21–30 of 168 posts
This is written as if you have actual control over the volume of work given to you and/or deadlines.
Thank you for this. I'm new to SWE. How to know when it is time to leave an organization versus sticking it out?
For the first 10 years or so, this is relevant. After that you can figure out what you really want to do.
Doing a little bit of "glue work" can make you indispensable and also a hero to your team if it makes everyone's work life a whole lot better and no one else knows how to do it.
There's a lot of wisdom in this. In addition to reserving some capacity for when true high-value work comes along, I think software engineering is not the type of job that you can do well if you're constantly busy. Trying to write some code as quickly as possible seldom yields the best design. This article doesn't get into another important aspect of this, which is how to get away with working at 80% capacity without…
It's a good practice to run at 80% utilization and it helps if you are not being managed by people with an overseer mentality, who demand 100% from you all day, everyday. They are the ones who misinterpret the look of software engineers working in relaxed silent repose as lazy idleness. That's why remote work is the best thing to allow me to keep some utilization in reserve and to keep my sanity. Doing a little bit o…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can say no thats too much work load, we're understaffed or its too tight of a timeliness for the results. But understand the ecosystem. People make promises that arent entirely dependent on them to be able to deliver
If your boss promises something that will take 150% of you capacity for the week does it make any difference whether you put in 80% or 100%?
There's a lot of wisdom in this. In addition to reserving some capacity for when true high-value work comes along, I think software engineering is not the type of job that you can do well if you're constantly busy. Trying to write some code as quickly as possible seldom yields the best design. This article doesn't get into another important aspect of this, which is how to get away with working at 80% capacity without…
Kent Beck (maybe in Good News Factory but also in talks) that his team would never commit to more than half what they think they can get done. This is a good way to sustainability. And that's the optimization and precedent to set; that we are here for the long term, delivering steadily at a sustainable pace. It's a long game, and over promising only runs down trust, which is your biggest means too getting the space w…
Most people either want hypergrowth idiocy or to be bought by the people doing hypergrowth idiocy.
Setting consistent expectations means you can plan, you can actually reasonably budget, you can have predictability in your business dealings - if you are trying to run a good business these are all real features instead of "puts out more code that might or might not make us money, but at least we were pulling all nighters and adding perceived meaning to our lives!"
Thank you for this. I'm new to SWE. How to know when it is time to leave an organization versus sticking it out?
If you're still learning or giving opportunities to learn new things, stick it out. If you're stagnating and not allowed to learn new things, it's time to leave. For the first 10 years or so, this is relevant. After that you can figure out what you really want to do.
Early career pick learning and exposure to different technologies, processes, and company organizations.
That being said, this job market is pretty bad for the youngins so unless you are top 1% of noobs I would say focusing on stability and learning would be my north stars in the next 3 years.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most software engineers in my experience have quite a lot of control, and a large component of growing in your career is learning to perceive the control that you have. One common misconception the article touches on, for example, is that Jira tickets represent latent task assignments, such that you should always be working on some specific Jira ticket and immediately pick up a new one when you finish or are awaiting…
> Most software engineers in my experience have quite a lot of control, and a large component of growing in your career is learning to perceive the control that you have. I've found that most of that autonomy comes with trust, and that trust gets unlocked via good relationships, and good relationships get unlocked by a history of good communication. You are 100% correct that every person has agency, the trick is to g…