- The Staff Engineer’s Path is a book written by Tanya Reilly, Senior Principal Engineer at Squarespace, which provides a type of manual of how to thrive at the Staff level.
- The book covers two paths: the manager’s path and the staff engineer’s path.
- The staff engineer’s path is less defined and expectations of the job vary across companies.
- The book attempts to answer the question of how to start on the staff engineer’s path.
- As a staff engineer, you’ll be a role model and people will assume you know what you’re talking about.
- Being a role model doesn’t mean you have to become a public figure, be louder than you’re comfortable with, or throw your weight around.
- Start small and think of leadership as a skill to build.
- Be the best engineer and the best colleague that you can be and do a good job so others can see it.
- Anticipate what you’ll wish you’d done and telegraph what’s coming.
- Tidy up and keep your tools sharp.
- Create institutional memory and expect failure.
- Optimize for maintenance, not creation.
- Make it understandable and keep it simple.
- Build to decommission and create future leaders.
- The metric for success is whether other people want to work with you.
Published December 14, 2022
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