Last October I gave a _SiteCon 2022 talk on _Being Staff. The talk covered some of the mechanics of the promotion process, but it was largely in the space of what being a staff engineer - what it means, what it looks like on a day-to-day basis. More recently, isBrian Wilcox hit me with this guide about “What do Staff engineers actually do?”…and I was frankly blown away by how much it resonated. It’s the type of thing I read while mumbling “true, true” to myself after every other paragraph.
Experiential validation aside - “Huh…maybe I’m not Doing It Wrong…” - the section on mentorship and sponsorship caught my eye. I’ve covered mentorship here before, but the term “sponsorship” was novel to me. The linked blog post about “What does sponsorship look like?” was particularly illuminating in terms of differentiating between the two. My “light bulb” moment happened around this bit:
To sponsor someone is to feel on the hook to help get someone promoted. It is raising up the name of someone to help them get more opportunities to do visible, valuable work. It is not just giving advice and mentorship. Often, you can sponsor someone without them even knowing it (many of the people I sponsor have no idea I consider them sponsees).
Reading this was a bit like learning what the word “emulsion” means after having been a mayonnaise-maker for years. *Holy crap, I’ve done this - I just didn’t know it was called that!
Anyhow, many thanks to bwilcox for the pointers, and if this is the sort of thing that interests you I’d highly recommend both linked posts.
Utterly unrelated bonus content: The Last Question (arguably Asimov’s finest short story - deus ex machina, indeed…)
Happy Giving inDay, folks!
- Add “mayonnaise maker” to your list of ungooglables. You will get search results, they will not be what you are seeking.