January 5, 2026
Climb the ladder or carry it?
Try to Take My Position: The Best Promotion Advice I Ever Got
Hustle hero or unpaid extra? Internet splits over 'act the role' advice
TLDR: The post says: act like your boss for months before you get the title to prove you’re ready. The comments split—some say it made them execs, others warn it becomes unpaid extra work or gets blocked by insecure managers; many advise using that new scope to switch jobs instead.
A manager tells you to “try to take my position” to get promoted—do the job before you get the title, and do it consistently for six months. Sounds bold, right? The crowd went wild. Half the comments cheered, half reached for the red flags. One camp says this absolutely works: spot team-wide problems, bring a plan, own it. The post even claims managers pre-pick promotion candidates 3–6 months early, so patterns beat one-hit wonders.
But the backlash was loud. Critics called it the corporate version of “dress for the job you want”—aka “do more work for the same pay.” Some warned insecure bosses will feel threatened and kneecap you. Others said it’s career judo: use the extra responsibilities to jump to a better job, not to beg for a title. Big-company veterans piled on with politics talk: works in small teams, but at scale it can backfire fast. The meme energy? Think “quiet promoting speedrun,” “act your wage,” and “Congrats, you unlocked Manager DLC (no raise).”
So the vibe: Ambition vs. exploitation. One side swears this mindset made them executives. The other side says it’s unpaid labor unless your org is healthy—and if it’s not, get the receipts, get the wins, then get out.
Key Points
- •Central advice: start doing the next-level job before receiving the title or promotion.
- •Example: a junior engineer drafted an RFC and plan to reduce service incidents, demonstrating team-level ownership.
- •Promotions depend on sustained performance, not isolated successes.
- •Managers often pre-select candidates 3–6 months before formal reviews and look for consistent behavior during that period.
- •Adopt a responsibility-first mindset: proactively address manager-level problems and maintain this behavior for months.