Career Advice I'd Give to My Younger Self
Things I wish I had known a few years ago about how to progress in my professional career.
I am currently a Staff Engineer at Lyft, where my primary responsibility is ensuring the safety of our customers' data. Before joining Lyft, I’ve had previous roles in other big and small companies at Staff+ levels as well. And, during the course of my professional career (spanning ~14 years or so), I’ve learnt a few things in the capacity of being an individual contributor (IC) across all companies. Having never been a people manager—apart from occasionally overseeing a few team members—my advice is focused strictly on career progression within the individual contributor (IC) track.
This post is also inspired by reading other people’s experiences who I greatly admire and respect. Sidney (one of my mentors) blogged about moving companies as a Staff+ engineer. I recommend giving it a read.
Kane blogged about the advice he has given to his reports on getting to senior/staff engineering levels here. I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked with both Kane and Sidney in some capacity while I was at Atlassian. Atlassian has a great writing culture (Atlassian built Confluence duh!) so I am not surprised that these fine gentlemen did a stellar job in sharing about their experiences.
There is also a staff engineer series that Rami and Clint did over at TL;DR sec. I am grateful that they featured my experience at Thirty Madison in that series here. There are other posts in this series that I highly recommend giving a read. There is a wealth of information being shared by folks these days and I wish I had access to these resources a few years ago. Anyways, below are some key takeaways that I would like to advice to my younger self:
Embrace Ambiguity
The more ambiguous problems and challenges you take upon, the greater the impact you can have in any role. Ambiguous problems are often the toughest problems in any organization. For example, if there is a cross collaborative project in an organization that could have multiple outcomes, involves multiple stakeholders and nobody is willing to step up and take charge, it is likely because there is a lot of ambiguity in it with no clear definition of problems or goals.
Taking ownership and accountability of such problems takes a lot of courage. It shows that you are not afraid of challenges and are eager to learn and grow. On top of it, if you are fortunate enough to be passionate about such problems, then you are basically signing yourself up to be in a situation where you are working on projects that are of great interest to you and have a potential of having massive impact on the organization. It is a win-win situation.
Now, how you approach such ambiguous problems is a whole different story. Your experience may vary, but my biggest lesson has been the importance of aligning and motivating all stakeholders to build momentum toward solving such problems.
Embrace Imposter Syndrome as a Catalyst for Growth
Experiencing imposter syndrome can be a natural part of professional development. Trust in your skills while allowing a healthy dose of self-doubt to keep you curious and motivated. Do not let imposter syndrome dictate how successful you can be in an area that you do not have the necessary skills to excel in (yet!). The quote below from Sahil Bloom’s newsletter really resonated with me.
Keep Building the Patience Muscle
Big things take time to come to fruition. Doing impactful work in an organization takes a while (in some cases, years if not months) so being patient will help in how you approach goal setting. Small meaningful goals that move the needle slightly will eventually culminate towards a big strategic win. You have to be very thoughtful of how you are going about getting the right alignment with the right stakeholders. And, this will require a LOT of patience and persistence since everybody will have their own sets of priorities at any given point in time.
It can be challenging to get other teams to prioritize a project that aligns primarily with your objectives. Some team members may be unavailable or face their own constraints, leading to delays. You may encounter setbacks on your project deadlines. Remember to take a deep breath, refocus, and continue moving forward.
If you are being intentional about something, even if you do not have enough clarity of the vision (yet!), that is still progress because you are in a way manifesting the work-life that you want.
Talk Less, Listen More
Building a reputation as an individual contributor (IC) can be challenging, especially when joining a new company where everything is unfamiliar. It can feel overwhelming at first. Focusing on listening and learning about the company's people, processes, tools, and culture can be immensely helpful. By observing and absorbing information initially, you can gain valuable insights before sharing your perspectives. You might come with a lot of biases and pre-conceived notions about architecture design patterns and best practices from your previous organizations. Every organization is different so it is important to be open and receptive about different ways of doing familiar things.
