►
Description
The goal of this meeting was to answer questions about becoming and being a Senior Support Engineer
Details: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/3886
Facilitator: Bruno Freitas
Seniors answering questions:
* Vlad Stoianovici, Romania, EMEA
* Katrin Leinweber, Germany, EMEA
* Ben Prescott, UK, EMEA
* Ronald van Zon, Netherlands, EMEA
B
A
A
C
D
D
D
F
G
Okay,
I
think
in
my
case
it
was
it
to
me
at
least
surprisingly
early,
because
I
was
asked
to
start
the
promo
promotion
document
about
maybe
three
quarters
of
a
year
after
I
joined
or
so,
and
the
the
feedback
from
my
manager
and
from
colleagues
was
that
I
should
get
going
into
that
direction.
So
also
relatively
easy.
F
F
F
F
I
I
mean
it's
also
worth
mentioning,
so
I
might
my
job
title
in
my
previous
role
was
infrastructure
principle
so,
and
I
got
I
got
there
having
started
as
a
sysadmin
there
were.
There
was
an
infrastructure
principle
for
unix
one
for
virtualization,
one
for
net
and
networks,
one
for
database
and
one
for
windows,
and
I
was
I
was
the
unix
one
and
basically
the
kind
of
buck
stopped
with
me
from
a
technical
perspective.
F
I
was
the
technical
leadership
in
in
my
space
and,
broadly
speaking,
that
meant
that
anything,
the
team
didn't
feel
they
had
the
authority
to
do
landed
on
my
desk
and
anything
management
wanted
to
do
that.
I
couldn't
delegate
stayed
on
my
desk,
so
it
was
yeah
I
was.
I
was
already
in
a
in
a
senior
role
before
I
started
here.
So
some
of
my
behavior
looks
senior.
I
guess
I
I
I
tend
to.
F
I
tend
to
look
beyond
just
the
ticket.
That's
in
front
of
me.
So
you
know
if
we've
got
a
customer
with
customer
experience,
a
bug
that
clearly
other
customers
are
going
to
experience
or
are
experiencing.
Then
I'm
going
to
want
to
try
and
head
that
problem
off
things
like
the
let's
encrypt
expiring.
I
created
that
issue
months
ahead
of
time,
because
I
knew
it
was
going
to
be
a
problem
and
and
obviously
on
the
day
we
find
out
just
how
much
of
a
problem
it
was,
but
I
was
kind
of
prepared
for
it.
D
I
think
there's
sort
of
two
approaches
of
how
you
get
on
this
process.
It's
either
you
tell
your
manager,
hey,
I
wanna
come
senior.
What
do
I
have
to
do,
or
the
senior
already
essentially
sees
the
potential
with
ben
with
catherine
fled
when
he
joined
with
myself
we
never
looked
at.
This
is
the
ticket
that
we
had.
The
answer
we
looked
at
this
is
ticket.
What's
the
problem,
there
is
this.
You
know
something
that
we
can
improve
upon.
If
I
looked
at
the
team,
I
didn't
just
see
my
teammates.
D
A
Yeah
makes
sense
makes
sense.
Thank
you.
Thank
you
for
answering
that
question.
I
think
that
it
is
important
so
that
others
that
want
to
follow
the
same
path
now
they
have
different
perspectives
on
on
how
to
do
that.
Okay,
so
I'm
going
to
move
on
to
the
second
question.
Well,
I
quickly
switched
the
second
question
but
yeah,
but
what
does
the
usual
day
in
the
life
of
a
senior
support?
Engineer,
look
like,
let's
see
who
cat
train
do
you
want
to
start.
G
G
Sorry,
I
I
can't
find
the
english
word
for
this:
a
responsibility
maybe
to
to
leave.
For
example,
private
notes
and
tickets
like,
for
example,
in
the
support
ports
pilot
that
we
have
to
get
an
overview
of
tickets
to
maybe
rather
read
a
few
more
than
to
focus
on
too
few
too
deeply
and
yeah
with
internal
notes,
maybe
help
my
colleagues
to
proceed.
