Break the Senior Ceiling With The Rule of 2
Getting that Staff promotion or growing your career as a manager requires a different approach.
I was stuck. You don’t have to be.
The Rule of 2 is one of the most powerful rules to break past the first career barrier.
A career barrier is a step-function change in the job description. Except that the job description is not written anywhere. And no one tells you about it.
You know the phrase:
“What got you here won’t get you there?” — Marshall Goldsmith
It describes breaking through a carrier barrier.
In tech companies, the first career barrier exists at the jump from senior to staff.
This is especially so in companies that define senior as “the terminal level.” For example, at Meta, IC5 is the terminal level. You have to get to the senior level in a given time-frame, or you are out. The next promotion to Staff? No one is forcing you to even pursue it.
Much.
Harder.
The staff level barrier holds for companies without terminal levels. Even companies with a mid-level terminal level, like Google, have the first barrier at the jump to L6. It’s requires a different mindset.
So how do you break through?
Start with the Rule of 2.
The Rule of 2
To understand the Rule of 2, follow these steps:
Open your work calendar and go back to the last full work week.
Count how many people you met for the first time during this week.
Not in a 1:1 with just the two of you? Doesn’t count.
Not work related? Doesn’t count.
Is the number 0 or 1? Is so, you failed.
The Rule of 2 requires that every week you score yourself, and that you don’t fail this test.
The Rule of 2: Every week have at least two 1:1 work meetings with new people
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Who do I meet?
Answer: Anyone. Talk to:
Tech-leads from other teams
Product Managers
Customer Support
Customers
Business Analysts
Legal (gasp)
Marketing
Sales
Senior Leadership
etc.
Question: What do we talk about?
Answer: There are three main topics that you have to cover:
What problems are they solving?
What challenges do they face?
How can you help?
Question: Why would they even agree to talk to me?
Answer: For two main reason:
People love to talk about themselves and their work
People want to talk to engineering, because engineers can solve problems
Question: Help! They still don’t want to talk to me, what do I do?
Answer: Bribe them. I am joking. Well, only half joking.
How Will This Help
Follow the Rule of 2 for a while and actual magic will happen.
It’s magic because you won’t notice when it happens, but happen it will. And by “it” I mean the getting the secret to what Staff+ means. At some point, you will look back, and realize that how you work changed in a fundamental way.
Here is how it happens.
Companies exist to solve problems. There is some vague Problem Space in which the company as a whole operates in. Engineering is all about finding the locations in Solution Space that solve problems for actual users. But Engineering is just one part of the company as a whole.
Everyone in the company is in the business of tackling this ambiguous Problem Space.
And here comes the first of three magical benefits that the Rule of 2 provides.
It enables you as an engineer to build a broader and clearer picture of the Problem Space. Not the sliver that your team is facing, but the big picture. And it is this understand that will allow you to look at problems in a completely different way.
The Rule of 2 lets you notice bigger problems.
The second magical benefit is that you get to help people across the company. The power of being able to write software is something that we take for granted. It is mind-blowing to our coworkers. Yes, even with LLMs, we still have a distinct advantage. Don’t discount the amount of impact that you can deliver with a few short scripts and one-off tools. A one time investment of 20 minutes for you can save hours per week for everyone in Finance.
The impact that comes from this second gift is actually not the biggest part. The biggest part is that it lays the foundation for the third and most powerful benefit.
The third benefit of the Rule of 2 is that it sets you up for success when you are ready to tackle bigger problems.
Because solving large problems requires a team.
And the Rule of 2 bootstraps this team for you.
All those people that you talked with? They will help. Either directly or by pointing you in the right direction.
Summary
Each week, talk to at least two new people.
Learn what problems they solve and what challenges they face. See how you can help them.
Over time, without noticing it, you will get the three blessings of the Rule of 2:
Develop a deeper and clearer understanding of the overall problem that the company as a whole is solving.
Build a strong internal network, all while landing cross-functional impact.
Be ready to solve the big problems. You will know who to talk to, and they will be ready to help.