Shows
Soft Skills EngineeringEpisode 469: Passed over for lead role and perhaps I'm the jerkIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m a long time listener to the podcast. Thanks for reading and answering my question!
I have over 20+ yrs experience as a manual QA and 6+ yrs experience as a SDET. I’m in a new role as a hybrid manual QA / SDET for a company that hasn’t had QA for a few years. After a couple of months a new hire was added to support a new project in non-development or QA tasks. While waiting for the launch of the new project, senior leadership decide...2025-07-1435 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 468: Should I take a mini-retirement and doubling down on anachronismsIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave and Jamison,
Long-time listener, first-time question asker. Thank you both for the wisdom, perspective, and jokes you bring to the podcast.
I recently received an inheritance of around $500,000. It’s not “quit your job and buy a yacht” money, but it is enough to reshape my life. I’m in my late 30s, currently working in a senior engineering role. I’ve had a solid run in the world of code, but I’m ready to walk away from it, zero regrets, just done. W...2025-07-0731 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 464: Rehiring an overpaid boomerang and AI has taken over my teammate's brainIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Mr A. N. Onymous says,
Hi Dave and Jamison,
Long time listened, second time caller! I wrote a little while back with a common new-manager question about how to handle one of my reports who was at the lower end performance wise, but at the top end on the pay scale. I’d been trying to manage it by getting raises for the rest of the team in order to balance things out a bit (and make the rest of the team happy). I di...2025-06-0949 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 463: CTO w/ weak resume and I tried management and it was TERRIBLEIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Albert Nonymous asks,
I am the CTO at a small (5 engineers) tech start-up with non-technical founders. I was their first full-time employee and as such have been able to fully form this company the way I want. I’ve worked here for 9 years now and own 10% of the company. I enjoy the tech and the job itself. The pay is ok, not crazy Silicon Valley numbers but pretty good for a country with free health care.
However, I started here while still in university. Th...2025-06-0227 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 456: Will I look bad on the job market if I'm a crypto developer and struggling to go from management back to dev workIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey, I am a web developer getting bored of the regular development work. I am interested in finance and the monetary system and due to the overlap of finance and engineering I feel down the Bitcoin rabbit hole and even spiked interest in crypto like Solana and Sui. I am pretty sure most of crypto is a FUD, delulu or straight up scam, yet the technology looks appealing and interesting to learn. So that said, I am still really interested in learning more about crypto and dabbling in...2025-04-1431 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 435: How to make my boss actually do something and kindly shooting downIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
First! I recently listened to episode 178 (huge backlog of episodes to work through!) and Dave made the assertion (in 2019!) that 47% of all companies would be remote by 2023: wildly close, what else do you see in the future?
Second: my work situation continues to confound and external insight would be helpful! My boss and I have a long working history going back to an entirely separate company. I’m a high-ownership/high-drive Principal level IC and feedback has been lackluster. Takeaway from last years performance review would be...2024-11-1832 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 434: Forgetful boss and nothing to sayIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
My boss has been forgetting a lot of stuff lately — decisions from team discussions, action items from meetings, their own decisions that they then go against later, etc. They’re great overall, and this is definitely just a human thing… we’re not perfect. But how can I help them remember or remain accountable without feeling like the snitch from “Recess”?
Listener Gill Bates,
Hey! I started working in a big tech company recently and I feel like I am on a different planet all of a sud...2024-11-1133 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 426: I got too many promotions and I have anxiety about getting firedIn 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 :)
I’ve 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 I’m feeling good with.
Having said that, my impact on the group and organization is higher than other people in my rank. Since I’m new to this rank, the chances of gettin...2024-09-1632 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 408: Terrible retrospectives and "hard to work with"In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I am an electrical engineer working on and off with software for about 15 years. From mainframe applications with Cobol and PL/1 to plant floor supervisory systems with SCADA and some.Net along the way. 6 years ago my husband got an offer to move to Europe and I came along. Had to reinvent myself amidst the chaos of juggling life with a toddler, learning a new language and a new social tissue. After some time I landed a pretty nice job as a DevOps engineer at a pretty cool...2024-05-1333 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 406: Acquired taste and limited mentorshipIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Listener Brad asks,
I am currently a Senior Engineer with a small software company. I have been developing software for more than 20 years. We were recently acquired by another mid sized company. Since the acquisition, things have been going downhill. It feels like they’re trying to nickel and dime their employees to death.
They moved from a bi-monthly to bi- weekly pay, from accrued PTO to Flex PTO, they sat on merit raises for over 2 months , and have paused all promotions unless you ar...2024-04-2927 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 402: It's all on fire and title inflationIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Happy Birthday Dave and congrats on the 400 episode milestone!
Last year I was recruited away from my cushy Sr Dev role at Chill MegaCorp to an exciting technical leadership role at Fast-Paced MegaCorp. It felt like a huge level up since I had always wanted to pick up some of the softer communication and leadership skills to add to my arsenal while still working on technical problems. The 30% pay raise sealed the deal. Fast-foreward one year and I am burnt out, feeling disengaged and thinking about...2024-04-0132 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 394: Scrum master, weapons master and minimum tenure to not look badIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
My team are about 4 months into transitioning from a scrum/kanban way of working to a more traditional scrum/sprint way of working.
