How to Hit the Ground Running as a Staff + Software Engineer at a New Company
summary
Advice for ramping into a Staff+ role that gives concrete tactics and cautions: accept T-shaped expectations, schedule early immersion meetings with key people, keep prioritized notes of low-effort vs high-impact work, avoid “snacking”/“preening”/“chasing ghosts,” and deliberately learn by doing (first project spanned three apps and required a technical design). Use public learning (a Today I Learned channel), pair/QAs, and small cross-repo fixes; read Staff Engineer by Will Larson for prioritization guidance.
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chapters (19)
- 0:00Introduction
- 2:09Insidious Thoughts
- 2:29High Imposter Syndrome
- 3:58Being TShaped
- 5:30We Can All Be TShaped
- 6:33The Things I Dont Know
- 7:39Its Time to Start
- 8:15Be Patient
- 10:47resist perfectionism
- 15:01get up to speed
- 15:19start taking notes
- 16:42prioritize
- 17:27impact vs effort
- 21:13start meeting people
- 27:15know your learning styles
- 28:00visual spatial learners
- 29:02auditory learners
- 30:31verbal learners
- 36:13have fun
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