Hey {{first name | there}}. The real reason a 17-year principal engineer asked me to coach him (it has nothing to do with experience).
In today’s career notes:
Why a principal engineer with 17 years asked someone with 9 to coach him
Three picks: where to find talks to speak at, a debate worth watching, and the OGs of engineering leadership
An exciting TODO for you!!
THE EDGE: I Coach Principal Engineers Who Outrank Me
This Senior Principal Engineer told me, “When I look at you, I say yeah, this is someone who can guide me and help me to start and build my journey.”
Mind you, this is someone with 17 years of experience. I have only 9 years of experience. So double my experience.
He went on to say, and I quote, “I've been following you for a long time, and I'm really impressed with your work because you are the real voice of cloud and platform engineering because of your articles with Syntasso, Crossplane, and all that.”
Imagine that a senior principal engineer, leading platform engineering initiatives at his company, looking at you and saying you're the person he wants to guide him.
Here is a video from our call 🤫. Don’t share with anyone 😂
What Most People Don't See
Over the past year, I've spoken with hundreds of engineers across six continents.
I've spent more than 230 hours in conversations with platform engineers, staff engineers, architects, engineering managers, and founders.
Most people only see what's happening inside their company.
I get to see patterns across the entire ecosystem.
I hear the same challenges repeated in different accents, different industries, and different parts of the world.
That's the real value.
Not that I know more than everyone else.
But I can connect dots that are invisible when you're only looking at your own environment.
The Edge?
The biggest career advantage today isn't knowing everything.
It's knowing what matters.
And sometimes the person who helps you grow isn't the person with the most years of experience.
It's the person with the widest perspective on your knowledge gap at that point in time.
That's the edge.
✅ACTION ITEMS FOR YOU
Reach out to one engineer outside your company this week and schedule a 30-minute conversation. Ask them:
What's the biggest challenge your team is facing right now?
What's one thing you're learning that more engineers should know?
Don't try to teach. Just listen.
Your perspective grows fastest when you're exposed to problems beyond your own environment.
🔭VISIBILITY STACK
Do Engineers Need to Build a Personal Brand? – Considering investing time in your “Personal Brand”? Another senior engineer and I had a debate about whether it was worth it.
Developer Conferences Agenda – This is how I find events happening all over the world and then apply to speak at them.
Lead Dev – In my opinion, I would say they are the OGs of engineering thought leadership guides. I learned so much from them in the past 5 years.
Stay sharp. Stay visible.
Divine Odazie
CEO, EverythingDevOps
