Presentation recording: https://youtu.be/HfkASaAE5rM During Tech Day part of Project A Knowledge Conference (PAKCon) I shared my thoughts and recommendations on tools Software Engineers can use to plan their careers and make progress. The presentation covers tools such as long term plans, coaches and mentors, brag docs (or internal resume if you prefer) and tries to bring them together to form a framework with each tool enabling and enhancing the next. The narrative of the presentation aims to make the toolkit and its use cases more memorable through an analogy of being on a journey. The tools and their connections are generic and powerful enough to help any software engineer whether fresh out of school or seasoned with some good years of experience in the industry

1. Software Engineer’s
Career Management
Toolkit
Özgen Güngör
10.10.2023
Berlin

2. Why me and why this topic?
Currently VP of Engineering at Catawiki (Project A: series B & C)
- 105+ ppl
- Recently Installed:
- Competency FW, Mentorship Programme, 4YPs, Effectiveness Surveys
Past management experiences in diverse industries and different stages of engineering org lifecycles;
including Uber and FedEx, adding up to 13 years in management
Prior to that software engineer for 8+ years
I care deeply about software engineers’ impact and growth, because I’ve been
there

3. Agenda
● Why
● What
● How
● Q&A
Software Engineer’s
Career Management
Toolkit

4. Why?
excluding education, continuous learning, commute and all extracurricular activities
13.2% and more

5. Why?
“If you don’t know where you
are going any road can take
you there.”

6. Why?
A journey mindset is active;
expressing desires, making
progress, and reflection.

7. Mountain
Map
Hill
Compass
SatNav
Supplies
Mapping your journey…

8. …to your toolkit
Long term plan
Competency framework
Goals
Brag Doc
Mentors and coaches
Learning and development

9. your toolkit
Long term plan
Competency framework
Goals
Brag Doc
Mentors and coaches
Learning and development
Let’s pack !

10. Long term plan

11. Long term plan
Benefits:
● Direction and purpose
● Optimizing potential
● Achievements
● Adaptation to change
● Increased motivation
● Increased job satisfaction
Benefits for your manager/org:
● Understand what motivates you
● They can support you better
● Match you with the right
opportunities

12. Long term plan
Example:
1. Vision of your future (3-5-10 years)
2. Career Goals
4. Short-Term Milestones
5. Skills and Qualifications: Current/Needed
6. Networking and Relationships
7. Resources and Investments
8. Potential Challenges
Annual, 4hrs

13. “it's important to realize that the person responsible for your career growth is
yourself; nobody cares more, nobody knows better what your value is. So drive
your career as you would drive a project. Understand what your team/company
need, set personal goals that address those needs, get buy-in from your manager
and start building. Document your progress and discuss it with your manager
periodically. This way growth becomes measurable and predictable.”
- Sabin Roman (Engineering Manager @ Linear)

14. Pitfalls:
● Rigidity
● Overambition
● Ignoring the short term
● Single-mindedness
● Stress and anxiety
Mitigation tactics
● Introspection
● Have a mentor (outside view)
● Find a few peers that you can
trust for critical feedback
● Revisit annually
● Embrace cone of uncertainty
Long term plan

15. Competency Frameworks

16. Competency Frameworks
Benefits
● Clarity of Expectations
● Goal Alignment
● Skill Enhancement
● Feedback and Assessment
● Structured Development
● Professional Growth
Benefits for your manager/org:
● Expectation management
● Context for performance
feedback
● Measure progress
● Recognize and reward growth

