Being A Senior Engineer by Jesse Spevack from Stripe

[@englishwords24]

thanks for uploading this

[@aguluman]

An amazing session.

[@RonitChattopadhyay]

Summary of the presentation (AI generated using the transcripts and Chat GPT) Key Points of the Talk: Introduction and Career Overview: Jesse has transitioned through various roles in his career-from education to software engineering, working at companies like Ibotta and Stripe. His career progression includes titles like Engineer, Senior Engineer, and Staff Engineer. He emphasizes that titles often vary by company and don't always reflect skill or impact directly. Definition of a Senior Engineer: A senior engineer operates with ownership and influence at a project level and team level, respectively. Responsibilities include solving projects and contributing value while leading and guiding team members. Ownership in Engineering: Avoid failure modes: Complacency: Waiting for tasks instead of actively seeking solutions. Focusing on the wrong problems: Prioritizing tasks that don't align with broader team or project goals. Being stuck: Balancing asking for help too soon versus waiting too long. Demonstrating Ownership: Take initiative and persevere through challenges. Embrace tasks that build long-term skills and resilience (e.g., improving code maintainability or logs). Productivity as a Senior Engineer: Prioritize effectively by maintaining a public stack rank (a prioritized to-do list visible to others in the organization). Use the stack rank to manage expectations and focus on high-impact work. Balance between immediate requests and long-term priorities. Professional Growth and Tips: View challenges as opportunities to grow, much like doing push-ups builds strength over time. Recognize the trade-offs between titles, reputation, and responsibilities when moving between companies or roles. Insights and Takeaways: Senior engineers should focus on ownership, productivity, and prioritization. Career growth often involves trade-offs, and titles can be context-dependent. Building consistency in foundational tasks ("push-ups") helps in tackling larger, more impactful challenges. Effective communication and transparent prioritization (e.g., public stack ranks) foster trust and efficiency within teams. This talk serves as a practical guide for engineers aiming to elevate their impact and navigate their careers thoughtfully.

[@otniel2663]

I don't know why, but this session is very insightfull and need to be replicated in any tech companies including in my region (3rd world country)

[@noahrarick3955]

Thanks for the share. Love the free wisdom.

[@mr.mystiks9968]

Being Staff Eng at Ibotta (company I’ve never heard of) to mid level at Stripe is just an indication that titles aren’t equal between all companies. And some companies with “more prestige” simply don’t care for the higher title from your “low prestige” company. This is why titles in general don’t mean anything outside the employer’s office building. A bunch of people yap about their title taking themselves seriously until a better company downlevels them and makes candidates snap back to reality. I’d find it hard to believe that a staff engineer between 2 entirely different companies have the same responsibilities, hence why it’s easy to get downleveled. At some point you have to admit that your staff level work simply isn’t staff level at stripe or the next company you interview at.

[@aadarsh3301]

lovely and inspirational thnx for sharing

[@FreelanceTripper]

Thank you!

[@dafivers4127]

What is this. Enjoyed watching it

[@boulderruby]

This is a recording of our presentation night for Ruby / Rails that we have in Boulder, CO 1x a month! You can join remotely, too. lu.ma/boulder-ruby

[@KrucLeo]

Staff engineer in 3 years of work experience? 🤨 Does trading for a higher title work if people can see from your CV that, based on your work experience, you are a middle?