A friend asked me — what do I do if I always get the grungy work? This is a very common question and challenge, so I figured it’s a great topic to write about. While I primarily focus on the software engineer roles, many elements are generally applicable to other jobs and roles.
From a personal development and growth point of view, “grungy” work may actually play a very positive role in enriching one’s experience and preparing for a bigger job, as it often involves different skills and perspectives that one would have not acquired from “shiny” work. I’ve worked with many talented people whose career was built on “grungy work” — solving important, impactful problems that are unattractive to others. In other words, “grungy” may not be the right word to focus on. Instead, think about these 3 keywords: impact, learning, culture.
First, let’s talk about “impact” — why would you (or anyone) spend time and effort on a piece of (grungy) work? It has to have a clear connection to your team, your larger organization, your company and business’ mission and goals. Otherwise, I don’t see the point of doing it, regardless of grunginess. Having a clear understanding of the impact associated with a piece of work would help you to determine your level of commitment — the more you believe in its impact, the more you’ll be motivated (by yourself!), and the better work you’ll deliver.
“Learning” is the next keyword — what new skills, experience, perspectives would I acquire in this process?
Using myself as an example, I took on a few large code refactoring efforts in my early career, through which, I learnt a tremendous amount in code design and best practices, dependency evaluation, project planning, and tradeoff evaluation. These skills formed a strong foundation for my personal growth on technical proficiency later on.
Another example came from an old teammate — this is someone who was really good at investigating production failures in large scale distributed systems. They were so good at it that almost everyone on the team went to them for advice and tips on how to pursue production investigations. Because of the technical experience and judgment they built via this work, they later became the go-to person for assessing design choices for system reliability and quality.
Through these examples, I’m conveying the point that what really matters is whether one can find great learning opportunities which they can continue to build on.
Last but not the least, it is important to consider the cultural context. Are you in a culture that appreciates and rewards people who take on grungy work? To what extent would you be able to edit the culture by doing the right things, even if it’s grungy?
If you have solid, positive answers to the impact, learning, and culture questions, it’ll most likely turn out to be a good outcome. Otherwise, it’s worth putting more thoughts on where you don’t feel positive.
It is not uncommon that one may need more information to close their answers to these 3 questions. In that case, having a direct and candid conversation with your manager to acquire such information is really important. In fact, I highly recommend to raise any of the above questions with your manager whenever needed, as they are essential to one’s success.
If you come to the conclusion that some change is needed to keep you happy and satisfied at work, tell your manager. It’d be particularly helpful to articulate concretely what you want to do (instead) and/or what you’d like to grow into in the next couple of years. This is the most useful input to a manager, so that they can help you build a path that meets your goals.
Hope this enlightens some good thoughts for those in need.
