Why you need a positioning statement

High value experts use positioning statements to say what they do for whom. Most engineers don't have one. 🤨

Engineers, do you have a positioning statement?
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) April 29, 2021

You're a high value expert my friend

Your career works in cycles.

You sign a 4 year contract, work 2 or 3 years, move on to the next job. Sometimes the company goes boom or you don't like the team – leave sooner. If it's going great, stay longer.

Engineers are paid kinda like athletes. Play it right, add some luck, and in 10 to 20 years you could be a millionaire. 🤑

How to become a millionaire if you can code

1. Get coding job
2. Quit and new job every 2 years – 30% raise
3. Put 20% in index funds
4. Wait 16 years

Start wealth: $0, start salary: $100k

End with $1,238,883

Start at 25, retire by 41. But ain't nobody talk about *that* 🤔 pic.twitter.com/Lud3FxhbvM
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) July 29, 2020

That 4 year contract[^1] is like signing a $400,000 deal at the low end. $1,000,000+ on the higher end. My current deal sits at a cool $750,000.

Now, friend, is that a high value? Should you approach that conversation like you would a job at your local McDonald's?

😉

How a positioning statement helps

Compare these two folks:

John says he knows React. His code is good code.

Mary says she solves business problems for Series A companies on a hyper-growth trajectory in the B2C SaaS space. She does that with React.

Who gets the interview?

I'm gonna guess Mary. She sounds like she's gonna be a joy to work with.

All I gotta do as boss or business owner is to trust her expert opinion and say "Here's problems, lemme know when you need something"

John sounds like he's gonna be a lot of work to manage. Best he can do is sling code after you tell him what you need. 😔

A positioning statement is your tool

You can use your positioning statement to hone your resume, narrow your job search, and boost your confidence.

What's the story you wanna tell? What's the job you wanna do? Where?

Apply for every React job and you're gonna have a bad time. Working at a 5-person startup is different than a 100,000 people BigTech behemoth.

Start with I achieve X for Y using Z.

Highlight it in your resume. Show where you've done it before. Then apply to companies that fit Y.

You'll have a much stronger career trajectory.

What's your positioning statement my friend? hit reply

Cheers,
~Swizec

PS: your outwards positioning statement depends on who you're targeting. A hiring manager at a subdivision of a subteam inside a huge org looks for different signals than the head of engineering at a startup.

[^1] 4 years is a typical vesting schedule. You leave potential money on the table by leaving early. And you incur opportunity cost by staying, if your equity doesn't pan out.