I feel like our scrum master is “weaponising” some of the scrum practices in order to show up weak points and failures in the team, rather than working with the team to ease us through the transition and make gradual improvements.
In private conversations with me and some other trusted developers (lol jk I clearly shouldn’t be trusted as I’m writin...2024-02-0529 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 387: No juniors and manager forced to return to officeIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hello Dave and Jamison, I wanted to say thank you for your podcast. It’s been a great wealth of information and comic relief. Can we bring back the guitar intros?
I work in the technology arm of a large corporation. There are no younger engineers. I am one of the youngest at just shy of 30 (my first tech job after going back to school).
I receive praise for my eagerness to learn and grow and how much I try to engage with the or...2023-12-1832 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 383: In the trenches without writing code and how to close a social skill gapIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I recently started the interviewing for a senior engineering manager role at a fairly prestigious, but not huge (maybe 30-50 engineers) tech company. The job description heavily emphasized the idea of leading as a peer as opposed to just relying on the EM title. I love this approach, but the lead interviewer then disclosed that they don’t want EMs writing production code. This seems like a contradiction.
Am I naive in thinking so? I certainly understand that taking on a more managerial focus will result in...2023-11-2037 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 379: Someone fixed my ticket and is tech debt bad for my careerIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
“Hi! Love the show, long time listener.
So an architect noticed an issue with credentials embedded into request body being logged. I had planned to resolve that, and someone already had done so for another instance.
I took a day or two to figure out how to fix it globally, and even tied it into another filtering we did. That would mean one list of sensitive data patterns to maintain – that we already had, and don’t need to worry about which context keys to sca...2023-10-2336 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 376: Return to office and quitting techIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I applied and was hired for a 100% telecommute position. Recently, the company has mandated all employees near an office switch to a hybrid schedule. I’m looking at an hour or more round trip and the yearly cost of parking is several thousand dollars. The company also announced to their investors that massive layoffs will be coming due to the economy and redundancies due to a large merger.
I’m relatively new to the company and left my previous company after only a couple of years. I li...2023-10-0236 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 371: After Mary Poppins and credit deniedIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Kate asks,
Hi Dave and Jamison!
I’m in a situation where my predecessor, Jane, was a super helpful “Mary Poppins” type. She did anything and everything beyond her role for the sake of being a team player. I was told she even went as far as providing homemade snacks for meetings.
I, on the other hand, am a one trick pony; I only do the tasks I’m paid for. I’m often indirectly compared to her and worry I’ll be seen as a...2023-08-2834 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 359: Competition and awkward in personIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave and Jamison!
What do you do when one of your immediate teammates is constantly competing against you?
I really don’t like competition. Ignoring the competitiveness + praising his value did not work.
Some examples:
Leaving code reviews comments showing off obvious knowledge which does not really add value to the PR
Constantly harassing you to pair on trivial matters (I think because “pairing with someone less experienced” is a trait desirable in our engineer scoring framework)
Picking up a bigger...2023-06-0540 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 358: Sticky Note Scandal and startup appealIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
During our next team meeting I jokingly gave a status report on the state of my desk and referenced the note.
I believe this was the first time someone had publicly acknowledged the note writer, and it invoked a very passionate response from my teammates expressing their own annoyances with the anonymous writer.
It began to escalate the following week. Copy cat writers began writing their own sarcastic notes, and junior devs were (jokingly) doing handwriting analyses to find the culprit. I pa...2023-05-2935 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 348: Making too many mistakes and low code career riskIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey Dave and Jamison, long time listener of the show. looking to get your advice on dealing with guilt at work. Lately, I’ve found myself in a lot of situations of having to deal with bugs/incompleteness after pushing out a feature. It’s not my intention to be careless and I do feel like I’m giving it my 100% but there seems to keep being thing after thing that I’m not catching. It’s impossible to sweep these things under the rug when you have to put up...2023-03-2024 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 346: Changing jobs with no raise and wrangling a cowboy coderIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I recently applied for a job for a great company. The interview went well until we talked compensation. I said I expected to get a pay raise for changing jobs, but it seems that they can only offer me as much as I already have. I have never negotiated salary before. With my current job (which was my first) I happily accepted what they offered and we have had regular bumps without negotiations.
Although I am really interested in the job, I feel like it is...2023-03-0627 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 342: Losing my job to AI and bad review seasonIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hello Dave and Jamison, thanks for your great work. Your podcast has the bizarre magical property of making me look forward to long drives. Keep it up!
I have been feeling anxiety over losing my job to AI, especially after the all the ChatGPT stuff from a few months back. I know that it definitely isn’t flawless but I know that this technology will just keep improving as time goes on.
I am a software engineer with 2 years of experience. I can’t help...2023-02-0631 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 336: Roadmap roadkill and returning to officeIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Dear Dave and Jamison,
I work for a medium sized startup, and our planning process sucks!
We used to do quarterly planning, and it seemed like the product managers had no idea what was going on at a higher level. The big focus seems to have changed every quarter that I’ve been here, and the whole planning process is a charade: 75% of the so called ‘road map’ gets thrown away after a few weeks.
Normally, this wouldn’t bother me, but I end up...2022-12-2635 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 335: Senior questions and overly optimisticIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Greetings Jamison and Dave, love the show and all your shenanigans! I’m a mid-level dev who has quit my job (TM) a few times. While I feel like I’ve absorbed some good experience from each company I’ve been at, I also feel like my training is not yet complete.
