softie-ramble

To me, a staff engineer is a senior engineer with increased scope and influence.

In my current role, I try to focus on leveraging my expertise and experience to have an outsized-impact compared to what I can do alone.

It doesn't mean I'm technically more capable than all of senior engineers in my company, and that's okay. I've learned to accept that I can't know anything and everything, and it's okay to say 'I don't know, give me a couple of days; here's who might have the knowledge to help you, and if not I'll look into it with you'.

How would you even begin to measure that anyway? You can't quantify your entire set of theoretical knowledge at your disposal, or quantify completely the quality of the application of said knowledge.

I try to make connections and chat with people outside my immediate team and org; to have a higher resolution picture on the pieces that make up the company.

I write more than probably most of my cohorts at my company. I am happy to see that 50 people or so have read my system breakdown. It means more people now have that knowledge in their minds than before.

I tried to participate in hiring (but the training sessions stopped due to hiring freezes — what can you do).

I speak up in meetings. I acknowledge when a good idea is thrown out, and I steer engineers away from bad ones.

I do not exert my authority onto others, as I have none, and that's okay. All the title brings me is a recognition of my experience by fellow staffers at the company.

I get comfortable in expressing my opinions on matters, if not to convince others that I am right, than to have my opinions changed after being informed through debate.

I start to think about organization health and gaps. I start to think about change at scale.

How to get to staff as a senior engineer

There's no real easy answers. But https://staffeng.com is a good resource on all-things staff engineer related.

What goes from here

You can switch over to the PM or Management track, or you can continue to expand your scope and influence and strive for senior staff or principal (once again, depends on how your organization defines these levels).

For me, I'm currently considering moving to management. I'm getting old and I would rather have the young talents do implementation and tech work.

I get so much joy in mentoring others and seeing them succeed.