How can I advance my career after reaching the principal level?

“Chucheng, what should I do to continue growing my career?”, Jack, an old friend who has advanced to the principal level for years, threw the difficult question to me.

Jack is not alone. Similar questions have been brought to me many times since I started managing professionals at the principal or higher level. I think over the question for weeks. Oh boy! The question is short, but my answer is long.

Tech companies today always have a career ladder for individual contributors (ICs), and at the principal level, it often refers to the position one step above senior (or staff) level. Some companies may call it “senior staff.”

The principal position is equivalent to a group (or senior) manager if you are on a managerial career path. Naturally, the next step for a principle IC is director (or VP) equivalent, often accompanied by the title “distinguished” (or “fellow”) in the IC ladders.

The principal level is a sweet spot. The compensation is decent, and the person is recognized as a technical expert in the company. Job security is, to some extent, guaranteed. This person is often the opinion leader in technical discussions and managers (even executives) consult (or even rely on) him or her from time to time when making technical decisions.

If you are this person, you probably enjoy some privileges. For example, you have more freedom in selecting projects to work on. Or, you could probably have a flexible working schedule suiting your preference. You have earned trust. Trust brings autonomy. Autonomy brings freedom. And freedom brings happiness.

Nevertheless, one could sense the principal tenure like a trap because the requirements for advancing to the next ladder are now obscure. Obscure in a way that managers won’t ask the person what the next step in his/her career plan is.

Your life at work could be monotonous or at least predictable. While none would call it out loudly, your value is tied to what you do the best, or often the project you are most familiar with. Probably the project which brought you the last promotion. And admit it or not, you don’t feel lots of growth on your technical strength because mastering another programming language, tool, or framework makes little difference concerning your competency. “Just like Michael Jordan trying to learn baseball.”, in Jack’s words, I quote.

So, is there a way of climbing to the next rung in the ladder?

“Focus on the fundamentals, leadership, and value,” I responded to Jack.

Fundamentals

Continuously improve your knowledge of the fundamentals.

Being a principal professional implies that in the area of someone’s expertise, the person is at least top 20% among all professional players in the field. Many professional athletes, such as Kobe Bryant, would tell you that in the major league, the fundamentals are everything, and that’s why the very top athletes all have the insane work ethic of improving their fundamentals. Similarly, in the technical field, to achieve the next level, one has to dive deeper into the fundamentals. Practically speaking, you have to figure out “why” in addition to “what” and “how.”

For example, why (and when) we should use one technology over the other? What are trade-offs made in the design and why are these trade-offs the right choices?

One of my favorite interview questions for principal candidates is to ask the person to name two techniques for solving a scenario. Next, I ask the candidate to unpack his/her thinking process on the comparison. Why and when is one technique better than the other? What are the assumptions or principles these two techniques are associated with? Surprisingly, very few candidates passed this simple but powerful test because eventually, the answer leads to the level of maturity of knowing the fundamentals. Every technology is built on top of some foundations consisting of theories, principles, and assumptions. Without knowing them, one would have a hard time knowing when to use what and why.

Challenge yourself to find a better solution, and go beyond — explain why. Describe first principles. You will see that the answers are often buried very deep, and can only be discovered after reading and reflecting lots of relevant papers, source codes, and discussions of merge requests.

“First principles is a physics way of looking at the world…what that really means is that you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there…that takes a lot more mental energy .” —Elon Musk

Profoundly accumulating this knowledge of the fundamentals makes one stand out as an experienced domain expert. A person’s experience comes from nothing but a sum of questions combined with answers learned from those same questions.

Simply put, challenge yourself on every technical decision you are involved in, and go deep — all the way to first principles, or as I say “the fundamentals.” Open your ears and seek all opportunities to practice diagnoses. Stay on top of the latest technologies, and understand which principles and assumptions drive the breakthrough or the innovation.

Leadership

Computers are easy; people are hard.

Software development is a team sport. If the team lose the game, it does not matter how much you score, right? If you agree, will you be okay to have someone share (or even steal) your credit in exchange for maximizing buy-in (or collaboration)? Ouch! That’s easier said than done.

Leadership is a powerful but vague skill — it’s difficult to learn, and harder to practice. In layman’s terms, leadership is the ability to glue the team together to win the game because of your presence.

As a rule of thumb, one has to develop virtues like humility and integrity. Only then can he/she have a big enough heart to embrace the differences among human beings. We, managers, would expect the person beyond the principal level to coach and value people around him and have him/her act as a role model for the growth mindset and can-do attitude.

The tricky part is — you cannot fake who you are, you have to fundamentally change your own behavior and mindset. To get to the top, you have to be a better person, a better leader.

Remember this, leaders are made not born.

If you can make your irreplaceability come from your experience and leadership within you, and less about the time you have spent on a project, your skills are portable. Portability means that you are highly valuable to other groups in the company (and its competitors). The more profoundly you accumulate your strength, the more likely the company is to make you a role model, i.e., through a promotion.

In microeconomics, demand and supply determine the price. To mark yourself with a high price, your strength has to be portable. For the same reason, investing experience in open-source technologies is wiser than investing in proprietary ones. Portable strengths like leadership and experience are the fuel to your next career advancement.

Value

Show me the money (value).

The value can be viewed in two ways: internally and externally.

Internally, how much value do the projects you’re participating in bring to the company?

“If you want me to fund your project, please bring me an opportunity that returns at least 15% of the investment.” — Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit, says many times to his executives.

I’m not asking you to shoot for the moon. I’m suggesting you following the 15% rules — is your project going to have 15% return? Factoring in salary and other expenses, I use a ballpark equation to rule out inferior choices: the number of people times 0.25 million. If you are part of an eight-person team, can the team project bring at least 2 million in profit or cost-reduction annually?

Honestly, based on the equation, operational projects or incremental improvements rarely provide enough value for a principal professional to invest his/her time.

My two cents: join a team that grows fast and has a mission that comes with lots of uncertainties and difficulties. Out of the chaos comes the heroes; out of the uncertainty comes the opportunities. Seeking those projects which broaden your experience when challenged, and bring high value to the company when accomplished.

“Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” — Publilius Syrus

Your opportunity lies on the rough seas — a high-impact project with uncertainties and difficulties would provide the opportunity for you to show goal focus and decisiveness, as well as your collaboration and compassion.

Externally, how much influence do you have in the community?

As a people manager, my primary responsibility is to grow people around me, especially to those who report to me directly or indirectly. One of my leadership principles is to encourage people to publish papers, write blogs, be a PMC in open-source projects, give talks, speak at meet-ups, etc. Do whatever helps to introduce yourself to the community.

On the one hand, you help attract the best talents to the company, which is an invaluable capability. On the other hand, it enables you to broaden your perspective and knowledge, allowing you to meet and learn from experts with various specialties.

Through establishing your reputation in the community, you are no longer a nobody, and you are highly valuable because of your external influence.

Both the internal and external values you can bring to the table are cornerstones to the next level.

Congratulation

I salute you! It usually takes ten or often more years of industrial experience and hard-work for an individual contributor to achieve the principal level, a tenure that not everyone can reach. You have proven yourself through excellent craftsmanship and reliability on execution with little or no supervision.

Unfortunately, the next chapter is even more obscure in that the requirements of the next career advancement don’t include the mastery of new tools nor the time you stay at the current level.

Fortunately, it’s your privilege to hold the helm of your destiny.

Anchor or sail, the choice is yours.