At my last company, I hit my ceiling as a dev but I also felt the bar was really low. I had to do a lot of hand holding and fielded a lot of engine...2022-12-1934 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 327: Remote with onsite team and undercover refactorIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I have recently joined a team as a fully remote member, with majority of my team mates located in one city and meet in office every week. My manager wants me to work on earn trust and drive consensus, to keep me in track for promotion. Being remote, I am unable to get through my team mates effectively, when compared to my previous work settings where it was all on-site. Any tips for me?
Hi Jamison and Dave!
I’m a long time listener an...2022-10-2431 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 310: Flip flop and architecture astronautIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey guys! Love the show!
I’ve worked for 8 years as a Software Engineer for a large aircraft company, and while I had a great time there, I left because I was tired of working with old tech and wanted to learn new stuff.
I joined a medium-size company, working with lots of fun new tech, but after 8 months I got the opportunity to get my dream job as a Software Engineer at a specific Big Tech company.
The problem is that af...2022-06-2730 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 299: Neophyte estimates and forced frameworkIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m a new team leader running a new project and when asked for a delivery date I gave my best guess (noob!). That date is at hand, our project is not. I gave a new delivery date and you guessed it, it’s later than the date I said way back when.
I presented this new date to my boss, but he wants us to deploy what we have now… even though if we deployed what we have now the business’s cash flow would ignite t...2022-04-1126 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 286: I don't care about borkchain and morning procrastination?In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I keep hearing about Web3, DAOs and Smart Contracts. Part of me wants to get excited about these and other shiny things but I just don’t seem to care all that much any more.
How long into your careers did y’all stop getting excited about shiny stuff and how do you keep learning when it is not all that exciting to you any more?
Maybe it is time to be a manager? 😛
Every work day seems to start the same way. I...2022-01-1028 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 275: Take-home tests and doing my own recruitingIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
I’m a developer responsible for hiring other developers for my company. I’m comfortable interviewing and I feel like I can get a good grasp on whether the interviewee is technically competent.
My boss wants us to give a take-home technical test to people after the first interview if we’re happy with how they interviewed and want to proceed further.
The current technical test is time-boxed and is designed to represent the work they would do at our company. I worr...2021-10-2534 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 271: Too quiet and quitting too much?In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Listener Lisa asks,
Hi Dave and Jamison! How do you answer the statement “You’re very quiet. Like really quiet”? Me? I tend to give a small smile or recently, I said “I know.”
I’m a software developer in a large defense company and I’m on my third and final year of my rotational program. I just rotated back to the same area as my first rotation, so I know a couple of folks. However, I’m not SUPER close to these p...2021-09-1331 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 264: Finger pointing and getting recognitionIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Hi Mr.Smith and Mr.Dance,
I’m a software engineer at a big software company. I recently learned to self-evaluate and found that I’m really bad at being finger pointed. I am normally an easy-going team player with an open mind. I accept that I can be flawed sometimes, and I would never blame anyone. But whenever someone points their finger at me and says “this bug is caused by YOU!” or more commonly “this bug is caused by YOUR systems!” (sometimes wi...2021-07-1229 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 259: Moving up to meetings and will remote work stay a thing?In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
This question came with a delightful ASCII-art diagram that I will now dictate as follows: “pipe space space space space” JK
TLDR: I want to move up the ranks but I’m not sure what might await me… except meetings. What should I expect? And how do I get there?
Too Small, Want MOAR!
I work in a big enterprise as a Tech Lead in an ““agile team””. So day-to-day I focus on getting our team to build the current feature we’re meant to b...2021-05-1022 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 258: Addicted to scrolling and underpaid with equityIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Listener “Scrolly McScroll-Face” asks,
Hi Team! Love the show. Keep up the great work and congrats on 256 episodes!
I think I’m addicted to my phone? Every time my code goes to build, or something I know I need to wait on, I open my phone and start scrolling. 40 seconds later when the build is done, I’m still scrolling. In between thoughts, I also open youtube in new tab fairly regularly.
It’s definitely gotten worse while working at home du...2021-05-0331 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 249: Settling the Wild West and credit for self-studyIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
I recently took over to manage development at a small company that has been around for a few decades. We just wrapped up a four year effort to move to a more modern web stack.
The development style before my new position is best described as ‘Wild West’. My direct boss’s philosophy can be illustrated with the following phrases:
“We are going to have to rewrite it, so just get it out fast.”
“Just hardcode the sh*!@ out of it”
“It just has to look...2021-02-2228 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 231: Freedom for me not for thee and optimizing for growthIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Hey Dave & Jamison,
I have a problem with a more senior engineer in my project, I cannot really predict or follow his thought process.
They introduced best practices about organizing code, Git branching, software versioning, etc. to the project. Which is great, because I like well-defined processes. And I followed those processes happily.
Now, there are some occasions where the senior engineer violates one of the processes.
When they do that I ask why, then they give...2020-10-1215 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 230: Not seeking promotion and taking codeIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Taylor asks,
Is it frowned upon to not want to be promoted and get more responsibility? I want to keep a good work-life balance but feel that saying so will have my manager think less of me.
