Miko Pawlikowski 🎙️

11 Subtle Career Truths:

0/ Hard work is not enough
→ You need to make your work seen

1/ Your job title doesn't matter
→ It's not yours, it's on a lease

2/ A salary bump for dead-end job will cost you
→ They know what they're paying for

3/ Loyalty doesn't pay rent
→ What happens when they leave or get fired?

4/ Relationships are crucial
→ Not "networking", real relationships which cost energy

5/ Comfort kills growth
→ You can be comfortable or growing. Choose one.

6/ Challenging your boss is an art
→ Learn how to challenge AND make them look good

7/ Feedback is gold
→ Discard silly stuff, implement the genuine

8/ Progress is never linear
→ And we always expect it to be

9/ Burnout is not cool
→ Others will outlast you

10/ Perfection slows you down
→ Apply 80/20 rule 90% of the time

What did I miss?

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Your greatest skill isn't what you do.

(it's not even about you)

It's about how you make others feel.

The most appreciated people on your team:
❌ are NOT the smartest ones
❌ are NOT the most experienced
✅ are the ones people ENJOY working with

Want to succeed at work?

Master the basics of making people WANT to work with you:

1/ Be easy to work with
↳ No ego, no politics
↳ Make things smooth & easy

2/ Get things done
↳ Focus on what matters
↳ Get it across the line to be seen as reliable

3/ Growth mindset
↳ Keep learning (even as a senior)
↳ Teach others the value of learning

4/ Be kind
↳ Listen more than you speak
↳ Only strong people can afford to be kind

5/ Help others
↳ Lift others up
↳ Offer a helping hand when needed

6/ Avoid drama
↳ Don't dwell on others' mistakes
↳ Don't gossip

These traits are simple, but very rare.
Mastering them is the easiest way to stand out.

Which one is the most important?


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Nobody remembers your title, they remember how you make them feel.

Too many workplaces suffer from toxic habits:
• draining energy
• encouraging backstabbing
• fostering a “everyone for themselves” mindset

🔴 You can't change a culture overnight.
🟢 But you be good to others to set the example.

Here are 5 easy things you can do today:

0/ Don't gossip
→ Talk to people's faces, not backs

1/ Assume good intent
→ It gets lost easily in Slack

2/ Back up every criticism with a solution
→ Without a solution, it's just complaining

3/ Recognize good work
→ It doesn't cost much to appreciate someone

4/ Explain, don't order
→ Don't pull titles. Explain your thinking

Do you agree? Let’s build better workplaces together.

♻️ Share this if you believe work can be more bearable.
🔔 Follow Miko Pawlikowski 🎙️ for tech and career insights.

Your greatest skill isn't what you do.

(it's not even about you)

It's about how you make others feel.

The most appreciated people on your team:
❌ are NOT the smartest ones
❌ are NOT the most experienced
✅ are the ones people ENJOY working with

Want to succeed at work?

Master the basics of making people WANT to work with you:

1/ Be easy to work with
↳ No ego, no politics
↳ Make things smooth & easy

2/ Get things done
↳ Focus on what matters
↳ Get it across the line to be seen as reliable

3/ Growth mindset
↳ Keep learning (even as a senior)
↳ Teach others the value of learning

4/ Be kind
↳ Listen more than you speak
↳ Only strong people can afford to be kind

5/ Help others
↳ Lift others up
↳ Offer a helping hand when needed

6/ Avoid drama
↳ Don't dwell on others' mistakes
↳ Don't gossip

These traits are simple, but very rare.
Mastering them is the easiest way to stand out.

Which one is the most important?


♻️ Repost if you liked this.
➡ Follow Miko Pawlikowski 🎙️ for more.

8 Hard Truths I Wish I Knew at 25 as a Software Engineer

0/ SWE is more about people than code
↳ Technical skills are required, but not sufficient

1/ Code doesn't matter, unless it serves business
↳ The sooner you learn this, the better for you

2/ Know when to hack together vs build a masterpiece
↳ There is a time and a place for both

3/ Making complex simple will take you places
↳ Code editor is not where you earn your next promotion

4/ Respect Sales, Marketing, Legal teams
↳ Often more important than the code

5/ The important stuff is evergreen
↳ Master the basics, don't chase the fashion

6/ Simple beats clever long term
↳ Real life is not LeetCode

7/ Your code won't love you back
↳ Don't fall in love with it, it's temporary


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6 Extremely Rare Skills that require No Talent:

1. Being easy to work with
↳ Makes everyone around you better off
↳ Your team wants you around

2. Consistency
↳ The boring "secret" to long-term success
↳ Leverage the compounding effect over time

3. Growth mindset
↳ Get a bit better every day
↳ Bounce back from setbacks

4. Getting things done
↳ Focus on results, not looking busy
↳ Always stands out long-term

5. Honesty
↳ Be reliable by not playing games
↳ Your reputation lasts for life

6. Low drama
↳ Keep things simple
↳ Don't get dragged down to petty issues

Everyone focuses on titles, years of experience, and big names.

But the real gems?
These 6 skills.
And the best part?
Everyone can build these.
They require no special talent.
Just good habits, repeated over and over.

What's your Number 1 most undervalued skill?
Let me know in the comments ⬇️


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10 Realizations After Surviving a Toxic Workplace

I learned the hard way that working hard isn’t enough, sometimes the environment breaks you before your work shines.

0/ Performance isn’t everything
→ Hard work alone doesn’t guarantee recognition or fairness in toxicity.

1/ Culture eats strategy for breakfast
→ No matter how brilliant the plan, a bad culture will always sabotage it.

2/ Boundaries are survival tools
→ Saying “no” and protecting your time isn’t selfish, it’s essential.

3/ Leaders set the tone
→ Toxic leaders create toxic teams, even when talent is present.

4/ Silence enables abuse
→ When nobody speaks up, bad behavior becomes the norm.

5/ Trust is fragile
→ Once broken, trust rarely fully recovers.

6/ Your mental health matters more than your paycheck
→ No salary justifies sustained burnout or anxiety.

7/ Good people leave first
→ Talented, ethical colleagues rarely stay long in toxicity.

8/ Survival skills aren’t growth skills
→ Just getting by doesn’t mean you’re growing professionally.

9/ Leaving isn’t failure
→ Walking away can be the most professional, courageous choice you make.

💡 What’s one hard lesson you learned from a toxic workplace?

You can just drop it in the comments; your story could empower someone stuck right now.

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🚨 19 Worst Rules of Software Engineering:

0. Ship bad software, call it "shipping early"
1. Show off your IQ with complex solutions
2. Evaluate devs by the number of LOC written
3. Withhold bonuses for missed estimates
4. Fix symptoms (ignore the root cause)
5. Ignore coding standards (they're for others)
6. Optimise for performance from day 0
7. If you can't understand, rewrite
8. Use that hot, new dependency
9. Argue over "the best" solution
10. Be "the smartest in the room"
11. Get defensive in code reviews
12. Make your juniors feel stupid
13. Stay in your expertise zone
14. Don't "waste time" on docs
15. Only learn the basics
16. git commit -m fix
17. Ignore security
18. Go full JIRA

What should #20 be?

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