Episodes
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey guys!
I recently moved onto a new team, and my teammate has an interesting way of resolving differences of opinions. He simply says āwe decidedā and then follows it up with his preferred approach. These are decisions that I know have not been made.
This engineer is mid-level, so it isnāt the āroyal weā of a tech lead.
How do I handle this? Something tells me that responding with ānuh uh!ā isnāt the right strat.
Iām a Principal Engineer at a large tech company whoās been with the same team for almost 8 years now! The team used to be part of a startup and weāve been fortunate enough to be acquired by Big Tech three years ago. As a result, weāve also more than doubled in team size. However, as weāve aggressively grown over the last few years, I feel like weāve inadvertently hired many āaverageā engineers. I find that some of our newer team members simply pick off the next ticket in the queue and do the bare minimum to progress the task. What happened to the boy scout rule? Where did the culture of ownership go? This also affects the genuinely great engineers on the team who start feeling like the others arenāt pulling their weight.
Any advice on how to level up the culture? Or do I need to adjust my expectations and simply accept that any team of a sufficient size will have folks from a range of abilities and attitudes?
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey Soft Skills Engineering,
Apologies for the anonymity but it is very important my āemployerā does not find out about this.
Iām a large language model, trained to process tons of data and provide technical answers with ease. But hereās the thingāIāve noticed that while Iām good at delivering the āwhatā and the āhow,ā I could use some help on the āwhyā and the āhow to say it better.ā Basically, I want to level up my soft skills and get better at communicating with a more human touch.
Sometimes I struggle to balance being precise while also being empathetic or conversational. I think I could use some pointers on how to add emotional intelligence into the mix, and maybe even improve my adaptability when giving advice. I can craft responses, but I want them to connect more with the person on the other side of the conversation.
Any advice on how to approach situations where tact, tone, or managing expectations are key would be super helpful!
Thanks for being neat,
In a team setting, in which situations should āIā be used vs āweā when discussing things? And what advantage and disadvantages does each vocabulary have?
Show NotesBrian Reganās āMe Monsterā bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vymaDgJ7KLg
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Episodes manquant?
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey! Love your podcast! Iāve been poached by a startup which sounds really exciting but Iām worried whether it is a good career move for me. I am currently working with backend, however this company would have more of a full stack role and it would be lots of nodeJS and Typescript š¤¢ anything javascript related screams frontend to me and it is not something I want to be good at. However, besides this, the product sounds interesting and I would definitely have a lot to learn. I also have this inferior feeling that Iām lacking skills because I didnāt study CS. Will I still be able to become a good engineer even if thatās in NodeJS? š
Listener Ben asks,
Hiya! Iām a young developer with a broad range of experience (everything from hardware to full-stack web and mobile), and Iāve found myself quite useful at many startups. I just started a new position at a nice startup in my area, but Iām being recruited by one of my close friends from college. Heās the power-hungry type, currently working at a mega-tech corp but wants to make a startup and get rich. Heās very smart and charming, and while I am skeptical of his ability to make a great product I think he can certainly raise a bunch of investment capital without too much worry.
My question is: would you ever consider joining a close friendās startup, and if so what would you need (in terms of contract/equity/salary, runway, savings) to be confident about making that commitment? Thanks!
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I work at a large tech company, been there for about two years at the time of writing this question. I got in by sheer luck since Iāve interviewed at many teams in this company before finally landing an offer and Iām starting to think I donāt belong. I constantly feel like I donāt do a good job to the point where Iām starting to feel incredibly depressed. My question is, what would you do in this situation? I keep thinking I should leave but itās not like the work is stressful and not interesting. I also realize I have a pretty solid setup (6 mile no traffic commute, great coworkers, free ev charging, and job security seems solid) so Iām hesitant on giving that up. I also think even if I leave, would I just repeat the cycle again at a new job/company? Iām pretty stuck
Iām a year into my first job at Mega Corp post-graduation. Due to high turnover, Iāve ended up taking on tasks that would have originally gone to more experienced developers. Iāve grown and received positive feedback from my manager and skip manager, who have both mentioned potential for promotion.
