That’s what worked for me (as an employee). I’m a high school dropout, with a GED, and some tech school training (from a now-defunct certificate mill). Not exactly a Stanford Ph.D.
When that’s your pedigree, no one gives you a break, so you have to make your own, and prove yourself at every step. Sort of “A Boy Named Sue” thing. It either makes you, or breaks you.
Kept me humble, hungry, and a team player. Yeah, I got taken advantage of, but I also found that people would give me incredible opportunity, as I was a lot cheaper than an architect. My very first engineering project was complete hardware and firmware design of a microwave switching device[0]. Almost no one gets that kind of opportunity. Most folks have to wait years before being trusted with much lower levels of responsibility (I had almost no supervision or guidance, during the project).
Did I mention that this was my very first engineering project, ever? The only reason I got it, was because I was given the rather humble task of assembling an ATE system, and I was getting tired of constantly stopping the test to rewire the units. My boss got sick of me bitching, and said “Why don’t you do something about it?”
So I did. Since he told me to do it, he couldn’t very well prevent me from following through.
That’s been the story of my life. People toss me difficult problems, to shut me up, and I solve them.
This has not always won me friends. I’ve learned that, quite often, people don’t actually want their problems solved, and get quite upset, when you solve them; even when they asked you to.
In the aggregate, it has worked out well. I’ve retired, ten years early (not by choice -thanks, ageism!).
When that’s your pedigree, no one gives you a break, so you have to make your own, and prove yourself at every step. Sort of “A Boy Named Sue” thing. It either makes you, or breaks you.
Kept me humble, hungry, and a team player. Yeah, I got taken advantage of, but I also found that people would give me incredible opportunity, as I was a lot cheaper than an architect. My very first engineering project was complete hardware and firmware design of a microwave switching device[0]. Almost no one gets that kind of opportunity. Most folks have to wait years before being trusted with much lower levels of responsibility (I had almost no supervision or guidance, during the project).
Did I mention that this was my very first engineering project, ever? The only reason I got it, was because I was given the rather humble task of assembling an ATE system, and I was getting tired of constantly stopping the test to rewire the units. My boss got sick of me bitching, and said “Why don’t you do something about it?”
So I did. Since he told me to do it, he couldn’t very well prevent me from following through.
That’s been the story of my life. People toss me difficult problems, to shut me up, and I solve them.
This has not always won me friends. I’ve learned that, quite often, people don’t actually want their problems solved, and get quite upset, when you solve them; even when they asked you to.
In the aggregate, it has worked out well. I’ve retired, ten years early (not by choice -thanks, ageism!).
[0] https://littlegreenviper.com/TF30194/TF30194-Manual-1987.pdf (downloads a PDF)