Career Path of a Software Engineering Manager at a Fortune 10 Tech Company
Sara's career path showcases a dynamic journey, starting with a college lab aide role that "reinforced their own understanding," followed by an internship that solidified their focus on software. This led to a rapid rise within one company, managing a team of 20 by their mid-twenties, before pursuing further growth at Nolo Press, OpenTable, a health tech firm, and Google, culminating in a director-level position and now a contemplation of "what the next chapter holds."
Career Development, Leadership, Software Engineering, Work-Life Balance, Tech Industry Transitions
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Sara Rahimian
Software Engineering Manager
Fortune 10 Tech Company
University of California, Berkeley
NA
Computer Science, Engineering - Electrical
Healthcare, Medical & Wellness, Technology
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
Honors Student, Immigrant, Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. Sara's career path highlights a combination of practical experience and continuous learning. She started with a lab aide role in college, reinforcing her software engineering knowledge. This was followed by a crucial internship that solidified her interest in software and provided valuable industry experience.
2. Sara's career progression showcases rapid growth and adaptability. Starting as a software engineer, she quickly rose to management roles, leading teams and managing various aspects of software development, including QA. This demonstrates the importance of taking initiative and demonstrating leadership skills.
3. Sara's story emphasizes the possibility of career breaks and transitions. After taking time off for family reasons, she successfully re-entered the tech industry at different companies, showcasing her ability to adapt to new technologies and roles. She proactively sought opportunities to learn new skills, such as web programming and cloud technologies, demonstrating a commitment to professional development.
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college? What internships or jobs did you have before your current role?
I started in college, teaching a software engineering lab. I was a lab aide and helped many software engineers work through their problems. I did this for multiple semesters, which was a great learning experience and reinforced my own understanding.
About halfway through my electrical engineering and computer science degree, I decided I needed an internship to understand what a job in industry was really like. I took a fall semester off for a six-month internship, running from summer through December.
The company worked with both hardware and software, so I got to try both. I realized I really wanted to focus on the software side. This was a very helpful transitional career move.
After graduating, I returned to the company where I interned and stayed for six and a half years. I worked as a software engineer and grew into a management role. By the time I left, I was managing a team of 20 software engineers. Some had been with the company for 20 years.
I learned a lot and grew quickly. I gained significant experience in people management and end-to-end systems development. I ran a QA team and did many other things.
At that point, I took a break to spend time with my children. I taught myself web programming as a side hustle. When my second son turned two, I decided I was ready to return to work.
I took a job at Nolo Press, a legal self-help company. I helped build their e-commerce site. I had been working with designers and wanted to master front-end development. This was around the time the web was growing rapidly and many programming jobs were in web development.
That job lasted only about a year because the company was acquired and changed direction. I then moved to OpenTable and helped rebuild their entire restaurant reservation system, migrating it to the cloud. I got to do some microservice development and work on a transformational technology.
At OpenTable, I started as an individual contributor and became a senior manager by the time I left. Then I went into Health Tech and spent about three years as a leader, progressing from an individual contributor to a director of engineering.
I took another break during the pandemic because my teenagers were home and struggling. The demands of the job and Zoom fatigue were also becoming too much.
I then got a job at Google and stayed for about three years. I recently left and am considering what my next chapter might hold. I want something potentially bigger and more interesting than building for an established company. I'm thinking about what that might look like. That's my career path.