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January 18, 2006
Swanson's Rules of Management - Rule 8
However menial and trivial your early assignments may appear, give them your best efforts
You are more likely to be given the opportunity to take on complicated difficult assignments if you first demonstrate that you are willing and able to perform simpler tasks well
One of my insights after reading this one was 'This is true no matter what point in your career you are at'. It's just that the definition of 'simple' and 'complex' is relative. For example, if you're the newly annointed CTO, you might be tasked with reviewing code from a team, or helping the architecture team set up training. That's still pretty complex, and a brand-new college grad would be completely lost.
This certainly isn't always the case as you get older and more experienced. Sometimes you come in and immediately have to wrestle with godawfully complex problems.
Still, the question remains - when do you decide to start pushing for harder work? I think the answer is 'as soon as you feel you're ready, but don't neglect these simpler/more tedious tasks along the way'.
Posted by jb at January 18, 2006 09:49 AM
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