Three Things Preventing Your Promotion to Senior Engineer (from a Principal at Amazon)

Instead of telling you how to be a software developer, I’m ready to share some advice on how you can be promoted to senior developer or tech lead. Are you ready for the next level? Then let me explain the four traits you need (and the three you need to stay away from).

The views expressed in this video are my own. I do not speak for Amazon.

[MapMavericks]

10+ years of developer, team, and management experience distilled into 12 minutes and laid out comprehensively. Thanks for sharing this gold.

[leefogel]

Strength
1. Tech depth and delivery
2. Rejects hyperbolic discounting (i.e. forward-looking)
3. Expert time manager (e.g. limit unnecessary meetings, limit social media)
4. Grow others around you (improving team and allowing more delegation)

Weakness
1. Overemphasizes delivery and tech depth
2. Conflates management and leadership
3. Unsustainable time management (i.e. working on nights/weekends)

[fishplantfish]

I'm one of those lucky guys who got an incidental bump to senior - before I was ready. This video helped me validate that I'm doing ok (Ive been stressing a bit) and has helped outline where I should be focusing on improving. Thanks so much :)

[luisdotespinal]

This is the kind of advice I wish I had 10-12 years ago. One thing I experienced, even as I became reached the senior level, is that sometimes there's no space to provide leadership, especially when there are older or more entrenched senior developers in the organization. In situations like that, the only way to break through is through "incidental" changes (people leaving the company or changing jobs completely.)

[barcellos-pedro]

Man, you sound like a person who goes to therapy and reflect about things from your career and human behavior in a practical way beyond the tech bubble.

You inspire me. Thumbs up for the content and thoughtful advices! 💖

[MusikageKira]

Hey there - I'm just an incoming intern at Amazon; but it's great to see content that isn't focused on entry-level! I'll keep watching your videos as I move up the ranks :)

[tllong]

This is great. Thank you. I was recently promoted to Senior Engineer and this bolsters my confidence to continue to push back against the constant onslaught of hyperbolic discounting from the POs, PMs, and stake holders.

[rdean]

Im already a senior engineer, but man this hits close to home. I have fallen into the trap of overextending myself. Time management is a... growth area for me, and taking the "work longer hours" approach did indeed hurt my mental health. The stress lead to frustration and bitterness when given deadlines that were only possible by incurring extensive technical debt that was clear would not be resolved prior to beginning the next phase. Which would bake the poor design choices into the system so deeply that I would no longer even want my name attached to the project. The only way to avoid it (as far as I could tell) was to work long nights and weekends to ensure that things were implemented correctly without slipping the deadlines.

I consider this sort of thing a common occupational hazard in our field, and a rite of passage to some degree. But when you realize that it is the norm rather than the exception, that is a sure sign of bad management and a recipe for burnout and an unhealthy dev team.

[wayne]

I've been avoiding moving up to the next level. Thanks for making this process so easy to understand that I have no excuse!

[EdDaWord]

Hey Meta, do you have any tips for people who are Staff Engs?

1) How do you empower others to take ownership of projects or help maintain projects that you might have initially started?
2) How do you stop doing everything and start asking for help? (That grit and self-reliance might have gotten you there)
3) Do you think being staff+ and having 2 or fewer reports is a good way to scale your work?
4) Why choose the staff+ IC route over the management one?
5) What are some things you should stop doing once you reach Staff+?
6) Are there trade-offs you have to make the higher up you go? Does WLB have to suffer?

[roopamrajvanshi]

This channel is going to blow up really fast!
Thanks for the great advice. Reminds me of the quote, "The best things in life are almost always free."

[ryangilchrist]

What a fantastic video. I am less than one year into my software engineering journey, and feel I will look back at this video in years to come and appreciate the advice time and time again. Thanks!

[NDepth]

What an excellent video. Clear, concise, and incredibly insightful. Outstanding.

[anabel]

Your way of speaking is kinda hypnotizing. I didn't even notice when these 11 minutes had passed. And stuff you talked about was really helpful

[DWithLairdWT]

As someone stepping up in to a mid range role, this is some very helpful content on knowing what things can help me grow as a leader, to then help my team and future teams.

Love your channel.

[alexjames]

This is EXACTLY the kind of advise I've been looking for. Subscribed! Would love to see more content in the future about small daily steps low-level engineers can take towards building their experience and skills towards seniority/tech leadership.

[Zellie]

You must be a very busy man, but this content is phenomenal. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience. I'm about 4 years into my career and just started thinking about principle and staff roles. I feel behind but over the next year, I'll make the effort to change my mentality. Thanks again.

[tobiahrex]

WoW this is 🔥 I feel like the matrix code was suddenly revealed to me 😎I’ve been studying full-time the last few weeks getting ready to get back in the job hunt and have been deeply curious on if I was ready for Senior, and the example dialogues while hilarious are extremely enlightening. Until now I’ve completely glazed over the behavioral questions as semi-significant but suddenly I feel like that’s EXACTLY the part I should be focusing on as the answer will clearly confess mental attributes that map to capability. “Technical Impact” has always been the Kool-Aid every other YouTuber tries to sell you, but “Team-Impact”, and “Cross-company impact” makes so much sense as a focus point. Major thanks for this.

Steve, more behavioral scenarios I think it would be HUGE value-add.

[JoseSanchez-vvzd]

I just started as an entry level SDE and feel like I have struck gold by coming across your videos. Thank you for all of the insight!

[oussef-nwpv]

1. Leadership vs. Management: Senior developers are considered leaders, not managers. They set direction and rally their team toward a common goal. Leadership involves thinking about the long-term consequences of actions and communicating a steady state for systems that's healthy.

2. Technical Depth: While technical expertise is crucial, it's not the only requirement. Senior engineers must also demonstrate leadership qualities, such as setting direction and making decisions that benefit the team in the long term.

3. Time Management: Senior engineers need to find time to think about the future and make strategic decisions. This requires extracting more time from existing working hours rather than relying on nights and weekends, which can lead to burnout.

4. Growing Others: Senior engineers should focus on growing others around them, delegating tasks, and empowering team members. This not only helps free up their own bandwidth but also prepares others to take on higher-level responsibilities.

5. Rejecting Hyperbolic Discounting: This means resisting the temptation to prioritize immediate benefits over long-term gains. Senior engineers should think about maximizing the benefits of their team's actions over a longer time horizon.