Hi Dave and Jamison, love your show! The time has come to quit my job and I am wondering if I should keep a copy of the scripts I wrote for the project?
2020-10-0528 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 228: Unpaid team lead and banking hoursIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
I’m a team lead right now, but I’m leaving the company. When I discussed with my manager, I recommended a team member to take over my position and suggested raising his salary. In the end, the manager asked that team member to take over as team lead, but refused to raise his salary or even give him the title.
He said he needs to prove that he can take responsibility as a team lead. Then he will get the title and rais...2020-09-2126 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 225: Stuck on the ladder and can't say noIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
I have noticed the majority of the managers get stuck at a mid-management level and never move to C level. And, there are a few who experience astronomical growth. For example, I know a C-suite executive who has moved to his current role from a Web Developer role within 9 years and changed job only thrice. One more C-suite guy I know has gone to that position within 8 years in the same company. Unfortunately, I don’t have the rapport to ask either of these folks wh...2020-08-3110 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 224: Bad review from conflicted boss and questioning my career choicesIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Hi Dave and Jamison, I’m in my mid twenties working at a large company with 1,000+ devs. My direct manager (let’s call him Bob) is probably in his late forties, is from a different country, and has a wife and two children who live in his home country. He currently manages ~20 devs in multiple scrums.
Last month, I had my mid-year performance review with Bob. I am pretty sure that I’ve done a great job during the first half of the year...2020-08-2431 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 223: Feedback rage and making up for lost timeIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Hello. Thanks for hosting such a great podcast. I recently finished binging all the previous episodes.
I’ve recently noticed in conversations with my team, whether synchronous or asynchronous, after I propose an idea or stake out a position, I easily get defensive if a teammate tries to give feedback on my idea.
I don’t mean to get angry, but I sometimes don’t notice until it’s too late.
I think it has gotten to the point where my...2020-08-1724 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 222: Cowboy CTO and underpaid after promotionIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Hey, long time fan of the show!
Our current CTO came in as the result of a merger. For most of his life, he was a solo developer and owned his own company.
The struggles we are facing now are:
He is not responsive at all, neither via chat, nor email, nor any other communication tool.
He often says “I’ll do it” but then takes weeks to finish
He has thousands of unread emails in his inbox
When he writes...2020-08-1026 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 221: Current boss reference and getting paid to do nothingIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
I’m in the process of quitting my job. I’ve been a developer here for a few years and made amazing friends. I love the people here but I am looking for a new challenge and a pay increase.
I was discussing my references for the new role with my partner and she said I should ask my current manager. I stopped hard in my tracks and said “absolutely not.” She works in healthcare and said she wouldn’t get a job unless her...2020-08-0311 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 220: Premature leadership push and credit and statusIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Hello,
I know you said you don’t read the compliments on air most of the time but this podcast is great. I just found it a few weeks ago and I love the positive fun approach to question answering. It has really made me think about software engineering outside of the ““make code do thing”” box.
Anyway, the question: I have been at the same company for 4 years. It is my first job out of college. I have ended up working in...2020-07-2717 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 219: Remote crickets and Manager CareeringIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
I took the cult’s advice and quit my job at a start-up!! Now I’m at a big company and the pace of work is REAL different.
In my previous life, if I asked a question, I would get an answer within the minute, or at the most, within the hour.
At my new gig, the response time on Slack can be 6 hours, and pull request comments so far are never – after a day has passed, I just send a Slack...2020-07-2030 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 218: Referral underperforming and take a tech lead roleIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Hey Dave and Jamison, really wish I found your podcast sooner as it has been a great insight into some of the challenges at work.
Last year, a fairly close friend reached out asking for a referral for an entry level position to my work. Trying to help him out, I figured absolutely! What could go wrong? (Foreshadowing intensifies)
About 3 months into his employment, my boss informally mentioned at a dinner how behind said friend was at a technical level. I...2020-07-1332 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 217: Quitting words and double COVID internshipIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Hi
Over time I have heard many different terms that all seem to equate to “I no longer have a job”. Some examples are quit, fired, laid off and terminated. What is the difference between these (and others) and what is best (both from benefits and emotionally) for the employee and the employer?
Note I am not planning to quit my job or fire someone, but I am curious to hear your views.
Hey guys, I love your podcast and...2020-07-0630 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 216: One-on-ones and inter-team power strugglesIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
I have a weekly one-on-one with my manager. What should I talk about in them? Things like feedback and career goals become old and repetitive real soon, and I end up discussing current work items.
I understand that a one-on-one is my time to ask questions and don’t want it to be a longer daily-standup.
My front-end team mates are in a power struggle with my back-end team mates and my design team mates. They’re intentionally making technical decisions that artificially cons...2020-06-2932 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 215: Many jobs in one and junior git sticklerIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
Listener Ryan asks,
I am the only full-time software engineer at a relatively small company. There is also a contractor who has been with the company off and on for about 25 years.
How do I manage playing multiple roles when the development team is so small? I take the role of software engineer, team lead, software architect, product owner, project manager, designer, QA, etc. Some of those roles are full time jobs. How do I still make progress on development (i...2020-06-2232 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 214: Jumping ship and saying "I can't"In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Questions
We have just today been told that we may or may not have a job in 1 week. I feel lucky because I handed my notice in yesterday for a new job, but my colleagues are not in such a position. The company burned through all it’s money, and its only hope is that someone or some company who wants to buy the business in its current state.
