Be Visible

It's not enough to do good work, other people have to know how good you are. This can be a hard truth for many software engineers.

Being visible is the very similar to selling yourself but in a more implicit way. If selling yourself is about explaining to others how valuable your work is, being visible is about helping others form their own ideas about how valuable you are.

So how do you increase your visibility? Get out there! Answer questions in Slack rooms. Review PRs. Give presentations about your work. Be generous with your time in ways that help others. Creating your own content or speaking at meetups and conferences can increase your visibility outside of your organization, too.

As a maker it can be hard to balance getting things done with being available for others, so it can be helpful to schedule your "visible" time. Put events on your calendar to remind you to review PRs or check on support issues.

Make sure you're visible in impactful ways, not just performative posting and you'll see your reputation and career grow.