Santosh Yadav | My journey to Staff Engineer

Hey Friends, how are you doing? I missed writing my newsletter this month because I am traveling for work across the EU and the US. But when I visited my office in Munich last week, I got big news from my manager on my promotion: “I GOT PROMOTED,” and I am a “Staff Engineer.”

It is only the second time in my 16-year career that I have heard these words; the last time I was promoted to the same job was in 2014 when I was promoted to Team Lead.

Why I thought of getting the promotion

After joining Celonis in August 2022, my main focus was to survive this job; I was coming from a depression and a huge setback, and I thought of moving back to India. But with the help of my teammates and managers, I got into my groove; I started giving my best at work and traveling across the world to spread my knowledge; I realized I am lucky to have a job where I get to follow my passion.

But things changed a little when I visited my Munich office in March 2023. While leaving the office to return home, I met my friend Ron, the QE team Lead. We had never met, so he called me and talked briefly. While introducing me to his colleague, he mentioned that I work as a Staff Engineer, which I was not.

I wanted to know what a staff engineer is and thought I might be doing something that made Ron think I was a staff engineer.

Working on Promotion

I went back and spoke to my new manager regarding the promotion. Unfortunately, I was not with Celonis for even one year. My manager had joined a few months after me, so it didn’t work out in 2023, and we discussed applying it in the next promotion cycle.

But I ended up having two more managers in the next year. Due to miscommunication, we never worked on my promotion until 2024; with my new manager ready to support me, I was prepared to apply.

Journey to Promotion

I received not great news in 2024 when I got diagnosed with diabetes; I dropped the idea of applying for promotion and decided to focus on my health; I wrote my journey here

After fixing my health, I decided to take on some critical projects for the Organization. During one of my conversations with my manager, I learned about the Accessibility project, and I asked my manager to give it to me. The team did amazing work, and we delivered the project to retain a big customer, saving a deal worth a million dollars.

After delivering the Accessibility project, I felt more confident that I could apply for promotion. I had another chat with my manager, and this time, I wanted to have a shot at promotion.

My manager, Michael, and I worked together and applied for the promotion. Michael was very helpful with reviewing my documents, giving feedback, and personally working on the document.

Why this promotion is Special

Before joining Celonis, I went through one of the worst phases in my personal and professional career; during my initial few months at Celonis, I was scared to write the code, and going through depression for close to 7 months did damage to my mental and physical health.

Getting this promotion proved that I am not a failure; I am a good engineer and dont need to prove this to anyone. This promotion gives me validation and boosts my confidence.

Future plans

Now, I am even more motivated to deliver more at work and to the community, which is my passion. But before I start again, it is time to take some time off. I will be away in April month, traveling across Europe for the holidays with my family.

It was always a team effort at Celonis, which helped me to reach here, so I want to take this time to thank some of my teammates, who helped me become a better developer every day and helped me get this promotion:

I was lucky to have both of you as teammates, thank you so much for all the help and guidance in past 2.6 years at Celonis,

My managers, Michael and Jorge, for believing in me.

And thanks to all my co-workers I interact with daily as part of my work.

Before I wrap up if you are looking to get promoted to Staff Engineer, I recommend reading The Staff Engineer’s Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change

Shout out to my GitHub Sponsors for supporting my work on Open Source.

If you want to support my community work, you can sponsor me on GitHub