So
that's
something
I
felt
a
little
bit
more
responsibility
to
do
after
becoming
a
senior,
and
I
guess
that
changes
the
day
a
little
bit
but
but
not
significantly.
D
E
D
D
I
had
a
talk
with
tom
atkins
at
the
beginning
in
other
companies.
After
two
years
working
for
the
company
you
go
to
hey,
you've
been
working
here
for
two
years,
you're
now
a
senior,
that's
literally
a
change
in
your
routine
because
you're,
you
know
a
support
engineer,
you
do
tickets,
you
enjoy
it,
and
then
they
say
after
two
years
now,
you're
a
senior.
Now
you
have
to
help
people.
D
D
D
G
F
Yeah
I
mean
I
supposed
to
add
to
that:
there's
issues
sculling
around
attempting
to
define
what
a
senior
is
and
what
what
they're
supposed
to
do.
That's
different,
and
I
would
I
I'm
nervous
about
that
because,
from
my
perspective
the
process
was
you,
you
become
a
senior
and
then
you
fill
out
the
dock,
and
then
you
get
the
title,
not
the
other
way
around.
So
the
idea
that
retrospectively
a
whole
load
of
responsibilities
will
get
dropped
on
our
desk.
F
E
So
what
I
kind
of
told
celeste
here
he
was
my
my
body.
I
was
his
own
boring
buddy
and
he
actually
is
now
a
senior
and
he
was
thinking
about
it
and
I
told
him
find
something
that
you
enjoy
and
you
know
just
go
all
out
on
it.
I
mean
to
be
a
a
senior.
You
kind
of
you
know,
maybe
need
to
get
involved
with
hiring
or
be
a
stable
counterpart
or
work
with
other
other
teams,
or
I
don't
know
be
next.
E
Obviously
you
need
to
be
savvy
tech
wise,
but
you
don't
have
to
be
like
a
huge
expert
in
something,
maybe
in
a
few
things,
but
you
don't
need
to
hit
all
of
those
you.
You
can
just
go
like
one
or
two
avenues
and
really
go
all
out.
Instead
of
trying
to
hit
all
the
the
context,
I
don't
know
if
that
makes
sense.
C
E
To
clarify,
I'm
I'm
interested
in
hiring
like
I
do
technical
interviews
and
automation,
so
that's
kind
of
an
elastic
search
for
technical
expertise
and
kubernetes.
So
that's
kind
of
what
I
focused
on
you
don't
have
to
do
all
of
the
things
all
of
the
time
right
and
like
northern,
for
example,
he's
really
into
optimizing,
workflows
and
stuff
and
improving
things
here
and
there
for
the
the
whole
team.
The
the
the
common
denominator
would
be
something
that
is
impacting
the
the
wider
team
right,
something
that's
beneficial
to
the
team
as
a
whole.
F
A
D
D
A
C
A
D
D
A
D
A
C
D
D
D
G
G
And
the
advice
that
comes
back
is
helpful,
so
it
may
feel
a
little
bit
weird
initially,
if
somebody
says
no,
no,
you
have
to
restructure
your
promo
document,
but
at
least
in
my
case
I
can
testify
that
it
definitely
helped
improve
it.
A
lot,
even
though
I
initially
didn't
like
the
advice
to
restructure
something.
D
I
think
the
restructure
is
sort
of
out
the
window.
I
think
when
ben
and
I
were
working
on
a
promo
doc.
Essentially
the
layout
changed
every
week
and
after
shuffling
your
layout
twice
you're
done
with
that.
So
when
they
come
in
for
a
third
time
or
four
time
or
ten
time,
your
answer
is
just
like:
no,
I'm
not
gonna.
Do
it.
C
D
D
D
G
G
D
D
A
Great
that's
great
ron,
true,
and
do
you
think
that
this
this
is
my
question?
