Plain Milk's Jug

I work in Tech. I have for 27 yrs or so now. i have come to see a lot of people in a lot of companies. I had the thrill of consulting for many years, peppered with full jobs. I have worked in over 50 Companies in this time.

In all of this time, i could bore you and offer you all kinds of worthless advice about loving tech, and being the “guy” when it comes to high profile tasks. I am not going to. I am going to offer one piece of Advice for every single person who ever wanted to be in technology, and its very simple.

Always Remember you are on the team, not above the team.

yes you need to impress your boss. yes you need to standout in a competitive environment. yes that dynamic will change both over projects and over time. Maybe the one PM you kept messaging on the side with through teams, and had quite willing to back your plays on things, left. Maybe people got sick of your arrogance , without you ever realizing their IQ’s were miles higher than yours . Maybe the most valuable people you would need to work with in a future state, have already been soured by your constant perching of narratives as if you are a team leader, when you are not.

Tech will change. jobs will change. people will change. the effects of trying to speak at a higher level than you are in a workplace will last forever.

one more time to be thorough

Always Remember you are on the team, not above the team.