I am a senior software engineer at Bulb. I’ve been working there for about a year and a half, but started my career as a dev almost 10 years ago. I’m at a turning point now, one every engineer faces: should I take on a management role next? If not what options do I have?

I have been reflecting on what is important to me in my job. Things aren’t set in stone, life changes and my priorities are likely to change in the future, but this is what they are today.

Company mission and impact

The company mission is really important and tops my list. It needs to have a direct and measurable social impact. By that I mean making people’s life easier and/or better.

It’s important to me because it’s a big source of energy. It keeps me motivated every day, especially when I’m tired or doing tasks I don’t find particularly interesting.

At Bulb, I know the energy I dedicate to my job helps our members save on their bills and reduce their carbon emission. And you can directly measure that (see our website 🌳). At a more micro level I worked on projects with a direct member impact: Bulb account, web accessibility, Warm Home Discount, Feed-in tariff. It’s very satisfying to see something you’ve developed being used and helping people.

Inspiring leadership and people

The next thing that matters to me are the people I work with.

It starts with the company leadership. I expect the leadership to take the company into the right direction, but there are different ways to go from A to B. And the best way is by inspiring your team. Over the years I’ve noticed how much of an impact the mood of the leadership had on the rest of the company, especially at small scale. As much as it can motivate people and bring them together to achieve things they didn’t think possible, it can also have the opposite effect and create a very toxic environment. So in the same way I need to believe in the mission, I need to trust and be inspired by the leadership.

Staying on the people dimension, being around bright and motivated colleagues is very important to me. I learn a lot from watching others: how they deal with hard situations, how they handle difficult conversations, how they organise their work. My colleagues make me better every day, and again they inspire me.

Role

Finally, the last thing that matters to me is the role itself: its definition, vision and compensation.

The thing I love the most is problem solving. I love going deep into problems to the point of forgetting my surrounding. I get a lot of joy out of it as I am quite introvert. But I also love interacting with people, especially discussing problems and working out solutions together.
This means I need chunks of uninterrupted time during the day, as well as a good dose of human interactions. Getting the balance right is tricky, especially as I have become more experienced and senior in my team. I spend a lot more time mentoring, planning, talking to people.

The next thing that matters to me is to keep learning and improving: when I look back, I need to see I have grown and when I look ahead, I need to know how I can grow. This is where the vision of the role comes into play. It is a lot easier to grow when you know where you’re going.

Finally I need be rightly rewarded and appreciated for my work. This is not just about money, this is about being treated fairly. I believe loyal employees are a rare commodity and keeping them starts with paying them their market price. It also means recognising and rewarding good quality work.

So this is what I’m looking for in a job right now: an exciting mission, inspiring people and a role that challenges me.
E-A-S-Y 😎