Engineering Advice You Didn't Ask For

Hello Hello everyone. Welcome back to season two, episode four. We have Louie, Vic, Mitra, Thiago, and myself Keyur back to record another episode. Today we are going to discuss: does your job title really matter? There's a lot of layoffs still going on in the industry, and this is a question that commonly comes up.

In this packed episode, we delve into the world of engineering team productivity and explore the top metrics that truly make a difference.

Is it a necessity to maintain a hands-on approach with code or is it an overreach into the developer's territory? We delve into the roles and intricacies of an Engineering Manager, a Technical Project Manager, a Tech Lead, and a Staff Engineer, and how they all fit into the larger picture of a tech organization. We delve into the why's and why not's — discussing topics like architectural decisions, hands-on coding, code reviews, the risk of micromanagement, and keeping a human approach amidst it all. We consider the impacts of being too technical or not technical enough, and how one can maintain their technical edge without losing sight of their managerial duties. Further, we discuss the evolving skill sets in today's fast-paced tech landscape, the roles of MBAs and communication skills in the formation of an effective engineering manager, the pros and cons of reviewing PRs, and the delicate balance between coding and system design. Finally, we talk about ways to stay technical as an Engineering Manager — from setting up local dev environments, routinely reviewing team PRs, participating in post-mortem reviews, and constantly challenging your team's decisions, and so much more.

Season 2 is finally here! In this episode, we talk about the topic on everyone’s mind — layoffs. The tech industry has seen massive layoffs at small start-ups to FAANG. There’s no such thing as job security anymore. So how should you prepare for a potential layoff at your company? What are the warning signals to look out for? What do you do if you’re laid off, or if you’re safe?

When negotiating your best Tech Offer. What should you consider beyond the money money money? Links: Weighted Decision Matrix: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_03.htm The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth: https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Organization-Psychological-Workplace-Innovation/dp/1119477247 Progressions.FYI: https://progression.fyi/

Article about Louie's Career Trajectory by Gergely Orosz on PragmaticEngineer.com: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/from-engineer-to-director?s=r

Shownotes:   Zain's FAANG Interview Course: https://zainrizvi.gumroad.com/l/insider-advice-on-how-you-can-pass-faang-interviews/ea Zain on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZainRzv

Promotion level 1 to level 2 Projects impact should you go deep or should you go for breadth scope of influence? What is a promotion packet How do you become visible internally without hogging all the oxygen? Opportunity is unevenly distributedHeadquarters vs distributed office Company culture biased towards delivery or operations Finding your sponsor Activating your sponsor Does bias play a role?

Topics:  Avoiding Burnout  Effective Remote Leadership Effective Remote Work Effective Remote Meetings What does it mean to be Async-First & People-First? Remote-First vs. Remote-Friendly   People-First vs. Business-First Recovering from Burnout Shownotes:  Marissas's Course - Avoiding Burnout from Remote Work: https://marissagoldberg.gumroad.com/l/avoidingburnout Marissa's website: https://www.marissagoldberg.com/ Marissa on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mar15sa Adam Grant on Fighting The Zoom Fatigue (Cameras off doesn't reflect disengagement. It helps to prevent burnout and promote attention): https://twitter.com/adammgrant/status/1430882464407474180 Book - The Culture Map: https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Map-Breaking-Invisible-Boundaries/dp/1610392507/

Topics: - Teams hiring juniors     - How important is it to hire juniors? - How do junior engineers get experience - What should ideal team look like - How do evaluate the company for you? - Expectations as a junior engineer     - Contributions first 90 - How to onboard junior vs senior - Is Bootcamp a valid path? Shownotes: https://www.crunchbase.com/ https://github.com/tBaxter/questions-for-employers https://github.com/lkostrowski/job-interview-questions-to-ask-companies