Currently founder of CareerTact - helping software devs understand why they should NOT just be heads down coders.
Previously Growth, Profile, Comm, Money, Platform, Infra, Publishing, i18n @ LinkedIn.
As a software engineer, I hated getting advice like "Be more assertive", "Learn to Delegate", or "My door is always open".
I promise that the advice I give will be situational and direct - and if I don't have expertise in your solution and can't suggest the type of person who does, I'll tell you straight up.
Read https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dont-just-heads-down-coder-michael-chu for additional context. During my nearly 5 years at LinkedIn, I worked across many different teams (Growth, Money, Content to name a few).
I went from a junior eng to staff, and in my final year, drove the vision and roadmap behind a completely new product, Pulitzer.
Many people have commented that it seemed like everything went smoothly for me, that I 'climbed the ladder' quickly or that I always seemed to work on the highest priority projects. I always reply - I was frustrated by something almost every other week. Sometimes, I'd grind it out. Other times, I'd pick the brains of the dozens of relationships I'd forged.
I'm currently working with a few engineers on their careers - this isn't for everyone - but if you've got that unsettling feeling that you're missing out on something, I will let you know.
