Speaker
Abstract
Staff+ engineers can be a powerful force in your organization…if you let them. Effectively managingStaff+ engineers requires different strategies than many managers are used to employing.
Having managed many Staff+ engineers and worked as a Staff+ engineer myself, I’d like to share my experiences (especially my mistakes!) so that you can get maximum value from your Staff+ engineers (and keep your sanity while doing so!).
In this talk, we’ll cover a range of stories and examples of effective and ineffective Staff+ management, such as:
- The “transparent umbrella” strategy for providing context
- What happens when you treat Staff+ engineers like senior engineers
- Handling mismatched IQ/EQ in your Staff+ engineers
- Leading without authority vs. lending authority
- For aspiring & current Staff+ engineers, understanding what you can expect from your manager
- “Talk tracks” to help aspiring and current Staff+ engineers get the support they need
Topics
QCon San Francisco 2023 is a three day conference for senior software engineers, architects and team leads. An international program committee of working engineers selects every session. Patterns and practices, not products and pitches.
Part of the track
Staff+ Engineering Skills Hosted by Krys Flores Staff Software Engineer @Crunchyroll, Host of O'Reilly's The Staff Engineer's Career RoadmapFrom the same track
Monday 2 October
10:35 Seacliff ABC Session Staff Plus Engineering An Incident Story: Tips for How Staff+ Engineers Can Impact Incidents Erin Doyle Founding Engineer @Quotient, 20+ Years Across Full Stack Development in Web and Mobile, and Platform Engineering In this talk, Erin Doyle, will walk through her experience with a critical 3-day-long incident. 11:45 Ballroom A Session Staff Plus Engineering Things Every Staff+ Engineer Should Know Joy Ebertz Principal Engineer @Imprint, Blogger, and Speaker, Previously @Harness, @Split, & @Box As staff+ engineers, we're often thrown into the deep end and expected to navigate huge amounts of ambiguity including ambiguity about what our jobs even are. It's common to feel like there's a huge amount of trial and error or even luck. 13:35 Seacliff ABC Session Staff Plus Engineering Managing Staff+ Engineers: Opportunities and Challenges Adam Schirmacher Staff Engineer & Manager of Staff Engineers @Gusto Staff+ engineers can be a powerful force in your organization…if you let them. Effectively managingStaff+ engineers requires different strategies than many managers are used to employing. 14:45 Pacific DEKJ Session Panel: Staff+ Engineering Skills Erin Doyle, Adam Schirmacher, Joy Ebertz, Caleb Hyde Staff+ engineering is a critical role in any high-performing engineering organization. But what does it take to get promoted or get hired into a staff role? What does it take to keep it? Join us for a panel discussion with experienced Staff+ engineers who will share their insights. 15:55 Ballroom BC Session Staff Plus Engineering Risk and Failure on the Path to Staff Engineer Caleb Hyde Site Reliability Engineer @Expel Even as inaction can be a risk, deciding which actions to take in one's career involves choosing between different bets. I've developed a rubric for judging specific risks that I've taken. 17:05 Seacliff D Unconference Unconference: Staff+ Engineering What is an unconference? An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. Attendees come together, bringing their challenges and relying on the experience and know-how of their peers for solutions.