From Software Engineer to Sr Director of Engineering

Louie Bacaj has an impressive story. Coming from poverty, he put himself through college to become a software engineer, joined Jet.com as a senior engineer, and became the youngest Senior Director of Engineering at Walmart. He then quit his corporate career – waving goodbye to close to $1M/year in compensation – to become an entrepreneur.

Louie’s career growth progression speed is rare and out of the ordinary. It’s uncommon enough for someone to become a senior engineer in a few years. Becoming a Director of Engineering without having been an engineering manager for many years is even rarer. I advise comparing against this career progression - but understanding the story behind it can be useful, even when knowing his growth speed is well above what most people should reasonably expect.

I decided to talk with Louie after I purchased and watched his course Timeless Career Advice for Software Engineers. In only 90 minutes of video, Louie shares so many of his accumulated insights from over a decade’s worth of hard-earned experience – and does so with radical transparency.

This radical transparency, coupled with a career growth speed that is very rare is why I wanted to link up with Louie. He has no immediate plans to go back to working a corporate job, and I latched on to the opportunity to get his unfiltered story and advice on how he traveled a path that many software engineers hope they might do, one day, even if at a different speed.

I was not disappointed. I highly recommend both following Louie on Twitter where he shares much more unfiltered advice, and to buy his Timeless Career Advice for Software Engineers course, which is a bargain at $25, considering it not only comes with 90 minutes of video content, but also includes Louie’s complete income progression guide, and another 4 bonus topics on how to ask for a raise, switching teams, switching disciplines and finding mentors.

In this issue, Louie shares his story and learnings via the following steps:

1. From new grad engineer to senior software engineer

2. From senior engineer to engineering manager

3. Being an engineering manager

4. From engineering manager to director

5. From director to senior director

6. Staff promotions advice from Louie

As usual, per my strict no sponsorship policy, I have no affiliation with Louie’s course and I’m not paid to advertise it.

Over to Louie: