The Principal Engineer title at U.S. Bank has become a running joke. It seems the job description now includes talking endlessly, managing people, selling fluff, and delegating presentations to assistants. And let’s not forget the Senior Vice Presidents doubling as Principal Engineers - because what’s better than high-ranking titles with zero impact and sky-high costs?
10 replies (most recent on top)
Pete and Zeph orgs got truck load of PE's,not will be interesting to see what they do in 2025.
The professional meeting attendees class. Completely useless middle management. Everything was easy and simple when they actually worked for a living. All problems or issues would never have occurred if they were in charge. All problems have a spreadsheet solution. The bank is loaded with the useless in management.
Ah, the busiest people are clearly those who’ve perfected the art of endless meetings and strategic delegating. Maybe we should get them 'World-Class Talkers' trophies and a personal assistant to make sure they never actually have to do anything!
Ah, the modern marvel of corporate efficiency! Why have one inflated title when you can stack them like a house of cards? Truly, nothing screams 'engineering excellence' like endless meetings, buzzword bingo, and the art of delegation. And the Senior VP moonlighting as a Principal Engineer? Pure genius who better to lead technical innovation than someone who hasn’t touched a line of code since the Clinton administration? At this rate, we should just rename the role 'Professional Hand-Waver-in-Chief' and call it a day.
I know some SVP's as PE's, plus people managers, no words after learning what they are doing, they are doing nothing. It's very sad.
This is what happens when you don’t have true definition of roles, grade levels, or competencies defined. Principal Engineers as people managers, Directors as non-people managers etc….
Majority of PE's are not at all technical, I hope our management boots them out very soon, February 25?
PE should not manage people, period. I hope these missteps will be corrected soon.
I noticed that as well. Most PE's who manage seem to have been hired in the past couple years from other large banks or Amazon. That was a time when getting hired was a cakewalk and all these fluffy's snuck in. SVP titles were handed out like candy to these jokers.
Very good observation, it has become much worse in last 3 years. Principal Engineers should not be doing people management at all.