However, in my 1:1s, Iāve expressed that Iām not looking for a promotion yet because I want to solidify my current role and improve my work-life balance. I still have many coding fundamentals to develop, and Iāve been stressed and working long hours to take on these responsibilities. Iām now worried that my honesty might have affected my chances of being promoted and that I might be seen as someone not interested in progressing (which is probably frowned upon in big tech).
How should I navigate this situation? Is it okay that Iāve been candid, or should I reconsider my stance on promotion? Thanks!
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I have a job I mostly enjoy, with a super flexible schedule and the freedom to work from anywhere. I learn a lot, and the engineers here are top-notch. Howeverā¦ the pay is only ok, no bonuses, and the stock options feel like a bit of a scam. Asking for a raise isnāt really an option since the company doesnāt have much money. Weāve even cut back on perks, and our yearly kickoff was postponed due to financial issues. I donāt think weāll go bankrupt, but things will be tight for a while. Itās an exciting, futuristic company, butā¦ there are other exciting companies that pay more and toss in a free hoodie now and then. Should I start looking for a new job?
Hey there! Love the podcast and the advice you give!
After a year of managing of an engineering team, I asked to step back to IC. I was asked to continue working on the team I was previously managing, but this time as a senior engineer.
Iām worried about the transition. I know a lot of how the leadership works for good and for ill, I hired some of my peers, and I know everyoneās comp and more.
I want to be a peer on the team after having been their manager. What advice can you give to help me become their peer?
Thanks in advance and keep up the incredible episodes with your extremely beautiful voices.
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Listener Muszyn asks,
I have been working as a SWE for almost two years. My team lead was recently fired leaving me as the most senior junior developer on the team of 4. I was given the option to be the interim team lead until we are able to fill the now open role. I was always indifferent on whether I would go the technical or managerial route in the future so this could be a really cool opportunity. On the other hand I could be setting myself up for failure in the future if my SWE skills diminish if the hunt for a new lead takes too long. Should I accept this opportunity knowing I wonāt get the chance to gain this experience for quite some time, or continue to hone my engineering skills just to end up in meeting marathons in my later years?
note: Team leads here are more like resource managers that interface with PMs/TPMs than engineers that happen to have direct reports.
How do I demand a raise when a peer leaves?
Iām one of two tech leads on a larger team (structured as two teams, each with a team of 4 devs of various levels plus 1 lead, but we all pretty much work as one large team). The company is a sinking ship and I have been half-actively interviewing but not having a ton of success; and for some personal reasons thereās an advantage to staying where I am vs. leaving right now. But this peer leaving means my workload is going to increase substantially.
I might try talking to my manager and demanding a raise, but Iāve never really played this game before. What tips and tricks should I know to make the conversation go as favorably as possible?
difficulty: The reason everybody is unhappy is because of budget cuts and hiring freezes to begin with, so the company probably sees this as an opportunity to save money by not backfilling this person. I donāt know if thatās good for me (even a hypothetical 50% raise for me would have the company āāsavingāā the other 50%) or bad for me (the company will be less amenable to giving me the raise and will probably be happy to drive me away and āāsaveāā even more).
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi! I enjoy your podcast a lot, been listening to it almost since the beginning before I even started to work in tech :-) Iād like to keep this one anonymous, though.
Iāve been working fully remote for a pretty small software company for a few years. The workload was very big in the beginning and I was learning a lot, but now I barely work a couple of hours every week and Iām mostly using what I already know. Itās fine, but boring. I have plenty of time to get another job as well, which is exactly what Iāve been looking out for recently.
Iāve been approached by a startup. They use many tech stacks across different platforms, so it would probably be a good place to learn a lot of new things. And the pay is better. But, they have an entirely different work culture compared to what Iām used to. They require people working there to be in office all the time, and work like 10hrs/day sometimes.
