[threatofrain]

I don't agree with the mentoring and leading part not being important except as a mediator to shipping. Mentoring and leading increases your soft power by giving people the opportunity to like you. This power can translate even to the next company since tech can be a small world.

[thehappyfellow]

Want to second that, not getting people an opportunity to like you can turn you into that person at the top who’s disconnected from line engineers work - and people won’t trust you enough to tell you when you’re making a mistake. Guess how I learnt that :)

[wiseowise]

Highly situational. Influencing 10 junior-mid engineers is always worse than being in good graces of someone that actually has influence on your career (manager, director, etc.)

[threatofrain]

I still have a hard time saying which way in your scenario since I tend to move companies. The wide network has totally helped my career. Also I feel like at a higher level, having a network is actually part of the job.

In the same way that being a CEO means having a broad network of connections even before day 0 of the job.

[coffeebeqn]

Ideally you have both. But yes it’s pretty pointless to try to improve the way engineers work without leaderships buy-in