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Advice for new principal tech ICs (i.e., notes to myself)

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Re: Advice for new principal tech ICs (i.e., notes to myself)

#11

Post by re-thc »

light_hue_1 wrote: post #9
ninetyninenine wrote: post #2

In short, you manage people. You tell others what to do and you think about what to do. It's technical management. You create impact off the work of others. You tell 10x people to do 10x work and you get 10x the credit when management only is like 1x of talent and effort. I met a principle engineer who didn't know what a database transaction was and it still fits every description on this site. We shouldn't call thes…

> In short, you manage people. You tell others what to do and you think about what to do. As a principal scientist I definitely don't manage people. Mainly, people managers have power to tell people what to do and when. I have zero power over anyone. No one needs to listen to me. Ever. If people ignore me there's literally no one I can complain to. And no one tells me what to do. If I wasn't competent at my job I'd b…

> People in my org come to me because I provide value basically. Not because they have to.

In most orgs sadly that's not why people talk to a principal. It's that the process requires it, the manager wanted them to and/or there's you i.e. someone else to take responsibility. Of course they won't tell you that directly.

Re: Advice for new principal tech ICs (i.e., notes to myself)

#13

Post by cindyllm »

re-thc wrote: post #11
light_hue_1 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In short, you manage people. You tell others what to do and you think about what to do. As a principal scientist I definitely don't manage people. Mainly, people managers have power to tell people what to do and when. I have zero power over anyone. No one needs to listen to me. Ever. If people ignore me there's literally no one I can complain to. And no one tells me what to do. If I wasn't competent at my job I'd b…

> People in my org come to me because I provide value basically. Not because they have to. In most orgs sadly that's not why people talk to a principal. It's that the process requires it, the manager wanted them to and/or there's you i.e. someone else to take responsibility. Of course they won't tell you that directly.

[dead]

Re: Advice for new principal tech ICs (i.e., notes to myself)

#14

Post by light_hue_1 »

sandeepkd wrote: post #10
light_hue_1 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In short, you manage people. You tell others what to do and you think about what to do. As a principal scientist I definitely don't manage people. Mainly, people managers have power to tell people what to do and when. I have zero power over anyone. No one needs to listen to me. Ever. If people ignore me there's literally no one I can complain to. And no one tells me what to do. If I wasn't competent at my job I'd b…

From what little I have seen, this kind of role is tightly coupled and dependent on the their Manager. The manager has to you like as a person and some how believe that all these activities are adding value.

> From what little I have seen, this kind of role is tightly coupled and dependent on the their Manager.

As you go up the chart you have more independence and are less tightly coupled to your manager. By the time you get to principal you should be largely independent. At the same time, you have much more responsibility.

That's just a practical problem. As your manager becomes more senior (director/VP) their scope also increases. They just cannot "manage" you the way someone would manage a more junior IC. Also at the principal level you aren't just bringing value to your manager, but to other parts of the org as well.

In other words, I can't ask my manager "what should I do today?". I cannot even imagine what his reaction would be if I asked that question.

> The manager has to you like as a person and some how believe that all these activities are adding value.

For what it's worth my manager is a great person. But he wouldn't for a moment believe anyone when they say they add value.

It's up to me to find ways to document and express my value. Figuring out how to do this is part of becoming a principal. So I keep notes, I record wins, I make sure that I do things that bring me visibility, that I present new ideas, I contribute to larger roadmaps at the org level, I make sure that other scientists can say good things about me, I help fix problems that other orgs have so that they report I was useful, etc.

Re: Advice for new principal tech ICs (i.e., notes to myself)

#15

Post by shermantanktop »

jackblemming wrote: post #7

The subtle disdain I hear from these types of super elite principal distinguished architects about actually writing code amuses me. Of course actually writing code is far too lowly of an activity, they’re more of an “ideas guy”. Fred Brooks had a good laugh about these types decades ago.

> While you should still be writing code

Did you miss this?

Re: Advice for new principal tech ICs (i.e., notes to myself)

#19

Post by taneq »

light_hue_1 wrote: post #9
ninetyninenine wrote: post #2

In short, you manage people. You tell others what to do and you think about what to do. It's technical management. You create impact off the work of others. You tell 10x people to do 10x work and you get 10x the credit when management only is like 1x of talent and effort. I met a principle engineer who didn't know what a database transaction was and it still fits every description on this site. We shouldn't call thes…

> In short, you manage people. You tell others what to do and you think about what to do. As a principal scientist I definitely don't manage people. Mainly, people managers have power to tell people what to do and when. I have zero power over anyone. No one needs to listen to me. Ever. If people ignore me there's literally no one I can complain to. And no one tells me what to do. If I wasn't competent at my job I'd b…

How do you get a role like this (even with the 10 year head start) without owning the organisation? Very few places I’ve worked have the kind of long-horizon pragmatism to invest in this kind of role.
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