The Psychology of Getting Ahead
Hard Work Is Not a Career Strategy
The people who advance aren't working harder. They understand what the people deciding are responding to. It follows patterns behavioral research has documented for decades.
Learn the psychology behind it and how to make it work in your favor. Taught by a software engineer with a PhD in behavioral economics.
Hi, I'm Fabian.
Most of you know me as a software engineer. But before that, I did something quite different. I studied mathematics and philosophy, then did a PhD in behavioral economics, which, simply put, is psychology applied to economic decision-making. I spent years researching and teaching it.
So I was set up for a completely different career. Companies often hire people with that background to find psychological levers that make you accept a lower salary, stop looking for better jobs, and wait longer for a promotion. You probably know some of these techniques from social media, where the same people get hired to keep you scrolling. It's the same toolkit, just aimed at employees instead of users.
I didn't go that route because it didn't feel right to me. But the knowledge didn't go away, and at some point I realized it works in both directions. These mechanisms work on everyone. Including the people on the other side of the table.
That knowledge has given me an edge ever since. The clearest example: I've changed careers twice. Both times, my experience counted for nothing, and I had to convince people to take a background seriously that looked nothing like what they usually hired. And both times it worked, because I knew what the people deciding were responding to.
Now think about your own career. Every interview, every performance review, every salary negotiation is decided by people responding to the same things. Decades of behavioral research show that human psychology systematically shapes those decisions. Most people never learn how it works. I'll show you. And with this knowledge, you'll be far more likely to land better job offers, get promoted faster, and get paid what your work is actually worth.
PhD
Behavioral Economics
10+ years
Teaching
7 years
Research
Course structure
The five modules below outline what the course covers. Every claim is backed by research, and you get the citations. Some studies are worth more than a footnote, and those we look at properly: how the experiment worked, what came out, what follows from it.
Module 0 | How Decisions About You Actually Get Made
A short primer before the practical work begins. Why decisions about people follow systematic psychological mechanisms, and what that means when you're the one being judged.
Module 1 | How Companies Keep Your Pay Down
What you earn only partly reflects your value on the market. The rest comes down to a whole set of psychological mechanisms that work in the company's favor. Take anchoring, the first number mentioned shapes every number that follows, and for a raise, that first number is what you already earn. Or framing, which makes a stated salary range look like a fact rather than something you could argue with.
These are two of many. You'll learn how they shape what you're offered, and where there's more room than you think.
Module 2 | How companies keep you from looking elsewhere
Loyalty is rarely a decision you made. It builds through psychological mechanisms that work unnoticed: the little benefits that create a sense of obligation or the quiet sense that staying is the safer choice.
You'll learn how these mechanisms work and how companies use them in practice. Being able to spot them turns something automatic into something you can decide about.
Module 3 | Getting Ahead Where You Are
Being good at your job isn't enough. What counts is how that work is perceived, and perception follows rules of its own. You know this intuitively, capable people get written off, and mediocre ones get a reputation for brilliance. The halo effect is one of these rules. Recency bias is another. You'll learn which mechanisms shape how you're judged, and how to work with them instead of hoping for a fair summary.
Module 4 | Getting Hired Somewhere Else
The strongest candidate on paper often isn't the one who gets called. Hiring decisions are made quickly, from thin evidence, by people who are mostly trying not to make a mistake. You'll learn what they're actually responding to: what makes someone read as trustworthy, how the candidates interviewed before you shape how you're perceived, and more. Before any of that, though, comes the decision behind the decision. Whether to leave at all. Loss aversion makes staying feel safer than it is, and an external offer changes your position long before you accept it.
What this course won't do
It won't give you rules that work every time. Human behavior doesn't come with guarantees. That's what behavioral research shows, and I won't pretend otherwise. What it will do is show you the machanisms behind decisions that shape your career and shift the odds in your favor.