Force yourself to be in uncomfortable situations. That will fuel your curiosity to question, learn and re-calibrate, as and when necessary.
By the 1 year mark, you will find yourself knowing just enough that you can start working towards more meaningful and impactful things. Building reputation = building trust and when trust is built, there is a lot more autonomy and freedom to be able to express yourself and take bigger risks. With bigger risks, there are chances of more impactful work. Onwards and upwards!
Always Be on the Lookout for Opportunities
Look out for opportunities/projects that can be impactful for the entire organization, not just teams or a particular sub-org within an organization. The opportunities to cross collaborate across entirely different teams is priceless. Not to mention, the connections you will build are long lasting.
Finding opportunities in big companies can be tricky as pointed out by Kane in his blog. They do not normally just fall on our laps. There has to be an intent and exceptional Staff+ engineers are generally good at this. If opportunities are difficult to come by, you can even create opportunities for yourself.
For example, start questioning why some things are the way they are in your organization. If something has been working the way it has for years, does it mean that it cannot be revisited or questioned? Think about how any working process could be improved or made more efficient without breaking the core underlying functionality. Think of it like how auto updates are transmitted OTA (over-the-air) for electric cars like Teslas. Waking up to new features introduced in a car overnight is every EV customer’s obsession. Are there similar opportunities for improvement in your organization? If so, consider identifying one that you can lead from start to finish.
I will end this passage with the below quote from James Clear. Finding great opportunities is a small piece of the puzzle. What will really set you apart is how you can make the most out of it.
Keep Giving Back to the Community
If there is one advice I swear by, it is this - give back to the community.
Sooner than later, you will realize that life is not all about climbing up the ladder and at some point, you need to look for opportunities outside work (albeit still be employed) and/or think about building and supporting a community. Helping others and being of service to others might not necessarily get you to the next step, but will surely bring you karma points and who knows it might come around and help you in the longer run.
Some things you could consider indulging in are - writing and sharing your experiences, building tools and frameworks and open sourcing them, finding yourself a mentor and volunteering to mentor others.
If you are just graduating and exploring what’s next in your career, spend some time in discovering your true interests and passions. Find a community that supports that and start getting involved with it. This is the best way to bypass some of the struggles you might face as a new graduate and land your dream job.
Focus More on Impactful Actions, Less on the Outcome
Every organization has a rubric of how to progress on the IC ladder. Someone can surely ensure they meet the absolute minimum criteria to put forth their case in their promotion packet and get to the next level somehow but surviving there could be brutal. While companies typically promote employees who have been performing at the next level, focusing on genuine impact and value is more sustainable than seeking shortcuts.
Focussing on finding impactful work across an organization and being able to share about it publicly definitely trumps over all other ways to get to that next step in the ladder. If your focus is purely on getting to the next step, you will surely encounter a lot of friction and stress. Instead, if you focus on providing value to your organization and its customers, you will almost always receive recognition in some form.
Do Not Stop Interviewing
Consider attending interviews periodically, even when you're not actively seeking a new role, as it can help you keep your skills current. You'll always feel prepared if the right opportunity knocks at your door.
Preparing for interviews using the SBI (Situation, Behavior, Impact) approach works really well. Companies like Amazon are known for their STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) interviewing format, which is similar to SBI. These methods are proven ways to communicate your work effectively, focusing on the right aspects like outcomes and impact.
During interviews, the ability to effectively communicate significant experiences with major lessons learned and impacts achieved is an underrated skill. It's important to consistently document your major accomplishments and milestones throughout your career to avoid having to jog your memory during interviews. If you already engage in self-reflection in your organization for your performance reviews, consider doing it in a way that you would feel comfortable sharing outside your organization.
If you can come up with 4-5 good stories that you can confidently describe with the SBI format, it will help you answer some of the behavioral questions that most interviews have, including the technical interviews. And, the more stories you have, the better it is since you could essentially use a different story in each interview. This is actually very helpful as when the interviewers debrief, they won’t find themselves talking about the same thing / projects about you as a candidate, but rather highlighting all the different skills and experiences you will be bringing in the organization making you a well rounded candidate and giving you an edge over other candidates.
