I feel like I can add some value here having worked in Asia (India) and now in Europe (Amsterdam).

From my view I think Alex hit the nail on the point of it depends on your manager and company.

I know when I was working in India I would routinely work less than 20 hours per week including meetings and still got exceptional ratings, while other people in the same team even work 50+ hours and got meets. Now that doesn't mean I was by any means vastly exceptional however, a key difference was quantifiable output that was done along with the perception of value (setting templates for pipelines, creating naming conventions, roadmap planning with business, etc).

Something similar in Amsterdam, sometimes I work less than 30 hours sometimes more than 40 (depends on many factors including my mood). However, my output / value remains consistent. Although while seen as norm to not work as much, there are a lot of people who put in 50+ hour weeks even in Europe.

The highest value in my experience for myself is from connecting dots and bringing together initiatives. Which in raw hours takes less time but overall might actually take more. Since I do this on top of my actual expectations of others (which after demonstrating other higher priority work, I start discussing with my manager to have someone else take it over). This is similar to just growing in your career like the next level roles but at the same time figuring out what can be left out without impacting the value (perception is also key but if it's just an illusion it can only last so long).

As Alex stated, the expectations are also sky high, so it's best to determine how much you're willing to put in. There are times I decided that I won't do more for now as I wanted to focus on something else in my life outside work. But just knowing that you're making such a decision is crucial to feeling better about the work / value you bring in.

There are tons on resources on Taro for growing in your career and in my view evaluating against a career / level framework or even just Job Description is a better indicator of working hard than the hours. Mileage will vary by manager / company. In startups these may not be defined but I took that as an opportunity to sit down with the CTO and CEO and ask them hey I'm doing these things, what do YOU value from it (of course business and tech value things differently)? What else gaps do you see for value delivery (sometimes it's a strategic opportunity to grow and other times I decide it's not for me). Bridging the business and technical gaps in value or better presenting it in a different light for each is value.

Entry-Level Software Engineer [SE1] at Booking.com

Rohith TR

In this course, Louie tells you the things your manager wants to tell you, but can't. Either because it would make things awkward, or it would get them in trouble. 

These are things you'd have to learn the hard way. This is the advice Louie wishes he had years ago, that you will get now. This course condenses a year of One on Ones into 1.5 hours.