Mastering the Game: How Corporate Politics Shape Your Career
Playing for Influence, Not Just Output
Table of Contents
How Corporate Politics Shape Your Career
This blogpost was published on my X/Twitter account on May 2nd, 2025 .
On Thursday, May 1, 2025, I hosted a space titled “Titles, Power, and Playing the Game” with my friends Skyler Payne and Giyu . Skylar is ex-Google, ex-LinkedIn, so he’s got those big corps under the belt; he even once politicked so hard, someone wrote a blind post about him. Giyu, meanwhile, just landed his first full-time job and is already climbing the ladder fast. But like anyone new to the corporate world, he’s been running into a few dilemmas along the way. That’s what sparked this audio space and the article you’re reading now.
Why Talk About This?
Earlier in my career, whenever I heard “corporate politics,” I usually thought of greasy handshakes and backroom deals. Stuff I’d typically tune out because, frankly, I’d rather be building and learning. Very engineer-minded. I eventually realized that “corporate politics” wasn’t about manipulation, it was about learning to navigate the human network to actually get things done.
Titles: Scope, Signals, and What You Actually Do
Giyu, who was hired with no previous full-time experiences but had a couple of years of consulting under his belt, was struggling with what job title to take. He got into an org that got him promoted within the first 3 days of his onboarding. He works directly with the CTO, and does a lot of heavy lifting: architecting, leading data, managing stakeholders across teams; but all at a newer company. He was hesitant to grab a big title like “Head of” or “Director” too early, worried it might mess with his path later. Title inflation is real, but also titles mean different things everywhere.
Skylar warned against jumping at a VP title too soon, especially in smaller shops where it might not have the real weight: “Titles signal your scope,” he said. Taking a VP title when you’re basically a super-strong tech lead can misrepresent things and cause headaches down the line when you talk to bigger companies. It can look like ego or make it hard to accept a title that fits the scope elsewhere.
But beyond the labels, Skyler pushed a deeper question: What kind of work do you actually want to be doing? Fire-fighting daily? Building medium-term? Long-term strategy? Hands-on coding vs. guiding others? Giyu felt strongest about medium-term building, maybe a 30/70 split coding vs. guiding.
Skyler broke down the usual paths:
- IC Track: From just doing the work (Junior/Senior) to figuring out what problems need solving (Staff) and driving the bigger picture (Principal). He pegged Giyu’s hustle as Staff+ level.
- Management Track: Manager -> Director -> VP, with scope and strategy growing at each step.
Based on that, Skyler suggested “Staff+” made sense. It reflects the impact, partners with the CTO, but keeps future doors open. The key takeaway is to let the work you want to do drive the title, not the other way around. Focus on the what, the title follows the substance.
Politics Isn’t Dirty, It’s Just Influence in the Network
Skyler asked, “do you wanna do big things?” If so, you gotta get people on board and be seen. That alignment is politics. It’s about relationships, sure, but also visibility. You can’t just build cool stuff in the dark and expect things to happen.
He said it’s essentially about influence: selling your vision. Both he and Giyu stressed it’s not about being fake, but genuinely connecting and figuring out what makes people tick. Giyu admitted it felt weird at first, but seeing its value changed how he operated.
Visibility is key. Quiet work doesn’t move the needle on your career. People need to see the contribution. Skyler pointed out understanding the human element is critical, and sometimes that means framing things around how it helps others, appeals to their interests, maybe even their ego. It’s about making it a win for them too. Corporate politics is like sales: it often comes down to people and how you make them feel.
Dealing with Disagreements Without Burning Bridges
Giyu also had this sticky situation: his data showed some serious problems, contradicting what others were reporting. How do you handle that? Skyler and I agreed on this: Don’t drop a bomb in public.
The smart play? Align privately first. Go to the other person, “Hey, I looked at this and got a different result. Can we sync up on how we approached it?” Give them a chance to see it, maybe correct things, without public embarrassment. Saves face, builds bridges instead of burning them. If you have to bring it up in a bigger meeting without a 1-on-1 first, loop in a trusted leader beforehand. Frame it as needing clarification or further investigation together, not an ambush. Playing the long game means keeping relationships intact.
Avoiding Burnout: Manage Expectations Upwards
Talk turned to burnout. We agreed that a lot of feeling overworked comes from setting bad precedents, not pushing back. “Leadership can’t fix issues they can’t see,” he said. If your team just keeps absorbing insane demands without flagging it, you hide the real cost; maybe you’re understaffed, maybe planning sucks. No feedback loop means no fix.
Yeah, you might need intense periods early on to skill up, but long-term? You need boundaries. Critically, you need to communicate workload up the chain. Frame it constructively: “To deliver X for you, I need Y resources/time. Can you help make that happen?” It puts the ball back in management’s court to provide support and recognizes the actual effort involved. It’s about managing the game so it doesn’t just chew you up.
The Gist: Play the Game Intentionally
So, this whole corporate politics thing? When you strip away the negative spin, it’s a crucial skill. It’s part of the distribution; getting your work, your ideas, and yourself seen and supported. It’s not just about being technically brilliant; it’s understanding the human network, knowing your own goals, building real connections, influencing effectively, managing how you’re perceived, and setting clear boundaries (even with your bosses).
If there’s one thing you should walk away with, it’s this: Are you actively playing the game? Are you managing your connections, your visibility, your path, all with intention? Or are you just building in the quiet, hoping the work somehow speaks for itself in a noisy world? Something to chew on.
Until next time.
P.S. If this was your first time coming across me , you should take a look at my website . It’s mainly technical posts on AI & Infra. I got an About Me page that I think is a fun read. There are some articles on X that haven’t made it to the blog yet. Also, check out my 14x RTX 3090s Basement AI Server .