Grounding your story

I was speaking to an engineer early in their career this week, and they talked about how they don’t quite seem to “fit in” as a typical engineer - they like to do more than just code, things like art, math, design and so on.

For years I’ve thought of myself like the “paladin” character in Dungeons and Dragons and I think this person is like that too. The Paladin was the class of character that could do a little of everything - fight, do magic, heal, etc. It was really useful to have one once they were advanced enough but it took FOREVER to get there.

This is true in lots of fields, engineering is no exception. If you take this mixed path, you won’t be the absolute best in any of the sub-disciplines, where there are others who focus completely on those areas. But you will be better at tasks that combine multiple perspectives.

It’s important to be able to tell your story if you are this kind of engineer (and - psst, here’s the secret: we are ALL to some degree this kind of engineer). It’s often challenging for people to understand “what” you are if you can do many different things well. For that reason, I’ve always tried to “ground” my story in being an engineer - that’s how I think of myself, what I tell people I am, and what I ask for in titles.

You can have an internal story that is much more complex - you might understand that you are actually half designer, and there are ways to communicate that effectively. But the “elevator pitch” you give about yourself should be simple, grounded, and consistent, whatever it is.

It’s awesome to be multi-faceted, and, really, everyone’s path is unique, so it’s not something to fight. But there is some value in thinking about how you want to be perceived, what frame to give the world to hang on to.

BTW - this week I appeared on Lenny's Podcast, talking about Google Docs and innovation.