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Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

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Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#71

Post by wryyy »

gabereiser wrote: post #46
wryyy wrote: post #42

Based on all these sorts of articles, it feels like the only way to advance your career in the US is to get into management at some point. In the EU, and Finland where I'm from, there's nothing wrong and there's a path for being a more senior IC long term, working on more and more complex tasks. The culture is different though, there is not always the same kind of hierarchy as in the US either. I guess in the US a si…

Those who are busy at the principal level and above don’t usually write blog posts about how they got there. You read more about management because of the very nature of management. It’s a people thing. I’ve read equally as important articles from distinguished engineers. No, you do NOT need to go into management to advance your career. In fact, most engineers I’ve met in my 20-odd years engineering and leading, woul…

Fair.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#72

Post by wryyy »

crop_rotation wrote: post #48
wryyy wrote: post #42

Based on all these sorts of articles, it feels like the only way to advance your career in the US is to get into management at some point. In the EU, and Finland where I'm from, there's nothing wrong and there's a path for being a more senior IC long term, working on more and more complex tasks. The culture is different though, there is not always the same kind of hierarchy as in the US either. I guess in the US a si…

The thing is the IC role has an implicit ceiling unless your org is deeply technical with a complex technical product. The US has the same path with arguably more options and better compensation at higher IC levels, but the non IC path has both of these even better, and you will have a much better chance of influencing what exact gets done.

Good point. There are definitely more options in the US for all the roles than in EU just because of the scale: There are more bigger tech companies here.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#73

Post by h1n99 »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #61
h1n99 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m one level ahead of you (L7) but, like, why does there need to be something “next”? I’ll make a seven-figure TC this year. That’s enough! I spent about $50k last year, and I live in New York. My manager talks about getting me to L8 all the time and it’s exhausting. I’m done! I’ve won the income game! She is very career oriented and cares about climbing the ladder, I do not. I’ve never actually cared about “career…

The $50k spend is interesting with NYC rents being so high, apparently

1. We own at a low interest rate, so I don’t consider the principal part of payments to be spent. Barring NYC housing market crash, that money will come back. It’d be like counting money invested in index funds as “spent”.

2. Split completely evenly with partner. This also saves on “per household” things like internet, power, heating.

3. It’s still a big part of the spending, proportionately!

I just don’t spend that much. Don’t drink outside, don’t go out for dinner at fancy places, never order delivery (it doesn’t even taste good! Soggy food sucks!), don’t take Uber ever or even the subway much, ride a fixed gear bike around mostly. Exercise is using said bike rather than paying $300 for a fancy gym. Take vacations, but prefer camping and hiking to resorts or fancy expensive cities. Don’t stay in luxury hotels, have never considers paying for business class. My hobby is playing mostly cheap indie games that I still waited for a Steam sale on, and it’s all stuff like Rimworld that you play for 400 hours. Or watching free YouTube videos.

This is straight out of Mint (obviously rounded) so it’s not a lie!

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#74

Post by angarg12 »

giantg2 wrote: post #26

The real lesson is to join a company poised for rapid growth (bonus points if it turns into a mainstream name like Facebook) and getting lucky as they expand. Try that at a mature company and you'll get nowhere. Do it at the small companies that never blow up and you'll get nowhere. Even if you're in the right company at the right time, there's a good chance someone else will be given the opportunity over you.

The most useless career advice I've received is variations of "do a good job and you'll be rewarded". No one ever told me the outsized role that context and other stuff outside my control can have on your career progress.

So say that in case A you get hired to maintain an old system that is on the path to deprecation, and in case B you get hired to work in a greenfield initiative that ends up exploding and generating tons of revenue. Even if you do the same good job in both cases, you are almost certainly going to be rewarded and promoted faster in the second case.

The key is that this compounds. If you have a higher job level, you tend to get better opportunities that help you grow further, which in turn means more promotions and/or bigger opportunities.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#75

Post by theduder99 »

cebert wrote: post #70
ditonal wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, moving from an engineering role to a management role is not "career progression", it's a lateral career switch. Secondly, you don't have to explain anything. Smart hiring managers will understand that you focused your career mastering a craft and that you're still working on that craft you mastered. As for the dumb hiring managers, it's best if you can avoid working for them. One thing you'll learn as you get…

You don’t think not even progressing to a senior engineering role or lead engineer role after two decades in the profession would be a red flag? These are still IC roles, just more senior. I would sure have a lot of questions at least.

not a red flag at all..as long as they are competent at dev work. Many devs just want to dev and have no interest in taking on lead responsibilities, architecture, negotiating with product owners, attending lots of unproductive meetings, etc.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#76

Post by coffeebeqn »

darth_avocado wrote: post #15
mertd wrote: post #3

The article does mention this but worth noting that riding two rocket ships back to back is not going to be a typical career experience for majority of people. So this doesn't strike me as a typical career growth story.

And that not every work environment is the same. The advice that works in a specific work setting cannot be generalized for every work environment that exists.

These are engineering driven companies with strong leadership and growth (and some of the best compensation). Most people only dream of having even one of those things once in their career.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#77

Post by coffeebeqn »

bojo wrote: post #52
siliconc0w wrote: post #29

I feel like you have a choose your own adventure at these companies: * climb the ladder - try to be 'in the room' with L+1&2. Get assigned high visibility work, define and deliver some intermediate milestone, declare success, groom perception, etc. * get hired at a competitor at L+1. * start a side hustle/lifestyle/real estate business. Subscribe to the FIRE subreddit/podcasts. * have kids, develop increasingly esote…

> have kids, develop increasingly esoteric personal hobbies, get into fitness/longevity This is the route I've taken and my mental health is much better for it. I still wonder what I'm missing out on had I stayed on the treadmill, even now, but I keep telling myself the life balance far outweighs the work balance.

Nothing worthwhile. I just turned down a L+1 jump to management because I certainly don’t want to stress/deal with any of that business BS when I could do my fairly easy IC job and take the kids to the park or go to the gym at lunch since my calendar is mostly empty

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#78

Post by mellavora »

angarg12 wrote: post #69
mertd wrote: post #3

The article does mention this but worth noting that riding two rocket ships back to back is not going to be a typical career experience for majority of people. So this doesn't strike me as a typical career growth story.

The equivalent financial advice would be "win the lottery". Not very actionable.

You mean "win the lottery" "twice"

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#79

Post by giantg2 »

cebert wrote: post #67
giantg2 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're maxed out on pay, maybe retire early and do something you enjoy? I'm stuck as a mid-level making below median dev salary at a not great comapny and I will never be anything more. Eventually you come to terms with it... mostly at least

Where do you think you’re getting stuck?

The biggest factor is probably my disability. It doesn't really matter though.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#80

Post by coffeebeqn »

wryyy wrote: post #42

Based on all these sorts of articles, it feels like the only way to advance your career in the US is to get into management at some point. In the EU, and Finland where I'm from, there's nothing wrong and there's a path for being a more senior IC long term, working on more and more complex tasks. The culture is different though, there is not always the same kind of hierarchy as in the US either. I guess in the US a si…

It’s becoming more common. Staff and principal are fairly common roles and they’re well respected in the US. All the fancier roles like “Architect” have been merged into those now
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