1) “Build in public” is overrated for senior engineers.
Build in private.
Ship in public.
Your brand should be a trail of outcomes, not a diary of half-finished experiments.
HookType: CONTRARIAN
2) Personal branding for engineers = being findable.
Pick 1 topic.
Write 1 clear opinion/week.
Turn 1 PR into a post.
Repeat for 12 weeks.
You don’t need virality. You need consistency + receipts.
HookType: HOW-TO
3) Hard truth: your work doesn’t speak for itself.
It speaks for whoever summarizes it.
If that’s not you, it’ll be your manager, a PM, or nobody.
HookType: HARD TRUTH
4) A simple presence framework for senior engineers:
1) What you build
2) How you think
3) What you changed
4) What you learned
If your posts don’t fit one of these, skip them.
HookType: FRAMEWORK
5) Myth: “Personal brand = self-promotion.”
Reality: It’s documentation.
Explain tradeoffs. Share decisions. Capture patterns.
The best brand is a searchable record of good engineering judgment.
HookType: MYTH/REALITY
6) Strong opinion: senior engineers should write less about tools and more about decisions.
Tools change. Decision-making compounds.
If someone can’t infer your judgment from your posts, you’re invisible.
HookType: OPINION
7) Steal this post template:
“I shipped X. The surprising part was Y.
I made 3 calls: (a) (b) (c)
If I did it again, I’d .”
Clean, specific, readable.
HookType: TEMPLATE
8) I watched a senior engineer “have no brand” for years. Brilliant. Quiet.
Then layoffs hit.
The people who landed fastest weren’t the loudest.
They were the easiest to evaluate in public.
HookType: STORY
9) What’s the one engineering decision you made this year that you’d defend publicly, even if it’s unpopular?
One sentence is enough: context + tradeoff + outcome.
HookType: QUESTION
10) Most engineers try to “stand out” with hot takes.
Stand out with clarity.
Write the post that makes a hiring manager say: “I know how this person thinks under constraints.”
HookType: HARD TRUTH