Are You Ready for a Senior Role?

Moving from being a mid level engineer a senior role can feel like a huge leap--especially when your new responsibilities aren't well defined. What does it mean to embrace a senior role? It's not just about experience and years on the job; it's an entire mindset shift.

Jenny Bramble, Director of Quality Engineering, takes a step back from formal job descriptions to talk about what she looks for in rising senior engineers including how we approach assessing risk, how we work to empower and lead others, and how our impact changes as we mature in our roles. By generalizing the senior mindset, you can apply these ideas to any type of role.

You'll leave this talk with a clearer picture on what seniors are often asked to do and how we can start building a senior mindset as early as possible in our careers. Most off, you'll be prepared to answer: Am I ready for a senior role?

Transcript

1. Jenny Bramble Are You Ready for a Senior Role? Director of Quality Engineerin g Papa @jennydoesthings
2. I have been many things—a rabbit farmer, a mushroom seller, a goth, a tester … And now I’m a hiring manager as the Director of Quality Engineering at Papa. About Me @jennydoesthings
3. I’ve been trying to answer the question ‘what is a senior engineer’ for a long time. @jennydoesthings
4. What I’ve come to is that it’s a mindset that encourages risk-aware, cross- functional collaboration. @jennydoesthings
5. Here’s a quick table that’s a TL;DR of the rest of the talk. @jennydoesthings
6. Radford Levels P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Associate / Entry Career / Mid-level Senior / Mid-level Staff / Senior Principal / Senior Learns about rope Can tie basic knot s Show complex knots Calculates rope strengt h Knows a lot about knots Understands rope making Knows more about rope than you ever will Aware of their own work Aware of the effects of their work on the team Aware of the effects of team's work on other teams/company Works on problems of limited scope. Capable of working independently but needs regular input Work is done indpentantly and reviewed at critical moments. Work is reviewed on completion. Can be given vague direction. @jennydoesthings
7. Agenda Areas of evaluation What does it mean to be entry level? What does it mean to be mid-level? 01 02 03 @jennydoesthings
8. Getting there What does it mean to be senior? How do we get there? 05 04 Agenda @jennydoesthings
9. Areas of Evaluation 01 @jennydoesthings
10. Tooling The day-to-day things that you use to do your job—or do it better. How create your output and engage recommended practices. The probability that something will go wrong and the impact if it does. Areas of Evaluation Methodology Risk @jennydoesthings
11. Crucial Conversations Discussions where the sakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong. Guiding or being guided by others in the company in a formal or informal way. The ability and desire to increase your skills and the skills of your teammates. Areas of Evaluation Mentorship Learning @jennydoesthings
12. There are more things that are important but they aren’t core to developing the senior mindset. @jennydoesthings
13. Okay, let’s talk about how this plays out at different levels. @jennydoesthings
14. What does it mean to be entry level? 02 @jennydoesthings
15. Aware of their own work Work on tasks that are given to them Dependent on others to be successful Being introduced to their career @jennydoesthings
16. Tooling Learning to apply given tools to given problems. Introduced to industry methodology and how we respond to situations. Recognizes risks when they are identified. Entry Level Expectations Methodology Risk @jennydoesthings
17. Crucial Conversations Participates in crucial conversations with support in a safe environment. Is an active mentee, taking interest in their career growth and short-term goals. Eager to enrich themselves and consumes resources that relate to their current tasks. Entry Level Expectations Mentorship Learning @jennydoesthings
18. What does it mean to be mid-level? 03 @jennydoesthings
19. Aware of the effects of their work on the team Work on tasks that are important to the team Less dependent on others to be successful Starting to specialize in their field @jennydoesthings
20. Tooling Seeks out tools to enhance their work and learning when to apply different tools. Applies methodology and recommended practices to situations. Actively seeks out new practices. Identifies risks and mitigations on a feature and team level. Mid-Level Expectations Methodology Risk @jennydoesthings
21. Crucial Conversations Works towards leading crucial conversations with support in a safe environment. Is an active mentee, taking interest in their career growth and longer-term career goals . Informally mentors others. Building skills in their primary discipline or platform while becoming more aware of related disciplines. Mid-Level Expectations Mentorship Learning @jennydoesthings
22. What does it mean to be senior? 04 @jennydoesthings
23. Aware of the effects of their work on the company Guides the work of other team members Others are dependent on them to be successful Shows deep knowledge and experience in their field @jennydoesthings