17. Engineer 1 (Fresh Graduate):
Technical Proficiency:
Basic understanding of programming languages and technologies.
Ability to write and debug simple code.
Demonstrated problem-solving skills in a guided environment.
Learning Orientation:
Willingness to learn new technologies and programming languages.
Openness to feedback and a proactive approach to improvement.
Eagerness to seek guidance and mentorship.
Team Collaboration:
Effective communication within the team.
Basic understanding of team dynamics and contribution to team goals.
Ability to work under supervision and in collaboration with senior team
members.
Quality and Testing:
Basic understanding of software testing and debugging.
Awareness of coding standards and code reviews.
Commitment to producing clean and maintainable code.
Principal Engineer (Highest Level):
Technical Mastery:
Deep expertise in specific technical domains or technologies.
Lead in complex architectural design and decision-making.
Innovation and exploration of emerging technologies.
Strategic Leadership:
Strategic thinking and contribution to the organization's technical vision.
Mentorship and coaching of engineers at all levels.
Influence on technical strategy and direction.
Ownership and Impact:
Ownership of significant and critical areas of the product.
Impactful contributions to the organization's goals and growth.
Risk management and mitigation at an organizational level.
Thought Leadership:
Recognition as a thought leader in the industry.
Contribution to open-source projects or technical publications.
Representation of the organization in industry forums and conferences.
Competency Frameworks Annual, 4hrs

18. "Competency Framework" is definitely the most impactful career management
tool for me, by analysing where I stand compared to next level, I was able to
identify gaps and create a plan to successfully get promoted 3 times at Uber.
Leveraging this framework as the baseline removes the potential biases and
helped me and my manager(s) actually come up with an actionable growth plan
for me.
- Baran Küçükgüzel (Sr. Staff Eng. @ Uber)
Bonus: DropBox released publicly and then iterated on their Career Framework here
Bonus: Keep an eye on Gergely Orozs’ (Pragmatic Engineer Blog) new book coming out soon.

19. Pitfalls:
● 404!
● Rigid Compliance & Box-Ticking
● Lack of Individualization
● Neglect of Soft Skills
● Inflexible Career Pathing
● Lack of Real-World Application
● Stress and Pressure
Mitigation tactics
● Polyfill! There are great
sources available for you to
have your own version
● Balance with long-term career
goals.
● Use as a foundation but remain
open to skill development
beyond its scope.
● Emphasize the development of
both technical and soft skills.
● Align with your manager on
realistic expectations
Competency Frameworks

20. Goals

21. Goals
Benefits:
● Trade-offs and focus
● Measurable progress
● Structured feedback
● Accountability
Benefits for your manager/org:
● Mutual commitment and
accountability
● Clear support vectors
● Increased fairness in
performance management

22. Goals
Professional Development Goals:
Technical Competence:
Goal:
Actions:
Soft Skills Enhancement:
Goal:
Actions:
Project and Team Goals:
Project Contribution:
Goal:
Actions:
Measurable Outcome:
Collaboration and Mentorship:
Goal:
Actions:
Measurable Outcome:
Bi-Annual, 4hrs

23. Pitfalls:
● Unrealistic goals
● Ignoring motivation
● Inattention to results
● Failure to reflect
Mitigation tactics
● Communicate early and
frequently
● Use LTP and Competency
framework to align your goals
with your motivations
● Get feedback and reflect
Goals

24. Brag doc

25. Brag doc
Benefits:
● Personal development
● Performance reviews
● Recognition and visibility
● Personal branding
● Self-confidence
● Objective evaluation
Benefits for your manager/org:
● Short feedback loop
● Scalable to the org
● Fairer performance reviews
● Find and shine good examples

26. Brag doc (a.k.a. internal résumé)
Achievements
Project X (Q1 2023 - Q2 2023)
Led a cross-functional team of 5 engineers to deliver Project X, a critical system upgrade.
Delivered the project ahead of schedule, reducing implementation time by 30%.
Achieved a 20% improvement in system performance, resulting in enhanced user experience.
Received recognition from the project sponsor for outstanding leadership and results.
Mentorship and Team Development
Mentored two junior engineers, guiding them in project work and skill development.
Organized and conducted weekly knowledge-sharing sessions on emerging technologies.
Led technical training workshops for the team, improving overall coding standards and practices.
Skills Enhancement
Technical Skills
Deepened expertise in Python, becoming the go-to resource for Python-related technical questions.
Actively contributed to open-source projects, enhancing proficiency in open-source development.
Soft Skills
Improved communication skills through Toastmasters participation, resulting in more effective team meetings and presentations.
Initiated cross-functional collaboration efforts to foster a culture of teamwork and knowledge sharing.
Feedback and Recognition
Received consistent positive feedback from peers and supervisors during performance reviews.
Selected as a technical reviewer for the company's coding standards and best practices documentation.
Future Goals
Plan to pursue AWS certification to further strengthen cloud computing skills.
Lead a high-impact cross-team project focused on improving system scalability and reliability.
Monthly, 1hr

