This is my sixteenth year in the software industry. But I feel underaccomplished as hell. Since 8 years now, I am a Senior Software Engineer. Whenever the discussion for Principal Software Engineer came up in the previous job, it ended with me feeling like it will take at least a few more years to reach there. Recently I discussed Staff Software Engineer with the manager and even that ended with at least a year’s timeframe.
I have now moved to different company than where I had Principal Engineer discussion, and a different team than where I had Staff Engineer discussion. But I am still a Senior Software Engineer. It feels dreadful to discuss promotion any more.
What’s likely stopping/preventing me from getting promoted is my lack of depth. I have worked so much on breadth and not much on depth. It has also been a task to figure out what I want to work in depth on. Maybe, I just need to work on something — anything — in depth and figure out if it’s my thing, or not. Instead of fantasizing working on shiny things, I could just focus on what’s on my plate and do it better than how I did the previous thing on my plate.
Instead of waiting for the perfect moment, or circumstances, or scenario, I could just do things and pivot when/if it makes sense. Maybe just build things. Or break.
The feeling of being slow in my own eyes is real. But unlike a few years back, I have also started believing that everyone progresses at their own pace. No two people’s careers can be same or comparable. There’s always so much going in a person’s life that never makes it to their CV or LinkedIn, but defines how their CV will get shaped.
The past year was an eye-opener for me as I realized that I can do more and faster than I thought I was capable of. During the next year, I would like to carry this learning and try not to get distracted by a million other interesting things happening in my domain so that instead of building more breadth, I could gain more depth!
Let’s see. :)