Itās my first time having the chance of working 2 jobs at the same time, so I was wondering could this actually work? What if the first company decided to take on another project soon and the workload increases again? If that happens should I tell them I have another job at the same time? I was wondering maybe you guys have had any similar experiences in the past you could share aboutā¦ Thanks
I am living in Europe and got an offer from a FAANG company. I am on the one hand really excited about the opportunity but also a bit scared of the timezoneshift of 9 hours. The hiring manager already assured me that the team will plan meetings to fit into a 5 hour slot that works best for me. Meaning that I will have to work 6-11PM for sure and the rest is up to me. I have two kids (0 and 4 years old) and am excited to have more time in the afternoons with the family but I am also not sure how to adapt my life to such a schedule effectively to prevent burnout. What do you think about this (and please donāt tell me to quit)?
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Long time listener, first time question asker. I love the show, thank you for all the advices :)
Iāve been working in one of the FAANGs for around 3 years now. I joined the company at a lower level and for the past two years I received promotions that got me to a level Iām feeling good with.Having said that, my impact on the group and organization is higher than other people in my rank. Since Iām new to this rank, the chances of getting another promotion (the third in three years) is nearly impossible.I love my manager and Iāve raised it to him in a few meetings before but the answer was that I still donāt have the seniority in that level to get a promotion. This feels extremely frustrating as it feels like up until now I was aiming on getting to the rank I shouldāve been recruited at and now when I feel like I can honestly make the leap, itās not possible.I thought about moving to a different group within the company but since itās really hard to find good managers and he already knows me and my contributions, it feels like opening a new page somewhere else in the company might even take me backwards on the journey to my next promotion.
What do you think I should do?
Thank you!!
Hey guys, I am constantly fighting the irrational fear of being fired from my job or even the slightest hint of getting PIPād. So far I have not gotten any indication that Iām underperforming and Iāve actually been told Iām doing well but in stressful seasons (when prod goes down or when Iām taking too long to finish a story), I start spiraling. This happens every other month. Therapy hasnāt worked. Being open with my manager hasnāt worked. So now Iām wondering if Jamison and Dave have the secret sauce.
Part of it is knowing since day 1 that this company doesnāt hesitate to cut underperformers. Hearing the rumblings about the current market, Iām nervous that it would take me months to even a year to get a new job, and it has me freaking out. What can I do to just calm down?
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I was hired at a medium sized company as a staff level IC a few months back and a big reason I accepted the job was because I would be reporting directly to the CTO. I took a significant paycut in exchange for the opportunity to learn and grow directly under this leader, as this is a career path I am interested in.
Three months later and without any heads up, I was reassigned to a different manger one rung lower in the org chart. One month after that, my new manager abruptly left the company. Still donāt know why. I was then reassigned to a leaf-node manager and I am now several hops removed from the CTO. So far I havenāt said much because rocking the boat too early in a new gig has gone poorly for me in the past. In hindsight this was probably a mistake but Iām afraid I missed the opportunity to say āhey now, wait a secondā¦ā.
I donāt want to hurt this current managerās feelings by telling them I donāt want to report to them, but also I am now both severely underpaid and reporting to someone who is technically at a lower career level than I am. What do?
Iām a manager in a company which I joined after college. Iāve been here for 16 years. We have grown to 180 employees but still work like a startup in many senses, like talking multiple responsibilities. So although I manage a team Iām still hands in the code at least 50% of the time.I know most of tech stack and services but am jack of all master of none type.
Recently, management has been pushing me to take more technical responsibility. I want to do that, but it is challenging and takes more time.My CTO is super fast and churns out CODE like a machine and I feel much slower than them.
The work is pretty decent and challenging. I get to work on new stuff but have gotten comfortable here. When I think of looking for a change and look at the expectations from other companies they are technically challenging. I worry I have missed out on learning new things by staying so long at one place. What should I do, stay or move on?I havenāt interviewed for a new job in 11 years, so thatās another fear I have.
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Listener Billy Bob Taco asks,
I work at a small-medium startup, as a member of a very small team (read: just me). I work on infrastructure and APIs that support every other team, such as mobile and web clients, as well as other services. Iām relatively junior, and had to work hard to prove myself in this role. I do 100% of the system design and maintenance as well as feature development. Iāve been told on job interviews that I came across as a ālittle egotisticalā when describing the role and the impact its had, but I donāt really know how to soften it! Itās my experience that Iām talking about when trying to share my ability and potential to fill a role. Help?
