Member-only story
4 Years of Coding advice in one Article.
Stop coding.
Introduction
Back in March 2024 I finished my 4th year working as a software engineer. At the time I was working at Google and wrote a ton of code but I felt stuck in my career.
So I asked a manager what I needed to do to become a senior engineer and he asked me If i’ve ever seen Naruto.
“You know the show where the kid is really lonely in the beginning?”
Sounds like every other software engineer but I wanted to hear how this relates to getting promoted.
Naruto starts his journey on a team with people he doesn’t even get along with. But he gets close to them and eventually learns how to work together.
Then he meets other teams from the same village. They’re not competitors but it takes him time to learn how to work together with them too.
By the end of the show Naruto goes from the world’s loneliest child to being supported by the ENTIRE village.
So what does that have to do with senior engineers.
He tells me that
“You become a senior engineer by getting people to support you.”
Not by being on your own, but by working with everyone else.
Reflection
That was one of the most important pieces of advice I ever received as an engineer.
And it was a little surprising because when people think of getting better as a software developer, they’re imagining some god programmer who can fix any bug by just staring at it.
It feels weird to say because you spent years in school learning how to code but coding more isn’t going to help your career.
Code promotion fallacy
“More code doesn’t mean more promotions”
