Calm's Will Larson on how to build a technical leadership career

There are plenty of resources and tips to unlock the secrets of the engineering management career path. But what if the role of manager is not for you? This question has been in Will Larson's head for a long time. For those who don't know him, Will has over 10 years of experience at Yahoo, Digg, Uber, and Stripe, and is currently the CTO of Calm, the Latest Mailing Database mindfulness app that helps millions of people reduce their stress level. and sleep better. Turns out he's a pretty strong writer, too — since the last time we spoke, he's published not one but two books on engineering. After writing An Elegant Puzzle about the challenges of engineering management in high-growth organizations, he focused on a much less understood career path – the path to technical leadership.

And while it's true that we've done a lot of work to advance the careers of individual contributors, there's still a long way to go. If you are a senior engineer and want to Latest Mailing Database further your career, what skills do you need to develop? How do people move into personnel engineering roles? What is the right way to do this in your business? With his latest book, Staff Engineer , Will hopes to answer all of these questions. In this episode of Indoor Intercom, Brian Scanlan, our Senior Systems Engineer, sat down with Will to talk about all things engineer tiff - what it is, how to get there, and what happens when you progress to the beyond a primary engineering role. If you're short on time, here are some quick tips.

To become a personnel engineer, you cannot rely solely on the advice of your manager or your company. They probably don't have all the answers. Talk to other engineers on staff and ask them how they got there. Different companies have different types of needs as they grow, and so the role of a staff engineer can take different forms. To move forward in your career, avoid the Latest Mailing Database trap of doing high-impact work that actually isn't, or work that makes you look good at the expense of the project and the team. You may feel like you're well on your way to being recognized, but most of the time that doesn't help anyone. The key to doing meaningful work comes from a deep understanding of what the company values ​​most – that's where you'll find the room to do high-impact work.