I
have
to
write
it
after,
but
yeah,
but
do
you
do
you
think
that,
like
your
your
in
your
specific
case,
your
mindset
when
you
join
gitlab,
like
you,
had
that
senior
mindset
or
someone
helped
you
along
the
way
with
some
I've
always.
D
Had
it,
but
at
my
previous
company
I
worked
there
for
five
years.
I
didn't
add
a
manager.
No
one
in
my
team
did
so
for
me,
you
know,
being
a
manager
of
one
I've
been
doing
that
for
five
years.
So
when
I
joined
kit
lab
for
me,
it
was
really
normal
to
look
at
a
process
and
say
hey.
This
can
be
improved
I'll
make
an
issue
for
it.
D
E
That's
why
you
have
a
manager
to
guide
you
essentially.
I
think
this
also
ties
in
with
the
next
question,
which
is
why
do
you
want
to
be
a
senior
support,
engineer,
really
figure.
If
it's
worth
it,
it's
it's
an
effort.
So
do
you
really
want
it?
Why
and
why
and
then
talk
to
your
manager
and
they
will
be
able
to
to
kind
of
guide
you.
D
D
A
A
E
This
also,
it's
sorry
just
wanted
to
mention
this
as
well.
It's
perfectly
fine
to
be
a
support
engineer,
not
a
senior
and
I've
kind
of
read
about
this.
It
didn't
occur
to
me
because
of
my
way
of
thinking
that
you
always
need
to
be
moving
forward,
but
it's
perfectly
fine
to
be
a
support
engineer.
You
don't
need
to
go
to
senior,
it's
not
a
shame
in
standing
still,
maybe
maybe
some
people
just
enjoy
being
a
support,
engineer
and
there's
there's
responsibilities
that
come
with
being
a
senior
right.
D
No,
no
worse
yeah!
You
actually
gave
me
one
to
think
about.
There
is
actually
a
video,
and
I
can't
remember
where
I
saw
it
somewhere
in
our
handbook,
where
this
person
gets
an
intro
or
presentation.
He
starts
as
a
developer.
He
became
senior
developer,
he
became
a
manager
and
then
he's
like,
I
hate,
being
a
manager,
and
then
he
went
back
to
senior
developer
back
to
normal
developer
because
he
didn't
want
to
be
senior
either.
D
D
D
A
F
Yeah,
so
my
understanding
is
that
staff
is
less
of
a
sure
thing.
I
think,
there's
some
kind
of
ratio
with
senior
managers
as
kind
of
a
or
or
or
like
a
director
level,
potentially
where
there's
a
one-to-one
relationship.
Something
like
that.
So
it's
not
not
quite
the
same.
I
think
a
senior
where,
if
there
is
a
a
limit,
I'm
yeah,
I'm
not
aware
I'm
not
aware
where,
wherever
it
being
there,
I'm
not
sure
the
process
is
well
defined.
F
D
D
F
F
It
doesn't
feel
like
a
model
for
being
able
to
focus
on
that
thing
still
does
a
fantastic
job,
but
you
know
nonetheless,
and
also
I
kind
of
did
that
in
my
last
one
when
I
went
for
principal
I
just
it
was
the
only
place
I
had
to
go
really
so
I
I
went
there
because,
but
it
was
it
wasn't,
it
meant
letting
go
of
a
lot
of
the
technical
stuff
I
enjoyed
doing
and
so
on
so
yeah.
I'm
not
I'm
not
ready
to
think
about
stuff.
Yet.
E
G
D
Yeah
solid
advice,
my
answer
to
the
question
is:
no,
it's
not
that
I
don't
want
to
grow.
It's
I
don't
want
to
be
staff.
I
want
to
be
a
manager
and
that's
actually
an
option,
and
I
noticed
it
wasn't
mentioned
here.
But
if
you're
a
senior
you've
got
two
choices,
you
either
focus
on
being
staff,
which
means
you're
excellent,
that's
a
lot
of
things
or
you
become
a
manager
and
I'm
not
saying
manager
is
not
excellent
at
a
lot
of
things.
