Growing from engineer to Staff engineer and thriving
Growing from engineer to Staff engineer and thriving
Clear communication, empathy and good collaboration becomes very important!
DevStats (sponsored)
With DevStats, you can discover countless opportunities to improve your developer experience:
Analyze code output and reviews
Monitor your code investment balance
Improve player motivation
I’ve checked their platform thoroughly and there is one tab dedicated just to DevEx, where there are many metrics available to get the pulse of your squad.
If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend checking DevStats out! No credit card is required to start your trial.
Let’s get back to this week’s thought.
Intro
This article is part of the edition: “Which is the right engineering career path for you?”. This edition is particularly made for engineers to make good decisions regarding their career growth. Knowing in which direction to grow, will ensure you focus on learning the right things.
If you missed the first 3 articles in this edition, you can read them here (paid articles):
In this edition, we are going to go through the mindset of growing and thriving in the IC path, especially how to grow toward and thrive in a Staff Engineer position.
A lot of you have asked me about what Staff Engineers do on a daily basis and how do you become one.
I am happy to share my chat with
, Staff Engineer at Meta. He’ll tell us a bit about what excites him in the engineering industry, what he does on a daily basis and he’ll share his tips on becoming a Staff Engineer. We’ll also get a bit of insight into his mind and how he thinks about things.Let’s get straight into it!
How did you get into engineering, and what excites you about this industry?
I’ve always enjoyed two things in life: 1) understanding how things work, and 2) helping others. Software engineering was one of the main ways to do that.
Creating software is special because it has the ability to have impact on many people. The leverage that I have as an engineer is very promising and I’ve seen that in my work throughout the past few decades.
What excites me about the tech industry is the number of really smart people working in it. I get to learn from my peers and those around me daily. Even as a staff engineer, I’m constantly challenged by those around me to think differently. This has helped expand my perspective around not just work, but life as well.
How were you able to grow to Staff level in such a short amount of time. What is your secret?
My secret is honing soft skills. I grew to Staff pretty quickly after joining Meta. I noticed that software engineers tend to focus too heavily on their technical skills, which everyone is already really good at in large companies like Meta.
To stand out, I made sure I collaborated well with others. I employed empathy. I communicated clearly. I made sure to inject fun wherever I could. The more I did it, the more I enjoyed the process.
The truth is – there is no real secret here. What I’m about to say is what you already know: You have to enjoy the work that you do, be good at it, and work well with others.
Can you explain what your typical workday looks like?
I have a typical 40-45 hour work week at Meta. I have to caveat that this differs from team to team, and from company to company as well. Right now, I allocate Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as focus / no-meeting days, while Tuesdays and Thursdays are heavy-meeting days.
Every day, I spend the first 15 mins planning my schedule for the day. If it’s Monday, I allocate 30 mins to figuring out what I need to do for the week. Once I have my lists, I spend time prioritizing and ordering the list of items. I then add them to my calendar so I don’t have to remember what I’m tackling when.
For Tuesdays and Thursdays, since they are heavy meeting days, I tend to be a bit more flexible. I use this time for engineering discussions, 1:1 catch-ups, standups, improving culture.
How can you tell if an aspiring engineer has the potential to grow to Staff level and beyond?
Every engineer who wants to grow should be able to grow. As long as you’re willing to know and work on your area of improvements, you’ll be able to grow to Staff and beyond.
How do you do that? Ask for feedback continuously. In your 1:1s with others, ask what your strengths and areas of improvement are. Make sure to do this with different folks to gain their perspectives.
Most importantly, learn how to receive feedback well. Use it as an opportunity to improve, and not as a nick on your character / behavior. Framing feedback as opportunity opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Mindset is very important.
What tips do you have for engineers that wish to grow to Staff level and thrive in the role?
I have several tips here:
Be open to feedback. Use these as opportunities to improve your growth areas.
Communicate and collaborate well. Build friends, not enemies.
Prioritize your projects properly. Take on one or two large projects at a time.
Maintain work-life balance. Your job is not your life!
What is the next challenge and goal for you?
I still struggle with dealing with conflict. As I’ve leveled up, I tend to be more involved in the conflicts between orgs and senior engineers. The skills that I need to employ differ from what I used for interpersonal challenges.
My goal is to be able to turn this large-scale conflict into opportunities and help both sides move forward better.
Any final words for all the engineers that want to grow to Staff level and beyond?
Remember, seniority levels is only one way to define an engineer. My recommendation is to not be obsessed with levels. They are often used as a marker to compare with others.
Instead, you should be obsessed with your personal growth, not what your manager / company thinks of you.
Don’t focus on the result (levels), and enjoy the journey instead!
My key takeaways from the conversation I had with Sidwyn
Very similar to myself, Sidwyn has focused on soft skills and this has helped him to progress toward Staff level. I did the same, just the difference is that I went to the management path, which has shown to be the right path for me!
I really like how he takes ownership of his calendar and has a great split of focus days and meetings days. In my case, I dedicate specific blocks of time to manager time and focus time. It’s really important to find the balance that works for your case.
As I mention very frequently → good work-life balance is key to be doing good work long-term. Glad that Sidwyn has mentioned that as a tip for growing.
What are your key takeaways from reading this article? Feel free to comment yours!
Last words
Thanks to Sidwyn for sharing his insights with us! Make sure to check him out on LinkedIn and also his newsletter
. He particularly focuses on creating articles that help readers to level up and grow toward a Staff role.We are not over yet!
Senior Engineer to Lead: Grow and thrive in the role (upcoming Cohort in November)
On Thursday, this week, we finished the second Cohort of the Senior Engineer to Lead: Grow and thrive in the role course!
As I said to my students, it's a bit of a bittersweet moment.
On one side you are happy that your students have finished the course and on the other hand, you get used to spending time discussing such fun topics with people that are equally excited about the topic!
I am already excited for the third Cohort which will be in November (the last one this year)!
If you are interested in joining, you can enroll with the early bird 25% discount here.
New shirt in store!
I have added a new shirt with the sign: “Empathy is a superpower in the engineering industry” to the store!
If you wish to check it out, you can do it here.
Liked this article? Make sure to 💙 click the like button.
Feedback or addition? Make sure to 💬 comment.
Know someone that would find this helpful? Make sure to 🔁 share this post.
Whenever you are ready, here is how I can help you further
Join the Cohort course Senior Engineer to Lead: Grow and thrive in the role here.
Interested in sponsoring this newsletter? Check the sponsorship options here.
Book a Coaching and Mentoring or Consulting and Advising call with me here.
Take a look at the cool swag in the Engineering Leadership Store here.
Get in touch
You can find me on LinkedIn or Twitter.
If you wish to make a request on particular topic you would like to read, you can send me an email to info@gregorojstersek.com.
This newsletter is funded by paid subscriptions from readers like yourself.
If you aren’t already, consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive the full experience!
You are more than welcome to find whatever interests you here and try it out in your particular case. Let me know how it went! Topics are normally about all things engineering related, leadership, management, developing scalable products, building teams etc.
 | A guest post by
|
Nice article!
One of the biggest realizations is that the higher you go, the more autonomy you have over your schedule. But it’s not like by having control of your schedule you’d climb higher. It’s the other way around: When you are solid enough to climb high, you are trusted with more autonomy.
Loved the read, Sidwyn and Gregor and especially the focus on soft skills. Amazing collab, guys!