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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

#31

Post by scsilver »

h1n99 wrote: post #22
ramesh31 wrote: post #2

After ten years of reading these articles and imagining what it would be like to reach that level, I now find myself there and asking "what next?". What is the path for a staff level IC maxed out on the payscale? Seeking principal is a political battle I have no interest in. And management simply isn't in my skillset. Am I stuck just slinging Javascript into retirement? Are there any other lateral moves that could pr…

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…

Would you like another mentee?

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

#32

Post by giantg2 »

ramesh31 wrote: post #2

After ten years of reading these articles and imagining what it would be like to reach that level, I now find myself there and asking "what next?". What is the path for a staff level IC maxed out on the payscale? Seeking principal is a political battle I have no interest in. And management simply isn't in my skillset. Am I stuck just slinging Javascript into retirement? Are there any other lateral moves that could pr…

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

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

#33

Post by glitchc »

giantg2 wrote: post #30
71a54xd wrote: post #16

What if my career history isn't perfect? I'm trying to overcome this now and it's been a real struggle.

If you're in America, you're fucked. One mistake and your marked for life. Be that legal issues, work history, etc. We'll hold that shit against you until you die. Edit: why disagree?

Barring a criminal record, America is the land of second chances. People come from all over the world to start a fresh life here. If it can't be done here, it can't be done anywhere (except maybe Somalia but that's absolute anarchy).

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

#34

Post by h1n99 »

r2_pilot wrote: post #25
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…

I'm not jealous (we've got a great work/life balance and a good mission), and I've heard of those compensation levels before, but something about the way you said "merely 400k" made me realize that those single salaries are more than my entire team(5 sysadmins and a manager)'s compensation.

I mean that a bit sarcastically to be clear. It’s a ridiculously good income. If you read Blind, there are a lot of L5 that are so upset about not getting L6, I think it lacks perspective.

Yes I realize I’m saying this and I make a lot more, but if I was “stuck” at $400k I don’t think I would be upset.

The median household income in NYC is something around $75k.

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

#35

Post by giantg2 »

glitchc wrote: post #33
giantg2 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're in America, you're fucked. One mistake and your marked for life. Be that legal issues, work history, etc. We'll hold that shit against you until you die. Edit: why disagree?

Barring a criminal record, America is the land of second chances. People come from all over the world to start a fresh life here. If it can't be done here, it can't be done anywhere (except maybe Somalia but that's absolute anarchy).

Look at job applications. Some ask if you've ever been arrested or charged with a crime - not convicted even. Guess what, you answer yes for some stupid summary offense like having a dog off a leash and your application is in the garbage.

I see tons of bias in hiring too. What about people that take a break from working due to childcare, medical issues, etc? They struggle. There's a never ending amount of those stories that show up on HN. Maybe some get a second chance, but it might take years if they ever get one.

It seems like many places in Europe have better options for second chances from the legal perspective. Perhaps better from a financial standpoint with the support programs too.

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

#36

Post by h1n99 »

scsilver wrote: post #31
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…

Would you like another mentee?

I think I’m actually a pretty bad mentor!

I can’t really do the career or manager interaction stuff well because I don’t care about it personally and I don’t have any problems myself with my manager being incompetent or changing all the times.

I think that’s correlated with my somewhat unintentional success, but “have a better manager” or “don’t get reorged by directors playing game of thrones” isn’t actionable advice.

What I am good at is technical stuff, so if I have a person that is 1. technically competent and with the right attitude (IYKYK) and 2. good and technical manager then I and they do very well. But that’s very situational and also the technical stuff is very company specific.

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

#38

Post by h1n99 »

candiddevmike wrote: post #10
ramesh31 wrote: post #2

After ten years of reading these articles and imagining what it would be like to reach that level, I now find myself there and asking "what next?". What is the path for a staff level IC maxed out on the payscale? Seeking principal is a political battle I have no interest in. And management simply isn't in my skillset. Am I stuck just slinging Javascript into retirement? Are there any other lateral moves that could pr…

This is where we as an industry need to embrace unions and let folks like you mentor and train younger developers.

I’m definitely not going to trash unions, big Billy Bragg fan here, but mentorship and training of less senior people is already basically table stakes expectation for staff+ engineers at any competent tech company.

I actually think it’s overemphasized on the internet, if anything. Staff+ engineers should still edit (I don’t say “write” because “delete” is even better) code. Otherwise what’s all the training for? Getting the senior- engineers up to “mentoring” roles, to train even more senior- engineers, …?

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

#39

Post by nonameiguess »

giantg2 wrote: post #30
71a54xd wrote: post #16

What if my career history isn't perfect? I'm trying to overcome this now and it's been a real struggle.

If you're in America, you're fucked. One mistake and your marked for life. Be that legal issues, work history, etc. We'll hold that shit against you until you die. Edit: why disagree?

Because it's not even remotely true. I've been homeless, divorced twice, kicked out of a school under suspicion of crime, driven nearly insane at one point, desperate enough to embezzle cash from a retail employer 21 years ago, guilty of arson when I was teenager. I still have a perfectly good job that puts me in a higher pay echelon than I ever would have imagined at one time in my life, even a top-secret clearance. I owned my past mistakes, cleaned up, and am entrusted with state secrets. America is the land of second chances. Look at our last two presidents. Perennial fuck ups, and depending on your party, at least one of them is probably a criminal.

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

#40

Post by 71a54xd »

giantg2 wrote: post #35
glitchc wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barring a criminal record, America is the land of second chances. People come from all over the world to start a fresh life here. If it can't be done here, it can't be done anywhere (except maybe Somalia but that's absolute anarchy).

Look at job applications. Some ask if you've ever been arrested or charged with a crime - not convicted even. Guess what, you answer yes for some stupid summary offense like having a dog off a leash and your application is in the garbage. I see tons of bias in hiring too. What about people that take a break from working due to childcare, medical issues, etc? They struggle. There's a never ending amount of those stori…

To clarify, I have a degree, worked at a faang and have a squeaky clean criminal record. However, I hopped around early in my career working for a number of startups tried to found a few as well. I walked away with great experiences, but after attempting to transition to a TPM role I seem to have black balled myself in the process. Yes, I understand the market isn't great but at 5 YOE I feel hopelessly lost and only manage to get a handful of interview offers...

Currently doing a startup but I'm starting to feel like this isn't what I was built to do.

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