Going Staff - Speaker Deck

Going Staff

by Tobias Pfeiffer

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What does a Staff Engineer do?

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Ambiguity

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Relatively new

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GOING STAFF A “new” path Tobi(as) Pfeiffer @PragTob pragtob.info Senior Staff Engineer @ Unemployed

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+ +

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So, what does a Staff Engineer do?

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TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP

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INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR

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INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR disservice

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“If you want to stay coding...”

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“If you want to stay coding...”

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“If you want to stay technical...”

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“This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll write a lot of code. At this level, your goal is to solve problems efficiently, and programming will often not be the best use of your time. (...) let others handle the programming. Staff engineers often take on ambiguous, messy, difficult problems and do just enough work on them to make them manageable by someone else.” Tanya Reilly – The Staff Engineer’s Path

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“What matters is that the problems get solved, not how.” Tanya Reilly – The Staff Engineer’s Path

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So, what does a Staff Engineer do?

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IT DEPENDS

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IT DEPENDS Your Company

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IT DEPENDS Your Company Your Answer

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Archetypes

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Tech Lead

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Architect

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Solver

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Right Hand

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Senior 3

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X All of the above

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DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER VP

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Being Glue

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Convince People

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Challenging Comms

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Make a map

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Help avoid the local maximum

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Context is King Context

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80/20 decisions

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Lead & influence, but without direct power

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Lead by example

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Lead by example You ARE a leader

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Lead by example You ARE a leader a role model

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Introduction to a domain

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Introduction to a domain Introduce Background Job System

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Introduction to a domain Introduce Background Job System #flaky-tests

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Introduction to a domain Introduce Background Job System #flaky-tests Elixir Training Camp

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A seat at the table

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GOING STAFF?

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IT DEPENDS

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Getting a Staff promotion is hard

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DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER VP

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DEVELOPERS TEAM LEAD ENGINEERING MANAGER VP New Team

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