How would you approach a situation like this? Is it best to just jump ship ri...2020-06-1530 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 213: Interviewing your future boss and screwed by private equityIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
My manager has left, so I have the task of interviewing candidates for my future boss’ position. I’m not doing it alone, one more engineering lead joins me for my tech round. After this round, the candidate gets to talk to upper management for the final decision. My question is, what are the lines you should never ever cross in an interview when interviewing your future boss.
Our company was purchased by a private equity firm this year. Layoffs began immediately. While the company was grad...2020-06-0830 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 212: Turnover and self-inflicted complexityIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’ve been working at a big software company for two years.
Since joining, 10 people have left my team, which is more than 50% of my team. Usually it’s the experienced developers who leave either for a different team, a different role or a different company altogether.
The latest departure of a peer who I’ve been looking up to as a brilliant developer has been affecting my mood quite strongly. On one hand, I should be glad that I’m becoming a more pivotal member of the t...2020-06-0128 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 211: Biorhythm and coworker roommateIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi there Dave and Jamison! I am a tech lead in a small team of 5 people. 4 of them start working at 10-11 AM and one of them likes to start working at 1-2 PM. This person is me.
Due to my biorhythm I feel I am the most productive at this time, and I also like to do some of the non-work-related stuff in the morning.
Nobody in my team has any objections but as a team lead I feel guilty because it often happens that...2020-05-2526 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 210: Study time and caring lessIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
My question is regarding studying and learning new material. Before I got my job as a web developer, I was studying at least 2 hours per night, but now that I have the job (been in the job for 2 years), I want to come home and relax. How much time do you spend reading about new technology or working on new projects? Do you do it while at work or at home at your own time?
I plan on getting a new job in the future and I feel...2020-05-1827 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 209: Glue and Covid ghost jobIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Is a “glue person” valuable on a software team? Someone who isn’t the strongest developer but is liked by teammates and builds a cohesive team dynamic.
A while ago I interviewed with a big company. Right after completing a code challenge, covid-19 got out of hand in my country and they sent me an email saying they are putting the process on hold.
Weeks have passed and I came across a job opportunity posted recently by the company for the position I was applyi...2020-05-1125 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 208: Toe-stepper-on-er and high leverage workIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave and Jamison, my name is Bob Marley. I am a senior software engineer at a tech company. How do I deal with a chronic toe-stepper-onner?
I have a coworker named Jimi Hendrix - also a senior software engineer - who has a habit of getting involved in and trying to manage my projects. He joins meetings and slack channels, uninvited, and starts asking people for status updates and questions them why things are done a certain way (and not the other), what’s taking so...2020-05-0428 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 207: Unclear career goals and garbage codeIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m a senior software engineer at a fast growing software startup. In the past year and a half that I’ve been with the company I’ve gone through 5 reorgs and have had 5 different managers in 4 different teams. Each time I sit down to do a 1 on 1 with a new manager they ask about my career goals and aspirations.
Initially, when I joined the company I was a weak and feeble non-senior software engineer. When I was asked this question then, my answer was “to learn an...2020-04-2734 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 206: Micromanaging WFH and vaguely tech leadIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Due to corona virus, we had to work from home. But the manager, is checking up on us very frequently. We have to give the day’s plan at 10:00am sharp, otherwise he assumes that we are taking the day off. Also, we have to send an email listing the things we did at the end of the day. This is on top of using jira. I feel he is micromanaging a lot and because of this, the team isn’t able to work efficiently. P.S. Now he w...2020-04-2032 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 205: Old code outage and questions leakingIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Ever since I graduated from college, I’ve been working in a rising tech company for almost 5 years. I’ve been working on some project and different teams, and it has been more than 1 year on my current team. One day, someone mentioned me that their service is down because of my code from when I was on the previous team and I didn’t even touch that code for almost 2 years. I explained that I am in different team now, so I refer them to the current member...2020-04-1324 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 204: Remote work and ghosting your employerIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
My whole team recently transitioned to working from home. How do I handle this? The good news is I don’t have a fever.
Working remotely, what should you do if either you ghost the company or the company ghosts you? (Ghosting as in the relationship)
2020-04-0627 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 202: Can't stand up and new team, new meIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey Dave and Jamison. Due to a chronic joint problem, I find it uncomfortable to stand for more than a couple of minutes. How do I talk to my boss about sitting during standup meetings? If I change workplaces, when do I talk about it to a new boss? I look and walk just fine, so people usually don’t realize that there is something wrong with me.
I’ve already been to the doctors, and there is not much they can do, so I need to soft skil...2020-03-2328 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 200: Crazy work work stories🎉🎉🎉 Celebrating 200 episodes! 🎉🎉🎉
In this special episode, Dave and Jamison share crazy work stories contributed by listeners to celebrate 200 episodes of Soft Skills Engineering
Right out of graduate school I was in the process of interviewing and got through two phone interviews to get the final in-person interview at a location-based startup. The office was mostly sales but also had a small dev team.
