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Ask HN: What was your path to become a Staff Software Engineer?
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Re: Ask HN: What was your path to become a Staff Software Engineer?
#2A combination of merit-based promotions and title inflation within the company I was working in.
Re: Ask HN: What was your path to become a Staff Software Engineer?
#3[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What was your path to become a Staff Software Engineer?
#4A combination of merit-based promotions and title inflation within the company I was working in.
This was my path, too. I performed exceedingly well and did the hardest things nobody raised their hand to do. This was also a startup where I had been for a while. The added company specific context and industry specific context helped.
But really, I am not staff. I do not intend to sell myself as one, yet.
Re: Ask HN: What was your path to become a Staff Software Engineer?
#5As a "regular" engineer, every time someone showed me a way to do things that I didn't know, or didn't think of myself, I dug deep to learn it, and to figure out how I could have come to that myself. I also relentlessly made sure I always took responsibility for things I involved myself in, from both business and technology side. I became a bit of a product owner in addition to an engineer.
And then I took a leap and asked my manager for a path there, and we worked together to make the title stuff happen.
Re: Ask HN: What was your path to become a Staff Software Engineer?
#6cloak and dagger my friend.. cloak..and..dagger
Re: Ask HN: What was your path to become a Staff Software Engineer?
#7Walked into year-end review and manager said "we're promoting you to Staff." No plan, no path, that was it. In retrospect maybe it was because I was always helping people out when they got stuck or just taking new tasks from the queue when I was done with my assignments, or any of a hundred other things. I never asked why. He may have told me why, but I probably wasn't listening.
Re: Ask HN: What was your path to become a Staff Software Engineer?
#8Walked into year-end review and manager said "we're promoting you to Staff." No plan, no path, that was it. In retrospect maybe it was because I was always helping people out when they got stuck or just taking new tasks from the queue when I was done with my assignments, or any of a hundred other things. I never asked why. He may have told me why, but I probably wasn't listening.
Heh had to just push for the title and pay change. Because otherwise they were just happy to keep me at my rate and hire new engineers at the staff level.
It's nice when a company promotes. Lol.
Re: Ask HN: What was your path to become a Staff Software Engineer?
#9A note that Staff Engineer means different things at different companies.
Re: Ask HN: What was your path to become a Staff Software Engineer?
#10I was just promoted to Staff Engineer at a mid-cap household name company. I had joined as a contractor in 2020, came on full time as a senior engineer in 2021. Simply stated, it comes down to consistently and reliably delivering high quality work and maintaining good relationships with your coworkers.