The career path of software engineers and how to navigate it
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During the talk, we explore the career path of a software engineer, what are the expectations at each level and how to acquire new skills to move between levels. We go over a way to decide on switching to management or staying on the individual contributor track. And we explore three strategies for continuous improvements.
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The career path of software engineers and how to navigate it
- 1. The career path of software engineers and how to navigate it Nikolay Stoitsev, Engineering Manager @ Uber
- 2. Career ladder Intern Software Engineer Software Engineer II Sr. Software Engineer
- 3. Uber Software Engineer Software Engineer II Senior Software Engineer Senior Software Engineer 2 Staff Software Engineer Sr. Staff Software Engineer Principle Engineer Levels have different names Google SWE 2 SWE 3 Senior SWE Staff SWE Senior Staff SWE Principal Engineer Distinguished Engineer Google Fellow Facebook E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 E9
- 4. Can’t directly compare levels between companies
- 5. Full career ladder Intern Software Engineer Software Engineer II Sr. Software Engineer ?
- 6. Good Engineer Good Manager
- 7. Full career ladder Intern Software Engineer Software Engineer II Sr. Software Engineer Staff Software Engineer
- 8. Full career ladder Intern Software Engineer Software Engineer II Sr. Software Engineer Engineering Manager Staff Software Engineer
- 9. Full career ladder Intern Software Engineer Software Engineer II Sr. Software Engineer Engineering Manager Staff Software Engineer Senior Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Individual Contributor (IC) Ladder
- 10. Full career ladder Intern Software Engineer Software Engineer II Sr. Software Engineer Engineering Manager Staff Software Engineer Senior Engineering Manager Principal Engineer Director Individual Contributor (IC) Ladder Manager Ladder
- 11. You can grow as an engineer and as a manager
- 12. ● Is autonomous in writing code ● Knows how to unblock themselves and ask for help ● Can solve well defined tasks with supervision IC Ladder - Intern
- 13. ● Knows how to unblock themselves ● Helps other on the team ● Can solve well defined tasks without supervision IC Ladder - SWE
- 14. ● Demonstrate end to end ownership ● Can solve any task with minimal supervision ● Turn feedback in growth IC Ladder - SWE 2
- 15. ● Leader in the projects they work on ● Can solve ambiguous tasks ● Sets culture and best practices in the team IC Ladder - SSWE
- 16. ● Recognised leader outside of their team ● Proposes solutions to problems spanning multiple teams ● Drives big impact work across the company IC Ladder - Staff SWE
- 17. EM EM Sr. EM Director VP CTOManager Ladder Director VP Sr. EM
- 18. ● Responsible for single team ● Sets direction and leads the execution ● Grows the team Manager Ladder - EM
- 19. ● Leads multiple big teams ● Leads long term technical and business solutions across the teams Manager Ladder - Director
- 20. ● Leads teams across multiple domains ● Charts the future of the company ● Establishes the culture Manager Ladder - VP
- 22. Do you care more about people or technology?
- 23. How to become a manager? Sr. Software Engineer Tech Lead EM Expert
- 24. 82% of the people made into managers don’t succeed in the role source: Gallup State of the American Manager: Analytics and Advice for Leaders, 2015
- 25. How to become an engineering manager?
- 26. How to become a product manager?
- 27. How to become a technical product manager?
- 28. How to grow
- 29. Every career step is hard
- 30. Working hard is just 25% of the formula
- 31. Switching jobs doesn’t help
- 32. Master the skills on the previous level
- 33. Requires mindset changes from the previous level
- 34. Has new skills to be mastered
- 35. So growth has to be directed
- 37. It’s not a checklist
- 46. Pick one growth area at a time
- 48. Understand how to do it and why
- 50. Practice it
- 53. You need to have career conversations with your manager
- 54. Have regular 1:1
- 55. Ask for feedback
- 56. Communicate your goals clearly
- 57. Never let your role define your impact, let your impact define your role Managing up
- 58. The single best hack to constantly become better
- 59. Find a mentor
- 60. Mentor - someone who you admire and knows you
- 61. There is no stack overflow for your career growth
- 63. What to talk about?
- 65. “Code review” your decisions and reactions
- 66. Ask for technical advice - wisdom and opinion
- 67. Better to be outside of your team
- 69. Be a mentor
- 70. Scale yourself with writing
- 71. The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change - Camille Fournier
- 76. Q&A