It's kind of like winning the lottery... you can't win if you don't play. The same holds true with your career. If no one knows you've been self training, why would they offer you more? And, once they know, if you don't ask, why would they offer you more?

In order for training to pay off salary wise, you have to...

1. Let people know you've been training.

2. Demonstrate your increased knowledge and skill.

3. Prove to the company that your increased knowledge and skill is a valuable thing to the company. It has to clearly demonstrate that you can do more in less time or do something much better in the same time or you can do something that you weren't able to do before.

p.s. If you start teaching others in your company, that will accomplish all 3 steps above and clearly demonstrate that you're a "company team player".

The other thing here is that the "Duffy" article is by a person that changed jobs 5 times in 4.5 years and went from being basically a button pusher to being a valuable programmer that also mentors others. In other words, he made a career change to a more lucrative and more valuable job title each time he changed jobs.

You can do the same maybe without changing jobs but you'll also need to take on extra responsibilities. Like I said though... if you don't let people know what you're doing and then demonstrate through your work that it has value to the company you're working for, nothing will come of it except some really good satisfaction on your part and something to add to your resume for the next job.

If you like the company you work for, let people know what you're doing and how it's helping the company. It's not a brag... it's a fact. 😉