Junior engineer looking to expand ownership

Question

I've been at my job for a year now as a junior software developer and I'd like to take more ownership and more responsibilities in my team as a step in my growth/promotion. How do I best approach this and how can I frame this conversation with my manager?

Context

I work in a startup-like company. I'd like to own a small part of the high-impact project I'm currently on (I work with 2-3 senior engineers) and/or own another future project. My manager agrees that the next step in my growth is to own a project but she's looking for something that fits my skillset.

At this, I'm left wondering if there's something I can do on my end to help make it easier for her or signal that I am ready to own a project. My manager has said I am trending well and doesn't seem to have any concerns with my performance. In my next 1-1, I'm going to ask for any feedback, as well as discuss my 2025 growth plan.

Since the work I'm now doing is more fullstack backend-oriented and I was previously mainly fullstack frontend-oriented, I am also actively practicing to become more familiar with our backend technologies/repos via pairing, code reviews, etc.

Since I'm a junior, I know I'm judged on code impact so I focus on code quality (writing thorough test plans, code reviews) and code velocity and I have received positive feedback on these things. Also, there have been a couple of promotions in our team this year, so that might have an effect on the scope of projects as my manager likely prioritized their promotion plans.

Thank you!

Alex Chiou · Accepted Answer

Sometimes, it is better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.  If you are trending well and truly work in a startup-like environment, you should be able to just take the initiative. If you are assigned to a project and your piece isn't that well defined, go define with. Create a detailed system design doc, an automated testing plan, and an analytics/observability strategy. Follow the advice from our course here: System Design Masterclass: Shipping Real Features To Production  Better yet, create your own project from scratch and just work on it in whatever spare cycles you have. If your solo prototype works out, you can share it with the team - At that point, it's too late to be stopped. That's what I did with my Instagram ads mobile testing tool. I used my intern as free labor to build this utility for myself - My manager was barely aware of me doing this. After I completed it and realized it was pretty slick, I shared it with the rest of the team and it caught on like wildfire, spreading to 25+ engineers worth of scope (senior/staff level work). I talk about this case study in-depth in my mid-level to senior course here: Instagram Ads Testing Tool  Chances are if you do this right, you won't even need to ask for forgiveness. People will just be proud of you and your impact.  You don't always need to wait for your manager to tell you what to do. Just do it.

Junior engineer looking to expand ownership

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