The career path of software engineers and how to navigate it

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.

Transcript

1. The career path of
   software engineers
   and how to navigate it
   Nikolay Stoitsev, Engineering Manager @ Uber
   

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2. Career ladder
   Intern
   Software
   Engineer
   Software
   Engineer II
   Sr. Software
   Engineer
   

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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
   

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4. Can’t directly compare levels between
   companies
   

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5. Full career ladder
   Intern
   Software
   Engineer
   Software
   Engineer II
   Sr. Software
   Engineer
   ?
   

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6. Good Engineer Good Manager
   

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7. Full career ladder
   Intern
   Software
   Engineer
   Software
   Engineer II
   Sr. Software
   Engineer
   Staff Software
   Engineer
   

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8. Full career ladder
   Intern
   Software
   Engineer
   Software
   Engineer II
   Sr. Software
   Engineer
   Engineering
   Manager
   Staff Software
   Engineer
   

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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
   

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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
    

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11. You can grow as an engineer and as a
    manager
    

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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
    

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13. ● Knows how to unblock themselves
    ● Helps other on the team
    ● Can solve well defined tasks without
    supervision
    IC Ladder - SWE
    

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14. ● Demonstrate end to end ownership
    ● Can solve any task with minimal supervision
    ● Turn feedback in growth
    IC Ladder - SWE 2
    

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15. ● Leader in the projects they work on
    ● Can solve ambiguous tasks
    ● Sets culture and best practices in the team
    IC Ladder - SSWE
    

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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
    

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17. EM EM
    Sr. EM
    Director
    VP
    CTO
    Manager Ladder
    Director
    VP
    Sr. EM
    

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18. ● Responsible for single team
    ● Sets direction and leads the execution
    ● Grows the team
    Manager Ladder - EM
    

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19. ● Leads multiple big teams
    ● Leads long term technical and business
    solutions across the teams
    Manager Ladder - Director
    

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20. ● Leads teams across multiple domains
    ● Charts the future of the company
    ● Establishes the culture
    Manager Ladder - VP
    

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21. EM or IC?
    https://medium.com/hackernoon/a-voight-kampff-test-for-identifying-engineering-managers-
    bb8512c70857
    

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22. Do you care more about people or
    technology?
    

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23. How to become a manager?
    Sr. Software
    Engineer
    Tech Lead
    EM
    Expert
    

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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
    

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25. How to become an engineering
    manager?
    

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26. How to become a product manager?
    

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27. How to become a technical product
    manager?
    

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28. How to grow
    

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29. Every career step is hard
    

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30. Working hard is just 25% of the
    formula
    

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31. Switching jobs doesn’t help
    

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32. Master the skills on the previous level
    

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33. Requires mindset changes from the
    previous level
    

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34. Has new skills to be mastered
    

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35. So growth has to be directed
    

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36. Competency framework
    https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/career-development/career-matrix.html
    

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37. It’s not a checklist
    

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43. Conscious Competence learning
    model
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence
    

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44. Unconscious
    Incompetence
    Conscious
    Incompetence
    Conscious
    Competence
    Unconscious
    Competence
    

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45. Unconscious
    Incompetence
    Conscious
    Incompetence
    Conscious
    Competence
    Unconscious
    Competence
    

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46. Pick one growth area at a time
    

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47. Unconscious
    Incompetence
    Conscious
    Incompetence
    Conscious
    Competence
    Unconscious
    Competence
    

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48. Understand how to do it and why
    

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49. Unconscious
    Incompetence
    Conscious
    Incompetence
    Conscious
    Competence
    Unconscious
    Competence
    

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50. Practice it
    

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51. Unconscious
    Incompetence
    Conscious
    Incompetence
    Conscious
    Competence
    Unconscious
    Competence
    

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52. Career
    conversations
    

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53. You need to have career conversations
    with your manager
    

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54. Have regular 1:1
    

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55. Ask for feedback
    

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56. Communicate your goals clearly
    

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57. Never let your role define your impact, let your
    impact define your role
    Managing up
    

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58. The single best
    hack to constantly
    become better
    

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59. Find a mentor
    

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60. Mentor - someone who you admire
    and knows you
    

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61. There is no stack overflow for your
    career growth
    

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62. It’s like friendship
    

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63. What to talk about?
    

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64. Build relationship
    

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65. “Code review” your decisions and
    reactions
    

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66. Ask for technical advice - wisdom and
    opinion
    

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67. Better to be outside of your team
    

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68. The second best
    hack
    

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69. Be a mentor
    

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70. Scale yourself with writing
    

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71. The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and
    Change - Camille Fournier
    

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72. https://medium.com/@daniel.heller/ten-principles-for-growth-69015e08c35b
    

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73. https://medium.com/darius-foroux/how-writing-changed-my-life-8786ecd5650c
    

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74. https://leadingsnowflakes.com/
    

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75. https://deprogrammaticaipsum.com/2016/04/25/being-a-developer-after-40/
    

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76. Q&A
    

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