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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

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   Hey guys! I\u2019m a young engineer in a specialized area of infrastructure. I\u2019m pretty good at what I do, and I\u2019ve been through some leadership development programs, so I\u2019ve advanced to a \u201cStaff\u201d role quickly, just based on observing the age of my peers.

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   Tech titles are completely mysterious to me, so I\u2019m wondering - how much \u201cup\u201d is there from where I am? What\u2019s the top of the IC ladder? Do ICs ever become executives? The idea of being a manager and sitting in 1:1s for hours sounds awful to me, so I\u2019m not excited about that side, but I\u2019ve heard, allegedly, that there is room on the IC side for promotion as well.

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   I\u2019m a goal setter, and I kinda feel like I\u2019ve hit a ceiling, so I don\u2019t know where to set my target anymore. I don\u2019t even know that I care about titles that much, but I very much like the pay raises that accompany them.

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   Thanks!

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2. \n

   Johnny Droptbales:

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   How do I tell if my manager is a direct communicator or a jerk? Should I trust my gut on this (he\u2019s a jerk)?

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   I\u2019ve been working with my manager for a year now. He\u2019s fairly fluent in English, educated, and keeps up with broad knowledge of our team/domain. He often connects different aspects of our work to discover discrepancies, bugs, and interesting ideas.

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   I\u2019m trying to wrap my head around his communication style. Here are a few examples that stand out:

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   1. I refused to take on a new small project because I was concerned about meeting the deadline on my high-priority solo project. He gave me feedback that I missed an opportunity to demonstrate context-switching skills, which would look good for a promotion. I responded with my own reasoning, but he wasn\u2019t interested and just moved on to the next topic.
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   2. He insisted on a new weekly requirement for our on-call pager rotation, which is to come up with one idea to improve the experience. When I asked why asking for help on a problem wouldn\u2019t be enough, he answered that he expected his engineers to have been hired for their critical thinking and leadership skills, and they should be able to demonstrate those.
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   3. Recently he\u2019s been leading weekly meetings to improve the on-call experience. He tends to ask very direct questions \u2013 we\u2019ll look at a bug ticket, and he asks, \u201cWhat is the root cause?\u201d \u201cWhy do we do this?\u201d \u201cWhat are your ideas to solve this?\u201d When pressed, he insisted this was a brainstorming sort of conversation, as opposed to a Q&A.
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