I especially liked the part about friction - as a manager/director, reducing friction for our teams is also a great way to choose hands-on tasks.
During a retro a few months ago, engineers raised again how difficult it is to clone objects from the production to QA buckets, based on specific requirements. There was some Jenkins job, but it copied tons of not needed shit and took hours each time.
This is a task that involves multiple teams - the QA, DevOps, and another engineering team. I could have asked someone to do it, but I felt it’s a good choice of a task for myself, to feel the process. Took me a couple of weeks, I learned a lot, and made the life of my team (and the whole R&D) a bit easier.
Amazing core principles, especially Grit! I recently wrote about one of the key moments from my college years when I seriously started thinking if software engineering was for me at all. Studying at the Faculty of Sciences you meet a lot of geniuses who solve problems in 5 seconds that you didn't get for hours (and I still don't).
But it was the same for me with work, freelancing, and writing. I never had anything going on that just randomly exploded at some point into something bigger, or where I felt "I've got this". Instead, I put in a ton of hours, every day for the past decade or so with the vision that my family's life will improve because of it.
Natural born genius or just a hard worker, Grit is one of the core principles I'd like to show to our daughter. :)
This article helped me to summarize a lot of my own experiences, I feel it’s like a glass of cold water in the middle of the desert. Mindset-changing and inspiring writing. Thanks a lot Chaitali!
First, the article brings really good insights and concepts from a real experience, that is not seen so often. Thank you both for writing it.
I found the Glue work part a bit confusing, especially in the beginning. It says that you are doing a lot of mentoring, reviewing designs and talking to partner teams, then says that Glue work is the "less-glamorous tasks", and then says you are doing too much Glue work.
The key point seems to be how we define "less-glamorous tasks." I think most software engineers would consider design and coding less glamorous compared to mentoring and reviewing designs.
Perhaps the difference is in what an individual considers "glamorous" or "fulfilling" vs what companies consider "rewardable". In most big tech companies, design and coding work are rewarded more at the junior levels while mentoring, reviewing designs and talking to partner teams are rewarded more at senior levels. There is also an expectation of balance at all levels so too much of either is career-limiting.
Terrific article Jordan and Chaitali!
I especially liked the part about friction - as a manager/director, reducing friction for our teams is also a great way to choose hands-on tasks.
During a retro a few months ago, engineers raised again how difficult it is to clone objects from the production to QA buckets, based on specific requirements. There was some Jenkins job, but it copied tons of not needed shit and took hours each time.
This is a task that involves multiple teams - the QA, DevOps, and another engineering team. I could have asked someone to do it, but I felt it’s a good choice of a task for myself, to feel the process. Took me a couple of weeks, I learned a lot, and made the life of my team (and the whole R&D) a bit easier.
That's a great example of friction and how to reduce it!
These are great metaphors for the macros and micros ingredients of one's career.
I've noted these examples to use in the future.
Thanks for the lessons, Chaitali!
Thanks Michal! Glad you found the lessons useful.
Helpful!
I agree that grit can beat talent in the long run.
That has definitely been my lived experience!
This article is going to help a lot of people, it definetly is going to help me. It was an incredible read!
Glad to hear that Darshana!
Amazing core principles, especially Grit! I recently wrote about one of the key moments from my college years when I seriously started thinking if software engineering was for me at all. Studying at the Faculty of Sciences you meet a lot of geniuses who solve problems in 5 seconds that you didn't get for hours (and I still don't).
But it was the same for me with work, freelancing, and writing. I never had anything going on that just randomly exploded at some point into something bigger, or where I felt "I've got this". Instead, I put in a ton of hours, every day for the past decade or so with the vision that my family's life will improve because of it.
Natural born genius or just a hard worker, Grit is one of the core principles I'd like to show to our daughter. :)
Thanks, Chaitali for writing this up!
Grit is definitely one principle I'm trying to teach my daughter too! You are giving me an idea for a future post - how to teach/learn Grit! 😀
Worth teaching for sure! Looking forward to reading it, subscribed! 🙌
This article helped me to summarize a lot of my own experiences, I feel it’s like a glass of cold water in the middle of the desert. Mindset-changing and inspiring writing. Thanks a lot Chaitali!
Thanks Andrii!
Great article, and very inspiring Chaitali - thank you!
Friction in government roles is so high the whole building could set on fire
I believe you!
A great article !
Thank you, Milan!
The overindexing on glue tasks reminds me of the “snacks vs meals” insight you’ve talked about before, Jordan.
Glue work and quick wins are a great part of your daily work and promotion pack, but if that’s all you do, you won’t be promoted.
You need long term, challenging, big impact projects to hit those senior+ level promotions.
Great insights here. Thanks for sharing Chaitali and Jordan 🙌🏻
First, the article brings really good insights and concepts from a real experience, that is not seen so often. Thank you both for writing it.
I found the Glue work part a bit confusing, especially in the beginning. It says that you are doing a lot of mentoring, reviewing designs and talking to partner teams, then says that Glue work is the "less-glamorous tasks", and then says you are doing too much Glue work.
The key point seems to be how we define "less-glamorous tasks." I think most software engineers would consider design and coding less glamorous compared to mentoring and reviewing designs.
Perhaps the difference is in what an individual considers "glamorous" or "fulfilling" vs what companies consider "rewardable". In most big tech companies, design and coding work are rewarded more at the junior levels while mentoring, reviewing designs and talking to partner teams are rewarded more at senior levels. There is also an expectation of balance at all levels so too much of either is career-limiting.
This is an amazing post! Thank you, Chaitali!
Thank you, Konstantin! Appreciate that 🙏
Liked the idea of monthly recap. Great article. Thanks
Thank you, Shreyas! Glad you enjoyed
Incredible article, gold
Thank you so much, Daniel!
Amazing post! Thanks Jordan and Chaitali!
https://substack.com/@nikhilkhandelwal/note/c-97590655?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=1yg8z6