Ask HN: How to self-promote at work?
The two things that will always be the best way to sell yourself&#x2F;promote yourself have been, are, and will be: public writing and public speaking.<p>If you get published on media or give presentations at conferences, word will get around, and fast. All the higher ups will know you. You will get major respect because you will be seen as an industry expert and leading edge person. Even if you talk about easy stuff, or whatever you know. There are always people who won&#x27;t know what you know.<p>If you feel you don&#x27;t have the stature - you do - write and speak on what you know. A third party platform, not your own.<p>But, to start, it is always great to pair up with a well-known industry expert. Just contact a bunch of them and ask if they want to team up. Most won&#x27;t but all you need is one to say yes, then you put this on your resume and other people will want to team up with you as you are building up your speaking and writing credentials.<p>I&#x27;ve written before that I know one guy, he speaks at any event where there are 2 or more people.<p>But do writing and public speaking long enough and you will get to be known to everyone. Start getting bigger and bigger venues and publications.<p>.<p>.<p>The other way is to learn the power dynamics at the company when you start working there. Never become friends with the first person to introduce themselves to you. Don&#x27;t clique up and get ito that backstabbing clique shit or have to hate people in this clique or that clique because your clique hates them. You should be clique-less with everyone.<p>You should be friendly to all, but not friends, despite that some people will say that they have made lifelong friends from work. This post is not about that, it is about self promotion and being super successful. You take time to learn who has power in any company. NOT those who <i>seem</i> to have power, but those who <i>actually</i> do. Then over time, you become an associate of those who can help you. I&#x27;ve done this and I will tell you what - you will shoot up the org chart if a powerful person likes you. They will tell all their powerful friends about you, too. They will test you, see what you do, will work behind the scenes, you still have to prove yourself to them that you are not a flashy flash-in-the-pan person, but can deliver results. If you do, then you will fly up the org chart to more and more responsible positions. And of course, you have to make  yourself fit into their style. Are those power people laidback and relaxed? Or are they all  focused, brief, fast? Adjust your style to them. If someone&#x27;s a talker, be a talker, if they are no nonsense person, be no nonsense person, etc. One thing to be careful about is not to break the chain of command. If there is breaking, it has to be done by the general to you, not you to the general unless absolutely mandatory. So you have to work your way up powerful people, but only be work social, as people fall out of favor you will need to find others - you have to have a network. So always be friendly to all. Remember, a CEO of a Fortune 500 company might be friends with the parents of the mailroom clerk and go to their house and talk to the mailroom clerk who they&#x27;ve known since the clerk was a baby, and that mailroom clerk might say that you are a supreme asshole and everyone hates you to the CEO, and you will never go anywhere then.<p>Always be ready to talk to powerful players if the opportunity arises. Sometimes the opportunity will spontaneously will arise. You meet them at a restaurant or a friend in common or he or she starts a conversation in the elevator with you in the morning as you go up to your floor. It&#x27;s ok to go around the chain of command in this case, as they were the ones that initiated. Get ready to speak intelligently and not mumble or hem and haw. Take your cue from him or her, but have some conversation ready to go. If you suck at small talk, then I suggest that you go onto Youtube and watch and rewatch youtube videos on how to make smalltalk, how to not be socially awkward, and watch a lot more than just one video - watch many. It is a skill that you can develop. Test out the skills you learn on non-work people and see if they work for you. Master one, then move onto another skill&#x2F;technique.<p>Those are the two things that I know will make you super successful, for sure:
1. Public figure - speaking and writing, and<p>2. develop relations with powerful people in the company, not just anyone.