> “The sad truth is that the path of an architect or principal / staff engineer is closed for a pure android developer”
When I worked at Uber as an engineering manager, this was partially the case: at Uber’s scale, there was a path to grow to Staff-level just with pure mobile, but it was a crowded place and difficult to get to as a mobile-only engineer expert in one platform only.
I encouraged native engineers wanting to get to that next level to go broader - venture into areas like iOS or web or backend, to become a more well-rounded engineer and ultimately someone who can lead and influence wider groups.
If you don’t work at a company with large mobile platforms, switching stacks to eg backend typically has more path for growth.
I also wrote a book called Growing as a Mobile Engineer where my advice is basically the above: to grow beyond the senior level, either you’ll need opportunities to work at places with large enough mobile scale - typically ones with mobile platform teams -, or leave native mobile to further your career.
When I worked at Uber as an engineering manager, this was partially the case: at Uber’s scale, there was a path to grow to Staff-level just with pure mobile, but it was a crowded place and difficult to get to as a mobile-only engineer expert in one platform only.
I encouraged native engineers wanting to get to that next level to go broader - venture into areas like iOS or web or backend, to become a more well-rounded engineer and ultimately someone who can lead and influence wider groups.
If you don’t work at a company with large mobile platforms, switching stacks to eg backend typically has more path for growth.
I also wrote a book called Growing as a Mobile Engineer where my advice is basically the above: to grow beyond the senior level, either you’ll need opportunities to work at places with large enough mobile scale - typically ones with mobile platform teams -, or leave native mobile to further your career.