To be a better engineer

8 concrete actions to get you promoted in 2023 as a software engineer in a start-up

Much has been written about the career development of software engineers. From staff engineer archetypes to being an effective early stage employee, many articles have helped engineers chart a path to promotion, technical or managerial, in companies of all sizes and industries.

As 2023 rolls around, here are 8 concrete actions an engineer can take to boost the chances of a promotion in a start-up environment. Hint: do more with less.

Deliver with consistent output

First thing first, in order to get a promotion, it’s fundamental to demonstrate mastery at your current job. Delivering regular and consistent work products, whether it’s in the form of code changes, documentation, or prototypes, can quickly build confidence in the team that you’re someone that they can count on. Personally, I set a goal to complete at least 1 piece of work that I could demo to the team everyday.

With the reputation of being a consistent and reliable engineer, you’re much more likely to be given bigger and better opportunities, as you’ll be deemed more likely to succeed in them.

Tackle a “oh-that-one” problem

Now instead of waiting to be given an opportunity, what’s even better is to go out and grab the opportunity yourself. This is especially valuable in a start-up environment.

Every team has a few of these nagging problems that, perhaps due to its complexity, or messiness, or high risk, everyone knows it should be done, but nobody is actually doing it. 

That’s your opportunity.

Nothing gets more publicity and gains more respect than being the hero or heroine that slays the proverbial dragon.

Send progress reports to everyone who might want to know

But the problem is, nobody would know the dragons you’ve slain if they don’t hear about it.

Whether you’re working on a long-running project, or just a quick fix, always keep everyone in the loop on what’s happening. It’s an interesting paradox that the more you let the stakeholders know what you’re doing, the more you’ll actually be given the autonomy to make decisions.

Concretely, a daily blurb to your project lead, a weekly summary to your manager, and a quarterly update on the projects you worked on to the team will get you further than you think.

Proactively help a teammate

In addition to doing a good job and letting everyone know about it, a good engineer also makes other people around them better.

Starting small, simply helping another teammate without being asked to is a great demonstration of leadership.

Everyone gets stuck at some point, maybe it’s an incompatible dependency, maybe it’s an authentication issue with a new tool, or maybe it’s a failing test.

If you hear about them, reach out to the person to help, before your manager asks you to.  You will not only build a stronger connection with the person you help, but will start developing a reputation of being helpful. The snowball will build and you will derive great impact from helping others.

Take something off of your manager’s plate

Other engineers are not the only group of people you can help. Your manager will appreciate it too.

In bigger companies with a formal promotion process, your manager is likely the person who builds a promotion case for you. In a start-up, your direct manager would have even more of an influence on that decision.

What can be more effective in giving your manager more reasons to help you than allowing them to do less work?

Ask your manager what they can offload to you in a 1-1. Ask why not if they’re hesitant. At the very least, you can get candid feedback on what you need to do to be given more responsibilities. 

Advocate for a product change

Ultimately, the value engineers provide can only get through to the customers in the form of the end product. As a result, experienced engineers are expected to have an impact not only through code, but directly on the product as well. It’s like race car drivers are expected to provide valuable feedback on how to build a more performant car.

As you’re working on every feature, take a minute to stop and think if there’s anything else customers might want to see as part of the interaction. Even simply asking a clarifying question about an edge case is a great step towards building a strong product sense.

More often than not, a strong product sense is a box you need to check off to get to a high level engineer.

Demonstrate your understanding of the technical vision

In order to get a promotion, you almost always need to demonstrate you can already perform at the next level, because promotion is as much of a recognition of your past work as a vote of confidence in your future work.

And the future is about a vision. Managers are unlikely to give an engineer more influence and scope of work if they’re not confident the engineer is in agreement with what the future of the team holds in their mind.

As a result, demonstrating your “loyalty” by actually taking a step towards the technical vision will be a big plus in your manager or tech lead’s eyes. It could be as small as refactoring a couple classes to conform to a new coding standard, or as big as creating the skeleton of a new API service.

Anything that gets the system one step closer to where it needs to be is a win for you.

Ask for feedback

Ask, and you shall receive. Getting continued feedback, positive or constructive, is the fastest and most effective way of growth.

Ask your peers what you can do more of, ask your tech lead where you need to improve, ask your manager how you can be more effective. Ask everyone else you work with how you can make their lives easier too.

Ultimately promotion is just a proxy, what’s actually important is growth. If you never ask, you’ll never know.