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Issue created by Cynthia "Arty" Ng@cynthiaMaintainer

Group AMA - Being/Becoming a Senior Support Engineer

Purpose

While we have a lot of resources and documents on getting promoted (handbook page), there have been numerous discussions on what it really means to "be a senior", how the day-to-day may have changed after promotion, and what struggles Senior Support Engineers (SSEs) may be dealing with in fulfilling their responsibilities, to only name a few things.

Keep in mind that there is no one way to be a SSE, so we do not expect everyone's answers to be the same. This is an opportunity to hear and learn the ways in which different SSEs overlap and diverge.

This AUA conversation is geared towards both those who are interesting in becoming Senior as well as for those who are already Senior to ask questions of their peers, however, anyone on the team is welcome to ask questions.

How it works

This is more like a group conversation, but facilitated.

  1. Anyone can add questions to the doc.
    • Note: Questions can be duplicated if anyone feels strongly about it, or specifically want the questions answered by SSEs in the region.
  2. Senior Support Engineers answer the questions async in doc, live in sync session, or both.
    • Async answerers: answer questions or comment on any, though generally pick the region closest to when you could have attended sync.
  3. Vocalized sync session answers should be 1 minute or less each. Async answers can be longer.
  4. As usual, collaborative note taking for any answers not already recorded in the doc.

Date/time

Week of Dec 6

  1. APAC/AMER - 2021-12-07/08 15:00 PST / 12:00 NZDT / 23:00 UTC
    • Facilitator: Alvin
    • Back up Facilitator: This could be you!
  2. EMEA/APAC - 2021-12-09 14:30 IST / 10:00 CEST (AMS) / 9:00 UTC
    • Facilitator: Bruno
    • Back up Facilitator: Daphne
  3. AMER/EMEA - 2021-12-09 9:00 EST / 15:00 CEST (AMS) / 14:00 UTC
    • Facilitator: Bo
    • Back up Facilitator: Brie

Responsibilities of the facilitator

Not required to be a Senior.

Pre-session:

  1. Create a meeting on the Support Team calendar with link to issue and doc, inviting the support team group. Feel free to duplicate an existing one.
  2. Update the date/time below and in the doc.
  3. Find 1-2 SSE(s) to commit to being at the sync session.

Session:

  1. Start the session and recording.
  2. In welcome/intro, include:
    1. Today's date
    2. Remind speakers that we're trying to keep sync answer to 1 min or less to give multiple speakers a chance to answer, and to get through a significant number of questions.
  3. Present the questions (does not have to be verbatim) and for each question, invite 2-3 seniors in attendance to answer sync.
  4. Keep track of time to wrap up on time.

Post-session:

  1. Upload the recording to YouTube Unfiltered account with the format "AMA - Being a Senior Support Engineer REGIONS 2021-12" and a link to this issue in the description.
  2. Add a link to the recording to this issue. (Once they're all uploaded, Cynthia will take care of doing a handbook MR.)

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwjPvzz_f5g&list=PL05JrBw4t0KrQVEIzmhhQMR68JGBl3dDy

Edited by Cynthia "Arty" Ng