On Being a Principal Engineer
I've been working as a Principal Engineer for the last year. This experience is similar to what I've experienced. Coordinating across teams, help unblocking coworkers, distributing knowledge etc. I've worked with the same company for the past 3 years, and as a result, I know the historical decisions etc. Unfortunately, as a result, I am spending less time refining my craft and coordinate business needs with technical solutions.From an organizational standpoint, I believe I add much more value in this role compared to strictly writing code. Unfortunately, the skills you learn tend to be localized to the place you are working at, and are not really transferable.It's been a good experience, and I've grown my soft-skills as I've had to handle different scenarios.