When a developer wants to grow their career, my first piece of advice is - develop a reputation for getting things done.
That does NOT mean you should do as much as possible. It means people on your team can trust you to deliver when it matters.
An example
Your team is working on a big release. It's important to the company & several other teams are counting on it. You help out a lot with the implementation, even leading certain portions!
As the release date approaches, QA finds three bugs with the current implementation.
You could sit quietly, wait for your manager & senior engineers to investigate, and then work on one of the bugs if it's assigned to you. Going down that path likely means that you miss the release date.
Since you worked a lot on this new feature, you have context & a few guesses about what may be causing two of the bugs. This is an opportunity to be a valuable linchpipn for your team.
So, when you hear about the bugs, you say:
"I have some suspicions about what might be causing those issues. I can take a first pass at resolving the bugs & I'll update the team on my progress by the end of the day."
What happened?
You've done a couple key things here that are sure to get you noticed:
- You showed initiative. You didn't have to volunteer, but you did.
- You offered a solution. Managers notice when someone takes problems off their plate (rather than add new ones).
- You gave a timeline. The team will hear from you by the end of the day, so you can make a decision on the release with better information.
Now what?
You try to deliver!
Spending a few hours on the bugs will likely produce at least one breakthrough. Something small & easy to resolve. The other bugs might be trickier, but your initial investigation should help the team size the effort to resolve them.
Throughout the day, your communication skills are important. Keep your team up to date with your status. Even if it's short messages.
Then, your end of day update should give a clear explanation of the bugs & what you think are the next steps.
Repeat
Do this enough times & you'll develop a reputation as someone who can be trusted with an important project or sensitive release.
Sometimes, you'll be able to fix all the bugs in a day & get the project back on track to ship on time. Other times, your communication skills will produce value for the team by clearly documenting a challenge & the next steps.
They key is that your initiative, solution seeking, and clear communication help you develop a reputation as a top performer.