Soft Skills Engineering

Jamison and Dave answer these questions: I’m sometimes an informal lead on project teams. How do I help the team get stuff done as a peer? How do I deal with burnout after an extended period of crunch time? Jamison mentions the blog post by Jamis Buck called To Smile Again where he talks about his experiences with burnout.

Jamison and Dave answer these questions: I’m a new team lead with a team member who is very appraisal-driven. How do I deal with them? Have you ever experienced meeting-creep? What do you do about it? Jamison mentions the 37 signals blog post on the downsides of group chat .

Jamison and Dave answer these questions: My supervisor is a know-it-all who needs to be the smartest person in the room. How do I deal with it? I want to move to another city and work remotely. How do I convince my boss to let me?

Jamison and Dave answer these questions: It’s been a year and I still haven’t touched the codebase. What should I do? All my hobbies revolve around computers. How do I develop other interests? Jamison mentioned Dan Luu’s article on how bad teams are always hiring. Here it is. Rich Hickey’s Hammock-Driven Development talk was also mentioned.

Jamison and Dave answer these questions: Should I get a Masters in Computer Science? How do I ask good questions?

Jamison and Dave talk about these questions: My cousin is a manager at my employer. How do I avoid nepotism? I’d like to become a developer. What are the minimum requirements for a junior developer? When will I be “good enough” to get a job as a junior dev?

Jamison and Dave talk about these questions: I have a great, comfortable job that doesn’t push me very hard. How do I deal with worrying about being left in the dust? How do I deal with imposter syndrome?

Jamison and Dave talk about these questions: How direct should I be in a peer review of a coworker who I really dislike? How do I convince developers to go on call?

Jamison and Dave were out this week, so here is a DEEP CUT from the archives. This originally aired as episode 41. How do I deal with someone who says their job (management) is so much harder than my job (engineering)? How do I deal with a two-boss situation where I am one of the bosses?

Jamison and Dave answer these two questions: I’m in too many meetings. How do I guard my own productivity? How do I make sure I’m not sidelined when my company acquires another company?

We answer these two questions: What should developers know about product management? I have TOO MANY notifications interrupting me all the time. What do I do?

We answer these two questions: What is the best seating arrangements for software developers? How do I disarm my CTO who is emotionally attached to his code?

Thanks to all the people who pointed us to the Single Level of Abstraction Principle which we obliquely referred to in episode 57 . We answer these two questions: How can I convince management to pay for developer training? Should I mention unrelated experience on an application?

Dave and Jamison were out this week, so we have a re-run of a DEEP CUT for you. This originally aired as episode 18. We answer these two questions: I have a part-time job as a developer while I’m still in school. Should I drop out and just work full time? How do I prepare for a job interview?

I’ve been pushed in to doing management tasks I really don’t enjoy. What do I do? How do I handle a co-worker who I really struggle to get along with? Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

How do I keep meetings on track? I work in an agency with a designer-centric culture. How do I make myself heard? Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

It’s a special ng-conf live episode! Dave and Jamison answer these questions in front of a live audience: When you go freelancing, do your coding skills atrophy? What is something you wish you knew about freelancing before you started? I met all my aggressive career goals. What next? Here is the Khan Academy Engineering Ladder Jamison mentioned towards the end of the show.

Dave and Jamison answer these questions: Our codebase is really bad, and management hired a contractor behind our backs to rewrite it. What should I do? How important are job titles when looking for a new job? Here is the Khan Academy Engineering Ladder Jamison mentioned towards the end of the show.

Dave and Jamison answer these questions: I was hired for one thing, but ended up doing something very different that I don’t enjoy. What do I do? How do I tell my manager that I’m moving into management on another team?

Dave and Jamison answer these questions: I feel guilty about how slow I’m working. What should I do? I’d like to find a job, but I don’t have any completed side projects or an interesting GitHub profile. How can I explain this?

Dave and Jamison answer these questions: I’m a junior developer on a team of seniors, and I’m also the Scrum Master. Our team has lots of problems. What do I do? Jamison openly talks about not finishing his degree. How did he put it on his resume or explain it to potential employers? In question two Jamison discovers he has been lying on his LinkedIn profile for half a decade, and freaks out a lit...

Dave and Jamison answer these questions: I didn’t quit my job. Did I mess up? I was hired to manage a team, but it is actually just me. What do I do?

Dave and Jamison answer these questions: What do I do if I suspect my co-worker plagiarized my homework assignment in their own interview? My employer is making me provide my own laptop. Is this normal? We mention The Joel Test . Also remember to tweet about the show for endorsements from Dave and Jamison for completely serious and relevant skills like doomsday-bunker-building and yodeling.

Dave and Jamison answer these questions: When and how do you quit a company that is on a death march? How do I find out if I’m underpaid?

Dave and Jamison answer these questions: How soon into a new job is it appropriate to raise concerns? What do you do when issues in your personal life affect your work? Thank you to Algolia for sponsoring this episode. Check out their job posting at algolia.com/softskillsengineering . Also thanks to Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which I spent 310 hours playing.