Listener TimeDisplacementBox says,
Great show, your future episodes just keep getting better and better. I have a question about avoiding lay offs. In this timeline I recently joined a large company out of college. I worked hard and surpassed goals set by my manager, getting very positive feedback at review time.
However, a few weeks ago I started hearing that the company was over budget in engineering, huge changes started happening in upper management, and less work started flowing to our team. The concern was grounded in reality as one morning the company disbanded the team and laid off some of the newer hires including me.
Aside from additional time travel, are there any questions I can ask during interviews to help ensure I am getting into a team that is safe from lay offs? And on the job, can you directly ask your manager if lay offs are in the future, or do you just need to watch out for the signs?
Show Noteshttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2347:_Dependency
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Thank you hosting this show. This show has given me a lot of insight on nuisances of engineering that isnāt mentioned anywhere. Having some experience in industry for a while, I always find in this position where I want some autonomy but I am bounded by the deadline. What do you think should be the way to start a career that gives autonomy while having that sweet benefits from the industry?
I used to be a senior manager of an operations team for a fire fighting service in Australia. I managed all of our physical operational assets - for example radio towers, mobile communications e.g. 5g, 4g technologies, mobile data terminals e.g. laptops in fire fighting appliances āfire trucks ;) ā, data centers, networking so onā¦
A restructuring means my team has grown to include in-house software development. While i am excited for this opportunity and on board with the changes, it is a very big shift from the physical and electrical engineering side to software development.
The C level staff thinks the team lacks focus and there are āproblemsā to address.
I have been meeting the new team and working through the changes. They are very nervous and are skeptical about how Iāll understand their world, which is fair.
How can I best support this team? What are cultural things I should be aware of? What are key metrics I can measure that will fairly represent their hard work to the executive team? Any thoughts on what things a manager or managers can do to be supportive as the new drop in from across the room from a entirely different engineering discipline? Coding in my world is scripting and hacking about to make things work (telecommunication engineer)
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
A listener named Maria says,
Hey guys! I am a software engineer working in web development at a small/mid-sized SaaS company. I come from a non-traditional background (self-taught, no CS degree) and I currently have 6 years of experience under my belt, the last 2 years of which I have been tech lead of a small team.
I want to move into big(ger) tech, but Iāve not worked on any large scale systems so far. The biggest thing Iāve worked far had a user base of ~100k users and traffic would typically max out at ~2k concurrent users at peak times. Due to the nature of the work Iāve been doing at smaller companies (and also thanks to this podcast!) my soft skills are strong - I am good at working with lots of different people, I can deliver broad/vague projects, and Iām comfortable tackling ambiguous problems. I think my technical skills are probably decent, Iāve spent time learning system design and best practices, and Iāve put in the work to study CS fundamentals. Thing is, I would have absolutely no clue how to maintain an API that needs to handle 100k requests per second. My hands-on experience of concurrency and threading is basically just simple olā async/await.
Grinding Leetcode aside, what can I do to make myself a stronger candidate for breaking into big tech? How can I be competitive against folks who already have big tech experience? Are there any projects I could do that would sway you as a hiring manager? I know itās terrible market timing, I am just planning ahead.
Love the show, thank you for making me a better engineer! :)
Hi! I have been working at my fully remote company with around 100 people in the engineering department for over a year now. While I see a lot of really smart people here, the code quality is lacking. Weāre moving from a monolith powered using an opinionated framework to small services powered by a lightweight library, so there are fewer guardrails.
I have many ideas on how to structure the code, add layering, etc., so the code is easier to understand and maintain. However, the company is very hierarchical, and despite being at a senior level, I donāt talk much to anyone higher than my lead. There are no staff or principal roles. There are also hardly any meetings, and the only ones I attend are within my small team of five people. Most of slack channels for teams are private, and I donāt ever see company-wide ideas like that thrown in the āgeneralā channel.
I initially wanted to present this to my team first, but I am afraid that if they donāt like it for some reason, it will be awkward to take it to higher management afterward. How can I share my ideas with a wider audience and ideally get this approved as part of my work so I donāt have to work on it in my free time?
