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Show HN: A Senior Engineer's CheckList

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Re: Show HN: A Senior Engineer's CheckList

#41

Post by notTyler »

'Get involved with hiring for your team and company, and maintain a high bar for hiring quality candidates.'

Posts derailing this 'high bar' are posted semi-daily to Hacker News, no? It's a really big dilemma (extensive hiring process that weeds out good candidates due to time and frustration or take risks) and it makes it sound like it's just something, you can, you know, do on a Tuesday in your spare time, and then on Wednesday you can solve the architecture problem.

And that's pretty much this list summed up. It's nice on paper, and maybe it will make a difference if someone consults it when making tough decisions. Thanks for your effort.

Re: Show HN: A Senior Engineer's CheckList

#42

Post by littleblah »

probablypat wrote: post #2

This is great! Thank you for sharing your experience. I have a couple questions with your notes about politics. Could you expand on what you mean when you say "fall back to first principals"? "If politics thrives due to team of company culture, switch" Could you expand on this if possible?

Thanks. "fall back to first principals" is inspired by this post:

https://jamesclear.com/first-principles

Re: Show HN: A Senior Engineer's CheckList

#43

Post by littleblah »

29athrowaway wrote: post #14

> "Understand the business aspect of your work, and what makes money. Eventually, only that matters." How about ethics? company reputation? legal compliance? corporate responsibility?

Definitely. Thanks for pointing out the gaps. I will revisit this list in some time, and make changes based on feedback. If you can, feel free to contribute through the shared github link.

Re: Show HN: A Senior Engineer's CheckList

#44

Post by PopeDotNinja »

notTyler wrote: post #41

'Get involved with hiring for your team and company, and maintain a high bar for hiring quality candidates.' Posts derailing this 'high bar' are posted semi-daily to Hacker News, no? It's a really big dilemma (extensive hiring process that weeds out good candidates due to time and frustration or take risks) and it makes it sound like it's just something, you can, you know, do on a Tuesday in your spare time, and then…

The "high" in high bar is not a particular useful measurement. What is high? Unless you've defined what that means, and everyone involved understands and agrees what that means, it's just a word. What you can say is "we need someone who knows the internals of tool X, and we measure it via Y". Basically, avoid using adjectives to measure things (e.g. say 1 liter glass, don't say big glass).

Re: Show HN: A Senior Engineer's CheckList

#45

Post by SeyelentEco »

timdorr wrote: post #8

What is this a checklist of exactly? A list of things to do to become a senior engineer, or things to do once you are a senior engineer? There is little description or context to this, so I'm not sure what I'm looking at here. Apologies for being dense!

To me, those are the same things. Things you do to become a senior engineer /are/ the things you do when you're a senior engineer. You don't become a senior engineer without exhibiting some of the traits shown and you don't stay a senior engineer without doing most of those things.

Re: Show HN: A Senior Engineer's CheckList

#46

Post by avip »

It's a (thoughtful) list for the "senior engineer in 500+ heads company".

If you work for a small startup (where you'll be forced to be "senior engineer" if you like it or not), you'll have no "manager", "peers", "projects", "hiring", "mentoring", "networking", and so 95% of the list items immediately pop.

Re: Show HN: A Senior Engineer's CheckList

#48

Post by yitchelle »

wyldfire wrote: post #18

Thanks for sharing. I would instead describe this list as "principles" instead of a checklist. A checklist is often used for a much more specific scope with very specific items. These are not applicable to any specific time or scenario and have activities that are not very specific. Here's my thoughts on a few of the items themselves: "Follow the principles of extreme ownership." -- Unless the term "extreme ownership…

>> "When dealing with politics, avoid it, but have right folks vouch for your work" -- this one is not specific enough for me. "Avoid politics"? Who are the "right folks" -- how would I know whether I had asked the right folks to vouch for the work?

It is very difficult to avoid politics unless you operate in a total isolation. Every time I need to talk, to get consensus, to request, politics is involve. It gets much more difficult when folks are not in agreement with what you want to do.

Re: Show HN: A Senior Engineer's CheckList

#50

Post by jefozabuss »

avip wrote: post #46

It's a (thoughtful) list for the "senior engineer in 500+ heads company". If you work for a small startup (where you'll be forced to be "senior engineer" if you like it or not), you'll have no "manager", "peers", "projects", "hiring", "mentoring", "networking", and so 95% of the list items immediately pop.

Manager = CTO/CEO

peers = peers

projects = you’d have at least one (and smaller additions to the product that could be projects in their own) hiring = you could be involved in the hiring process even though probably the CTO will handle it

mentoring = you can mentor others or get nentored by e.g the CTO

... etc

so where is that 95%?

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