Communication and Impact Go Hand in Hand
Whether in person communication or in writing, understanding problem statements and expressing them in simple terms—as well as measuring what matters and demonstrating impact—are crucial skills for an IC at any level, especially more so for Staff+ levels.
It's interesting to observe that people often do not measure impact at the start but only at the end. In certain fields like cybersecurity, particularly Application Security, measuring impact through metrics is one of the most challenging tasks an AppSec engineer can undertake. Quantifying risk reduction by confidently demonstrating the number of vulnerabilities prevented from reaching production is far from trivial.
Therefore, even if impact cannot be effectively measured in some situations, defining and understanding the problem statement, obtaining agreement on whether it's an actual problem that needs solving, identifying what needs improvement, and determining how to best measure it are key considerations to set yourself up for success.
Measuring impact is one thing, but being able to communicate that impact effectively is what determines whether you will meet the mark or not.
Develop Your Emotional Quotient
You will find it challenging at times, when you would have to deal with difficult peers or complex projects handling multiple stakeholders. This will become increasingly complex as you make your way up the ladder to more senior IC roles, where you will find yourself spending more time in dealing with people as compared to doing actual technical work. During such times, keeping your emotions in check (i.e. being able to regulate your emotions effectively) is probably the best thing you can do to maintain sanity in your work-life balance. Approaching these complicated work relationships with a healthy dose of empathy and self-awareness, combined with data driven insights will lead to more successful outcomes.
Relationship building could be an entirely different blog/book and I will be the first to admit that I am no expert in this field. But, one thing that has helped me in the past is to focus on building relationships with folks who can really partner with you and act as a champion in your initiatives (and vice versa). Finding common grounds where both of you are struggling and deriving value for each other can be a win-win situation for both parties. If this peer just so happens to be a difficult peer, being emotionally aware of your own strengths and weaknesses will go a long way in nurturing this relationship.
In our rapidly evolving world, with events like the COVID-19 pandemic and technological breakthroughs in AI, it's natural to feel overwhelmed by the pace of change. If you get sucked into this vicious circle of wanting to know and experiment with everything, or in other words, start developing this feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out), always remember that it is all going to be okay and keep breathing.
Vulnerability Leads to Growth
I believe in the saying that no question is a stupid question. I’ve met a lot of folks during my career who claim that they avoid asking questions in the fear that it will make them look stupid. Let me make this clear. Asking stupid questions does not make you look stupid. If you have done your due diligence before asking the question like googling or checking in the company’s FAQ, it is okay to be vulnerable and giving yourself some grace in posing a somewhat seemingly stupid question. What is stupid according to you might actually not be stupid at all for others. In my experience, such questions are always appreciated and might point to something totally unrelated but significant in the overall context.
Embracing vulnerability can also involve reaching out to peers and mentors across the industry, especially those facing similar challenges. Building these connections can provide mutual support and valuable insights. You are basically allowing the laws of attraction to do its work every time you allow yourself to be vulnerable in front of others. Looking for mentors outside your organization is another great way to keep growing your network. In a nutshell, being vulnerable is okay. It might unlock new opportunities for you in unconventional and unexpected ways.
Keep Innovating
Having an innovative mindset will keep you mentally challenged and passionate about your work. One of the key advantages of being innovative is personal growth. Continuously seeking new ideas and solutions will allow you to develop new skills and expand your knowledge base. It will increase your value to the organization, as you contribute fresh perspectives that can lead to improved processes or products. Additionally, your innovative approach can inspire and motivate your colleagues to think creatively, fostering a culture of innovation within your team.
However, bringing innovation into existing organizations is not without its challenges. You may encounter resistance to change, resource constraints, or the risk of failure. Introducing new ideas requires you to build a solid case for why innovation is necessary and how it aligns with organizational goals. It's paramount to bring your team along on this journey, as innovations that happen in silos often face friction and may not gain traction beyond the proof-of-concept phase.
