Managing Humans: More Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

© Michael Lopp 2021

M. LoppManaging Humanshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-7116-2_53

53. You Are Going on a Quest

Michael Lopp¹  

(1)

Los Gatos, CA, USA

 

The most common conversation I’ve had during the last three start-ups was the growth conversation.

Some version of: “Rands. I am here. How do I get there?”

For leadership-minded engineers, there are four career paths available to you. I will describe three briefly, and then I’ll talk about the fourth one a lot.

The first three career paths for leadership-minded engineers are CEO, CTO, or VP of Engineering.

If it strikes you a little saccharine or aggressively optimistic about showcasing these executive roles to an engineer who just graduated from the University of Waterloo with barely a year of experience ...