I am writing about Beyond Coding: How to get promote as Software Engineer

1. The INTERVIEW playbook

• Best deal: Have a big deal project: the most important.

• Propose system design for new project: high-level first, spike doc with trade-offs, zoom out details later.

• Master DSA.

• Prepare stories link to behaviour interview.

• Prepare 50% from last questions of the company + 20% be a nice guy + 10% do not say stupid things.

2. The PROMOTION playbook

• Best deal: Be in right projects, be active when meetings and collaborations -> more important than code.

• Find way to show up for work with other team for visibility and impact.

• Raise more ideas in meeting.

• Sell your project with other teams.

• Join the “cool kids” team: receive more impactful project.

• Out of the “lazy team”, move to “building team”.

3. The MANAGER DEAL playbook

• Rule: zero-sum game in Big Tech with Manager, manager is people to judge you.

• Best deal: solve the manager/team win problem, do not come with problem - come with solution.

• Ask manager about how they expect and need about me to promote next steps -> Show that you have value out of other colleagues, remember rule 10%.

• Manager only work: ensure team KPIs, multiply the team wins.

4. The PRODUCTIVE ENGINEER playbook

• Best deal: Minimize context switching.

• Do not focus more on “busyness” -> focus on “main goals” that impact value.

• A bug reported, quick call, ad-hocs support -> you can say you will support it tommorrow, or sometime out of your focus work.

5. The TOP PERFORMER playbook

• Best deal: In big tech, 10x engineer not like 10x in start-up “hero”, 10x engineer is produce process that make others’s life work easier.

• Multiply team efforts, system efforts, not only your project.

6. The AI ARCHITECT playbook

• Best deal: Be AI Engineer (understand input, verify output), not a vibe-coder.

7. The STOCK COMPENSATION playbook

• Best deal: save money for stock, buy when needed.