What does it mean and How to be an Expert developer or Tech Lead as a Women in Tech ?

This article is part of a series of 3 articles on “How to grow as a Woman in Tech”. Those articles are highlights of what was said during the first Sororitech meetup. We talked about how we could evolve from a developer position to a more senior one. Join us for the next session, if you are interested.

If you want to evolve from a developer to a higher ranked position, you often have 3 possibilities:

• Manager
• CTO
• Expert Developer or Tech Lead

Let’s dive deeper on the Expert Developer or Tech Lead one.

We had the chance to receive Paola Ducolin as a guest, who is Senior Software Engineer at Datadog.

Who is an Expert Developer and why become one ?

The role of Expert Developer is to be the technical reference on a subject. They are the go-to person when you are stuck on a technical problem or in need of advice on a project. They are the people who know and can help you. That can seem like an unattainable target sometimes, but we’ll talk about that later.

The Tech Lead position is not the most obvious career evolution. Often, the management positions are more talked about and seem more valued. Tech Lead positions involve another kind of leadership while allowing you to stay close to technical subjects (Paola recommended a book on the subject: Staff Engineer: Leadership Beyond the Management Track by Will Larson). If you are interested in this kind of career, the next step is to work toward that goal.

What do you need to become an Expert Developer and how to get there?

Knowledge

First, you need to be a developer and then want to learn more about the technologies you are working with. A large part of the job is staying informed on those technologies and helping others by bringing knowledge to the table.

Fortunately, nowadays, we have a lot of online resources to learn throughout our careers. On top of that a lot of those resources are free to access.

For example, there are a lot of tech newsletter you can subscribe to:

• The Docto Tech Life newsletter
• The Cassidoo newsletter (recommended by Paola)
• You can also look into that ‘awesome-newsletters’ list

Another good way to learn is trying your hand at it. You can work on personal projects, or even contribute to open source projects.

Attending conferences and meetups can also help you discover new things and how to use them in your job.

Communication

As a Tech Lead you also need good communication skills to share your knowledge and help on technical issues. Here are some ways to train this skill:

• Mentoring. There are a lot of associations that allow you to find people that need help, for example Duchesse have mentorship programs.
• Writing blog articles. At Doctolib, we have the possibility to contribute to the company’s blog. You can also join platforms like dev.to that allow you to write short articles on technical subjects.
• Explaining what you do to non-tech people.
• Participating in communications between teams.
• Involving yourself in architecture and design discussion.

Opportunity

Finally, comes the question of opportunities. There are fewer opportunities as Tech Lead than as Manager on the job market and internally too. So if you see an opportunity, seize it. At least ask for an interview to understand what the company is looking for.

Paola gave us some advice on interviews:

• If you have a company you really want to be part of, do other companies’ interviews first. It will allow you to try out what you want to say.
• Remember that self introduction is important. You do not need to talk about tech subjects, it’s more important to talk about your contributions and what you did.
• Don’t let modesty silence you. If you are considering becoming an expert developer, you obviously achieved things that made you want to become one, so talk about those projects.
• Turn yourself to coaching if you feel like you need some. Paola recommended those resources on the subject: TheAllyance or the 50inTech talks.

How do I know if I am enough of an “Expert”? Am I ready for this?

The word “Expert” can be kind of intimidating, but you do not need to be an expert in all your stack technologies to be an expert developer. You need to understand how things work and be able to explain it to others. That is the impostor syndrome kicking in, the little voice in your head telling you, you’re not up to it. We are usually good at learning new stuff as it’s our job as developers.

Paola said something on impostor syndrome that is helping me. She explained that she prefers talking about an impostor feeling as it seems less overwhelming. It’s often easier to deal with your feelings than with a syndrome. And even if it is still difficult to consider ourselves as experts, it’s easier when you know you are not the only one feeling this way and that you can challenge this feeling.

It is also sometimes harder to envision yourself growing in a Tech Lead position as a woman. Why? First, there are not a lot of female role models in those positions. Moreover, most of the time, girls are not taught to speak up, and later, as women, to ask for a raise, a promotion or a career evolution. We are taught to be humble and not to brag about what we know. We have to be conscious of that and try to not make it hold us back. That’s where coaching can intervene. Depending on how you identify, you can also join awesome communities of like-minded peers like Ladies of Code, Queer JS and of course Sororitech.

Also remember, you can always experiment being an Expert Developer and if it’s not what you expected you can change for another path.