Growing With An Organization

Problem

"For a period of time, when I was going from being a senior engineer to a manager, I struggled a lot with moving from being really involved in code to being more hands off. My job had completely changed."

Actions taken

"Different stages of a company require different types of experiences and people. The skillset I had when I was an individual contributor is not the same skill set that I have now. As you move up the career ladder towards management, your responsibilities will change."

"It took me a while to understand that as a company grows, its engineers need to take on increasingly specialized roles. As companies scale, it becomes increasingly difficult for engineers to do everything, since there are only so many hours in the day. When your focus is too broad, you end up with decreasing amounts of time to spend on doing quality work. Instead, you will end up with a lot of tasks being done at a mediocre level."

"Similarly, as you move up the career ladder, you need to let go of certain roles and responsibilities or delegate them to others in order to be able to focus on doing your job to the best of your abilities."

Lessons learned

"As an individual at a company, it's necessary to recognize why different roles are important and why it's important for roles to change. It's not a bad thing if your role changes, and you should be willing to let go of certain roles and responsibilities as you and your company grows. Through this process, you'll learn and gain experience."