Navigate Company Politics as a SWE

“Nah I want to be strictly technical. As long as my outputs are sound/logical/correct, that is how I deliver, go up, and get promoted”.

Vietnamese version: ”Nói phải củ cải cũng phải nghe”

I believe the above mindset is one of the most common misconceptions among entry level engineers, which can severely hinders growth. In parallel with your area of expertise, office politics, or I would like to call it social engineering, usually plays an equally if not more important role in the current state of any software position. This is why most folks complain about environments such as Amazon (and maybe why they continue to be stuck at low to mid level, or worse, getting burned out).

So who am I to give y’all advice about this? My current team to say the least is very intense, with a higher than average attrition rate compared to the company (I went from the 14th engineer hired to the 4th most tenured engineer with the project in the team of ~120 people). In the span of 1.7 years, I went through multiple org changes + 4 different managers. From the perspective of the project itself, we have to work with and face pressure from multiple teams across the retail tech stack. Nevertheless, I managed to thrive in the environment, align couple designs/implementation and currently lead a few high impact work-streams.

Back to the topic, in real world engineering, there is almost always more than one solution to a problem you are trying to solve, directly proportional to its ambiguity and complexity. Most of us probably assume an individual engineer’s responsibility is to evaluate (i.e weighing pros and cons), execute, and provide maintenance strategy. That however is only <50% of the battle. For the other 50%, maybe even higher at larger companies, to put it simply is the ability to rally people behind you (some might equate this to being a leader).

The idea of rallying might seem straightforward at first, but when unpack it can require multiple aspects such as trust, communication, capability, confidence, and emotion. Humans are complicated so I don’t think it is possible for a one size fit all or step by step instruction. So in lieu of a direct path, Here is the list of guidelines/north star that I consciously choose to follow:

• Embrace your empathy/sympathy: We are all human and we have limits. This applies to your teammates and your partner team as well. A lot of time you will find yourself wondering why there are so many push backs on things that are seemingly simple and logical. Having the drive to understand the context (but not necessarily accept the situation) can help you alleviate the stress and build a better case to sway folks in your opinion
• Connect with your team, build a coalition: Your team/company is your family is obvious BS but that should not stop you from connecting on an individual level. Be willingly honest about yourself and in parallel, get your colleague/manager to talk about themselves and their achievements/frustrations. Chances are you will learn about a lot of thing earlier and faster
• Index toward assertiveness, but never be stubborn: your confidence directly correlates to your influence, but wield it responsibility. My rule of thumb is I trust my decision unless someone knows better tell me otherwise (and I will actively find them).
• Accept the unknown: more often than not, you will not have all the data required to make the perfect decision (there might not even be a perfect decision). Make yourself comfortable to move forward knowing only 60-70%

As an engineer, dealing with subjective topics is undoubtedly frustrating. These topics rarely appear on your job description but nevertheless create a profound impact on you, your work life, and your ability to build and innovate. Obviously an alternative to my situation is to also jump ship, which is 100% a solid choice given that I do have options. However, where is the thrill in that 😂? Plus, I think the extra set of skills of political maneuvering is much more valuable and rare compared to something that is as objective as technical competencies.

Full disclaimer: there is a good chance I am an outlier since both my previous and current companies are politics heavy. Take this with a grain of salt