Notes from October 2010 lecture at Stanford Computer Forum

1. Career Workshop
Engineer to Manager? Founder? CEO?
Michael Wolfe
Stanford BS/MS, CS, 1991
Michael.wolfe@stanfordalumni.org
Michael.wolfe@joinwire.com

2. Where to start? Where to go?
?
Small Medium Large
Board
CEO
Founder
VP
Director
Manager
Contributor
You are
here

3. What do they have in common?

4. Geeks!
BS/MS, Mechanical Engineering
Polytechnic Institute NY
BS/MS/PhD, Chemical
Engineering
U Mass, U of Illinois
BS, Electrical Engineering
MS, PhD Computer Science
Princeton, Berkeley
BS/MS/PhD, Chemical Eng.
U of Wisconsin, Minnesota
BA Math, MBA
Dartmouth, Harvard
Math/CS
Harvard
Math/CS
Harvard
BS/MS Electrical Eng., MBA
Rice University, Harvard

5. And these?

6. Almost all had technical co-founders
(but not necessarily as CEO)

7. Why did they succeed?
Because of their math/engineering training?
Or just their raw brainpower?
Or did they succeed *despite* being engineers?
Or innate leadership ability?
Or is this all just random?

8. The stories we know are one of two
extremes.

9. Story #1: “working your way up”
Small Medium Large
Board
CEO
Founder
VP
Director
Manager
Contributor

10. This is probably how you thought the
world worked when you were
growing up.
(And your parents still do…)

11. Story #2: “I’m the next Gates/Zuck/Dell”
Small Medium Large
Board
CEO
Founder
VP
Director
Manager
Contributor

12. This probably won’t happen
(although if you have the next Facebook in
your dorm room, let’s talk after class…)

13. Most of our paths look more like this
Small Medium Large
Board
CEO
Founder
VP
Director
Manager
Contributor

14. My story

15. Thought #1
There is no defined career “path”
• There are simply a series of decisions
• Where you start is just a first step
• Take lateral moves and pay cuts
• You can be good at more than one thing
• But make the decisions off of some basic
principles
But now I’ll talk about a few guidelines to think
about along the way.

16. CEO,
Founder
General
Manager
Vice
President,
Products &
Services, Co-
Founder
Vice
President,
Engineering,
Founding
Employee
Director,
Engineering,
Founding
Employee
Analyst
BS/MS, CS,
CS 198
coordinator,
instructor,
intern
Was this the accomplishment?
Getting
someone to
hire me
Getting
promoted
Getting
brought in
early
Getting a big
company role
Getting VCs to
fund me
i.e., what someone else gave me?

17. CEO,
Founder
General
Manager
Vice
President,
Products &
Services, Co-
Founder
Vice
President,
Engineering,
Founding
Employee
Director,
Engineering,
Founding
Employee
Analyst
BS/MS, CS,
CS 198
coordinator,
instructor,
intern
Or this?
•Technical
fundamentals
•Networking
•Communication
skills
•Applying
technology
•“Personal
management” skills
•How to work
•Professionalism
•Corporate Culture
•Recruiting
•New product
development
•Working in teams
•Basic management
•Direct sales
•Managing
managers
•Strategy and
finance
•Messaging and
positioning
•Planning and
forecasting
•M&A
•Press and analysts
•Large company
politics
•Fundraising
•Vision and
direction
•Deciding what I liked
•Learning the necessary skills
•Building the right network

18. Who is this all about?
It’s not about
THEM
• Getting
them to hire
you
• Getting
them to
promote you
• Getting
them to fund
you
It’s about YOU
• What do you
want to do?
• What are
your
strengths
and
weaknesses?
• Find
situations to
learn what
you need.
Oh, actually it is
about THEM
• Your team
• Your peers
• Your
professional
network
• Your
customers
• Your board

19. There is such a thing as a bad question
Not so good questions Good questions
What will look good on my
resume?
What will build the skills that I
need?
What will make my teachers,
parents, peers happy?
What will make me happy?
How do I get a promotion? How do I learn how to be a
good manager?
What do venture capitalists
want to see in a business plan?
What do I think my business
plan should say?
How do I convince people I’m
good?
How do I actually be good?

20. Thought #2
Worry less about what “they” think
(they don’t really care anyway)
• Work on your skills
• Find out what you want
• Trust that if you are good, other people will see it
and get involved with you
• It’s not them, it is you
• But do find mentors
• Yes, you need to learn how to sell yourself, but
you need a *product* to sell!

21. Do you have skillz?
• Political landscape Your products Your strategy
• Your competitors Company legacy
Company
• Marketing Sales Support PR/analysts
• Finance Strategy Engineering Innovation
Industry
• Management Interpersonal Listening
• Presentations Teamwork Professionalism
Team
• Intelligence Motivation Self awareness
• Discipline Humility Curiosity Confidence
Personal
Useful
Everywhere
Useful
only one place

22. Maybe the answer is “off the grid”
Hmm…I
wonder
which skills
these teach?
(Hint: it is
these)

23. Thought #3
Work on your skills
• Put yourself in challenging situations
• Skills are transferable
• Your foundational skills can never be too good
• Personal and professional are the same thing
There is no such thing as “job security”, only “career
security” (if you got skills).
By seeking “job security” you may get neither job
security nor career security!

24. The Stanford Curse
“I didn’t go to
Stanford to build
web pages.”
“Everyone else
is going to
Google.”
“I need to be a
CEO in 5
years.”
“I want to be a
millionaire
before I’m 25.”
Lots of voices whispering
into your ear….

25. Small vs. Large
• Uncertainty
• Lack of structure
• No support
• Drama
• Pivots and twists
• Innovation
• Equity focus
• Isolation
• Focus and Specialization
• Structure and support
• Politics
• Systems
• Legacy
• Scale
• International
• Mentoring
• Business class upgrades
Small Large

26. Management vs. Individual Contributor
• Communicating
• Leverage
• Team building
• Firings
• Planning
• Strategy
• Expertise
• Innovation
• Problem solving
• Technology
• Control
• Focus
Managemen
t
Contributor

27. Thought #4
Know thyself
• Understand what you like to do
• Leverage your strengths, work on your
weaknesses
• Show humility and curiosity
• Have the “I know nothing” / “I can learn
anything” attitude
• Being smart at something doesn’t make you
smart at something else
• Listen to the voices, but also learn to tune them
out

28. Typical question
Some of the suggestions included:
• “Here is why Twitter sux…”
• “Here is why Facebook sux….”
• “Go where you’ll make the most money”
• “Go where you like the product the most”

29. An answer

30. Your peeps
You will likely work with the same people, or people one degree removed, for your entire career

31. Thought #5
It is all about people
• Your friends
• You community
• Your team
• Your network
• Your classmates (get to know them now,
before it is too late….)

32. Q & A
Michael Wolfe
Michael.wolfe@stanfordalumni.org
Michael.wolfe@joinwire.com