In some ways, the story of my career is taking stretch opportunities that require me to jump into the deep end of unfamiliar territory. At this point, one of my key skills is knowing how to navigate situations where I have a lot of unknowns. I want to share a technique I have developed, which has been immensely powerful for me. Let’s call it mental model rewriting.
More than 2 years ago, I decided to try to create a brief, digestible manual on the expectations of management for senior engineers at my company who are considering making the shift. At the time, I had about 3 years of management experience, including two prior companies. Enough to feel like I knew how to do the job, but not enough to feel like I should be some kind of authority on management. After letting this marinate for a couple years, I’m ready to share what I have learned.
Continue reading “11 Principles of Engineering Management”I’ve been thinking about programmer hiring for several years now, and I have a new theory for how to do it:
Make it clear what it is your software team does, and hire people who can make a compelling case for why they want to join your team.
That’s pretty much it. Class dismissed.
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I guess I should justify this theory. The remainder of this piece describes my journey to this radical realization.
Continue reading “Screening developers should be easy”
Never Down, Always Up 