Developer Tea interview about The Senior Engineering Mindset

Swizec TellerMarch 21, 2022

We had a conversation with Jonathan Cutrell that was so good it made two episodes!

Talking points

what exactly does it mean to be a senior engineer?
on being a great hammerer vs. solving problems using hammers
why engineers who aren't quite senior get the senior title
being a good partner to your product managers
how showing up and caring beyond code gets you in the conversation earlier and lets you shape the roadmap
bushwhacking for your team
the PM is not your boss
PM and Engineer team is like F1 driver and race engineer or golfer and caddy – you advise, they decide
technical debt is a tool
what senior engineers do for team morale
steering your team out of rabbit holes
why algorithms are the easy part of software engineering
domain modeling is the actual hardest problem
web performance is overshadowed by network latency
senior engineers fail interviews because they don't know how to use their time effectively
good interviews ensure you don't have enough time – we want to see what and how you prioritize
senior engineers should have strong opinions
how to avoid becoming the single point of failure on your team
distributed ownerships
the most common misconception that holds back your career and how to fix it
having a long-term view of your projects
working on the things leadership will notice
how to get more autonomy by owning your mistakes
making decisions probabilistically