Thinking like a Staff Engineer at Big Tech with Sean Goedecke

Sean Goedecke, a Staff Software Engineer at GitHub, shares insights on advancing to senior engineering roles in big tech. He emphasizes intentional career growth, balancing technical and soft skills, and delivering high-impact projects. Key themes include cognitive load management, aligning work with company goals, and navigating promotions in distributed teams.

2. Core Technical Concepts & Technologies

• Distributed Systems & Databases (e.g., replication lag, k8s deployments)
• Web Development (React, Ruby on Rails, Unicorn, HTTP)
• AI/LLMs (practical applications, tradeoffs)
• DevOps & Production Readiness (monitoring, incident response)
• Architectural Tradeoffs (monoliths vs. microservices, SQLite in production)

3. Main Points

• Career Growth & Promotions
  • Proactively seek high-impact projects and build relationships with decision-makers.
  • Write clear promo packets and gather testimonials from senior engineers.
• Technical Skills for Staff Engineers
  • Cognitive load management: Retain broad system context to unblock teams.
  • Pragmatism: Prioritize stability and maintainability over personal preferences.
• Soft Skills & Leadership
  • Communicate