Irina Stanescu

Nov 6, 2024 | newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com | Irina Stanescu |Gergely Orosz

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Brought to you by:• WorkOS — The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. • Sonar —  Trust your developers – verify your AI-generated code. —In today’s episode of The Pragmatic Engineer, I’m joined by Irina Stanescu, a seasoned engineer with over 14 years in software engineering and engineering leadership roles at tech companies like Google and Uber.

Aug 13, 2024 | thecaringtechie.com | Irina Stanescu

In my 1-on-1 coaching sessions, feedback is a topic that comes up a lot. We often use feedback as a tool for correcting bad behaviors, but also for reinforcing good ones. When it comes to teamwork, feedback is essential. When asked “How often do you genuinely recognize your peers or team members for their good work?”, the answer is usually not enough. That’s because we tend to focus on what can be improved rather than what we want to maintain.

Apr 1, 2024 | thecaringtechie.com | Irina Stanescu

Reading time: 8 minutesMy career at Google had a rocky start. My first manager left the company a few months after I joined, which led me to have multiple interim managers, and ultimately change orgs after 9 months. On top of that, my very first L3 to L4 promotion attempt was denied for “not demonstrating enough impact”, even though I did everything my new manager wanted me to do. In hindsight, even though it was a very disappointing experience, that rejection became a major catalyst in my career.

Dec 17, 2023 | careercutler.substack.com | Jordan Cutler |Irina Stanescu

To reach the Senior level, you need to increase your scope, impact, and ownership. One of the best ways to do that is to become a “go-to” person or an expert. You could be the “database expert”, “Python expert”, “caching expert”, “frontend expert”, “Typescript expert”, etc. You can also be an expert in specific product domains, like the “onboarding flow expert”, “payment portal expert”, “home timeline expert”, etc. Don’t believe me on the importance of this?

Oct 4, 2023 | thecaringtechie.com | Irina Stanescu

I thought I was a high performer. I could pretty much knock out of the park whatever technical task was given to me. But as my career progressed, I started realizing that the technical skills that helped secure my first promotions might not guarantee my next ones. I found myself feeling confused and uncertain. After attending one of Google’s leadership trainings many years ago—a story I share in “So you want to be a Tech Lead”— I got one of my biggest career epiphanies.