Devoxx France talk about Individual Contributor Career Path

1. Développ(eur|euse) Senior avec 6 ans d’expérience
Et après ?

2. Senior, 6 years, the end of the road?

3. Senior, 6 years, the end of the road?

4. Engineering ladder
You are here

5. You are here
Manager’s Path
Manager
track

6. Manager
track
?
You are here
Manager’s Path
Engineering Management (EM)

7. Engineering
track
Leadership’s Path
Individual Contributor (IC)
You are here

8. You are here
Manager’s Path
Engineering Management (EM)
Leadership’s Path
Individual Contributor (IC)
Dual
ladder
Pendulum

9. Dual ladder and salaries
It’s all about
impact

10. Take aways
Advocate for an Individual Contributor track in your
company
Salary and progression are not only about the
years of experience or expertise
It’s all about impact

11. Did you recently have
Impact?

12. Impact has a variable reach

13. Impact has a variable reach
Junior: Impact is Individual
“Take this tightly defined
feature and build it”
Zain Rizvi

14. Impact has a variable reach
Confirmed: Impact at team level
Individual
“Take this vaguely defined
feature and build it”
Zain Rizvi

15. Impact has a variable reach
Senior: Impact on tribe
“Take this known problem
and figure out how to solve
it”
Zain Rizvi
You are here

16. Impact has a variable reach
Staff: Impact on product and beyond
“Take this goal and find the
problem we should be
solving”
Zain Rizvi

17. Impact has a variable reach
Principal: Impact on company
“Observe the company and
define the goals we should
be focusing on”
Hugo

18. Impact has a variable reach
Distinguished/fellow: Impact on the industry
“Iterate and start over at the
industry level”
Hugo

19. Individual Contributors - Staff / Principal / Fellow
Kent Beck
Fellow
(JUnit / XP)
Neha Narkhede
Principal - Kafka
Audrey Neuveu
Staff Eng Pivotal
Julien Viet
Principal RedHat
David Gageot
Principal
Doctolib

20. Step up as staff
1. Develop your
Leadership
2. Build your business mindset

21. How do you create
impact?
Listen to your users, take a step back
Measure things
Set new goals
Align people towards those goals
Iterate

22. But, how do you develop your
Leadership
& Business sense ?

23. Leadership is another side of management

24. The Leadership branch
is not without hassle

25. When do you create impact?

26. Sometimes, you’ll create friction, and it’s ok
if…
(wait for it)

27. Be the problem solving person, not the brilliant jerk

28. Framework for leaders
Avoid “us versus them” : we are one team
Aim to improve
Focus on what is actionable: suggest solutions
Disagree and commit
Strongly inspired from the “feedback framework” from Netflix

29. It’s all about
You
Thanks !

30. Read this
Source you should know:
https://www.levels.fyi
https://www.progression.fyi/
http://www.engineeringladders.com/
Engineering Career GitLab
Spotify Technology Career
Sharing Our Engineering Ladder
From Junior Software Engineer to
Engineering Manager in 10 years
C'est moi le Chef ! Être ou ne pas être manager en
2019 (Nicolas Helleringer) - Devoxx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWARXoZrx10
https://staffeng.com
Engineering career path at Malt

31. https://staffeng.com
● Overview
1. Overview
2. Staff engineer archetypes
3. What do Staff engineers actually do?
4. Does the title even matter?
● Operating at Staff
1. Operating at Staff
2. Work on what matters
3. Writing engineering strategy
4. Managing technical quality
5. Stay aligned with authority
6. To lead, you have to follow
7. Learn to never be wrong
8. Create space for others
9. Build a network of peers
10. Present to executives
● Getting the title where you are
1. Getting the title
2. Promotion packets
3. Get in the room, and stay there
4. Find your sponsor
5. Staff projects
6. Being visible
● Switching companies to get the title
1. Deciding to switch companies
2. Finding the right company
3. Interviewing for Staff-plus roles
4. Negotiating your offer
● Resources
1. Additional resources on Staff-plus engineering
2. Where do Staff-plus engineers fit into the org?
3. Managing Staff-plus engineers
4. Designing a Staff-plus interview loop
5. Staff-plus career ladders
6. Introduction to systems thinking
Read this

32. Hugo Lassiège
Founder/CTO Malt
eventuallycoding.com
Dimitri Baeli
Tech Staff @BackMarket
co-Founder Tech.Rocks / FlowCon