15 ways to Supercharge your Career Growth

After 10+ yrs of working in software engineering, here are top traits I’ve seen in the top performing engineers I’ve worked with. Work on these to supercharge your skills and career growth 🚀

We all know a few engineers that just seem to “know everything.”

Whether it’s troubleshooting a slow query, tuning your alerts/monitors, mentoring a new junior on the team, spinning up a new microservice, adding a new frontend component, leading a complex project – they can do it all.

But how did they get there? How did they become so trusted? How did they grow their skills in all these different areas?

After 10+ yrs in software engineering, it’s become clear to me some traits / skills these top performers all share.

Work on even just a few of these 15 traits of top performaers to supercharge your growth and really stand out (no matter what level you are at). 🚀

Let’s dive in 👇🏼

1. Develop a bias for action

Amazon lists having a “bias for action” as one of its core leadership principles. They pride themselves on rapid innovation thanks to a culture of moving fast.

Having a bias for action means: if you are asking: “should I do something about this?” – the answer is probably yes. ✅

It doesn’t mean being impulsive.

It means: take calculated risks with the data you have, and failing fast to find the best solution quickly.

2. Never say: “that’s not my job”

There are times in your career where you’ll need to “wear many hats.” Maybe you are on a project with missing requirements and staffing and suddenly you are required to step into the role of:

• designer / devops / security / product / customer service

These are all roles/skills I’ve had to do over my 10 year career – that weren’t officially my job.

Because I was willing to jump in, learn, and help where ever needed, I’ve developed a better understanding of our products and our business from end-to-end.

This ultimately helped me become a more valuable contributor. 🌟

Note: Some companies are just toxic and will constantly ask for more and more from you until you burnout. If you recognize those signs, it’s time to leave.

(Almost) never say: “that’s not my job.”

3. Be trustworthy / reliable

Build your team’s trust by saying what you’ll do, doing it, and then showing you’ve done it.

If you become known for consistently delivering value, you’ll go far in a company.

If you are flaky, inconsistent, and don’t keep people informed on your progress, it will be hard for leaders to trust you.

They may pass you over for difficult projects that are key to your growth in the company.

This doesn’t mean you need to silently suffer to hit a unrealistic deadline.

Do your best, but if you can’t accomplish something on time – say something. Raise a blocker, and come with creative ideas on how to still complete the goal.

Keeping stakeholders informed, even when something is off track builds massive trust with them. They can count on you to reach out without having to constantly check in on where things are at.

4. Own your growth

Whether you are at a small startups without a career ladder or a large FAANG company with everything outlined, it’s important to own your own growth.

No one is going to promote you just because you’ve worked there for another year.

Even if your company has a clear career ladder outlined, it might not align with your life goals, or skillset.

Example: someone suggests you should be a manager since you are the best engineer on the team. Reality: you’d rather continue growing on the IC track.

It’s important to know your strengths and weaknesses, and where you want to go next, and drive towards it. Be proactive in pursuing your own growth path and development as a leader. Don’t depend solely on your company to do that for you.

5. Advocate for change, and lead the charge

Don’t wait for someone else to tell you what to do. Advocate for changes you want to see happen, then lead the charge.

Whether it’s documentation for easier onboarding, new auto-scaling infrastructure, or a more inclusive culture, be the change you want to see!

This is a great way to standout as an engineer, and help your entire team level up at the same time. 🚀

Make sure the changes you advocate for are inclusive and actually helps everyone – vs. just a personal pet peeve or preference. Otherwise people will see right through to your self-centeredness, and won’t rally behind your ideas.

6. Don’t overcomplicate processes