[shuzhang]

I'll comment on career growth. First of all, make sure you can learn from the team you're joining. If you get an offer, ask if you can grab a drink or lunch with the team before you decide. If a manager says no to this, that's actually a pretty big red flag. When you hang out with the team, probe their experience and get an idea of their communication style. Understand what you can learn from them and understand how different people might mentor you. You should also make sure your manager is strong and will do regular one on ones with you. Groups that do occasional skip-level 1on1s are even better.

When you're working, look to take the initiative when you can and always try to over deliver. Work hard and find opportunities to take leardership roles on something. Good managers will encourage this. But don't be annoying, look for real needs you can fill.

Talk to your manager very explicitly and figure out your career path. You can and should talk to your manager about exactly what it takes to get to take the next step in your career; a good manager will define this very clearly. Then, I'd say every 2-4 1on1s with your manager, check in on your progress. This is also a good opportunity for for him/her to point you to additional learning resources to get there. You should do something similar with other members of your team, especially those you respect the most. It also doesn't hurt to ask everyone what they're favorite books and blogs are.

Being on strong teams and working on complicated problems is key. Once you feel like you're not learning a lot anymore, make a career change. Early on in your career, I think your rate of learning should be the main factor in changing jobs. Change a few times early on (1-2 years a job), I thinks is also very healthy since you get exposed to some different environments/perspectives.

[rainhacker]

> Talk to your manager very explicitly and figure out your career path. You can and should talk to your manager about exactly what it takes to get to take the next step in your career; a good manager will define this very clearly.

Asked this in 1-1 with my manager yesterday. Got mostly vague answers. I feel it's easier to get both raise and next level by changing companies then trying internally. Have seen good people leave the company, they'd Hire from outside and give that person raise/promotion + the additional training and time to ramp up.