These are some of the things I wish were taught in school (maybe grad school, maybe in software engg disciplines). Including things like "how to write a great design doc", etc.
The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
21–30 of 251 posts
Re: The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Staff engineer is the new senior engineer.
Unpopular opinion: With quickly growing organizations and therefore more inexperienced people managers, promoting someone to staff engineer is an easy way out of responsibility. How often have I heard "you’re at a point in your career now where a people manager will only hinder you" to justify not being capable of supporting me.
Curious your thoughts on who a Staff should report to. I've been at a handful of places where there were Staff Engineers (some of them even deserved it!) and it always seemed like the promotion from Senior to Staff came with a change in reporting structure, where now instead of reporting to a Manager you're reporting to a Director or a VP, even the CTO in smaller orgs.
I think this is a good indication of increased authority/responsibility, but also an easy way to shirk management responsibilities as you said. How much 1:1 management is a VP or CTO going to be doing with a Staff Engineer? Do you really want a VP with all the political nonsense that comes with that type of position to have their own pet engineer they can bother about things?
Re: The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Staff engineer is the new senior engineer.
Unpopular opinion: With quickly growing organizations and therefore more inexperienced people managers, promoting someone to staff engineer is an easy way out of responsibility. How often have I heard "you’re at a point in your career now where a people manager will only hinder you" to justify not being capable of supporting me.
I’ve seen the opposite problem far more often. Less experienced managers who are perfectly fine at managing junior engineers attempting to manage senior engineers in the same way.
It’s refreshing when a company realizes that staff engineers with 15+ years of experience don’t need daily management.
Re: The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
#24Where do all the hardcore engineering jobs live? I've been bothered by the fact that most advanced engineering roles like "staff" actually mean "manager who does system design as well" Where are the docker/redis/next.js/linux kernel/qt/roller-coaster tycoon creators? Where are the people creating amazing software and do they get a special "advanced developer" title? I guess, I'm curious if there are actual roles in c…
One area to find great engineers (and interesting jobs) is at database, infrastructure and devtools companies. Places like Cockroach, PlanetScale, Docker, JetBrains, CodeWeavers, Fastly, etc. And the databases, infrastructure or tooling teams within Meta, Microsoft, etc.
Re: The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
#25Where do all the hardcore engineering jobs live? I've been bothered by the fact that most advanced engineering roles like "staff" actually mean "manager who does system design as well" Where are the docker/redis/next.js/linux kernel/qt/roller-coaster tycoon creators? Where are the people creating amazing software and do they get a special "advanced developer" title? I guess, I'm curious if there are actual roles in c…
> Most companies seem to be consumers instead of creators and only offer Jr.-to-Sr. level roles around making a CRUD API micro-service collection.
That's because this is what 90% of companies need. Even at big tech or any nationally-known tech brand, I'd bet at least half the work in maintenance, support, incremental improvement, and integrations.
Re: The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
#26Where do all the hardcore engineering jobs live? I've been bothered by the fact that most advanced engineering roles like "staff" actually mean "manager who does system design as well" Where are the docker/redis/next.js/linux kernel/qt/roller-coaster tycoon creators? Where are the people creating amazing software and do they get a special "advanced developer" title? I guess, I'm curious if there are actual roles in c…
Yes. All the FAANGs have such roles. Sure, most PEs are "applied" engineering or management right-hands, but the same companies have PEs up to VP/Distinguished Engineers deep in technology... React came from Facebook, Google employees James Gosling (Java), Jim Roskind (QUIC) is formerly Google currently Amazon... at all these companies, there's a ton of deep technology the public hasn't even heard of.
Re: The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
#27Where do all the hardcore engineering jobs live? I've been bothered by the fact that most advanced engineering roles like "staff" actually mean "manager who does system design as well" Where are the docker/redis/next.js/linux kernel/qt/roller-coaster tycoon creators? Where are the people creating amazing software and do they get a special "advanced developer" title? I guess, I'm curious if there are actual roles in c…
Software engineering.
Most engineering is this way. Somebody needs to build a thing that isn't too different from other things on a budget and a timeline. Your typical civil engineer isn't designing a new burj khalifa. Most software engineering is about organizing a group of people to build a thing for a customer that isn't too different from other things, on time and on budget. There just simply aren't as many jobs working on wild stuff nobody has ever done before.
RollerCoaster Tycoon is, in my opinion, a great example of something that isn't really engineering. One person did it and the decision to write it all in assembly is almost anti-engineering. It is an impressive feat, but not really comparable.
Re: The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unpopular opinion: With quickly growing organizations and therefore more inexperienced people managers, promoting someone to staff engineer is an easy way out of responsibility. How often have I heard "you’re at a point in your career now where a people manager will only hinder you" to justify not being capable of supporting me.
Curious your thoughts on who a Staff should report to. I've been at a handful of places where there were Staff Engineers (some of them even deserved it!) and it always seemed like the promotion from Senior to Staff came with a change in reporting structure, where now instead of reporting to a Manager you're reporting to a Director or a VP, even the CTO in smaller orgs. I think this is a good indication of increased a…
As a staff in practice, but not in title, here's how it works for me: My manager and I are at the same level. We work as peers. They handle the people stuff of the team, I handle the technical stuff of the team. They help with routing people/HR/management questions, I help with routing technical questions.
If you think "Gosh, that person (on another team) sure was rude", that's a question for my manager.
If you think "Gosh, I sure have no idea why that API (from another team) sucks", that's a question for me.
In terms of reporting to my manager it feels more like having a corner-man in the boxing ring than a boss. I fight the fight, they say "Hey you're dropping that right hand on your left hook, stop that or you'll get rekt. Here's some ice". And they spend more time thinking about and navigating politics-like issues in the org than I do, which means I can lean on their expertise when "org stuff" is needed.
I probably have similar or more years of experience than my current EM. The person we both report to, happens to be a true greybeard.
Re: The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
#29I certainly like that companies are introducing yet another step in the IC ladder. Before it was like: junior1 -> junior2 -> senior1 -> senior2 -> manager. And the money you get by being junior2/junior2/senior1 is not that much. Nowadays I see companies doing: ... -> senior1 -> senior2 -> staff1 -> staff2 -> manager. So, in the past I have quit a job at level staff1 (decent money), just to go to another company where…
I would stay away from any company that treats Staff as a natural progression on the road the management. You just have 4 senior levels at that point, which is fine if that's what you need/want, but it shows a genuine misunderstanding of the IC path.
I'm a big fan of the 1 and 2 levels for mid+ as it gives a little more granularity, and the opportunity to increase pay a bit more and still have reasonable pay bands. But at the last senior level you really need to start focusing on whether you want to be in the IC track or the management track. You can certainly switch (I have) but they're very different and "ok you performed well as a Staff 2, we'll promote you to EM1 now" is a red flag in my opinion.
Re: The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
#30Where do all the hardcore engineering jobs live? I've been bothered by the fact that most advanced engineering roles like "staff" actually mean "manager who does system design as well" Where are the docker/redis/next.js/linux kernel/qt/roller-coaster tycoon creators? Where are the people creating amazing software and do they get a special "advanced developer" title? I guess, I'm curious if there are actual roles in c…
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