How to handle other team members given credit for my work outside the team?

Question

Context

I've been working at this tech company for about 4 years as a software engineer and recently (~6 months ago) I transferred to a new team and have a new manager. My new team is responsible with making and delivering a software product to other internal teams (QA, integration, product management) for further productisation and that involves a lot of interaction between them and my team.

Situations

Other team members are assigned by my manager with interacting (answering questions, making releases) and I'm not even taking part in these interactions (not included in emails or meetings) even when my input is required (e.g. I worked on that particular feature that was delivered and further discussed). What's more upsetting is that these interactions are often handled by junior team members and they end up forwarding me questions/issues from the other teams and act as a buffer between me and other teams.

Another thing that upsets me is that whenever a task is shared with another team member, the other team member is always assigned on JIRA and gets more credit for it.

My manager gives me a lot of credit and praise for my work/ideas in internal team meetings, but none of them go beyond that to other teams or his boss. I feel like being used and not given full credit for my work and my concern is that I'm being passed over for future promotions.

Question

How should I handle this situation and what options do I have (besides leaving the company)?

Answer 1

Talk to your manager

By the sounds of things, you should be in these meetings or taking part in these discussions. It is inefficient otherwise. Having a junior member of the team act as a go-between will educate the junior team member at the risk of annoying the two people who should be talking. At the very least, you should reply to the forwarded email queries directly saying something like "Alice has forwarded your query to me because I developed that feature, I have some questions".

Before you talk to your manager, arm yourself with a couple of examples, such as the particular feature you delivered, and use them as a reason to request that you be involved (or at least informed) of these meetings. Don't be aggressive, just say something like "I heard you were discussing my new feature at this meeting. Would you like me to attend the meetings with that team in future? It'd be more efficient if I could discuss the requirements in person". It's not an unreasonable request and if your manager is already pleased with your work, s/he has no reason to deny it. It might transpire that your manager has thought that these meetings are a waste of your time, and you'd be better to spend the time developing. It might also transpire that your name came up in conversation and you have been receiving credit after all. But you will only find that out by asking.

Other than that, try not to worry. It's usually quite obvious which team member knows the most, just by talking to the team individually.

Answer 2

I think it's important to remember that Your manager might not even realize your discontent. If you don't actively pursue his acknowledgement you will never fully know, he might also think your satisfied with this level of gratification.

To take a leaf out of a book I read a long time ago on software development and how to progress you should start thinking about your time as if you were a business selling it back to the company you work for. If you do something that you think deserves credit you should send an email notifying your manager and maybe other stakeholders (His boss or other people involved in the product) informing / showing them the great work you've done. This should be patterned behavior, don't be worried about annoying people when it comes to showing them your bringing value, hell they'll probably like you more for it and it keeps you motivated as a team member. This is advice that doesn't just pertain to making but can be applied to things such as time keeping and time spent enriching others.

Really it all comes down to communication and taking the initiative within companies, sadly often those that do the most have the smallest soap boxes. Don't be scared to sing from the rooftops if you believe in what your doing and think you deserve more.