 Habits That Will Get You Promoted🚀
If you’re a software developer you might well look at the corporate ladder and think “I’d love an increased salary, freedom to do what I actually want to do”.
So, to help you out here are seven key habits that will get you promoted and moving up in your career.
Always turn on the camera in the meetings
Own it!
Embrace change
Deliver on time
Support your colleagues and proactively help
Always go the extra mile
Listen and learn from the feedback you get
So let me explain what you need to do, and how it’s going to help you in your career.
The Situation
If you’re dreaming of that big promotion but feel stuck in your current role, congratulations! You’re exactly where most of us have been at some point. The good news? Promotions are awarded to those who play the game right.
The bad news? Many developers think “working hard” is enough and rewards will be conferred onto the most worthy. It simply doesn’t work.
The really bad news is that being seen to be working hard is only enough when you have the right habits.
So, here are seven habits that will get you promoted (or, at the very least, ensure you’re not the first name on the layoff list).
Those Habits
Always Turn on Your Camera in Meetings
In the remote work era, visibility is everything. I mean that quite literally.
If you’re a faceless rectangle in every Zoom call, your contributions are easier to ignore. Senior management needs to see who is engaged, who is present, and who they can trust with more responsibility.
Turning on your camera says, “I am here, paying attention, and ready to contribute”.
When you turn on your camera, it means you can’t play video games or scroll Reddit without getting caught (or at the least, you need to get better at hiding it).
My Experience
I’ve seen many people never turn cameras on, but I’ve never seen anyone promoted from that cohort.
Own It!
Nothing says “future leader” like taking responsibility for your actions. If you make a mistake, don’t pass the blame. Own it. Offer solutions. Fix it fast.
Managers remember the person who says, “I made this mistake, and here’s what I’m doing to correct it,” way more than the person who spends half a meeting pointing fingers. If you’re transparent and accountable, you’ll earn respect. Eventually this respect transfers to a better title, more responsibility and more pay.
My Experience
I’m bad at taking responsibility, because I’m scared that I can’t complete technical tasks in time to make deadlines. I think the problem is that I’ve seen punishments given to people who are not able to deliver as promised, and it’s really affected me. Something I need to change, I guess.
Embrace Change
People resisted Agile.
The reality is that tech evolves, and companies shift priorities like they change office snacks. If you’re the person always saying, “But we’ve always done it this way,” then congratulations, you’re a very visible roadblock.
You should be giving off the energy of change. You lead change and are the person who adapts and helps others through it. Trust me, upper management loves that.
My Experience
I worked at a place that implemented the SaFE framework and no matter how slow development it within SaFE, people didn’t want the accountability. I remember many conversations about what to do with these refuseniks, and I also remember that their names were first on the inevitable layoff list.
Deliver On Time, Every Time
You can be the best coder in the world, but if you consistently miss deadlines, nobody cares. Reliability is key. If you say you’ll deliver something by Friday, make sure it happens.
The pros under-promise and over-deliver, saying something will take two weeks and then deliver in ten days. The wizard who delivers ahead of schedule beats out the frazzled developer who tells everybody they can do it and then fails to deliver.
My Experience
I’ve seen people radically under-promise at work. They never seem to be looked down-upon for their productivity. I do know that some people are also measured on their number of pull requests and even their commit count, so there is a balance to be had here. It’s usually better to over deliver by pulling in extra tickets into the sprint, yet even here it can be problematic, as people assume that’s the number of story points you can complete and adjust accordingly.
Think about what will work best in your context, I guess?
Support Your Colleagues and Be Proactive
If you want to be promoted, start acting like a leader before you get the title. That means helping your teammates, not just when you’re asked, but proactively.
Did you see a junior developer struggling with a bug you’ve fixed before? Help them. Did you find a process that’s slowing the team down? Suggest an improvement. The more you elevate those around you, the more valuable you become.
My Experience
I’ve never really felt supported, and I’ve also never really seen anyone supported let alone supported anyone. So…I don’t have any experience here.
Go the Extra Mile
This can be difficult, because you need balance when you do that little bit more. Going above and beyond gets you promoted. But there’s a fine line.
If you’re the person who stays late every night you might see colleagues who leave on time gain the same salary bump.
The trick is to be strategic. Volunteer for high-impact projects. Speak up in meetings with insights leadership cares about. Make sure the extra effort you put in is visible.
You must be aware that some companies only reward those who work overtime for free. If that applies to your company you need to start looking for a new job, because that’s exploitation, not career growth. ;)
My Experience
Just be the person who gets things done. I think that’s how they select staff engineers, and why they seem to get so much done. They’re never “forced” to do that, and they make good decisions about the work they choose to do. It’s a good idea if you do the same, take it from me.
Listen to Feedback and Actually Apply It
Want to know the fastest way to kill your promotion chances? Ignoring feedback.
When your manager tells you to improve your communication skills, don’t just nod and go back to doing the same thing. Actually, work on it. Take notes, ask follow-up questions, and show measurable improvement.
Feedback isn’t a criticism; it’s a cheat sheet for what you need to do to level up. Use it. Benefit from it.
My Experience
I listen to feedback, sure I do. I don’t always take it and act on it though. I remember that once I got really bad feedback about my work, the quality of the code and my effort. The thing is that it just wasn’t a good working environment for me and I needed to leave to find a better working environment for me. So, I didn’t pay attention to the advice. Oh, and then they fired me.
Conclusion
Getting promoted isn’t magic, it’s about being visible, dependable, adaptable, and a little bit strategic. You don’t have to be the best coder, the most experienced, or the loudest in meetings. You just have to be the one people trust to get things done and make the team better.
If you master these habits and still don’t get promoted? You’re working for the wrong company. Time to take your newfound skills elsewhere and apply them to where they will actually be appreciated.