24. Tooling Recommends and creates tooling that fulfills the needs of the team and company. Actively recommends and contributes to methodology and practices common to the industry. Looks at risk from a project and company level. Proactively mitigates risks across teams. Senior Expectations Methodology Risk @jennydoesthings
25. Crucial Conversations Leads crucial conversations and supports others in their conversations. Provides deep mentorship to others including career path and sharing experience. Helps other members of the team learn by providing and creating resources. Senior Expectations Mentorship Learning @jennydoesthings
26. Getting there. 05 @jennydoesthings
27. Moving into the Senior Mindset @jennydoesthings
28. Aware of the effects of their work on the company • How does the work your team is doing impact the company ? • Are there ways that your work interacts with other teams ? • What should other teams know about the work you’re doing ? Behaviors: • Communicating with other team s • Keeping people informe d • Bringing the right people into conversation s • Understanding the implications of the work.\ @jennydoesthings
29. Guides the work of other team members • This is not about telling other people what to do or ordering them about . • This is an extension of mentorship. Behaviors : • Collaborating on the best way to build, maintain, and conceptualize softwar e • Sharing experience and knowledg e • Working though problems, not just solving things alone @jennydoesthings
30. Others are dependent on them to be successful • This does not mean that the senior is irreplaceable . • It speaks to the ability of the senior to help work happen . Behaviors : • Is available to the team to answer questions and move work forwar d • Communicates blockers and helps to remove blockers for the team @jennydoesthings
31. Shows deep knowledge and experience in their field • This is where you can start talking about time in roles . • Having seen many things means you have a lot of tools in your toolbox to respond to situations . Behaviors : • Has worked with a range of people on a range of projects . • Recognizes situations and applies their experience or finds someone with experience to consult. @jennydoesthings
32. Tooling • Be aware of the available tools in your disciplin e • Be able to implement tool s • Potentially be able to create tooling as neede d Behaviors : • Bring tools to discussion s • Advocate for tools but keep an open min d • Create tooling or assist in the creation of tooling @jennydoesthings
33. Methodology • Be aware of the currently accepted recommended practice s • Have deep knowledge about methodolog y Behaviors : • Bring recommended practices to discussion s • Work to bring legacy software in line with recommended practice s • Suggest methodology for the team @jennydoesthings
34. Risk • Understand the role risk plays in software at all level s Behaviors : • Open discussions of features and projects with the risk s • Talk about not just building but building well and safel y • Bring mitigations to the team for identified risks @jennydoesthings
35. Crucial Conversations • It’s important to be able to have difficult conversations and support others in them . Behaviors : • Be judiciously oppositional . • When someone needs to have a crucial conversation, support them by giving advice or agreeing in public . • Have empathy. @jennydoesthings
36. Mentorship • Help others members of the team be good citizens of the software industry . Behaviors : • Do your fit and finish . • Participate and lead code reviews . • Meet with members of the team who need help . • Speak in encouraging ways. @jennydoesthings
37. Learning • Continually increase the knowledge of the team and company . Behaviors : • Read and share material s • Keep an eye on the pulse of the industr y • Share things about upcoming improvements, enhancements, and issue s • Help others find resources @jennydoesthings
38. Radford Levels P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Associate / Entry Career / Mid-level Senior / Mid-level Staff / Senior Principal / Senior Learns about rope Can tie basic knot s Show complex knots Calculates rope strengt h Knows a lot about knots Understands rope making Knows more about rope than you ever will Aware of their own work Aware of the effects of their work on the team Aware of the effects of team's work on other teams/company Works on problems of limited scope. Capable of working independently but needs regular input Work is done indpentantly and reviewed at critical moments. Work is reviewed on completion. Can be given vague direction. @jennydoesthings
39. Questions? @jennydoesthings
40. jenny.bramble@gmail.com http://twitter.com/jennydoesthings https://linkedin.com/in/ jennybramble http://jennydoesthings.com Papa!
41. @jennydoesthings
42. CREDITS: This presentation template was created by Slidesgo, including icons by Flaticon, and infographics & images by Freepik Do you have any questions? Thanks! Please keep this slide for attribution addyouremail@freepik.co m +91 620 421 83 8 yourcompany.com