3 ms·

Staff Engineer Guide

78 points by ra7 5y ago

brickbrd 5y ago
From one of the articles on this website: "Often abruptly, you're now expected to align the pieces around you for your own success" I am curious to hear how people have gone about achieving this.
- maddynator 5y ago
  So as a staff eng you will have projects that you are leading but have cross team/org dependencies. You have to get alignment with those teams and get projects on their roadmap/sprints so you can get unblocked. But a lot of engineers think they can just ask cross-functional teams fit with but get surprised when things don’t happen. And that’s because other team is busy and not idling. As a staff engineer you have to figure out how you can contribute to cross-team such that they agree to the problem, let you contribute to their code base, and help them unlock you. Its a lot of championing and relationships building that is expected at staff level. I hope that is useful
  - draw_down 5y ago
    Notice how none of this is engineering as such. Which is not to say this work is not useful, of course it is. But it’s political, coordinative, managerial in nature. This is, shall we say, not always a good fit for someone who is good at engineering.
ivraatiems 5y ago
As someone looking to end up in one of these roles over the next few years, this is very helpful! Does something similar to this exist for engineering management or other similar high-level roles in other career fields? I'd be curious to see things like schedules for them. Edit: also, maybe it's me, but at some point every link on every page turned purple. A little irritating; hard to tell what I have or haven't opened.
- ceras 5y ago
  From the same author: - His book on engineering management, An Elegant Puzzle: https://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Puzzle-Systems-Engineering-Management/dp/1732265186 https://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Puzzle-Systems-Engineering-Ma... - His blog also discusses management: https://lethain.com/ https://lethain.com/
  - ivraatiems 5y ago
    Thank you!
NBJack 5y ago
I read their book. It's awesome; it's essentially the only book out there I've encountered so far that actually tries to both define what the role is and teach you how to succeed.

78 points by ra7 5y ago

From one of the articles on this website: "Often abruptly, you're now expected to align the pieces around you for your own success" I am curious to hear how people have gone about achieving this.

maddynator 5y ago
So as a staff eng you will have projects that you are leading but have cross team/org dependencies. You have to get alignment with those teams and get projects on their roadmap/sprints so you can get unblocked. But a lot of engineers think they can just ask cross-functional teams fit with but get surprised when things don’t happen. And that’s because other team is busy and not idling. As a staff engineer you have to figure out how you can contribute to cross-team such that they agree to the problem, let you contribute to their code base, and help them unlock you. Its a lot of championing and relationships building that is expected at staff level. I hope that is useful
- draw_down 5y ago
  Notice how none of this is engineering as such. Which is not to say this work is not useful, of course it is. But it’s political, coordinative, managerial in nature. This is, shall we say, not always a good fit for someone who is good at engineering.

ivraatiems 5y ago

As someone looking to end up in one of these roles over the next few years, this is very helpful! Does something similar to this exist for engineering management or other similar high-level roles in other career fields? I'd be curious to see things like schedules for them. Edit: also, maybe it's me, but at some point every link on every page turned purple. A little irritating; hard to tell what I have or haven't opened.

ceras 5y ago
From the same author: - His book on engineering management, An Elegant Puzzle: https://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Puzzle-Systems-Engineering-Management/dp/1732265186 https://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Puzzle-Systems-Engineering-Ma... - His blog also discusses management: https://lethain.com/ https://lethain.com/
- ivraatiems 5y ago
  Thank you!

NBJack 5y ago

I read their book. It's awesome; it's essentially the only book out there I've encountered so far that actually tries to both define what the role is and teach you how to succeed.