Summary of Will Larson's Staff Engineer

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Will Larson's Staff Engineer in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: At most technology companies, you'll reach Senior software engineer, the career level for software engineers, in five to eight years. At the career level, your company's career ladder won't require that you work towards the next promotion; being promoted further is an exception rather than expected. This is also when many engineers are first given an opportunity to move into engineering management. Over the past few years, we've seen a flurry of books unlocking the engineering management career path, like Camille Fournier's The Manager's Path, Julie Zhuo's The Making of a Manager, Lara Hogan's Resilient Management, and even my own An Elegant Puzzle. The engineering management career isn't an easy one, but there are maps available to help navigate it. What if you want to advance your career without becoming an engineering manager? The technical leadership path remains relatively undocumented, hard to navigate, and inconsistent across companies. Staff Engineer is your guide to building your career towards a Staff engineering role, receiving the title, and succeeding within the role.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Dec 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781669343752

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Will Larson's Staff Engineer

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The book's sections are: 1) overview of the Staff engineer role, how it varies by company, and why the title matters; 2) operating at Staff; 3) getting the title where you are; and 4) switching companies to get the title.

#2

The four common archetypes of Staff-plus engineer roles are: the Tech Lead, the Architect, the Solver, and the Right Hand. The first leads a team, the second solves problems, the third delves into complex issues, and the fourth extends an executive’s attention and authority.

#3

The most common Staff engineer is the Tech Lead, who is responsible for a team of other engineers and is a close partner to the product manager. They are the first person called when the roadmap needs to be shuffled.

#4

The Architect role tends to evolve in relatively large companies, companies with exceptionally complex or coupled codebases, and companies that are struggling to repay the technical debt they created in their initial sprint to product-market fit.

#5

The Solver is a trusted agent of the organization who goes deep into knotty problems, continuing to work on them until they’re resolved. They’re most common in companies that think of individuals rather than teams as the atomic unit of