The in-house recruiter gave me a rough itinerary two days before: get there at 8AM, have four hour-long interviews with the team, then possibly a coding “quiz.” I was skeptical of what the quiz was b...2020-03-0929 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 199: Offshore team influence and time zone funIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I work at a large public company. Two years ago, they hired a new CEO who immediately started a development center in a different country. Much of the knowledge transfer is complete and this new team outnumbers us by 3 to 1. It feels that we have lost much of our influence. They turn out decent work and cost less than 1/10th to employ. I am ramping up a job search but in the mean time what steps can we take to keep influence and control? Also, is this the...2020-03-0231 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 192: Giving feedback and messaging a team changeHey, want to use Dropbox as your app’s production database? Well, check here.
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hello Dave & Jamison, first of all thank you for the show! I recently moved to a tech lead position and as such I will be asked by many people to provide feedbacks for performance reviews and promotions. Do you have any tip on how to provide good feedbacks, especially in the cases where you don’t constantly work with the interested people?
Hello, guys! Thank you so much for the amaz...2020-01-1334 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 191: Overshadowed and demos and creditIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m an introverted person but am not afraid to present my work and have strong 1-1s. For the past few months, I’ve been working on a project with a coworker who is very extroverted and expressive compared to me. During meetings with higher ups to present our work and progress, he overpowers me in conversation unwittingly. Most of the time, I feel he does a good job but other times I notice that he makes claims without gathering all the data. I’m much more delibe...2020-01-0630 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 181: Blocked by back-end and tired of codingIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I recently took a job at a start-up as the only front-end developer. The distinction of front-end and back-end is new to me as all of my previous experience has been full stack development.
Most of my work can only be started once a back end developer has done their part. There is only one back end developer who just so happens to be one of the co-founders of the company. Because he can’t exclusively dedicate his time to back-end work due to his other ro...2019-10-2830 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 175: Famous devs at conferences and becoming obsoleteIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave and Jamison, thanks for the awesome show.
How should I conduct myself at software conferences when my dev community heroes are in the midst?
I recently attended a conference where one of my developer heroes was in attendance and I was really looking forward to meeting them. I couldn’t muster up the courage to introduce myself. What do you do in these situations to break the ice and not come off as a creeper or a nuisance? It’s a weird feel...2019-09-1627 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 164: Fear of firing and disengaged teammatesIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hello,
First of all, I love the show, thank you so much for the amazing work!
I always think I’m going to be fired.
I’m an extremely anxious person so I feel the need for constant feedback and for someone to tell me everything is alright. Minor problems send me into absolute despair. How can I deal with such anxiety?
I frequently ask my manager during 1x1s if everything is alright and how I’m performing and he alm...2019-07-0131 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 160: Non-manager 1:1s and throwing away dev learningIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Is it weird to have 1-1s but not with my ‘manager’?
Management is planning to start holding ‘1-1s’ every 6-8 weeks for the development team.
The purpose of these 1-1s: ~ ‘So you can talk about non-technical things, any issues with the team or things that are making you unhappy.’ But these 1-1s be with someone who is nominally ‘HR’, not our manager. Since it’s a tiny company, their responsibilities cover things like accounting and sales support.
This person doesn’t hav...2019-06-0325 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 153: Informal Leadership and Dealing With Burnout (rerun of episode 71)This episode is a rerun of episode 71 from August 2017.
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m sometimes an informal lead on project teams. How do I help the team get stuff done as a peer?
How do I deal with burnout after an extended period of crunch time?
Jamison mentions the blog post by Jamis Buck called To Smile Again where he talks about his experiences with burnout.2019-04-1541 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 151: Where are all the old developers and Do I not ask enough questions?In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I have a lot of software developer colleagues who are 20 - 35 years old but none 50+. At what age does a software engineer’s career end?
Hi Dave and Jamison, thanks for the great podcast.
I recently started a new position on a small remote team.
The co-founders are increasingly dismayed by my lack of Slack-question-asking, although I have reassured them that I’m not too shy and I will ask when I’m stuck. I have daily one-on-one meetings with one co-founder, where...2019-04-0125 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 138: Should I ask for a raise before my annual review and how to keep up with young, single, overtime-working co-workersIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave and Jamison, love the show and your advice, there’s no podcast quite like yours out there in the audiosphere.
I’m a long time listener, first time question asker.
“I’ve been doing a really good job lately. I’ve had feedback from my manager and my managers-manager that I’ve exceeded expectations and gone above and beyond over the last year. While the compliments are great to hear, I’d like to approach my manager about a raise to go along with it...2018-12-3125 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 127: Leaving a Job I Love and My Role Is Being ErodedIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey guys, I love the show! Thanks so much for keeping episodes coming every week.
Some background:
I work for a small, established company based in a small city with a growing tech scene. We have about 20 employees, 5 of which make up the engineering team and it’s been a great experience. My role is primarily being a full stack developer working on our web application, but since we’re a small company, I’ve been able to explore some other responsibilities like analyzing data f...2018-10-0821 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 123: Salary Promise Fail and Slacker CoworkersIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Great podcast! Love what you guys are doing and very happy that you are doing this for such a long time! Here’s the question.
I started to work in a Startup a year ago. When we were negotiating the salary we agreed on amount X, and CTO promised that after a year it will be increased. He did say the exact sum. So, the year has passed, I followed up CTO about the salary raise, and he delegated the task to the manager, who decided no...2018-09-1029 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 118: Asking For Help and Speaking UpIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
What is the right balance between asking for help and figuring things out on my own? How do I know when it’s time to ask questions or when it’s time to spend more time drilling down into the code?