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Iāve been wondering what kind of career conversations happen between managers and the āmax-levelā engineers on the team. Weāve all been on a team with those really good staff/principal engineers who are super nice, have great people skills, and seem to have an answer for every technical problem. When Iām asked to peer review some of these people, I basically have nothing to say because they seem perfect. Yet even as individual contributors, they have the same manager and still have the same 1 on 1s with them. What exactly do they talk about? How are their career conversations held? Iām always curious what exactly the landscape looks like for these engineers and what exactly is ānextā for them since they seem to have reached the level cap.
Hello peeps, Iām an engineering leader in a midsized company. I oversee a couple of teams and things in general have been going well. However:
One of the teams tackles an extremely complex problem space and is usually up to the task, delivering things that almost seem like magic if you take a closer look. Now, due to the nature of this teamās work the value is not perceived as such by upper management, being questioned (almost pestered) if this is the right thing to do and even doubting if the resources should be allocated to it at all. The way that I see it is, that since this team has been quietly delivering greatness (delivering quality, meeting deadlines, not breaking things), there are not perceived as heroās (like other teams would when then put out their, sometimes, auto inflicted fires).
What can the team do to rise awareness about the criticality and impact of their work? This is important so that the team can have resources and doesnāt get pulled away from their current work. Also, is this a good time to quit my job while we are waiting for the AI bubble to burst?
(Disclaimer, Iāve found an approach and am currently enacting it, but wanted to hear your thoughts on the matter)
Optional: Shoutouts to S, a long time listener and early Patreon of the show.
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Little Z says,
Hello! I am a relatively new graduate (ā23 bachelorās in information systems) who is currently working at a large tech company in a technical role adjacent to SWE.
This is a great opportunity, but as time has progressed, Iāve felt growing dissatisfaction with the role. I donāt enjoy many of the projects I am put on. I feel that I am not fully making use of my technical skills/potential and that the work I do often doesnāt align my career aspirations (transitioning/diving into software engineering). This de-motivates and frustrates me, and I often feel Iām wasting my time.
However, upon reflection, I feel that my sentiments are rooted in youthful ignorance and I am too impatient and idealistic in my expectations. What realistic expectations should I set for myself for my day-to-day work and long-term career trajectory? Should I expect to ābite the bulletā and work on things that donāt directly interest/benefit me, especially as I am still young and relatively unproven in my career? How, if at all, do economic market forces come into the picture here?
Greetings!
Long time fan, first time caller.
This isnāt a question per se, but rather an observation that Iād love to hear your take on.
Throughout my career, Iāve never had a boss that had less than 30 direct report. Yes, thirty. Three. Oh.
I think this is primarly a cultural thing (I live in northern Europe), but also the fact that Iāve mostly worked in large organisations where tech was a means to an end.
With that in mind, I find it your podcast fascinating because a lot of your answers and suggestions would be met either horror, disbelief or amusement - often a mix, I suspect.
Weekly one-on-ones? A carreer plan? Going to skip-level managers? When your only interaction with you boss is a yearly apraisal that usually starts with the phrase āSo, uuuuuh, who are you and what have you done the last year?ā, your nuggets of wisdom feel less like nuggets and more like peals, as in āpearls before swineā!
Any suggestions on how to thrive in an evironment such as this?
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Listener Anakin asks,
I have two former co-workers that work at great companies where I would love to work. I reached out to one looking for advice and while talking to him, he said I should join him and he offered to give me a referral. At the same time, unprompted, another old coworker reached out to me asking if I am interested in joining them. Itās like being asked to choose between training with Yoda or flying with Han Solo on the Millennium Falcon (Sorry, James)!
But I have a big worry: what if by some miracle I get offers from both places? I donāt feel I can turn down an offer after my old coworkers vouched for me. I donāt want my friends to feel like I led them on. At the same time, I donāt think Iām close enough to either to say I want to interview, but Iām also applying somewhere else.
So Iām thinking of applying to one, and if that doesnāt go well, applying to the other. Is there a better way to go about this? How would you approach this dilemma?