27. “Recommending one to any engineer - I think brag doc / work journal. Not only it
helps during the perf/promo process, but on a daily basis as well. Sometimes there
are periods when you feel that you didn’t achieve much, so it’s important to have a
reference to look back and say, ah, no, I did this and that and here are the results.”
- Pavel Mazurin (Staff Software Engineer @ Noom)
Bonus: Julia Evans’ great article and template are available here

28. Pitfalls:
● Emphasis on self-promotion
● Lack of humility
● Failure to update regularly
● Inflexibility
● Confidentiality
● Goodhart's law
Mitigation tactics
● Fact based statements
● Provide additional context
● Review with stakeholders
● Credit others around you
Brag doc

29. Mentors and coaches

30. Mentors and coaches
Benefits:
● Mindset fit
● Get feedback and advice on your
goals
● Leverage their network
● Learn from their experience
Benefits for your manager/org:
● Create a 360° network of
mentors and mentees
● Connect with competency
framework
● Bring external insights into
team/org

31. Agenda:
1. Progress Review
2. Career and Skill Development
3. Technical Topics of Interest
4. Questions and Guidance
5. Action Items and Next Steps
Mentors and coaches Monthly, 1-2 hrs

32. Pitfalls:
● Not helping them help you
● Overdependence
● Ignoring their experience
● Expecting immediate results
Mitigation tactics
● Seek guidance, not decisions
● Use reflection and peer
network
● Channel their input to specific
areas/topics
● Take time to build mutual
context for long-lasting results
Mentors and coaches

33. Learning and development

34. Benefits:
● Increase depth of knowledge
● Add new specialised skills (I-shape,
T-shape, V-Shape, DevOps,
DevSecOps,...)
● Support progress through the
competency framework
● Keeping skills sharp
● Communication skills
● Leadership skills
Learning and development
Benefits for your manager/org:
● More robust, versatile ICs
and teams
● High performance
● Increased impact radius
● Growing leaders

35. Learning and development
Online Learning Platforms
Coding Practice and Challenges
Programming Books
Video Tutorials and YouTube Channels
Open-Source Projects
Programming Blogs and Websites
Coding Bootcamps
Tech Conferences and Webinars
Podcasts
Online Code Playgrounds
E-books and Digital Libraries
Certification Programs
Monthly, 4-10hrs

36. Pitfalls:
● Overambitious planning, too many
tabs open
● Inconsistent learning habits
● Diminishing returns
● Comparing yourself to others
● Not celebrating achievements
Mitigation tactics
● Create reliable bandwidth
● Prioritize and focus the
bandwidth
● Validate your L&D
objectives
● Celebrate
● Share learnings with others
Learning and development

37. Key Takeaways
● Start with: Where do I want to go in my career?
● Continue with: How can I be most impactful?
● Use the toolkit to make things more visible and tangible
● Mix and match the tools as you need:
○ Absolute minimum recommended: Competencies + Brag Doc + Mentor
● Share your plans, develop relationships and leverage resources to get
good feedback and support
● Remain adaptive and active in your career growth
● Set cadence to review and update
● Enjoy the journey

38. Thank you
Danke
schön
Dank je wel
Teşekkürler

39. Q&A

40. Coming soon
● Employee Journey Mapping for Software Engineering Organisations

41. Attributions
Icons
Mountain icons created by Freepik - Flaticon
Hills icons created by mnauliady - Flaticon
Map icons created by Freepik - Flaticon
Compass icons created by Freepik - Flaticon
SatNav icons created by phatplus - Flaticon
Backpack icons created by srip - Flaticon
Cycle icons created by Uniconlabs - Flaticon
Images via Imagin.art
Backpack / Prompt: contents of a traveler's backpack, including a compass, a flashlight, a map, a rope, don't include glasses or spectacles
Time / Prompt : a pocket watch in the center of a square postcard
Alice / Prompt : alice in wonderland chatting with the cheshire cat sitting on a branch
Traveler / Prompt: a traveler standing in front of mountains with hills and valleys