Speaker
Abstract
Being part of a growing company is a fantastic opportunity to level yourself as an individual very rapidly, if you choose to grasp it. You've already immersed yourself with context and you might be the go to person for a key area of the organization. Having a brag document of all your great code and adventures in writing software is only achieving half the job.
Getting involved in "extra curricular" activities such as hiring, coaching / mentoring, writing proposals and building your community in and outside of your organisation can really boost your career. You need to have technical mastery but also craft your organisational relationships to be a leader that gets key projects unblocked and delivered.
This talk brings an insight into what these activities look like and I want to give a cheat sheet on how to be great at them from day one. If you are eyeing up getting to Staff+/Principal level, this is the talk for you.
Key Takeaways:
- Many folks seem to think that just technical mastery and getting deeper into the code will get them that promotion. We will touch on why that is not the case in many organizations.
- We will cover being a great interviewer, how mentoring & coaching can fundamentally alter your perspective in how you write code, having really productive 1:1s with your colleagues and how this all links up into building a persona within your organization.
- We will use examples from my own career and mistakes I've made just focusing on the code to steer the audience towards making career investments that actually get them noticed within their organizations.
Topics
QCon London 2025 is a three day conference for senior software engineers, architects and team leads. An international program committee of working engineers selects every session. Patterns and practices, not products and pitches.
Part of the track
The Path to Senior Engineering Leadership Hosted by Leandro Guimarães Senior Engineering Manager @ClassPass, former Chair of QCon in BrazilFrom the same track
Monday 7 April
10:35 Whittle (3rd Fl.) Session leadership The Principal Engineer’s Path: Skills, Strategies, and Lessons Learned Sophie Weston Principal Engineer @ClearBank, Co-Organizer of DevOpsDays London & FastFlowConf In many organizations, the role of Principal Engineer is considered the highest level of the ‘individual contributor’ career path. But careers aren’t like ladders—short, straight, and evenly spaced. Instead, they’re long, winding, and often challenging journeys. 11:45 Fleming (3rd Fl.) Session career growth How to Always Get Invited to Big Strategic Conversations Mark Allen Engineering Leader and Technical Co-Founder, Over 10 Years Experience Growing Managers and Senior Engineers Ever heard “you’re a great engineer/manager, but to get to the next level, you need to focus on the big picture and your business impact”? Early on in our careers, we focus on technical depth and excellence. 13:35 Fleming (3rd Fl.) Session software engineering Changing Power Dynamics: What Senior Engineers Can Learn From Junior Engineers Beth Anderson Principal Software Engineer @BBC Digital Distribution In many engineering teams, senior engineers make the decisions and are responsible for mentoring and teaching junior team members. This rigid hierarchical dynamic can stifle innovation, discourage fresh perspectives, and create barriers to collaboration. How can we change this? 14:45 Rutherford (4th Fl.) Unconference Unconference: The Path to Senior Engineering Leadership 15:55 Fleming (3rd Fl.) Session Engineering Management Scaling to 100+ as a Director: Lessons From Growing Engineering Organizations Thiago Ghisi Director of Engineering @Nubank & Co-Host of @EngAdvicePod, Previously @Apple & @ThoughtWorks When I took on the Director of Engineering role at Nubank, I had no idea just how many times I’d need to reinvent my leadership style. 17:05 Whittle (3rd Fl.) Session engineering leadership Shine Bright as an IC: Growing Yourself As Your Company Grows Suhail Patel Senior Staff Engineer @Monzo Leading the Platform and Data Functions, Previously @Citymapper Being part of a growing company is a fantastic opportunity to level yourself as an individual very rapidly, if you choose to grasp it. You've already immersed yourself with context and you might be the go to person for a key area of the organization.