Software Lead Weekly Software Lead Weekly

Finding a Tech Leadership Job in Silicon Alley (78 Days, 43 Interviews, 18 Companies, 1 Job)
12 minutes read.

Brent Baisley shares his incredible journey of being fired and finding a new job as Director of Engineering. So much honesty and lessons learned on looking for opportunities in the market for someone with vast experience, e.g. "I was presenting my knowledge of leadership, not my wisdom. I was focusing too much on what I knew rather than how I applied what I knew. There was an experience gap I needed to cross in order to communicate my value." and "The interview experience gap was causing me to flip things. I was learning about them, they weren’t learning about me. I needed to guide the interview, not lead it."

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When You Delete a Block of Code That You Thought Was Useless
1 minutes read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face. Some code is just too magical to delete.

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How to Have an Honest One-On-One With an Employee
8 minutes read.

Claire Lew with one of the best posts on getting the most out of your 1:1s with your teammates. This one is a great advice: "Ask questions to uncover two things: tension and energy." -- I highly suggest copying the questions under "questions you can ask around specific moments of energy — the positive stuff " and ask them on your next 1:1.

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The Best Developer Conference? Your Own.
5 minutes read.

Ben Maraney (Software Engineer at Klarna) provides an incredible inside look into Klaran's internal conference. This is practically everything you need, and I really do mean EVERYTHING, in order to organize a developer conference internally, so have a look and share it with your teammates.

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Hype Driven Development
8 minutes read.

A lot of good and healthy laugh to start the weekend, until you realize there is so much truth in it as our industry is driven by the latest and greatest technology, library or process (i.e. are you agile enough?). Focus on hiring people who can also appreciate a boring stack, a stack that helps you sleep better at night.

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Hiring a Tech Ops Team (Video)
39 minutes read.

Charity Majors with a great talk to listen to on your commute to work. There are very few people with such a clear voice as Charity, and her unique style and attitude is something I personally appreciate. This one is golden: " I will say this. In my experience, for startup engineers across the board, one of the strongest predictors of success is something I've heard referred to as a T-shaped engineer... They should at least be able to go and speak intelligently across a stack and they should have demonstrated the ability to go deep into at least one area."

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Taking Ownership Is the Most Effective Way to Get What You Want
5 minutes read.

Learning how to take ownership is not only an effective way to improve your organization, it also a great way to build trust with your teammates and your manager. Try to imagine yourself looking for a new job, having to write how you impact the current team, product and organization you're working for. What would you like to write as your achievements? Which KPIs did you help move? What did you own? How did you make everyone's life a bit easier or more productive?

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Productivity on the Road: Work Full-Time, Travel Solo, Have Fun
5 minutes read.

Dror Liebenthal is mixing two huge passions together: traveling the world experiencing new places, picking up new skills while also providing a lot of value as an employee: "Much like the "Go To X To Do Y" strategy, setting aside time every day for learning is all about feeling like you’re moving forward. By carving out time to pick up new skills, I work more effectively, stay happier, and enjoy my travels much more."

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@natfriedman: Delta's very good post-call survey question: "Would you hire the last person you spoke with if you ran a customer service company?" 1 - 5

@GlennF: "Is your refrigerator running?" Goes and checks. "Yes?" "It’s attacking France. You’re under arrest."