A lot of this advice has to do with what role you play in a company. As a mid-level IC engineer, especially as one prone to moving companies, I have no strategic role.
Frankly, I will not be at the company long enough to have a strategic impact as I will have left in a few months. Solutioning keeps the day to day moving. It won't be my problem 10 months from now.
And with the endless churn on dev teams, you can't build a stable enough team to get beyond that. I wait to serve on a team that has less than a 50% replacement rate in a year.
>A lot of this advice has to do with what role you play in a company.
Exactly! A company employs me to deliver on a specific set of primary responsibilities, everything else is secondary. While i of course can push for greater responsibilities/roles to play/grow, until and unless that has been officially acknowledged and agreed upon, the primary is what i need to unambiguously deliver on.
I have never been in a company that will give out raises, nor one with meaningful equity grants (we get equity, but it was 3K at my last company or nothing to deter switching jobs).
So everyone (myself included) switches companies annually. In 2.5 years, I have had 6 (soon to be 7) different managers across three companies.
Lots of smart people involved and great to work with, but the incentives of this industry are for short fast tenures.
A team where your manager takes an active interest in your career growth, protects the team from bullshit, and expects the same behavior from his/her manager.
Frankly, I will not be at the company long enough to have a strategic impact as I will have left in a few months. Solutioning keeps the day to day moving. It won't be my problem 10 months from now.
And with the endless churn on dev teams, you can't build a stable enough team to get beyond that. I wait to serve on a team that has less than a 50% replacement rate in a year.