Career Advancement for Software Engineers
2 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Advance your career with practical strategies to increase your impact, get your work recognized, and get on track for promotion.
Career Advancement for Software Engineers
2 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Advance your career with practical strategies to increase your impact, get your work recognized, and get on track for promotion.
Course overview
Get Unstuck & Level Up
Is career advancement eluding you? Unfortunately, doing a good job and solving assigned problems are not always enough to be recognized and rewarded and promoted.
Even great engineers can start to feel stuck. Perhaps you are not getting opportunities to be impactful and demonstrate next level work. Perhaps the promotion process is mysterious and your manager is not guiding you with a concrete plan. Perhaps you're not feeling valued by your peers or your manager. Or maybe you suspect your soft skills (in leadership, communication, self-awareness, etc) are holding you back and you're not sure how to identify or address them.
In this course you will get an insider's view of the dynamics and key drivers behind most tech promotion processes, and you'll learn the most common reasons promotions are rejected or not even considered. You'll get tools to assess where you may have gotten stuck and identify new paths to break through. You will learn concrete strategies for getting your achievements recognized and for leveling up.
The course will benefit experienced engineers of all levels who feel stuck, as well as managers who want to help their team grow and achieve more. This course is not for engineers with <2 years industry experience or <6 months in a new position.
The course is live and sessions are led by me. Expect lots of high-value prepared material, in addition to forums for discussion and Q&A with opportunities to dive into your specific situation.
Who is this course for
01
You're a mid-level, senior or staff engineer whose good work is not getting the visibility or recognition it deserves.
02
You don't see a clear path to promotion and are unsure of the best next steps.
03
You're a manager looking to create more opportunities for your team to grow, be impactful, and achieve their career goals.
What you’ll get out of this course
Background & Introduction
Review the career levels in software engineering, what the job looks like and key skills needed. Get an overview of tech promotion processes at all types of companies, from highly structured to informal and key dynamics for each.
Implement strategies to increase the impact and visibility of your contributions and get the recognition you deserve
Learn techniques to turn humdrum assignments into promotion-worthy projects, create leadership opportunities as an IC, solve problems across team boundaries, and effectively communicate your work to a wide audience. Learn to scale yourself and work through others.
Identify and improve the soft skills that may be holding you back
The most talented people can still get stuck due to unhelpful behavior patterns and communication skills. Learn how to discover any career blockers you might have through self-assessment and feedback solicitation. Learn techniques to overcome the most common soft-skill hurdles.
Create a plan that closes the skills and experience gaps that may be inhibiting your career advancement
Discover what's required to get to the next level in your workplace. Learn how best to align with your manager on a career development plan; a plan that lays out your career goals for promotion and beyond, and lists concrete opportunities for you to conquer them.
Once ready, work with your manager to build a strong case for your promotion, secure a timeline, and navigate the process
Once you've closed the gaps and are ready to be nominated for promotion, learn how to work with your manager to line up feedback providers and showcase your work effectively. Execute an action plan with 6, 3, and 1 month milestones.
Think beyond the next promotion
Discuss the factors most important to career satisfaction and longevity, and craft career goals around them. Evaluate whether it's time to seek out another team, company or role, or whether it pays to stay and improve things in place.
Career Advancement for Software Engineers
What people are saying
Jeffrey Lee-Chan
Shlomi Yehezkel
Gregory Liu
Alex Sourov
Peter Lada
Dave Louw
Meet your instructor
Larry Jacobson
Engineering leader, ex-Amazon&Snap
Throughout my 16 years experience of engineering leadership, I have guided the careers of many talented engineers and leaders. I have taught my directs, skips, students, and mentees how to set and achieve their career goals, including getting that next promotion.
I have operated successfully in many different organizations and cultures, from big tech companies with highly structured promotion processes to small non-tech-led companies with less defined and even non-existent official processes, and everything in between. I’ve been a sponsoring manager or panelist on over 250 promotion decisions.
Helping someone find a new gear, identify fresh opportunities, create impact, and get recognized - this has always been the most fulfilling part of my job.
Let me teach you the most valuable, actionable insights I’ve gleaned in my career.
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Career Advancement for Software Engineers
Course schedule
~4 hours per week
3 Live workshops
9-10:30 am PT (12-1:30 pm ET)
- Tuesday, June 20
- Thursday, June 22
- Tuesday, June 27
These sessions are packed with highly valuable and actionable content, plus discussion and Q&A.
Deeper Dives and Q&A
9-10:30 am PT (12-1:30 pm ET)
- Thursday, June 29
This bonus session ensures there will be enough time to answer questions, dive deeper into your situation, and plan out your next steps.
Self-paced assignments
Allow roughly 1 hour per week for additional reading, completing exercises and formulating your plan of action.
20 Initiatives You Can Propose and Drive
You can create your own opportunities for career growth. Let’s say you’re an engineer who wants to showcase your leadership and communication skills and be known as someone who initiates change and improves things. Well, healthy organizations recognize great ideas from anyone, so you should propose and drive a “bottom up” initiative.
Here are 20 ideas you can propose that are scalable in scope and impact. These are things you can lead and invite others to contribute. Plus tips for HOW to get that proposal accepted.
Get this free PDF
Learning is better with cohorts
Active hands-on learning
This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects
Interactive and project-based
You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and discussion forums
Learn with a cohort of peers
Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I can’t make a live session?
What’s the refund policy?
I work full-time, what is the expected time commitment?
Who is this course NOT for?
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