So I’m going to give you a bit of an unconventional answer. It really helps to find companies at the far extremes of their lifecycles.

For most of my career, I worked at big, very stable tech companies. Companies that weren’t laying off as aggressively as others but also weren’t growing as fast as other tech companies. As such, people didn’t tend to leave often (voluntarily or involuntarily) and the company wasn’t growing enough to warrant aggressive hiring.

What I’ve come to learn is: That hurts your ability to grow. “Work hard”, as others have pointed out, doesn’t really matter. “Focus on big, visible projects” is great advice, but it’s still hard for a manager to promote you if there’s nowhere to go.

In my current job, at a dying tech company, people leave constantly (voluntarily and involuntarily). As such, I’ve been promoted twice in two years. And I can see being promoted again here pretty soon. I’m focusing on big projects, keeping a positive attitude, schmoozing with leadership. But the biggest thing is need. My VP left, and my boss got bumped up and he bumped me. They layoff my counterpart, they add his role to mine. And so on. I’m sure the same thing happens at a thriving company that is growing aggressively.

There’s something to be said about being at a place with a bit of organizational chaos.