35 year veteran in Tech
I’ve made every mistake under the sun with regards to career moves. AMA. Feel free to DM as well. Not at Capital One. TC: $850k
What is your company and title
Are you prem?
If you were starting all over, what is the path you would choose? E.g. get into FAANG ASAP and stay there as long as possible.
Yes. This is one of my regrets.
Did you ever think about leaving the field? How far did that go?
I do and I did. That was a regret too. One of the biggest takeaways I learned was to stay in my lane.
Can you elaborate please on the takeaway to stay in your lane?
Does it worth it to go beyond IC5 (senior eng) role?
No. IC5 is a sweet spot and most people don’t have what it takes to thrive beyond that level. I often regret getting into leadership. It’s rife with nastiness.
Most people don’t comprehend how there’s a path in life where you aim for something different than that +1 on the ladder. IC5 gives you freedom to slow down and speed up and you’re still given a lot of the IC6 opportunities if you ask for that.
Are you happy ?
See above. I would be happier as an IC5.
How do you look for a new job when you get to this level of seniority? Do you usually apply online or have connections who can always help to land a job?
THE best way is if someone above you brings you in. Otherwise, it’s thru someone you’ve chatted with for a while. It takes forever or is super quick.
What’s your opinion on selling stocks on vest vs accumulating them?
Accumulate is what I would say if you’re in big Tech. The lower you go down the food chain the riskier it can get in which case I would sell 50% and hold the rest. You have to hold for 3-4 + years for the strategy to make sense.
You told senior eng is a sweet spot. I like technical leadership but only one level up (staff/ tech lead for the team with criss team collaboration). Have no intention to go higher. Is it feasible or as soon as you are on the leadership path you will be pushed further by your managers?
Im staff level and have no plans on going higher. At this level I think everyone knows the job is different further up the chain, so there’s not as much pressure to continue beyond it if you don’t want it. It’s worth noting though that the same environment that made you want to go from senior to staff will make you want to go to senior staff (more autonomy, better ability to focus and drive impact/growth through specific projects that influence larger organizations). For my niche, staff is the highest level that makes sense at the company level so there’s not a ton of drive or pressure.
Senior/ Staff is ok. Once you go above that where you have more than 1 team or a team leading teams things are very different.
Where are you currently and what is your title?
I’m at Amazon/ Microsoft and I’m Snr Dir/ VP.