The Multiplier Mindset

Chapter 3. Starting Moves

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After you’ve chosen a direction for your career, the next challenge is figuring out how to actually move toward it. Knowing what you want is important, but it’s only the first step. You also need to communicate that direction and actively position yourself for the opportunity. I learned this the hard way.

After I became a Senior Software Engineer, I didn’t know exactly what my next step would be. Because of that, I wasn’t very convincing to my manager in 1:1 meetings about what my career would look like in the future. I couldn’t actually tell them, because I didn’t know. So I was stagnating in my career, feeling like I hit a wall. I didn’t know what particular skills to improve on, since I didn’t have the clarity of the next step.

It’s really important to have at least some idea of the direction in which you wish to grow. My promotion to Team Lead was more or less a combination of luck and the credibility I was able to build through successful projects in the organization. I was asked if I would be interested in the Team Lead position ...