Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.
James Thurber

Rajeev was staring at his 27 inch 4K monitor and had his organization chart open. He had climbed the ladder all the way to the CEO of Random Medium Incorporated. He has been navigating the chart for 30 minutes now, jumping from person to person aimlessly. Fascinated and frustrated at the same time, he was unsure how some people seemed to have made so much progress despite having less experience than him. He had been in the industry for 15 years now and was stuck at L5 while folks younger than him were climbing. He had had to fight for each promotion, working very hard to prove that he deserved it. Other people seemed to be having a much easier time getting promoted.

Annoyed, he closed the window and stepped outside for a walk. He needed to clear his head and talk this over with someone. After walking for about 20 minutes, he distilled his thoughts down to one question.

He decided to call his ex-boss, Praveen and ask him. Rajeev had worked with Praveen for a few years at Random Medium. Praveen had left to join a small startup as director of engineering but they had stayed in touch. Praveen had always been supportive and gave insightful feedback which Rajeev found very useful. Rajeev pulled out his phone, found Praveen's name in his contacts and pressed the phone icon.

Ring, ring...

Praveen answered on the fifth ring, just as Rajeev was about to give up.

"Hello!"

"Hi Praveen, Rajeev here."

"Hey Rajeev, so glad to hear from you. How have you been?"

"I've been good Praveen, hope you are doing well as well. Is now a good time to talk?"

"Of course! I just got done with work. What's up?"

Rajeev took a deep breath and asked, " How do I navigate my career?"

This is a question that many of us ask ourselves, but often the answers are not evident. Org charts are effective at showing us how far we have come and how far we have to travel. However, seldom do org charts tell us what the next steps are, like a map with no directions, only checkpoints.

The topic is vast and many authors have tried to tackle it. You can read The Startup of You or The Career Coding Handbook. Future posts will dive deeper into this topic but for this post, let's only cover what Praveen can talk about over a short phone call.

As developers in mid to large tech firms, there are things we can't control. We can't control team budgets allocated for promotions, our team sizes or how well others are performing (let's save the Machiavellian political moves for when Rajeev calls Sunny Balwani).

But there are things we can control, such as,

1. Effort
2. Direction

Effort

Let's suppose that,

Effort = time you spend working

This includes any meetings you attend, time spent writing/reviewing design documents and writing/reading code. Your job is to get the most out of the effort you put in. In other words, you should be maximizing your productivity.

Productivity = Effort X Efficiency

By being more deliberate and aware you can be more efficient. Here are some tips.

1. Pick the right projects

2. Use the right tools/skills

3. Learn in public, build your brand

Pick the right projects

Sometimes not working on something is the most productive thing you can do.
Mark Manson

Some projects do well for the team or the company while there are others that are duds. Imagine that you always picked winners. You'd argue that it's not possible to know if the project will give us the desired outcome or not. Decision makers pick projects based on the product roadmap. On paper, all projects are supposed to do well, however, some projects yield zero to no results. If such a project lands on your desk and you are able to recognize it, speak up. Voice your opinion that this project does not need an entire quarter's worth of sprints or that it simply won't give us the expected return. Make quick work of such projects if you can or push for them to be scrapped altogether. Picking the right project means avoiding unnecessary ones.

Use the right tools/skills

You are an engineer. You solve problems. It is very critical that you use the right set of tools to solve them. Maintain familiarity with your organization's tech stack. Also, keep learning about what is out there. If a tool solves an ongoing issue, go for it. You could also call for using a new tool to make rapid advancement in a project. A third-party library could potentially cut weeks of development time.

Learn in public, build your brand

I had a colleague, who soon after joining our company, would routinely present code and infrastructure best practices during Eng all hands. It was stuff I already knew about. What was the point of attending these calls? But very soon, he got better and his presentations got better. Now if anyone had an infrastructure problem, they'd turn to him and he'd always have a document or presentation ready to share. He'd built up his brand as the "Infra Guy". Six months in, he was being asked to lead company wide infra projects.

Be that guy. Share what you learn routinely. Ask the most obvious questions and be ready to sometimes come across as stupid. Document it, polish it and then share it. You'll learn in the process and also cut out a niche for yourself.

Direction

All that effort is worthwhile, but in order to be truly effective it also has to be in the right direction. It is imperative that you figure out where your compass is pointing. To know where you should be headed, you should first look inwards. Spend sometime to,

1. Find your values

2. Know your strengths and weaknesses

3. Find your target

Find your values

What is most meaningful to you? What are the values that you cannot compromise on? Perhaps you want to be a CTO but work-life balance is also important. Understanding the tradeoffs is essential for your inner peace. There are several online tests [1 and 2] that help you find your core values. Once you know them, write them down and put them somewhere visible. Once ingrained, these values will help you decide what is right for you, making things much easier.

Know your strengths and weaknesses

You must have had a feedback session if you have worked in the industry for a while now. It could have been an informal one with your mentor or a formal one at the end of the year with your manager. These give you an idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are. If you want to know more, talk to the person you recently collaborated with. Or find a team member and ask them to give you feedback on your work. Do the same for them. In the process, you'll learn more about your strengths and weaknesses. Once you do, you can pick projects that suits your strengths while you work on strengthening your weaknesses.

Find your target

Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached
Swami Vivekananda

After becoming aware of your values, strengths and weaknesses it should be much easier for you to know what kind of engineer you want to be. Now you need a target. Talk to senior engineers, managers, product managers in your team, outside your team, outside your business unit or even outside your company. Talk to anyone whose role you find interesting. Reach out and ask questions. Learn the tradeoffs of each role and see if they work for you. Once you find a role that makes sense to you, find a way to get there and start working towards it.

Just knowing where you are heading and how to get there already puts you ahead of most people.

Rajeev exhaled after hanging up. Praveen had done most of the talking with a few questions in between from Rajeev. He mulled it over. He remembered listening to some minister speak at his convocation whose theme was in the same vein. Things started coming back to him and he recounted that all this had been clear to him when he started his career. But somewhere along the way, in the monotony of things, this knowledge had been lost.

He started walking back home, this time with purpose in his steps. He had to write it down before he forgot. It was critical for him to stay focused and not forget this time. He felt calmer now that he saw light at the end of the tunnel.

Tomorrow was a new day, a day where Rajeev would be aware.