Senior Mindset

Yes it's like spinning plates

In a fast-growing company software engineering feels like spinning plates. Nothing ever stays fixed.

Why learning and teaching the good stuff is hard

You can't learn to ride a bike from reading a book.

The Tour of Duty approach to career

Quick note today to plant the seed of an idea I've always loved: The Tour of Duty.

What being an expert looks like

The blue sweater scene in 'Devil Wears Prada' is a masterclass in expertise

Let juniors speak first

Want an engaged engineering team? Let juniors speak first.

What to put on your resumé

Position yourself as an expert and stand out in the job market

Working with product

A strong partnership with product is key to an enjoyable engineering life

A lesson on expertise from a great mafia movie

You cannot make something good until you understand who you're making it for.

Be their shit umbrella

because if you go to bat for the team, the team goes to bat for you

What to do when bugs are whack-a-mole

What do you do when every bug you fix creates 5 new bugs? You could laugh and move on, or realize it's a sign of bigger issues

When it’s okay to work overtime

Not all overtime is bad overtime

What's more productive, a team or a talented soloist?

Engineers *hate it* when you say it doesn't matter how good they are because a team will outcode them any day. But it's true, you can't build something big on your own.

Meetings – a senior engineer's secret weapon

Boo meetings, yay code, right? There comes a time in your career when coding is no longer your highest impact contribution. Might even be holding you back. 🙊

A great engineer knows their tools

Earlier in my career when I thought I was god's gift to engineering but wasn't, I failed one of those stupid interview questions that "have nothing to do with the work". It was a great question.

How to ask for help

what makes a senior engineer stand out in an interview? No it's not the amount of side projects or their leetcoding speed. It's knowing how and when to ask for help.

Reader question: "When do you fix tech debt?"

Long time reader Phil asks when do you fix the tech debt you used to ship faster. Heroic efforts don't work. The real answer is "always" – a mindset of gardening.

Tech debt is a tool

If your house was on fire, would you mow the lawn first?

What I learned from Software Engineering at Google

When I first picked up Software Engineering at Google I thought it was another one of those FAANG books full of lessons that make no sense at human scale. I was surprised, lessons apply to teams as small as 5.

How to own projects like a senior engineer

The best skill you can learn is ownership. The second best is to let go.

Why you need a positioning statement

High value experts use positioning statements to say what they do for whom. Most engineers don't have one. 🤨

What matters in a senior engineer job interview

Degree matters if you have nothing better to show, consulting and BigTech backgrounds are negative, too many seniors can't code.

Why you can't find an engineering coach

Wanna learn boxing? Join a gym, find a coach. Tennis player with a kink in your game? Find a coach. Software engineer with a missing skill? Google, random blogs, fun newsletters, dubious podcasts, noise on twitter 🤨

Why senior engineers get nothing done

You start a new job and it's amazing. Code all day, clear objectives, easy guidelines, ship a bunch of features be a hero. Then something happens and suddenly you get nothing done. 🤔

What if engineers were paid like athletes

Why engineers are worth so much

Engineers don't do the day to day work, they build assets the business can exploit for years to come. That's the magic

Why you should talk about engineering salaries

What a hockey legend can teach you about career development

Say your boss gives you $1000 to grow your career. What do you do?

4 years of coding in San Francisco, lessons learned

What makes you a senior software engineer anyway?

I used to think a senior engineer was someone who gets a project, understands the context, puts their head down, and gets it done. But no. A senior engineer does so much more than just write code and design systems.

Why you aren’t drowning in recruiters, too