Soft Skills Engineering

Episode 392: Old code and choosing my annual reviewers

This podcast episode explores various topics, including the challenges faced when a key team member retires, succession planning in the workplace, and the benefits of effective feedback and performance reviews. It emphasizes the importance of knowledge transfer, taking initiative, and seeking constructive criticism to ...

Episode 391: Post-staff and direct or a jerk

This podcast episode delves into various aspects of career growth and challenges faced by software engineers. It covers topics such as leveling systems, titles, and promotions, as well as the intricacies of IC career paths, on-call work, and navigating feedback and performance expectations in the workplace, leaving lis...

Episode 390: Fixing typos and Cassandra

This podcast episode explores the challenges of addressing various issues in the workplace, including typos in emails and websites, errors in CMS content, the importance of constructive feedback, systemic problems, individual frustrations in startups, communication difficulties for experts, balancing long-term sustaina...

Episode 389: Sleepy and bureaucracy

This podcast episode examines various aspects of workplace culture, including the nuances of communication styles, strategies for maintaining energy and alertness, addressing excessive tiredness, staying awake at work, dealing with bureaucracy, and managing documentation. It highlights the cultural differences in commu...

Episode 388: Money not compliments and principal engineer coding guidelines

This podcast episode delves into various organizational and engineering challenges, including managing unlimited vacation, examining motivation strategies, addressing underpayment, integrating diverse viewpoints, establishing consistent coding standards, embracing style guides, and enhancing engineers' soft skills. It ...

Episode 387: No juniors and manager forced to return to office

This podcast episode explores the dynamics and experiences stemming from diverse engineering teams with varying seniority levels. The discussion delves into the pros and cons of hiring junior and senior engineers, as well as effective techniques for onboarding and supporting junior team members. Additionally, the episo...

Episode 386: Stuck with toil and how to get a dev job as a self-taught career-switcher in 2023

This podcast episode explores various challenges and strategies for individuals in technical roles seeking to advocate for improvements, navigate the corporate ladder, embrace career change, and pursue success in software engineering. The discussion emphasizes the importance of building clout, understanding organizatio...

Episode 385: Attention to detail and sabbatical

This podcast episode discusses various challenges and strategies related to work-life balance, attention to detail, and career breaks for software engineers, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of family responsibilities. The speakers share their personal experiences, perspectives, a...

Episode 384: EM missing code and non-location pay

This podcast episode examines the challenges and considerations involved in transitioning from an engineering manager role to a software developer role and provides valuable insights for developers looking to make this career shift. The episode delves into topics such as updating skills, demonstrating passion for progr...

Episode 383: In the trenches without writing code and how to close a social skill gap

This podcast episode explores concepts such as children's intuition, Roomba's potential uprising, and the SCP universe. It delves into the intricacies of leading as a peer in engineering management, addressing the contradiction between emphasizing peer leadership and discouraging managers from writing production code. ...

Episode 382: Mentors for managers and mob programming

This podcast episode delves into various challenges and opportunities faced by individuals and organizations within the engineering management domain. Topics discussed include the significance of mentorship and support for growth, effective communication with managers, extreme collaboration practices such as mob progra...

Episode 381: Doing less and bad reference

This podcast episode confronts the wide range of challenges faced by employees struggling under the strain of demanding jobs and toxic work environments, by offering practical strategies for handling difficult situations including how to address negative references, retain a positive attitude, and leverage skills effec...

Episode 380: Overruled by non-technical manager and describing technical stuff to non-technical people

This podcast episode delves into the complexities of working in a software engineering environment and the challenges that arise when non-technical managers are involved in technical decision-making. It highlights the importance of fostering open communication, mutual trust, and aligning expectations between technical ...

Episode 379: Someone fixed my ticket and is tech debt bad for my career

This podcast episode covers a wide range of topics related to software development, including critical work, managing infrastructure, collaboration, and tech debt. The hosts discuss the challenges that developers face in these areas and offer insights and strategies for overcoming them. The key takeaway is the importan...

Episode 378: Too much leadership and awkward zoom silence

This podcast episode explores the challenges and considerations when transitioning from a management role back to an individual contributor (IC) role in software engineering. It investigates the potential issues of returning to IC work after being promoted to a management position while emphasizing the significance of ...

Episode 377: Short Tenure Promotion and too much free time at work

This podcast episode offers valuable insights into achieving promotions, navigating underutilized time, and ensuring job security in the workplace. The speakers highlight the importance of taking on complex problems, building impactful solutions, and seeking opportunities to create a lasting impact within the organizat...

Episode 376: Return to office and quitting tech

This podcast episode delves into various challenges and opportunities faced by individuals in the tech industry, ranging from hybrid work models and burnout to career transitions and the changing dynamics of software development. The hosts share insights and anecdotes from their own experiences and address listener que...

Episode 375: visa woes and Bob does everything wrong

This podcast delves into various topics related to work dynamics, including issues with Slack's new design, visa challenges, addressing underperforming team members, and dealing with colleagues who consistently make mistakes. The hosts also discuss strategies to navigate conversations effectively, manage remote employe...

Episode 374: Secret burnout and no room for failure

This podcast episode discusses various issues regarding work performance, burnout, and career advancement. It explores the challenges of managing burnout while aiming for a promotion, the importance of setting realistic expectations and communicating with managers, the benefits of taking breaks to prevent burnout, the ...

Episode 373: I have no vision and not-so-positive environment