Ask A Coach Anything
The first NextPath AMA column
Happy Sunday y’all. It’s the day before my favorite holiday- Discount Cadbury Egg Day- and there’s a lot of exciting things happening in the NextPath world.
Last week we had our first guest post from the talented Peter Skinner. Want to contribute? Let’s talk!
We’re 2 weeks away from the start of the 5th NextPath Job Seeker Cohort (spots still available)!
NextPath is expanding- if you’re curious about being a coach for tech employees, hit me up.
NextPath TV has some great content in the pipes, subscribe to be the first to know when it goes live.
And today, I’m doing my first ever “Ask A Coach Anything” column. I answer a lot of great questions every week in my open office hours for the Leopard.FYI network for women and genderqueer engineers, and I wanted to take this opportunity to share that experience with NextPath Mag readers. If you asked any of these questions and have follow up, send me a message! If you have any input, use the comments below :)
Let’s Answer Reader Questions!
How’s The Weather Up There?
Q: I think I'm stuck in mid-level software engineer land (been here for 6-8 years). How do I ramp up quickly at a new job and get promoted to Senior Software Engineer?
This is so real. And just like with most of my responses, I have to caveat that I can give general advice, but if you ever want personalized insights consider an Elevate session with a NextPath Coach.
So, you’re stuck. And to be clear, this is actually a problem. Most organizations consider mid-level to be an “up or out” level- meaning, if you don’t make it to Senior, you’re not performing to expectations. Senior and above is widely considered a “terminal” level, which means you can be there for the rest of your career.
Generally, the way we think of these levels (as far as delivering to expectations):
Entry Level: You’re new to coding, you need a lot of hands on help, and if you can’t get to mid-level in your first 1-2 years, you might not be cut out for this industry.
Mid Level: You’ve got the general hang of things, and you can deliver value in one or two areas of the stack. But you have yet to develop breadth (ability to deliver value in almost every area, with help) and an area of depth (subject matter expertise in one area of the stack). Basically, you get the work done, but you could get it done better/faster.
Senior Level: You can accomplish any task given to you, and will do an efficient job if it is in one of your areas of expertise. You may reach out for help every now and then, but after being given a push, you can figure out the rest. True mastery of the Senior level means that you have optimized the value you can deliver in your day.
Staff Level: This is a leadership role. You can run circles around any senior engineer on your team. Your time is primarily spent defining work for others to execute on, and defining best practices. True master of the Staff level means that you are helping everyone around you optimize the value they deliver in their day.
OK so you’re stuck. How do we get you to Senior level? Here’s a few ideas:
Are you operating efficiently? This means planning out your week- what are your priorities, and are they aligned with what is expected by your team lead? Are you getting distracted by social behavior, work that isn’t a top priority for you, or meetings? This is where you need to put your nose to the grindstone and figure out, on a week-by-week basis, how you can get more done in less time. Whether you need to optimize how you code (finding the right corners to cut, making sure your tooling is configured correctly, and yes, leveraging AI) or need to figure out how to avoid distractions, this is the most important question to answer. You will be judged primarily on whether or not you can be trusted to Get Shit Done.
Are you working visibly? As a director, I know how well the IC’s under a manager are doing by asking the manager one question: “What is ____ doing right now?” If they don’t have an answer, it means that employee isn’t working visibly enough. It’s not your managers job to ask you what you’re doing, you should be communicating this through async updates in Slack, clear standup updates, and making sure your sprint board is up to date with clear tickets in correct statuses.
Why would I go to you? Is there an area of expertise you have carved out for yourself? If not, you need to find a project that you can own, and step up, and take that ownership. Don’t just write the code- write the planning document, write the documentation on how it works, give a tech talk, send Slack messages and emails with documents/videos demonstrating to other engineers how your code works. And don’t wait for this project to be assigned to you, step up and demand the responsibility.
If you’re doing all of the above, then maybe it’s time to think about whether or not you’re in the right environment. You might be ready to be promoted, but your organization isn’t ready to promote you- so it might be time to start applying to Senior roles elsewhere. Promoting yourself tends to be the quickest path to a promotion, and usually comes with the best pay bump.
Ok who’s next?
To Career Pivot Or Not To Career Pivot
Q: What if I’m not a SWE but want to be? How would you suggest someone make that career pivot? DO you suggest someone make that career pivot?
I often get asked whether someone should leave software. This question typically happens when someone is in between jobs and is feeling disheartened by a lack of traction in the interview process. It makes sense, especially given the perception of the industry right now. Back in the 2010s, when we were in more of a boom economy, I would always get the question of how do I get into engineering, never should I get into engineering. And I always ask the same question in response, which I’ll do here:
Are you focusing on what you are running away from, or what you’re running towards?
I don’t think that getting into tech for the $$ is a bad thing, and anyone who says that is a gatekeeper. I don’t fuck with gatekeeping. I will say, however, that if you’re only in it for the money and not because you have even a slight passion for building/coding/solving tech problems, it’s going to be a hill to climb. So again I’ll ask, do you actually want to be in tech? Or do you just not want to be where you are right now?
