Spotlight: Samira Tasharofi

Our?Spotlight Series?aims to highlight women in different Engineering teams across LinkedIn. Featured writers provide insight into their role and what they do at LinkedIn.

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Spotlight:? Samira Tasharofi Senior Staff Software Engineer, Ads at LinkedIn

I was born in Iran and finished my bachelors and master's degrees at the University of Tehran, before I came to the United States for my Ph.D at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My dream of becoming a software engineer started when I was in high school. I attended a high school which provided a more advanced curriculum for students who got selected through their entrance test. I was excited to learn that computer programming was offered as a class; coincidentally my family had just gotten our first Windows computer. Being able to create simple programs in Assembly language in my free time was so rewarding and led me to pursue computer science as my major at the University of Tehran and later on in the United States.?

My immigration to the U.S was far from easy; I had to make the decision to leave behind my family including my husband in Iran and come to a new country alone. Looking back, this could not have been possible without the great support I received from my family and my husband who left everything to join me here after a year. During my Ph.D. program, I got the opportunity to intern at research labs as well as software companies. My internship at Microsoft was a pivotal experience as it allowed me to become excited about building software which could be used by millions of people and make an impact across the world. Soon after, I decided to pursue a career in industry rather than academia. After graduating from UIUC, I excitedly started at Microsoft as a full time employee in the Seattle area. After less than a year, I moved to California due to family reasons where I joined LinkedIn in 2014.

When I first started at LinkedIn, I could never imagine how great a company could be. I had my first child a few months after joining which made it very difficult for me to ramp up at a new job. Luckily, I was able to transition smoothly due to the tremendous support from my managers and colleagues. Since then, I have gotten so many opportunities to work on different projects and improve as an engineer every day.?

Individual Contributor vs Manager Track

One of the questions I’ve been asked many times since I became a Staff engineer is whether I would like to continue on the Individual Contributor (IC) track or if I wanted to switch to the management track. One thing I realized is that as you grow in your career, the lines between technical and management skill sets become more blurry. As an IC and tech lead of a project, you will need to also hone people management skills in order to succeed. You will end up working with a large number of people with diverse opinions, skill sets, and expectations from their roles in the project, and it's up to you to bring them together and build a cohesive picture. This includes helping people resolve their conflicts and blockers. On the other hand, as a first line manager, you will also need to have in-depth technical skills to guide the team and grow tech leads inside the team. The key point here is that as you progress in your career, you get exposure to both tracks to some extent so that you can make an informed decision.?

Now, the main question is, would you like to invest and focus on growing people or advancing technologies? The answer to this question is the key to choosing your path. It’s important to know that your answer now can change over time and it’s completely fine. You should choose what makes you excited about your work with your current interests and situation.?Having said that, it’s clear why I chose the IC track: my answer to the above question was that I would like to learn and focus more on how to advance technologies. In addition, being on the IC track brings a lot of? flexibility in terms of working with different teams/people and learning new domains. I really enjoy collaborating with my colleagues to solve technical problems and that’s sufficient for me to stay and continue on the IC track. If at any point of time I find myself curious about a different area or track, I know I will be able to pursue my interests thanks to LinkedIn prioritizing engineers’ growth.?

My last piece of advice is don't choose a path solely because others chose it or recommended it to you. Continue to explore your passions by putting yourself in situations where you can examine your interests and follow what makes you feel excited and proud of yourself at work. The best part is you can continue this exploration throughout your career! The path to success is not a straight line, and my journey is a testament to that.?

Want to see more posts like this? Check out our past Spotlights HERE