I Was Promoted for Breaking the Rules

Forget the playbook. The path to the top is paved with broken rules and a healthy dose of "screw it, I'll do it my way."

"Congratulations, you've been promoted to Principal Engineer!"

The words hung in the air like a bad joke.

I stared at the executive, half-expecting him to burst out laughing and yell, "Gotcha!"

See, six months earlier, my boss—and his boss—had staged an intervention. “The work you’re doing,” they said with the gravity of a funeral director, “will not get you promoted.”

But here I was, promoted for the very things they'd warned me against. Turns out, sometimes the fastest way up is to take a detour. A detour through the rulebook, with a sledgehammer in hand.

Now, I'm not talking about setting fire to the office or hacking into the CEO's email. I'm talking about breaking the unspoken rules, the ones that stifle innovation and reward blind obedience. The ones whispered in hushed tones and buried in performance reviews.

Here are four rules I shattered on my path to promotion:

Rule #1: Follow the Process

I was a Senior Frontend Engineer at Yahoo, sitting in yet another tense sprint retrospective.

The team was drowning. Work spilled over from sprint to sprint like floodwater breaching a dam. Deadlines loomed, morale crumbled, and we all sat there, too tired to look for answers.

Then someone pointed at me.

“Hey, have you noticed this new guy’s work is always on time? In fact, he even finishes some of ours.”

The room froze. I felt exposed—like a student caught smuggling answers into an exam.

After an awkward pause, I chose my words carefully.

“The problem,” I said, “is the code. Our JSP files are a mess—Java loops, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript tangled together like Christmas lights in a storage box.”

Someone frowned. “Yes. We hate it. How do you go around it?”

I hesitated. "I don’t... I delete the mess and rewrite it first. It’s faster. Predictable. Clean."

Silence.

I had broken an unspoken rule: Don’t mix feature work with tech debt.

Then came the real question.

"So how exactly are you still doing it faster? Because this is more work."

I shrugged. "Every company, same story—bad code, same patterns. You don't see them now, but you'll feel them when you get your hands dirty. Fix while you build, and soon, you find your rhythm."

People stopped rolling their eyes and started asking me for advice. The files I rewrote became the most stable parts of the codebase.

Rulebook Rewrite: Processes are meant to guide, not imprison. If the path ahead is broken, don’t just follow the map. Build a better road.

Rule #2: Never, Ever Brag

Here’s a fairy tale we’ve all been told: Good work speaks for itself.

Except it doesn’t even mumble. It sits quietly in the corner, hoping someone will notice it while the loudest voices get the spotlight.

For months, I worked hard, convinced my efforts would magically get recognized. Spoiler alert: They didn’t.

Sure, a few people knew I was getting things done, fixing the code, and making life easier for the team. But "a few people" isn't exactly a cheering crowd.

So, I did something radical: I broke the second rule. I told people what I was doing

I created a five-slide presentation. Nothing fancy—just screenshots and arrows showing how I tackled tech debt alongside feature work. My hands shook. My voice cracked. I clicked through the slides too quickly, forgetting half of what I’d planned to say.

But the impact was immediate.

Suddenly, I was being invited to meetings I didn’t even know existed. I wasn’t just “the guy who fixed things.” I was now a voice—a perspective that people wanted in the room.

Rulebook Rewrite: If you want to get noticed, you have to make some noise. Hard work whispers; you need to shout.

Rule #3: Do What Gets You Promoted

I’ll let you in on a secret:

Promotions aren’t about impact—they’re about perception.

So when I identified a massive chunk of tech debt that was single-handedly causing 80% of our team's headaches, I knew I was walking into a minefield.

I pitched the idea to my boss. His response?

"Don't waste your time. You get promoted by delivering shiny new features, not by fixing old messes."

Undeterred, I escalated it to his boss, the Director. His answer was equally enlightening:

"Your boss is right. This won't get you promoted. But hey, if you want to be a good Samaritan, knock yourself out."

Challenge accepted.

For the next few sprints, I worked with a junior engineer and fixed the damn problem. The result? Productivity soared, bugs vanished, and everyone was happy.

The irony? The same people who told me it was a waste of time were now singing my praises at the next all-hands meeting.

Rulebook Rewrite: The work that matters most often hides in the shadows. Break the rule that says "do what's visible." Sometimes, real impact comes from fixing what no one else will touch.

Rule #4: Stay in Your Lane

Burnout was suffocating our org. Forty engineers. Twelve-hour days. Seven days a week. Deadlines kept slipping, and morale was cratering.

The problem wasn’t the hours. It was the system.

We planned sprints as if we had 40 uninterrupted hours a week. Reality laughed in our faces. Meetings, standups, and constant interruptions shredded those plans like confetti.

Management’s solution? “Track your hours better.”

Brilliant. Now we were overworked and bookkeeping.

So, I broke the fourth rule. I stepped out of my role as an engineer and took matters into my own hands.

The real issue?

We were estimating tasks with the precision of a drunken darts player.

High-level estimates are just lucky guesses. But when you break tasks into smaller steps, you spot risks early, plan around them, and actually deliver.

Here’s what we did:

• Defined a "real" workday: Five focused hours, split into two blocks. Meetings? Only allowed around those blocks. No more 12-hour marathons fueled by caffeine and despair.

• Introduced bite-sized tasks: No more vague, wishy-washy tasks. Everything had to be broken down into four-hour chunks. Because even the most complex project can be conquered one small step at a time.

• Tracked progress, not hours: Because no one wants to spend their day filling out timesheets. And because celebrating completed tasks is way more motivating than counting the minutes until you can escape the office.

The result? The backlog shrank. Deadlines stopped slipping. And for the first time in months, people were going home on time.

Rulebook rewrite: Job titles and roles don’t define your impact. Sometimes, breaking the rules means caring more than you're supposed to. If no one’s fixing the system, step up and do it yourself.

The Only Rule Worth Keeping

When I shook hands with the executive that day, it finally hit me: I wasn't promoted for playing by the rules. I was promoted for ripping up the rulebook and writing my own.

And I haven't stopped since:

In 2014, I became a manager, even though everyone told me I was born to be an engineer.

In 2016, I joined Microsoft as a Technical Program Manager, ignoring the collective gasp of horror from my advisors.

By 2019, I was leading 250+ engineers, managers, and directors across four time zones.

Rules are like those "Terms and Conditions" no one reads – they're useful until they become obstacles. So when they hold you back? Break them. Rewrite them. Burn them and scatter the ashes.

Real growth doesn't come from coloring inside the lines. It comes from forging your own path and leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for others to follow.

So, here's my question for you:

What rule is holding you hostage? And what glorious chaos will you unleash when you finally break free?

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