Ask HN: How do I crawl out of the "Senior Engineer" hole?

The organizational pyramid is just that. Not every senior dev moves up (or should move up if happiness is a priority). You shouldn't look to your peers to tell you what's next for your career. How do you want to spend your time at work compared to how you're spending it now? Do you want harder technical problems? More product design work? Something else? You've already expressed that you don't want to manage folks, which closes off a lot of paths.

Help newer engineers learn skills, help interview people, help run meetings, and instigate new projects. Cook up a new product or feature, and champion it. If it goes well, you'll be the de-facto tech lead.

Of course, you might just be at a very flat organization where nobody reports to an engineer. In many companies there is no formal idea of a tech lead - you report to somebody who used to be an engineer, but is now a manager.

A lot of larger companies are seeing this as an issue so they are adding gradients to what a SSE is (SSE 1, SSE 2 etc) but really the answer is you're going to have to move up via a team leadership role and this means more management and less engineering.

On the flip side, the best technical managers I've worked with were not very technical at all.

I did take the route of advancing into a CTO position. There were parts of it I really enjoyed, and parts of it I dreaded. Those overlapped predictably with the parts I was bad at...

I would do it again, for the right project. But with a much clearer understanding of which responsibilities I will take for myself, and what I which I will delegate.

My advice to you would be to focus on the parts of your job you love, and make sure you're getting the credit and rewards you deserve. If that means you're a Senior Developer for the next ten years, it should also mean you're getting profit sharing, an office (if you want one) and a recognized position as a driver of the company's future.

Mind you, I don't see anything wrong with being a Senior Dev if that's what you're happy doing. In general, I think there's value in an experienced developer who enjoys their work, can articulate technical concerns to the non-technical, mentor new tech hires, and carry some institutional memory.

My suggestion would be to ask (or even take) on a leadership role. Fake it til you make it, and put the results in your annual performance review. Write it up really well, and make sure you show results and not just state what you did. Show that your leadership adds value.

You do not need a formal leadership role to do this.

Mentoring is a quick way to put a notch in your leadership role, especially in your position and level of expertise. Share best practices with some junior engineers, and help them learn, grow.

You can also take on tasks outside of the office to build a proof of concept or the like that saves the company money or adds value. I have a mentor who became a senior manager after developing what became our enterprise email infrastructure during off hours with a small team of colleagues. He's now a CIO of a large part sector of the company.

A third idea, and we love this one where I work, is community leadership. Whether its helping out at a local non-profit, or spearheading a one time event for a holiday food bank, these are great opportunities to demonstrate leadership. (They're also a good idea in general, and great karma!)

That said, I am right there with you. I spent 4 years working in software development outside my current company, another 2 years at the company, and just now entered a leadership development program. There is a tremendous amount of soft skill development involved in the program I am in, and it really does help (even if it frustrates me at times).

This role combines architecture, project management, and some light management responsibilities for the team. You're still writing code, but you have overall responsibility for the technical parts of the project. It sounds like you've held this position at least once, and succeeded.

Beyond this point, you'll either need to move to organization with a full-fledged technical career ladder (and try for a title like "Distinguished Engineer" or "IBM Fellow"), or pick up more management skills and go for "CTO" or "VP of Engineering."

I'm learning management skills, and enjoying it: There are lots of problems which can only be solved by changing an organization as a whole, and not just by writing code. Even if that code is very sweet.

I was in the same situation, dev lead for 10 years. Bored. But I hated shuffling papers more than I hated being a drone...even if I was a senior drone.

What you need to do is start your own Startup.

What you're lacking in experience is only a problem if you need to actually manage people. You must likely have plenty of experience actually running a project... why not run your own project. Do consultancy on the side (even to your existing employer), but get out and do your own thing.

In time, you'll hire your first employee, then your second etc. There is far more career progression when you're growing a pyramid beneath you.

Really, the only thing you're lacking -- and I do not say this lightly, or mean this disparagingly -- is chutzpah.

The simple (and sad fact) is, that for the vast majority of these CTO/COO/CEO types, whether they happen to possess great talent, or not -- what happened to catapult them through the glass ceiling into that "leadership" role was one of two things: (1) they were already working in an organization for some time and there was suddenly a vacuum, a great need for someone to "pick up the reins", and the were seen as "the only one in the room"; or (2) they were simply very brash, and repeatedly but persistently insinuated themselves into the "technologist, visionary, co-founder, (what have you)" role and eventually (perhaps with the help of a thick skin and/or immunity from the crushing weight of self-doubt that afflicts most normal, healthy people I know) it finally stuck -- someone finally believed them, and they got that brass ring -- that CTO job in their 20s, million-dollar funding for their company, speaking gigs at TED, whatever.

What I vastly prefer working with managers/principals in the first category, I find the latter path to "greatness" is far more common. I don't mean to belittle these kinds of characteristics, or to say charisma and the ability to sell one's self isn't important, or anything like that. But it does seem is that part of what keeps (very good) engineers in that "worker thread" category, it seems, has (very sadly) a lot to do with what made them good engineers in the first place -- the ability to stay humble, stay focused on just being really excellent at what they do, not for the vanity (or the outsize paycheck) but simply for the sake of excellence itself -- and above all, not taking themselves too seriously.

You might have to gain some leadership experience in an alternative way. Something outside of your work like sports, charities, politics, arts - something that interests you.

2. Remember; YOU OWN YOUR CV/RESUME! You can write whatever you like and think will sell you best. Don't say you're a Chess-Grand-Master if you aren't but write that which sells you and your skills and shows them in the best light. You don't need to write everything; focus on your strengths and those areas that show your team leadership and advanced skills. Structure it appropriately and you'll be able to include all your skills (so you appear in search results) and target your strengths.

3. Look for some certifications in an area that interests you that if you tag to your resume/CV will give you the leg up you need. PRINCE 2/PMP/ITIL if you're looking for management leanings; MS/SUN/Oracle architect/DBA certs if you want to keep a foot in dev.

4. Get an MBA or MSc in a specialisation.

5. Find a niche - personally, I'm in Security, but there are plenty of others out there.

6. If your present company won't give you the opportunities, leave and find a place that will. If your skills and experience isn't recognised, then there's no point playing the sucker for them.

7. Double check yourself; the problem may be with you. Work on your soft skills: Make sure people like you (don't become a kiss ass, but just try to get on with people - especially managers); Work on your communication skills (Email, powerpoint, speaking, presenting, mentoring, documenting, making a proposal).

If you don't want to be a slave to a manager/HR hiring you, then you can always go the start-up route. I have little to no experience here, so I'll just leave that hanging as an option. :-)

LinkedIn goes up the technical chain like so: 1. Software Engineer 2. Senior Software Engineer 3. Principal Software Engineer 4. Software Architect

All of our architects still code, I believe. Some quite a bit. There are also Engineering Managers, Directors, and Senior Directors, but this is going the management route. Most engineering managers here code a bit, and a few directors still code (or at least script useful queries for helping diagnose issues when working cross team)

I think it all relies on stepping up to the plate, either technically or managerially.

I don't think that minimal experience managing will completely ground you, but if you want to be a CTO, start to think like one and learn the things that CTOs have to know. You can always start at a young company and grow into a role if you pursue it. Good, young companies like to hire hungry people who want to grow into their roles. You might also get advice from some good headhunters, who see people in your position all the time.