Author Background
Gergely is the author of Pragmatic Engineer, and a few books. This book & Mobile Engineering at scale share lots of lessons from his time at Uber.
Uber is one of the largest mobile apps and mobile organizations in the world, with more than 300 native engineers
The ideal company has this in place:
- A clearly defined career ladder.
- IC path & manager path. These are separate tracks.
- Clear promotion process
- Regular professional feedback
These things help you map out your growth path.
Not to worry if this stuff isn’t in place, you can also grow in an environment with:
- A competent & supportive manager
- Access to one or two engineers more senior than you, & willing to mentor + all the good things.
- High growth environment, start up, that sorta place. There’s lots of opportunity in chaos
On Growth vs Promotions
Needless to say, the long haul will reward you better if you focus on skill growth. However:
Completely ignore titles and levels, and you might observe peers who are less capable than you being promoted to more senior levels than you. They might ask for the promotion that you are not even mentioning, and your manager could assume you are happy with your current title.
Another reason why titles can be helpful:
They carry outsized importance for people who would have to otherwise spend lots of energy proving their competence.
Mentorship
If there are no formal mentorship opportunities at your firm, you will have to reach out to an engineer you look up to and ask for mentorship. I suggest looking for someone at work and asking to set up a chat, and see if you can have regular catch-ups where you can talk about topics that can help you grow.
Related reading: Developers mentoring other developers: practices I’ve seen work well
Become more product minded
Product-minded engineers have lots of interest in the product itself. They want to understand why decisions are made, how people use the product, and love to be involved in making product decisions. They are people who would likely make a good product manager, if they ever decide to give up the joy of engineering
- Understand why your company is successful, and how your team fits into this.
What is the business model? How is money made? What parts are most profitable, what parts of the company are expanding the most? Why? How does your team fit into all of this?