LEDV: Tips on Career Progression

What was supposed to be just a short call about my next task, expanded into so much more; ranging from thoughts about team process, career progression and tips on becoming a great engineer.

Such was my reaction after wrapping up a 1 hour+ 1-on-1 chat with my team lead on a wide variety of topics.

There’s so much to unwrap that I wanted to share here with everyone, but the one topic that struck me as most profound & interesting is her advice on what it takes to be a great engineer.

It’s called LEDV, an acronym for Leadership, Execution, Deliverable and Visibility.

Execution & Deliverable go hand in hand. When you’re assigned a new task, you’re expected to deliver and walk the talk. Convert the abstract plans into tangible results within the stipulated deadline. That is ultimately what people especially the higher ups care about the most and would like to see: Results.

Then comes Visibility. Completing your work is one thing, but promoting it is another. Playing the waiting game of letting your work speaks for itself just won’t cut it. Instead, you have to make an effort to showcase your hard work & let people know of your worth & contribution. Let people be aware of your expertise to help advance your career progression. Remember, being humble doesn’t always mean staying low. It just means knowing the right time and place to showcase your worth and putting the best foot forward.

Finally, we have Leadership; which truly differentiates a mediocre engineer from a great one. Everything from people to project management. Software projects are not a one-man’s army (yes, even for full-stack developers). It takes incredible soft skills to be able to find a way to unite and bring everyone on board towards a common goal and help see the bigger picture, top/down and left/right. Trust me when I say this: The hardest part of any project is not the technical side of things, which you can easily learn and even Google. But soft skills, especially those dealing with people? That is forever an enigma difficult to solve & can only be mastered via experience.

Another key takeaway I had from our discussion is when she advised me to start developing my portfolio and think about what type of subject matter expert (SME) that I want to be someday. That when people think of Rahiman, they think of something that no one else can offer. It's related to the age-old debate on whether one should be a jack of all trades or a master of one.

There’s more of our discussion that I intentionally left out for certain reasons. But I have to say, these 1-on-1 sessions are honestly what I liked the most from working at Dell so far. Being able to obtain their nuggets of wisdom is truly an invaluable opportunity. Granted, this is not unique to Dell’s culture per se. I’m certain many companies employ the same practice albeit to varying degrees. But to me, this is an example of what seems to be a simple custom that brings a huge difference to one’s working experience.