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How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

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Re: How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

#51

Post by andrew_lettuce »

johnfn wrote: post #48

A lot of the frustration I typically hear in this camp is something like “well I shipped a huge refactor that cleaned up all the code, why does no one appreciate that?” One particular interaction that got me thinking was a few years ago listening to an acquaintance telling me how he spent months meticulously cleaning up the data pipeline and making it perfect, and how no one appreciated this work. Like, as an enginee…

I think what you're describing is communicating the value in terms that the audience understands and appreciates. This is really a sales skill and most developers have little experience or recognize it as such. A good manager can help here, and I agree that a strongly aligned staff dev and engineering manager can accomplish a lot. That's been my experience and I'm always grateful for devs who work this way too.

Re: How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

#52

Post by jcheng »

the_af wrote: post #29
Trasmatta wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the crux. I don't want a career in a large tech company.

Is working in a small tech company any different?

It's SO different. It doesn't guarantee that life is good, but politics plays a much smaller role, especially at the very small sizes. If you're objectively awesome, the chances of you being sidelined for political reasons is pretty low when there are like 10 people in the whole company. It's just obvious to everyone who is delivering value and who is not.

Conversely, if you're mediocre, there's nowhere to hide.

Or maybe instead of saying there aren't politics at small companies, it's more accurate to say that there are politics, but they're simple--everyone strives to make the (hopefully benevolent) dictator, I mean founder, happy. If your founder is awesome, life is good. If your founder is not awesome, well, everyone is going to have a bad time anyway.

Re: How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

#53

Post by apwell23 »

> The easiest way is to actively work to make a high-profile project successful. This is more or less what you ought to be doing anyway, just as part of your ordinary job

this involves you getting a chance to work on it in the first place. why would you in particular be getting to work on those projects?

you have to first align yourself with VP and become their bitch. someone who they can trust. you should always follow prison strategy of finding the biggest bully in the yard and becoming their bitch. only then you get to even sniff work thats important. don't even think that you will be given important projects if you show off your technical acumen and skills. that strategy usually backfires and puts a target on your back both from ur peers and superiors who now see you as a threat.

just remember ppl who got into managment positions have no technical skills anymore and are highly insecure of that fact. they will murder you if they even have a little bit of inkling that you are someone who is technically proficient that can drive projects with little help.

Re: How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

#54

Post by andrew_lettuce »

getnormality wrote: post #15

It seems like this post can be summarized as follows: 1. If your manager has something in particular they want you to do, you should do it. 2. If your manager doesn't have something in particular they want you to do, you should figure out what they will want you to do in the future , and make any necessary preparations so that it will be doable when they want it. I'd say it's good advice. The only thing I would add i…

I'll add that all this goes up the food chain and is good advice for engineering managers too. As a director reporting to the CTO I tried to do this as well.

Re: How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

#55

Post by andrew_lettuce »

akudha wrote: post #35
getnormality wrote: post #15

It seems like this post can be summarized as follows: 1. If your manager has something in particular they want you to do, you should do it. 2. If your manager doesn't have something in particular they want you to do, you should figure out what they will want you to do in the future , and make any necessary preparations so that it will be doable when they want it. I'd say it's good advice. The only thing I would add i…

Or better options - just do the job you were hired for and go home or find that rare job (if possible) where engineering has a bigger role than politics. It is not pleasant to play a guessing game trying to please some manager, just because they’re your boss. Life is too short for stupid games

If you think corporate politics is just a stupid game you'll never be happy with what you accomplish and lucky to keep your job. Awareness and understanding, being able to tie effort to outcomes, positioning and sales; these are not guessing games.

Re: How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

#56

Post by andrew_lettuce »

bdangubic wrote: post #28
smallnix wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case you can share an alternate strategy to make a career in a large tech company, please do, would be interested.

you should do everything possible to make a career in a small company. after three decades as SWE it is my #1 (there is not even remotely close #2) advise for everyone in the early stages of their career

The politics in small companies are far more extreme in my experience.

Re: How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

#57

Post by apwell23 »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #13

Man, I must not have worked at dysfunctional enough companies. I can't relate to the opening remarks in this article at all. I'm used to really open communication from the top down and, even when we build in a direction I disagree with, we've discussed things enough that I'm at least interested in seeing why someone else I consider intelligent sees the world so differently. Perhaps it has to do with only working for…

> I can't relate to the opening remarks in this article at all.

i am guessing you never got promoted at work?

Re: How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

#58

Post by Aurornis »

softwaredoug wrote: post #43

IMO the best you can do: - Ship often to prod (don’t do theoretical work). - Ship wins (as defined by generally acceptable metrics.) - Have someone in management or a PM who is good at selling your wins Even here, though, you will run into problems. There is always a new VP or leader looking to make an impact. Because you maintain the current systems your team is engaging in WrongThink and new VP has shiny new RightT…

> - Have someone in management or a PM who is good at selling your wins

Looking back on my career, one of the single biggest changes I could have made to improve my success was escaping teams with bad PMs as fast as possible.

Great PMs improve everything, but they're hard to find. I spent too much time sticking around on teams where bad PMs were driving us in the wrong direction and failing to interface effectively with the rest of the management team. As soon as something changed that removed those PMs from the situation, everything improved.

Re: How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

#59

Post by halper »

softwaredoug wrote: post #43

IMO the best you can do: - Ship often to prod (don’t do theoretical work). - Ship wins (as defined by generally acceptable metrics.) - Have someone in management or a PM who is good at selling your wins Even here, though, you will run into problems. There is always a new VP or leader looking to make an impact. Because you maintain the current systems your team is engaging in WrongThink and new VP has shiny new RightT…

I liked how you phrased that: "promises of future … you can't compete with". That happens so often, and strangely the argument that those promises have never become real the previous 26 times never works. The glorious future sure is amazing!

Re: How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

#60

Post by jlund-molfese »

johnfn wrote: post #48

A lot of the frustration I typically hear in this camp is something like “well I shipped a huge refactor that cleaned up all the code, why does no one appreciate that?” One particular interaction that got me thinking was a few years ago listening to an acquaintance telling me how he spent months meticulously cleaning up the data pipeline and making it perfect, and how no one appreciated this work. Like, as an enginee…

I agree! You have to also remember that, if you're the person pushing for something to be priority, it's your job to make it make sense to whoever is responsible for prioritization.

The easiest way to do that is to speak the same language everyone else is. Your product manager probably speaks in dollars (or euros, renminbi, etc). If you provide a good-faith estimate (ballpark ranges are totally fine) that increased test coverage or whatever your technical objective is will cost 200 dev hours, and save 400 dev hours on an annual basis, or reduce the rate of support tickets by 15%, or allow for X future business scenario to be supported or whatever, you'll generally have way better luck. My favorite "trick" is taking tech debt work, and framing it in a way so, not only do I not have to push for it as "tech work", but my PM will actually put it on the roadmap proactively because it just makes sense from a business perspective.

It also gets easier over time. You might get some skepticism at first, but if you have a history of delivering accurate estimates and results over months or years, you'll build trust with stakeholders such that what might've taken a round of meetings to convince them before, can now be a 10-minute conversation.

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