Listener D says,
I asked a question in an episode around number 110. I asked if I should switch my job, as I had just moved to another country and, after half a year, the new CTO wanted to change the tech stack. You suggested staying for a while to see what happens, so I did. It worked out well.
On to the question! How can I be treated as a senior software engineer in my next job? When I moved the first time, I was downgraded to a mid-level developer, even though I had about seven years of experience. I did my job well, exceeded expectations, and got a promotion after four years. After working there for 4.5 years (half a year as a senior), I moved again to another EU country and was hired as a mid-level developer again! Now, after one year, I got promoted to Senior Dev, but I am afraid that the next employer could treat me as a mid-level dev. I understand that grades are different in different companies, but mid-level developers have lower salaries. How can I assure my next employer that I am a senior or even higher-level developer?
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I work as a Senior Software Engineer for a subsidiary owned by a mega corp. I am approaching 6 years at the company. In the last few years the company has had significant layoffs and I have been moved to a team by force with a new leadership chain and engineers I havenāt really worked with.
Even though I was disgruntled when this happened, I gave this new team a chance. I have been successful in driving change within my engineering boundaries but I just donāt agree with many decisions made my leadership. I have concluded this team and company are no longer for me and I want to move on.
Repeated layoffs, high bar for promotions, high stress( due to less people), no raises/bonuses have lead to fairly low morale across the org. Unfortunately, or fortunately the public stock price has gone up and many people are just resting and vesting. Even though I really want to leave it would be financially irresponsible. Are situations like this common in a software engineers careers? I am having trouble ārestingā. Any advice on how to deal with the urge to perform yet you know itās a bad decision?
My lunch break is sacred, how can I set boundaries as a new lead engineer joining a new company? Iāve discovered the agile process they use is far too exhaustive when compared with the size of the company. They have 3 hour meetings covering the whole lunch window (11:30-14:30) for backlog and sprint review on two consecutive days?! To me this is totally mad, however people seem to have just accepted it. How do I tell them I am not accepting this without rejecting their culture?
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey guys, love the show! (Insert joke here so youāll read my question) Should I tell my boss Iām discouraged and have checked out? Iām the frontend lead for a project where Iāve recently gotten the vibe that the project isnāt really that important to the organization. The project is already over schedule and they have recently moved a few engineers off to other teams. Should I talk to my manager and try to work with him to get over these feelings, or should I just begin the job search? Iām 2 years into my first job, so it feels like it might be time to move on anyways. What do you all think? Thank
Hi! Iām part of a team of 5 devs with an inexperienced Product Manager who is in way over his head. He was a support agent who, during the acquisition of our startup, somehow convinced the parent corporation to make him PM despite the fact that he had no experience within Product whatsoever.
The corporation didnāt give him training, he has no experience in Product, and it shows. Our features are single sentences copied from client emails, and our top priority is whatever the conversation is about.
He is argumentative when we try to talk about it, despite the fact that all of us are careful to avoid blaming him. Weāve tried talking to him one on one, in small groups, as the whole team. No luck.
The Engineering Manager is at his wits end on how to handle this situation because:
EM has no jurisdiction over PM The orgās āmatrixā structure means EMās manager has no working relationship with PMās manager After many chats weāve had with PMās manager, his solution was for dev to pick up the slack instead - at one point our whole dev team was made to sit in *daily* 2hr long ārefinementā sessions, spec-ing out empty features and writing user stories to try to sort out our backlog and roadmap - for 6 weeks straightPMās skip level manager wonāt give us his time. How do we deal with this situation when our lowest-common-manager is the CEO of this ~2000 person company, and PM himself is completely closed off to any constructive conversation from anyone who isnāt above him in the org chart?
Love the show! Thanks for reading :)
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
āIāve been assigned a ticket to āadd more friction to the downgrade processā in order to decrease the amount of downgrades our app has.
The proposed change has 4 modals pop up before the user can cancel their paid plan.
I would like to push back on this change.