Ensure your innovative efforts align with the company's objectives and strategies. This alignment increases the likelihood of support from leadership and access to necessary resources. When proposing new ideas, prepare a clear plan outlining the benefits, required resources, and potential risks. A well-articulated plan demonstrates your seriousness and increases the chances of approval.
Let's say you've begun working on your innovative ideas. It's important to stay on track and avoid getting lost in meandering areas that cause you to lose sight of the bigger picture. I like to think of innovation as similar to meditation: you'll likely generate plenty of ideas—some good, some bad—much like thoughts that arise while meditating. You may feel the urge to dive deep into each of these ideas to test their viability, and that's okay. However, what's crucial is to remain laser-focused on your overall goal and to keep returning to it—just as you bring your attention back to your breath during meditation—whenever you find yourself exploring tangents without conclusive results.
Work-Life Balance: Finding What Works for You
I believe the conversation around work-life balance can sometimes be oversimplified. Everyone's situation and life circumstances are different, so focusing on a one-size-fits-all approach to work-life balance may not be effective.
From my personal experience, when I was single with fewer personal responsibilities, I had the freedom and energy to immerse myself deeply in my work. I could spend hours on projects where I was the sole contributor, fueled by passion and a high level of motivation. Some might have seen this as lacking balance, but for me at that time, it was fulfilling and accelerated my learning and growth. The sense of accomplishment outweighed any concerns about overworking.
However, as my life evolved and I started a family, my priorities shifted. I now place a high value on organizations that respect my family and personal time. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance has become crucial for my mental and physical well-being, as well as for the well-being of my loved ones.
The key takeaway is that work-life balance is not a static concept—it's fluid and personal. It's important to recognize that what works for one stage of life may not work for another. If you have the drive, passion, and circumstances that allow you to dedicate extra time to your work without compromising your health, that's perfectly acceptable. Just be mindful of any signs of burnout or stress.
Conversely, if you need to set firm boundaries to protect your mental and physical health, that's equally valid. Prioritizing self-care doesn't mean you're less committed to your career; it means you're ensuring sustainability in the long run.
Ultimately, it's about self-awareness and making conscious choices that align with your current needs and values. Whether you choose to dive deep into your work or maintain strict boundaries, ensure that you are taking care of your mental and physical well-being while pursuing your passions. Balance isn't about adhering to external expectations but about finding what genuinely works for you.
Embrace Career Changes When Necessary
This might be one of the most controversial pieces of advice i.e. how to decide whether to jump ship or not. Let me begin by posing some open ended questions with no right or wrong answers. These questions are mostly meant to get you to start pondering about them:
Would you prefer to stay in an organization a bit longer while the dust settles after a recent reorganization or acquisition? Or would you rather move on and start working on impactful projects in a different organization from day one?
Would you rather delve so deeply into a particular technology or product that your institutional knowledge makes you irreplaceable? Or would you prefer to continue learning and growing by experiencing different cultures, people, processes, and technologies?
Would you rather engage in office politics to prove your worth? Or would you prefer to avoid politics altogether and focus on meaningful work that solves problems and adds value to people's lives?
Would you rather be evaluated based on the number of years you've spent in an organization and the number of projects you've contributed to? Or would you rather be assessed on the impact you've made in a short span of time?
I could continue with more questions, but I think you get the idea. Some organizations even have minimum tenure requirements in job postings, which can be discouraging for those seeking new opportunities.
In conclusion, follow your passion. Listen to your mind, heart, and gut. If you decide to make a career move, ensure your decisions are calculated and well thought out. When you change organizations, bring along the innovative ideas and experiences you've gained from previous roles. Keep thinking outside the box.
…and, that’s it! This post took me way longer than anticipated but I hope you find this helpful. If you do, let me know. If you have any learnings yourself from your career that are not in this list, I’d love to hear them.
PS - If you're looking for mentorship or just some guidance to navigate through challenges in your career, I'm here to help. This is my way of giving back to the community that's supported me. 🤝
Check out my profile on Topmate, book a session, and let's grow together! 🌱
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