When hiring senior engineers, the crucial test is whether they can build. This means assessing their ability to take a real-world business problem—like designing a warehouse system—and translate it into a tangible technical solution. This skill separates true builders from theoretical programmers.

To become a more effective leader with a holistic business view, deliberately seek experience across various interconnected functions like operations, marketing, and sales. This strategy prevents the narrow perspective that often limits specialized leaders, even if it requires taking lateral or junior roles to learn.

Boom's founder, new to aerospace, spent six months studying engineering fundamentals. His goal wasn't to become an expert himself, but to learn enough to effectively judge, recruit, and lead the actual world-class experts he needed to build the company.

To quickly gain a broad, foundational understanding of an adjacent field, read their interview prep books. An engineer reading a PM interview book will get a superficial but wide-ranging grasp of product thinking. This builds empathy and enables more productive conversations with cross-functional partners.

While driving as a courier, the host listened to audiobooks on management and finance long before needing those skills. This early, broad "just-in-case" learning—as opposed to "just-in-time"—installs critical mental models that provide a foundation for future, more specific challenges.

Unlike purely theoretical coursework, programs sponsoring real industry problems allow students to build applicable skills. An engineer designed a fuel cell test station for a senior project, which directly led to an internship where his first task was to recreate that same project, proving the value of practical experience.

An engineer successfully transitioned from mechanical to controls not by asking for training, but by first learning the fundamentals independently. By showing initiative and baseline knowledge, he made it a low-risk decision for his manager to give him a chance on a real project.

Working at a startup early in your career provides exposure across the entire hardware/software stack, a breadth that pays dividends later. Naveen Rao argues that large companies, by design, hire for specific, repeatable tasks, which can limit an engineer's adaptability and holistic problem-solving skills.

The leap from Senior to Staff Engineer is a major mindset shift. It's not just about solving harder problems, but about autonomously owning the entire lifecycle: identifying the right problems to solve, pitching their value to stakeholders, and then leading the execution end-to-end.