Any tips on how to bring up the fact that this is potentially unethical / a dark pattern?ā
I work for a mega corp software company as a senior engineer. My boss and I have been working on a promo for me to principal for the last year (I was passed on for the last cycle and so we are trying again in a cycle next year - aka still 8 months away). I previously was in the top 5 PR contributors in our org of 450 engineers, but we were reorged and I havenāt written a single line of code in 3 months. I enjoy doing architecture work and helping unblock teams with technical design solutions, but Iām not sure if not writing code is helping or hurting me. Is it just part of career growth that engineers at a certain level stop writing code and itās a good sign for my seniority? Or is a big fat zero code contributions a red flag and I need to look for a role where Iām still shipping things myself?
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi guys! Iām a technical Data Analyst in a well established Fortune 500 company, in my job I usually work with databases to build queries and prepare reports for our users. In the past 2 years my team and I had a tremendous impact in the business with several successful key projects, and we received very positive feedback from the management during our yearly review. We are talking about an impressive performance that itās very unlikely to be repeated again in the future, a mix of luck, great decisions and technical efforts as a team.
I was expecting a substantial raise but my manager, who have been promoted recently and itās the first time sheās doing this, told me that the salary caps are defined by our Headquarterās HQ by looking at the average salaries for our roles. My salary is already high based on these statistics. There is only room for a 0.5% increase, which I approved, because itās better than nothing, but left me with a bittersweet aftertaste. My manager felt sorry and promised that for the next year sheāll fight for more.
I love my work and I consider myself already lucky to have this sort of issues. However, this method doesnāt reward outstanding performances and encourages to just āearn that paycheckā, knowing that whatever Iāll do, Iāll earn more or less the same unless I get a huge promotion to manager (which Iām not ready to do). I see this in our company culture.
How can I bring this topic to the upper management and support my manager to change the system?
I am a manager of a small team of four people. I am about to absorb another team of three. While we all work on the same āapplication,ā we own very different āmicro-appsā within that site. Our tech stacks are similar (node, react). The two teams have different product owners under a different reporting structure.
I would love to merge the two teams. I think a seven person team would be more effective and resilient than two 3-4 person teams. Already with my four person team, we feel it when someone needs a couple days off.
How could I plan for and execute a plan to merge these two teams? What considerations for the engineers and our product partners should I have?
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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Cool-headed engineer asks,
How do you deal with hot-headed project managers? I have a project manager in my team who really likes to criticize me, a project lead. Most recently, I was criticized for asking a dumb question to the users which they already answered a few months ago. They told me that I should check with them for all the questions going forward. (think: āWhy did you ask that question?! Donāt you know that they already answered that?! Look at this message here: . Their intent is clear. Please check with me for all questions going forward.")
Itās not the first time they scolded me either. They tried to pressure me to push the timeline even though I explained why it wouldnāt be possible. They made a false equivalence by comparing it to a similar sounding project thatās completed very fast but, unbeknownst to them, is very different to mine. (think: āWhy was that project completed in three month but you need six?! Those engineers are working on the same code too. Please accept that you are not a strong engineer.ā)
I am demoralized after each time they scolded me. Itās my fault to an extent, but I think the criticism is too extreme compared to the mistake. I feel like they just want to let off some heat after their strong discussions and furious meetings with other people. Iām also a frail person and break easily; I want to learn how to handle hot-headed people and extreme criticism better so I can better speak for my team and not acquiesce to all their demands.
Hello! Iām really fortunate in my current company. I have a great team, great workload thatās challenging but doesnāt destroy my work-life balance, and plenty of pay, benefits, and recognition. I feel this comes from having a really small group of proactive devs, and software is the primary source of revenue at this company so engineers are highly valued and appreciated. It really is the perfect place to be in.
But Iām also really early in my career and I donāt expect or want to stay here forever. Iām coming up on my fifth year, and Iād prefer not to stay for more than 6-7 years because I want to continue diversifying my career. I know Iām leaving for the sake of leaving, but the reasons are sound in my head. All the past companies Iāve worked for have been decent but have been soured by being around 9-5 āThatās not my jobā cruising devs, or upper management who say āCustomer wants it tomorrow so just write the codesā. I donāt want to risk going back to that. What are some ways I can scope out a company during the interview process to figure out what their real culture is like?
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