Been at my first job for a couple of years now, and I am very quiet in the workplace and still find it hard to open up, be assertive, and speak up in meetings.
When I try to go out of my comfort zone...2018-07-3027 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 114: Story Point Commitments and Measuring Productivity (Episode 79 Rerun)In this re-run of episode 79, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
It seems like my teams always miss their story point commitments. Is this normal? How do you change it?
How do you actually measure developer productivity?
The article comparing research on productivity in static and dynamic type systems is here. It is a great read.
Jamison also mentions Goodhart’s Law. Read more about it here.2018-07-0239 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 111: Dogma Rehab and Getting a Co-worker FiredIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hello Jamison and Dave. 💕 your show! 👏
I have been a C# dev for 7 years. Last year, I learn Erlang. I fell in love with functional programming. After that I learned Elm and oh boy… I had never dreamed a compiler/computer could do so much work for me, preventing so many mistakes that would otherwise require an unholy number of “unit tests”.
The thing is I can no longer find satisfaction with any job. I love to write software, but at some point I became almos...2018-06-1234 minSoft Skills Engineering(Rerun) Episode 35: Attracting Talent and Quitting ResponsiblyWe’ve got another re-run this week, as Jamison and Dave both recover from being sick. We’ll be back with a new episode next week.
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
How can I attract talent?
How do I quit without burning bridges?
This episode originally aired on November 15th, 2016.2018-05-2040 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 108: An Insecure Teammate and Disclosing Past RatingsIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
What do I do about an insecure teammate whose insecurity causes them to lash out at others?
I’d like to change teams within my company, but I’ve had some negative performance reviews in the past. How early should I disclose this to my prospective manager?
Jamison talks about the Khan Academy Engineering Principles, which are great and which you should read.2018-05-1324 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 99: Developer Health and Whiteboard InterviewsDave and Jamison answer these questions:
Do you have any recommendations for maintaining physical health in a software developer role? For example, strategies to maintain good posture, reduce eye strain, etc.
Is the practice of asking interviewing developers to regurgitate 20 year old algorithms on a whiteboard a recent trend or is this something new? Can you make sense of this madness?
This is a pretty good summary of some of the health effects of sitting.
Here is the tweet Jamison talked about.2018-03-0932 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 93: Negotiating Annual Raises and Part-Time WorkThis week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
My job doesn’t seem to leave room to negotiate salary or raises for our year-end review. Is this normal? How do I negotiate in this process?
Can working part-time, when it’s possible to work full time, to invest in personal development look bad to a future employer?
This tweet storm by Sarah Mei is good and relevant.
This is the video about making your own font and anagraphs that Jamison mentioned at the end. It is SO GOOD.
This is a funny and enli...2018-01-2728 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 92: Career Death by Friction and New Job WoesThis week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
A previous job involved a coworker who, over time, became very difficult to get along with.
I did my best to talk it through with him, but he would only ever say I needed to “fix my attitude”. I tried to deflect and avoid conflict, but he’d continually impose himself on the situation. (Assign himself to review my code, come into my cube and demand my help, etc.)
I had good relationships with the rest of the team, and they all agreed that he was ou...2018-01-1939 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 88: How To Dress For Interviews and Learning To InterviewThis week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
How do you dress for interviews? Full on informal beach bum? Smart casual? Formal suit tie?
I’m a new developer and have been asked to interview incoming developers. How do I learn how to interview?
This is the NoRedInk interview process. This is the blog post Jamison likes on getting data out of the technical portion of the interview. This is a slightly pessimistic look at pitfalls in the standard interview process. Google wrote a great article about structured interviewing that might also be helpful.2017-12-2238 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 87: Pushover Coworkers and Productivity MetricsThis week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
My peers give up and say “have it your way” whenever we have technical discussions. How do I get them to be more vocal about their opinions?
I like the idea of measuring things, but metrics seem easy to game. How do I effectively measure team and personal productivity?
Jamison cites this tweet and this blog post about examining your own productivity.2017-12-1447 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 86: Sharing Salaries and Offensive WordsThis week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
Could you (Jamison and Dave) share some salary information publicly? It would help to know how much others make.
My boss uses an offensive word in technical discussions. How do I ask him to stop?
2017-12-0734 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 81: Unwilling To Grow and Forced Out During Two Weeks NoticeThis week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
A developer on a team I lead doesn’t seem interested in growing. How do I help them engage more?
I gave two weeks notice, but was told part of the way through to not come in any more. I still had work left and this made me feel bad. Is this common? Did I do anything wrong?
Jamison talks about the Khan Academy engineering culture. He kinda misquoted it though. They don’t explicitly say they lay people off who don’t progress.2017-11-0225 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 80: New Team Leads and Constant Follow UpThis week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
How do I keep up with new tech as a team lead?
I manage a team. A manager from a different team wants me to run everything I do in my team by him. What do I do?
Jamison mentions this by Charity Majors on the pendulum between technical and people leadership.
Jamison also mentions this HBR article on employee happiness.2017-10-2931 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 79: Story Point Misses and Measuring ProductivityThis week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
It seems like my teams always miss their story point commitments. Is this normal? How do you change it?
