The Happy Engineer · 2026-07-28 · 59 min
Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): Most engineering leaders assume rising up means compromising your time, your family, and eventually who you are. Erin Hatzikostas proves that's a lie - and the leaders who buck it get better results. Zach sits down with Erin, former CEO who tripled her company's earnings by refusing the "executive club" playbook. She unpacks the compromise calculation most leaders run when they get tapped for a bigger role, why working harder is actually the lazy way to lead, and how strategic authenticity (not just "being yourself") wins the talent war, closes better deals, and builds the kind of team where your job actually gets easier.
You're Not Chasing a Promotion. You're Chasing Proof That You're Enough74 / 100
All Thrust, No Vector | Why Working Hard Isn't the Same as Moving Forward | Lt. Col. Waldo Waldman57 / 100
You're the Bottleneck in Your Own Career | $10B VP Casey Tubman
You Didn't Quit. But Part of You Did. | The 8 Stages of Alienation with Anton Gunn
How to Design Your Ideal Engineering Career Path | Director of Engineering Matt Sevey