5 steps I used to change my job title in less than 1 year.

In March 2020, I joined a startup as an Embedded Firmware Engineer. The startup’s product focuses on smart running insoles with lightweight trackers that fit any running shoes.

The company was small, and the firmware team was myself and 2 Senior Embedded Firmware Engineers.

What I liked the most about this team was that our interests complemented each other very well. One of the Senior Embedded Firmware Engineers was very strong at wireless communications (BLE, ANT) while the other was great at communication protocols (SPI, I2C). On my end, my strength was from my MSc in Control Systems and my past experience with GNSS. In addition, I had a very high interest in learning about Inertial Navigation System (INS). My goal was to become a Sensor Fusion Engineer.

So what did I do to become a Sensor Fusion Engineer?

1. Declare your intent

Since day 1 in the company, my team lead knew that my goal was to become a Sensor Fusion Engineer.

This is very important, as your manager can keep this in the back of their mind when assigning tasks to you. For instance, my team lead was giving me a lot of material around the way our product processed external samples as this was critical to the INS.

2. Define a roadmap

I asked my manager: “What do I need to do to be recognized as a Sensor Fusion Engineer”.