How do you actually measure developer productivity?
The article comparing research on productivity in static and dynamic type systems is here. It is a great read.
Jamison also mentions Goodhart’s Law. Read more about it here.2017-10-1938 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 74: Switching Languages Without A Pay Cut and A Missed NegotiationJamison and Dave will be at the UtahJS Conference on September 18th. See conf.utahjs.com for more info and to buy tickets. Come say hi!
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
Do I need to take a pay cut when switching languages?
I was promoted at work but didn’t get a raise or a title change. What do I do?
2017-09-1136 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 73: A Rampant Rewriter and OverexplainersJamison and Dave will be at the UtahJS Conference on September 18th. See conf.utahjs.com for more info and to buy tickets. Come say hi!
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
A developer on my team has been rewriting my code under the guise of “code cleanup” without saying anything to me. Is this normal? What should I do?
How do you deal with co-workers who over-explain unimportant issues?
2017-08-3139 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 71: Informal Leadership and Dealing With BurnoutJamison and Dave answer these questions:
I’m sometimes an informal lead on project teams. How do I help the team get stuff done as a peer?
How do I deal with burnout after an extended period of crunch time?
Jamison mentions the blog post by Jamis Buck called To Smile Again where he talks about his experiences with burnout.2017-08-1441 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 70: Appraisal-Driven Development and Meeting CreepJamison and Dave answer these questions:
I’m a new team lead with a team member who is very appraisal-driven. How do I deal with them?
Have you ever experienced meeting-creep? What do you do about it?
Jamison mentions the 37 signals blog post on the downsides of group chat.2017-07-2832 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 68: Paying Your Dues and Non-technical HobbiesJamison and Dave answer these questions:
It’s been a year and I still haven’t touched the codebase. What should I do?
All my hobbies revolve around computers. How do I develop other interests?
Jamison mentioned Dan Luu’s article on how bad teams are always hiring. Here it is.
Rich Hickey’s Hammock-Driven Development talk was also mentioned.2017-07-1343 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 55: Ng-Conf Live EpisodeIt’s a special ng-conf live episode! Dave and Jamison answer these questions in front of a live audience:
When you go freelancing, do your coding skills atrophy?
What is something you wish you knew about freelancing before you started?
I met all my aggressive career goals. What next?
Here is the Khan Academy Engineering Ladder Jamison mentioned towards the end of the show.2017-04-1134 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 54: Sneaky Contractors and Job TitlesDave and Jamison answer these questions:
Our codebase is really bad, and management hired a contractor behind our backs to rewrite it. What should I do?
How important are job titles when looking for a new job?
Here is the Khan Academy Engineering Ladder Jamison mentioned towards the end of the show.2017-04-0441 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 51: Junior Scrum Master In Trouble And Jamison Has No DegreeDave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m a junior developer on a team of seniors, and I’m also the Scrum Master. Our team has lots of problems. What do I do?
Jamison openly talks about not finishing his degree. How did he put it on his resume or explain it to potential employers?
In question two Jamison discovers he has been lying on his LinkedIn profile for half a decade, and freaks out a little bit. The mistake is corrected, but can the damage ever be undone? Tune in next week on SOFT SKILLS ENGINEERING.2017-03-1531 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 49: Candidate Plagiarism and a Tightwad EmployerDave and Jamison answer these questions:
What do I do if I suspect my co-worker plagiarized my homework assignment in their own interview?
My employer is making me provide my own laptop. Is this normal?
We mention The Joel Test. Also remember to tweet about the show for endorsements from Dave and Jamison for completely serious and relevant skills like doomsday-bunker-building and yodeling.2017-02-2827 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 36: Unlimited Vacation and Enforcing Best PracticesIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
What do you think of unlimited vacation policies?
How do I enforce coding best practices?
Show notes, because Jamison is feeling ambitious:
The Netflix culture slides we mentioned
pylint, the linter Dave talked about
2016-11-2227 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 32: Why Would You Do Contracting?In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer this question:
Why would a developer leave a full time job to do consulting or contracting?
It just so happens that Jamison did this a few months ago, and he shares his experience in making the transition.2016-10-2616 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 28: How Long Should I Stay At My Job and How Do I Help Junior Developers ImproveIn episode 28, Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
How long should I stay before I quit my job?
Two to three years seems fairly normal.
Dave sees people with less than 12 months regularly.
Staying at a job means you experience things you wouldn’t if you hopped around a lot.
It is much easier to see the hype cycle play out if you stick around.
You get to see the outcome of your own decisions.
Quitting usually == raise.
Chronic job hopping might result in a reputation of not sticking with things.
Dave thinks you should quit yo...2016-09-2634 minSoft Skills EngineeringEpisode 25: Understanding the Business and Managing Without Being a DeveloperIn episode 25, Jamison and Dave answer these question:
How do I understand the business side better?
Analysis of tabs vs spaces
How does your business make money?
Just ask your CEO/manager
Kill the myth of the pointy-haired boss
Smaller companies expose you to this more
Just ask questions:
What was our revenue last month?
How much did we spend last month?
Who are our biggest customers?
How does the sales process work?
The Dave Smith Method® for learning business jargon.
Be kind and have empathy when you learn.
Can I be a good technical m...2016-09-0538 min