Technical proficiency is just the price of entry for an engineering role. To truly advance, engineers must understand the business context—like funding, M&A, and profitability—to align their work with strategic goals and provide maximum value.
To avoid appearing boastful, have a candid conversation with your manager about your career goals. Ask for permission to periodically update them on noteworthy accomplishments. This frames self-promotion as a pre-agreed alignment tool, not just bragging.
Not all guidance is the same. An informal advisor offers casual insight ('water cooler talk'), a mentor enters a formal non-financial agreement, and a coach is a paid professional. Understanding these distinctions helps you seek the right kind of support for your needs.
Engineers must resist the urge to strive for technical perfection. The optimal solution is one that fits the current business context, whether that's preparing for a funding round, an acquisition, or a commercial launch. Knowing when 'good enough' is sufficient is a critical business skill.
A mentor's unique value lies in their ability to provide brutally honest feedback that a regular coworker would avoid. This directness, like being told your thinking is 'all over the place,' is what forces critical self-reflection and sparks genuine growth.
A key leadership skill is reading the room and translating deep technical discussions into concise answers that address a stakeholder's actual needs. Engineers often get lost in detail; leaders must guide the conversation back to the core question and its business implications.
Processes and checklists aren't just for consistency; they are strategic tools for delegation. By documenting a routine task, a senior leader can offload it to other team members, freeing up their own time to focus on strategic initiatives that only they can perform.
The 'hustle culture' of being first in and last out is a trap. True value comes from focusing on high-impact tasks that move the business forward, not simply completing a high volume of work. A five-hour high-impact task is better than a ten-hour low-impact one.
An engineer with merely 'good enough' technical skills but exceptional soft skills has a far higher career ceiling than a technical genius who can't communicate effectively. Strong communication skills act as a multiplier for technical ability, opening doors to leadership.
For early R&D, don't waste time designing custom components in CAD. Instead, buy existing products, tear them apart, and reuse their mechanisms. A simple tape measure can serve as a constant force spring, saving hours or days of design work and getting to a proof-of-concept faster.