The last post in this series ended with a line I wanted to come back to: managers - especially first-line managers in more hierarchical orgs - are not always empowered to change the systems they're operating in. They're functions of those systems too.
A senior engineer on my team is leaving. Not leaving the company - just moving to another group internally. On paper, it's a lateral move that doesn't change much for the rest of us. In practice, it changes a lot.
A few weeks ago I wrote about what happens when companies stop hiring junior engineers and replace them with AI. The argument was straightforward: if you don't hire juniors today, you don't have seniors in five years.
One of my kids has recently graduated with a CS degree. He's been applying for entry-level software engineering positions for months now, and the responses - when there are responses - have not been encouraging.
I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about unprompted curiosity - the idea that the engineers who dig into things without being asked are the ones who end up driving direction. I still believe that.
Early in my career, I said yes to everything. Extra project? Sure. Meeting I didn't need to be in? I'll be there. Feature request that didn't quite fit the system? I'll figure it out.
I've been in this industry long enough to watch careers diverge. Two engineers start at roughly the same place - similar skills, similar experience, similar opportunities.