My first job out of uni was with an IT recycling company that was trying to extract itself from the rest of its conglomerate. I wore so many hats I could have started a store. Our highest security priority was preventing the other members of the conglomerate from seeing our customer list, for instance.
My tip is to try and best practice everything. Locate the correct method online, especially if theres applicable vendor best practice. Every time the director asked me to do something new, I would go away and find out what I should be doing, and then made that the basis of our negotiations. I didn't win every one of these fights, but I managed to spin the job so far that I did IP telephony, Security Cameras, built the company's ad forest and hundreds of other small relevant to my career wins. I ended up with 2 direct reports. And in the process I took a very immature business and injected a large amount of maturity that they kept with them for more than a decade. And I did them correctly, or as correctly as I could without support. By the time I looked to move on I was immediately made a senior in my next role.
My tip is to try and best practice everything. Locate the correct method online, especially if theres applicable vendor best practice. Every time the director asked me to do something new, I would go away and find out what I should be doing, and then made that the basis of our negotiations. I didn't win every one of these fights, but I managed to spin the job so far that I did IP telephony, Security Cameras, built the company's ad forest and hundreds of other small relevant to my career wins. I ended up with 2 direct reports. And in the process I took a very immature business and injected a large amount of maturity that they kept with them for more than a decade. And I did them correctly, or as correctly as I could without support. By the time I looked to move on I was immediately made a senior in my next role.