Usually, the leverage you have is your expertise. Build a marketable
skillset using company time is important.
If your manager doesn't sponsor your Spark training, and doesn't like it
that you watch coursera in office hours, leave.
2. Take control.
Don't just follow orders. A professional like you and me must take control
of how the work is done. Tell the boss:" If you need to give me
responsibilities, you need also give me authorities." Remember, we sell our
expertise, not service, not to mention subordination.
In particular, it is important to control priorities of work, i.e. in the
long term, always put self improvement over anything else; in the short term
, only do one thing per day and do it well.
3. Manage expectations.
Non experts tend to have unrealistic exceptions on experts (e.g. patients to
doctors). It is important to manage your manager's expectations, be honest
and tell what is possible. If you don't know, say you need time to do more
research. Do not promise anything before diagnosing.
In particular, if given unimportant and boring work, make it fail, but looks
like nobody's fault, at least not your fault.
4. Defend territory.
Guard your skillset, make yourself a necessity. Never team play. "Team play"
is like patriotism, the idea is to make you sacrifice for the benefits of
another person. If asked to help others, direct them to a list of papers,
instead of teaching them anything using your time.
An exception is your friends, who you feel happy making sacrifice for.
5. Maintain image.
Remember, you are a professional, people count on you. Never say negative
things to your profession (e.g. "programmers are nerds"), because that hurts
the brand image.
6. Build alliances.
Make friends with co-workers, HR people, anyone in the company. Hang out
often, remember some jokes to tell at different situations. Detect people
who can back you up, people who can give you valuable information, and
people you need to keep a distance (e.g. whiners).