D
And
to
iterate
on
catherine's
point,
I
had
a
chat
with
a
few
managers
and
one
thing
they
mentioned,
which
is
not
documented.
You
have
to
be
in
your
performance
review.
You
have
to
be
exceeding
before
they
even
consider
you
become
a
senior.
So
if
you're
exceeding
in
sport
engineer,
they
say,
okay,
you
know
it's
time
to
look
at
your
product.
It
can
be
completely
wrapped
up
already,
but
before
that
they
won't
look
at
it
same
with.
If
you're
going
to
staff
or
manager,
you
have
to
be
exceeding
as
a
senior.
D
J
D
Don't
think
I
stopped
even
as
a
senior
and
I'm
focused
on
being
a
manager,
I'm
still
doing
geo,
I'm
learning
geo.
I've
learned
s
trace
so
low
level.
You
know,
technical
stuff
is
still
something
I
learned.
I've
done
the
management
training,
which
is
a
two-week
organized
training
session
from
gitlab,
which
I
had
to
actually
opt
in
for
in
order
to
be
a
part
of
it.
D
I've
got
the
name
of
critical
conversations
which
is
focused
on
managers
or
new
managers
that
started
or
as
firing
managers
as
myself,
and
it's
again
an
opt-in
where
you
get
two
weeks
of
intense
training.
You
know,
courses
that
you
have
to
follow
in
order
to
get
through
it,
but
you
never
stop
learning.
If
you
do
you're,
essentially,
you
know
going
backwards.
E
E
But
it's
it's
hard
to
to
find
the
time.
I
think
that's
the
struggle,
not
what
you're
learning
there's
there's
so
many
things
to
learn.
Like
ronald
said,
I
would
love
to
have
the
time
to
to
learn
geo
I
was
going
to,
but
then
I
decided
not
to
because
I'm
focusing
on
aws
and
ansible
and
some
other
things
so
yeah
always
always
try
to
to
learn
new
things.
I
think
that's
part
of
the
grow,
growing
mentality
and
yeah
part
of
being
a
support,
engineer,
not
a
senior
but.
F
F
G
Yeah,
I
I
tried
to
focus
a
bit
on
programming,
but
mostly
because
I
didn't
have
a
background
in
that
a
lot,
so
I'm
at
the
same
time
not
really
sure
if
it's
something
the
team
needs
a
lot.
I
have
to
be
honest,
but
yeah
the
most
the
difficult
part
is
finding
time
to
do
it
like
outside
of
emergencies
and
stuff,
like
that,
and
one
of
the
advice
that
I
got
was
to
maybe
take
a
full
day
each
week
trying
to
do
that
currently,
but
yeah.
A
Cool
yeah,
so
thanks
thanks
for
that.
The
other
question
well
is
about
sharing
the
promodac
like
every
every
senior
sharing
the
promo
dog
there.
So
thank
you.
Thank
you
for
doing
that.
It
will
be
used
as
a
reference
for
us
and
yeah.
I
think
we
answered
all
the
questions.
We
are
13
minutes.
We
abused
our
time
like
for
13
minutes,
but
that's
okay.
Everyone
agreed.
So
thank
you.
E
E
Yeah,
psychological
safety,
exactly
because
that
that
kind
of
kind
of
sounds
like
you
did
in
trying
to
get
people
to
share
their
opinions
and
be
inclusive
and
stuff
and
creating
an
environment
where
everybody
gets
to
speak
up,
which
is
great.
I
just
it's
fresh
in
my
mind,
and
I
just
wanted
to
point
that
out
cool
if.
H
H
A
Yeah
but
because
I
like
I,
like
I
like
to
hear
everyone's
perspective,
we
always
learn
from
other
people's
perspective,
so
yeah,
that's
what
I
wanted
to
that's.
Why
I
wanted
to
everyone
to
chime
in
yeah
thanks
thanks
thanks
everyone
and
yeah.
This
was
really
productive.
Daphne
do
you
want
to
say
something.