What I Could Have Shown in the Work I Already Had

Before the invitation

Early in my career, I thought I needed permission before I could show I was ready for something bigger.

Someone would give me more responsibility, and then I would prove what I could do.

I no longer think it has to happen in that order.

There are things I could have done inside the work I already had. I could have taken a difficult question further. I could have proposed an improvement. I could have finished something in a way that made my judgment easier to see.

None of that would have guaranteed anyone noticed.

That matters when I look back. I can question whether I waited longer than I needed to without deciding that every missed opportunity was mine to prevent.

I may have been able to create something useful before the invitation arrived.

Whether anyone would recognize it was a different question.

What the work could show

The kind of initiative I am interested in is smaller than simply taking on more.

It has an end.

If I want to show that I can think through a difficult problem, I can choose one piece of work that gives someone a chance to see that. If I want to show judgment, I can explain why I made a recommendation instead of leaving the reasoning invisible.

The point is not to manufacture extra work. It is to make something I am already capable of doing easier for someone else to see.

Research by Seibert, Kraimer and Crant linked proactive behavior with later career outcomes. The study is broader than the question I am asking here, so I do not take it as proof that one extra piece of work leads to an opportunity.

What it does reinforce for me is that waiting is not the only possible posture.

Where I have room to act, I can choose something useful and finish it well.

I would still want a boundary around it. If the work keeps expanding, it stops being a demonstration and starts becoming another job.

Useful work can still be invisible

This is where I become more cautious.

Tanya Reilly has written about work in software engineering that helps teams function but can receive little credit in the way people are evaluated. Someone can take on coordination, support and leadership work that genuinely matters while losing time for the work their organization actually measures.

That distinction matters to me.

Being useful and being recognized are not the same thing.

I can care about helping a team and still ask whether the extra work is moving me toward something I value or simply making me the person who absorbs more of what needs doing.

There is a personal cost to consider too.

Research by Bolino and Turnley found links between initiative, overload, job stress and conflict between work and family. I do not want my regret about waiting to become advice that says the answer is always to do more.

Extra work still has to fit into a life.

Choosing to protect time, health or family tells me nothing about whether someone is ambitious enough.

The choice is not always equal

People also do not get offered the same kinds of extra work.

Babcock and colleagues found that women were more likely than men to volunteer for, be asked to do and accept tasks that offered little help toward promotion.

That makes the question more complicated than simply telling people to choose better opportunities.

Some people are already being pulled toward work that needs doing and carries little reward. They may also have less room to say no.

Where I do have a choice, I want to be more deliberate about what I say yes to.

What will this let me practice?

What will someone be able to see when it is finished?

What will it cost me to do it?

Those questions still do not decide whether the work gets recognized. They just help me decide whether the work is worth doing in the first place.

Before saying yes

You can show people what you're capable of before anyone gives you the title.

I'd want Miss Mango to know that being good at something and being recognized for it are two different things.

That is probably the part I wish I understood earlier.

I did not need to wait for every opportunity before I started building toward it.

I also did not need to turn every spare hour into proof that I deserved more.

Before I take on something extra now, I want to know what it will actually show.

Does this help me demonstrate a capability I want to use more, or does it simply give me more to do?