Life In Software Engineering, Careers in Tech, Leadership, Engineering Culture.
Reading Time: 6 minutesMeet Bolbo. Bolbo is the name of my mental framework for the quintessential software developer. I draw it with a square jaw, black messy hair, round glasses, a cynical sense of humor and a snarky attitude. He doesn’t exist in the flesh, he never did and never will. He is…
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Reading Time: 7 minutesTaking risks and making mistakes is part of the learning path to greatness. Failing quickly and often is a hallmark of success. Nevertheless, aiming to avoid making the same mistake more than once should be somewhere high on your priority list. Personal experience is the most powerful way to learn….
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Reading Time: 4 minutesRanks in software engineering are defined by job titles that vary from company to company and are meant to offer a clear career ladder. The landscape can be confusing. There are no industry standards for what each title means. The same title might mean something completely different in different organizations….
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Reading Time: 4 minutesGoogle loves a good pedigree. James Damore, the developer at the center of the huge anti-diversity manifesto controversy that got him fired from Google, is an educated person with a solid academic pedigree. According to his LinkedIn profile, he holds a BS in Molecular Biology, Physics and Chemistry from the…
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Reading Time: 7 minutesThat amazing feeling. Imagine that you are immersed in a task, completely absorbed by the process of executing it. Your mind is one with what you are doing. Complexities of the task are clear and all aspects seem connected in well-understood ways. Your body appears to be floating and only…
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Reading Time: 6 minutesLife of a software engineer. It must have been more than 15 years ago. I was working as a developer for a company in Seattle. I spent my days writing code, designing technical solutions, leading projects, and interviewing job applicants for engineering positions. I loved my job. The interviewing part…
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Reading Time: 6 minutesSoftware Engineers and Emotional Intelligence Software Engineers are rarely associated to Emotional Intelligence (EI). They are often seen as introverts who tend to focus inwards rather than outwards. That stereotype is due to the fact that developers often start by learning to code in isolation. That leads to associating coding…
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Reading Time: 7 minutesCoding is a form of art, and artists are very attached to their pieces. That visceral attachment is what makes programmers passionate and intense. That can be a good thing, but it can also lead to problems. Unless the entire development organization has only one or two developers, individual code…
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Reading Time: 5 minutesThis entry is part 5 of 8 in the series principlesIn the old days… I remember the time when software engineers, to be taken seriously, had to know C, and later C++. A good dose of Assembly was a plus, and a must in some cases. Some niche segments, like banking,…
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