Grow your engineering career
Your code gets you to senior. To go further you need more than code — interviews, negotiation, picking the right problems, and knowing what the business actually pays you for. These essays cover the career side of software engineering.
Career essays
11 articles from 2025 · show all
November 2025
What makes your resume stand out
What did you do, for whom, did it work
October 2025
The job behind the job [of a high level IC]
Advancing big goals while you stay on top of operational day-to-day fires _is the job_. This is hard. Here are a few tips I've found helpful.
Feedback is a strange thing
Performance oscillates around your mean. Your average is what matters.
The grind won't get you there
Don't grind on something the company doesn't value. Hard work is not rewarded. **_Outcomes_** are rewarded.
September 2025
Should you join an AI startup right now?
Beyond income there's 2 reasons to take any specific job: Invest in yourself or invest in the company. Both is best.
July 2025
What makes a senior engineer
The base expectation for engineers is that you don't just build whatever you're asked.
May 2025
You're a business
Quick thought from a conversation with friends
Your interview is a sales call
I've been doing hiring manager screens lately. Here's a few tips.
February 2025
Depth takes time
It takes about 3 years to experience the consequences of your own decisions.
Code yourself out of the job
Let go of your legos and let others do the work.
January 2025
The score takes care of itself
Less talking more doing