How to navigate career growth in a mid-size company

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Working at a mid-size company offers the unique advantage of working on various technologies, teams, and projects. However, the nature of this work can also mean career paths aren’t structured. 

Given this unique landscape, it falls on the individual to figure out how to set their career path. In my history, I’ve had to take my professional development into my own hands twice, which eventually landed me new titles and responsibilities – both being the first of their kind in the company.

Finding a way to navigate unknowns around promotions can be tricky, but the right approach guarantees you the freedom to carve out your career trajectory.

Establish genuine connections with leaders


In smaller companies, folks on the leadership team are a lot more accessible than in larger enterprises. It is key to tap into this on your journey to elevate your career as a relationship with senior leaders can gain you insights about the current state of the company, its goals, and how the company is tracking toward them. 

This additional perspective can help you decide what projects to focus on and tie your contributions directly to business impact. For instance, a few years ago, we saw that a certain type of technology was a go-to choice for several projects across the company. Recognizing the trend, I used my downtime to learn more about it, ensuring I could contribute effectively during future project development time. 

It also gives you an avenue to discuss your work and gain feedback. Recurring skip-levels or 1:1s with leaders are perfect environments to bring up the technologies you’re exploring, the different teams you’re working with, and the mentorships you’re a part of. In doing so, you place yourself and your projects, front of mind. The more visible you are, the more likely leadership is to think of you when new projects arise in your scope of work or technologies. This broadens your work’s scope and fast-tracks the process of becoming a technical voice in the room. 

Finally, I use these discussions to unearth what projects leaders are working on and what they do on an everyday basis. This can be especially useful if you aspire to move into leadership roles as it gives you valuable insight into their daily cadence and what aspects of the role you naturally gravitate to. Moreover, it helps you identify the gaps you need to fill to get to where you want to be. 

When I started having these meetings with women leaders in my company, it gave me a fresh perspective on the good and bad aspects of such a position. Having diverse perspectives to lean on helps you to appreciate all the facets needed to attain leadership positions.  

Deepen your area of expertise


Working at a smaller company allows you to work on any platform, framework, stack, or project of your choice, meaning you can broaden your skill set. 

However, it is more beneficial to gain an in-depth understanding of your company’s core frameworks and technologies before pursuing trending tech elsewhere. There are many skills to learn that aren’t tied to sparkly new technology or frameworks, and mastering transferable and fundamental expertise helps down the line. 

In my case, back-end development was and continues to be my area of proficiency. I spent a lot of time leading and co-leading projects using the Spring Boot suite of tools before I began expanding to other types of development work. By focusing on and honing my abilities in one specific technology, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of the nuances of structuring projects, naming variables, writing good documentation, reviewing code, and setting up CI/CD pipelines. The details vary, but the high-level skills are the same. 

Ask for help 


Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. I did not believe this for a long time, which meant I spent a while struggling on my own instead of recognizing when to ask for support. 

This is not to say you need to always lean on others whenever you encounter something you don’t know. Do your due diligence, and once you know you have hit a wall, be open to seeking help. 

In my case, I was once on a project with tight deadlines involving technology I had never worked with before. I started researching the topic, documenting my findings and learnings. Then, I reached out to folks more experienced in that domain to get feedback and ensure I was on the right track. Instead of judgment, I found support – a genuine desire to help a fellow developer succeed. This helped me expedite my learning and truly find a safe, collaborative space.

For a long time, I failed to be vulnerable, but once I was, I learned a lot of new things about tools and technologies I had never used and built some amazing relationships.

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London • June 16 & 17, 2025

Speakers Gergely Orosz, Camille Fournier and Lara Hogan confirmed.

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Do all the things that make you scared


For as long as I can remember, I had always wanted to be a good public speaker. However, I never gave it a shot because it scared me – a lot. 

To better understand the terrain, I spoke to many folks in my company who were excellent at conference speaking. I subsequently applied to speak at a conference and got accepted. Fast forwarding to 2025, after speaking at a few remote and in-person conferences, I can safely say my palms don’t sweat when I get up on stage.

While this was a personal goal I was able to achieve, it also had positive professional repercussions. Public speaking gave me the confidence to deliver company-wide demos and presentations, which helped drive impact at scale. 

Overall, it has also given me the confidence to say yes to new things like working on new code bases, which has broadened my knowledge base.

This isn’t to say that everyone looking to advance their career should pick up a mic, but they should pick up something that scares them – while still being relevant to their role. Make it a goal, tell people about it who will help hold you accountable, and take the leap. 

Final thoughts 

Having the freedom to carve out your own trajectory is immensely satisfying. With some actionable strategies and a little bit of help, watch your professional development be catapulted into success.