Good question. I am an engineer, too, and I understand the dilemma you feel that you’re in. Being a brash self-promoter in front of you cohorts can leave you in a difficult place. Who wants to seem like they’re taking credit for everyone else’s work, right? A good manager would see that you’re doing a great job and would also see that your teammates respect your work and a doing great. Since good managers are often difficult to find, sometimes you need to help educate them. When you have a one-on-one meeting with them, let him/her know that you think your work isn’t being recognized. If they disagree, they’ll probably tell you. The likely situation, though, is that they’ve been too focused on other things and haven’t given your efforts their due.

The way things work in most companies, if you don’t get your immediate manager to recognize your efforts and success, it’s difficult to get anywhere else. This can create a lousy situation where you won’t be counted among the elite when new projects and opportunities come along. This should be unacceptable. If you really feel that your work is very good, your peers support you AND your manager still doesn’t recognize it after you’ve pointed it out, it may be time to move on and find a place where you get the love you deserve.

I don’t know where you live, but in most technical communities there are a wealth of organizations, conferences and meetings where you can get together with other engineers, hear their stories and talk about cool stuff. Many of these are informal or have informal parts that will give you the opportunity to talk about what others are doing and to share what you are working on. You’d be surprised at how many interesting things you can learn. You may also get involved in a chain-reaction of ideas and advice that may lead you to a new and exciting place.

The bottom line is that you should play offense (check out my post on that topic). Stagnation is no good for anyone and there is certainly no reason for a strong technical person to move slowly for any reason.

Hope that helps.

Perfect story, you’re right. It’s actually one of the stories I use to teach my kids about who you know over what you know. Of course, I’m sure Paul Revere built that network by being a promoter of himself. He was quite well known. As opposed to Dawes . . .

Thanks!

BTW I got to your blog via Feld.

I guess I never made the point that my thinking here is that for entrepreneurial companies trying to break through the noise, being loud is an advantage. I am not that type of person, but I recognized what my companies missed because of it. The path to greatness has to start with some success. My feeling is that especially these days, some extra promotion is required to get moving along that path.