I usually recommend that people make pivot decisions from a place of stability. It’s nearly impossible to make a good decision about a life change, prepare yourself for that life change, and do it in a way that is sustainable, while you’re worried about making rent. If you’re in a job and things are somewhat stable, but you can’t stop thinking about the dev life (again, focusing on what you’re running TOWARDS), then by all means do it.
As for the how, try a couple things. Start off by building something, anything. You don’t need to pay for a bootcamp or go back to school before you get started. There’s a wealth of resources including youtube videos, blogs, tutorials, etc. Agentic AI is a great tool to lean on here- just ask Claude to walk you through building your first stock ticker app or a web based Twitter clone. Don’t worry about learning everything, or learning the “right” way to do it. At the start, Software Engineering is about figuring out how to get it done, then figuring out how you did it afterwards. If, after you get through this exercise, you’re hungry for more, then you’re on the right path.
As for getting a job, I recommend finding some way to get closer to tech. Maybe you have a skill that can land you a job at a tech company, or a company that has software engineers. Spend your time getting to know them while you study the craft in the evenings. Whether you’re building on your own, or going to a bootcamp, the more immersion you do the better. Spend a lot of time networking and finding people who will be open to a mentorship relationship (just don’t call it that to their face). Over time, you’ll either be ready to start applying to SWE jobs, or maybe you can find an opportunity at your current company to transition. Get a shoe in the door and use your network.
Just remember that not all career paths are linear, and if you don’t look for a job that you can sustainably do every day for the next 5 years, you’re not going to find any form of success in it.
Ok next question.
It’s Ok, It Doesn’t Have Feelings
Q: I’m sorry but I hate AI.
Technical not a question, but valid anyway. I get it, I do, and I assume you’re telling me this either because you want to vent- in which case, scream it girl!- or because you have heard me speak in favor of AI.
Here’s the thing. Saying you hate AI is like saying you hate music, or books, or people. Sure you might hate a percentage of each of those things, but these categories are wide enough that you can’t really make such a sweeping statement.
It’s an interesting blindspot in how people talk about technology, where we say “AI” when we actually mean “modern generative AI”.
Completely AI generated game artwork is bad, but procedurally generated game textures have been used for decades- could you imagine having to draw EVERY SINGLE LEAF ON EVERY SINGLE TREE in Skyrim?
AI generated music is the bane of my existence, as someone who writes, records, and produces entirely DIY albums. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t use plugins that leverage machine learning models to do things like remove noise or assist in loudness matching in mastering.
I’m a photographer, and I often will get into spats on LinkedIn with people marketing these dumb “AI Generated Headshot” tools. But when I have to take photos of a concert and it’s insanely dark, I occasionally will reach for AI denoising tools to make things more tastefully clear- just a little, because grainy photos are awesome, to a degree.
And as a software engineer, you use AI every day. AI/ML models power tools including intellisense/code completion, security vulnerability scanning, log analysis, etc.
So while I don’t disagree that AI is often misused, our lives are improved by its existence. I use the built in “what song is playing” tool on my Pixel every day, we’ve been using Google’s Pagerank algorithm to search the internet for decades, OCR algorithms make scanning documents easier, spam filters keep our email inboxes at least somewhat usable, and the list goes on and on.
It’s on everyone to draw a line that they’re ok with. My general rule is that AI is a great tool for automating manual tasks that we can do, but would take a long time. That’s AI assistance. But by having AI do the creative part for me, that’s where I draw the line. When AI agents are coming up with data models and architecture, that’s vibe coding, and I don’t like that.
But like, you do you. The only person you have to answer to is yourself.
Next caller!
Should I Put This In Github With My Vim Config
Q: What is your hair routine?
First off, yes, my curls are all natural. There aren’t many genetic benefits to being 100% ashkenazi (just did my yearly skin check and I’m good!) but these curls are all mine.
So, basically:
I wash my hair every other day, usually I use Davine Love shampoo/conditioner, but about every other week I use k18 shampoo/conditioner, and occasionally I’ll use this awesome collagen ceramide protein treatment, when I need a big burst of moisturizing for my locks. I also occasionally need to use Nizoral to keep my sebhorric dermatitis under control. For someone with dandruff and a white dog, only wearing black clothes is a challenge.
I usually use JVN air dry creme, but I’ve been trying Ouai anti-frizz creme. I might go back to JVN when this bottle is empty.
I did a poll of all my fellow jew-curl rocking girlies, and the big winner was this Cake Curl Friend cream, which I adore.
After a long search for a hair oil that worked for me, Davine’s Oi Oil won. It’s not too heavy, and coats my strands perfectly.
When I am just not in the mood for a wash, the BB Primer is an excellent bouncy leave-in conditioning solution.
My friend has shown me the way of the bonnet, and now I wear a silk bonnet to bed every night. It is a GAME CHANGER.
Glad we could end with the important stuff.