Careers are long and not always linear.
At least, that’s how Rong Yan, now the chief technology officer at HeyGen, thinks about it.
So his best advice for those who want to climb the tech ladder: Don’t aim for promotions.
“Don’t make promotions the objective of your work,” he said on “The Peterman Pod” recently.
Things are going to get “painful” if you focus too much on promotions, he said.
It’s surprising advice from someone who has swiftly leaped up the corporate ladder during his career.
Yan has been working in the tech industry since he earned his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 2006. He began his career as a researcher at IBM before joining Meta, where he advanced from researcher to manager in just three years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He then held director positions at Square and Snacphat, and was vice president of engineering at HubSpot, before he joined HeyGen, a visual storytelling platform, in 2024.
Over the years, he said he has noticed that those he has mentored can make themselves miserable when they strive for a promotion.
“Don’t do that,” he said. “When you start to get into that mindset, you start to count your happiness or your career growth toward something that you don’t have full control over.”
It’s better to control the things you can control. “Learn how to adjust, and you’ll be a better self afterward,” he said.
For those still determined to seek a promotion, however, timing matters.
Executive coach Andrea Wasserman previously told Business Insider that it’s best to put yourself in your manager’s shoes and think about what’s happening across the team or company. Ask yourself, “Will this timing make it easier or harder for me to get a ‘yes?'”
