Soft Skills Engineering

Kirjailija
- Jamison Dance and Dave Smith

0 Arviota: 0
Jaksot: 500
Keskimääräinen kesto: 34M
Kieli: inglise
Formaatti
Kategoria: Teadmiskirjandus

It takes more than great code to be a great engineer. Soft Skills Engineering is a weekly advice podcast for software developers about the non-technical stuff that goes into being a great software developer.

Episodes

Episode 522: I stayed too long at my first job and should I get a masters degreeIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: 1. I stayed too long at my first company and now my career is ruined? 2. Hi both, long time listener. (Since I graduated university 4 years ago actually and felt I could never find a job but listening to you guys made me feel not like such an outcast in our field.) 3. I graduated in 2022. Didn’t really apply around much and almost immediately accepted the full time offer from the company I did my internship with during my degree. And fast forward to middle of 2026… I am still here. 4. I’ve long stopped growing as an engineer and have actually been stuck on a simple CLI tool for almost 4 years now with little to no cloud/backend/etcetera experience to show in my 5 year career. I don’t feel I am desirable in the job market at all due to this and waited way too long to look for a job because I was comfortable and happy. I feel paralyzed (no need to put on your space therapist hats BUT some career advice would be wonderful!) 5. (Also did I mention I am in Canada and want to move to Europe and live the rest of my life there but visa sponsorship with my level of experience is impossible? Maybe that’ll be for my next question…) 6. Thanks for all you do, cheers! 7. 8. I have a non-CS engineering degree, and am looking to transition into Software Engineering. I have the option of pursuing a degree with Tuition Reimbursement from my job, but am in a bit of a strange situation deciding which degree. Basically, I’ve figured that with my current Engineering background I could pursue either a second Bachelor’s degree through Universities offering a “Post-Baccalaureate” program in Computer Science, or a Master’s degree, with maybe only a slightly longer program to get the Master’s as opposed to the Bachelor’s. Otherwise the total length/cost of the programs would be roughly the same. 9. I have heard though that it might not be a great idea to go into a Master’s program unless you know what specifically you want to study. 10. I am curious what you think would be more “hire-able” between the two options for someone pursuing the career change into Software Engineering? 11.
523|28M
Episode 521: negotiating . . . now? and doing good work is not enough for promotion?In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: 1. Dwill Ainghell asks, 2. During the golden era of software development, it was commonly stated that you should always negotiate job offers. The argument was that the company has invested significant time and resources into you as a candidate and there is always some wiggle room for negotiations. A popular article / podcast by Patrick McKenzie likened it to doing something slightly uncomfortable like “reciting poetry while simultaneously standing on one foot” with almost no downside. (https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com/episodes/how-to-negotiate-your-salary-package/) 3. Does this still hold true in today’s environment? I’m a SWE with 10 years of experience and I’ve been unemployed for close to a year. I’m expecting an offer from a large company and I fear that I will look like a fool trying to negotiate in my current position and the current job market dynamics. Even worse, I fear that they might retract the offer and give it to someone else. That being said, I don’t want to leave money on the table. 4. What’s the correct course of action in today’s environment? 5. 6. Listener Stu says, 7. In episode 500, you said something to the effect of “working hard and doing a great job with the work you’ve been assigned is not the promotion track”. I’d love to hear you discuss what it does take to get promoted and how to do that. 8. In my job, we have a jira queue and engineers are tasked with taking from the top of the queue and executing work. There’s also an expectation to lead pre-defined projects (define the scope, write the tickets, and shepherd it along). 9. All of these projects have deadlines, so how do you recommend people get the defined work done, lead projects, and still find time to do whatever it is to get promoted? 10. Why is doing an excellent job not enough? 11.
522|31M
Episode 520: I came back to my former team and was shocked by AI and my team does not care at ALL about the codeIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: 1. Hey Dave & Jamison, 2. Long time listener. Love the podcast. 3. I recently rejoined a remote team that I worked with in the past. I was super stoked to rejoin this team because they were collectively one of the most competent and technically excellent teams I’ve ever worked with. And they’re all genuinely nice people as well. 4. I left the team before AI coding had really caught on, but coming back to the team has been a huge shock to me. Almost everyone now exclusively writes code with AI. PR descriptions are all AI generated, and code review has become copy-pasting AI-generated comments into GitHub. 5. Being a remote team it was already hard to connect, but now it feels like almost all interactions are their AI assistant talking to my AI assistant. 6. I’m not anti-AI, and I get that writing code with AI can be much quicker. But I’m struggling with the loss of what made the team feel good to work on, specifically the craftsmanship, level of engagement, and the learning from eachother. The product itself is still high quality (even if the codebase is less-so), but the process itself is a lot less enjoyable now. 7. I don’t want to be the person who shows up after being away and immediately makes it everyone else’s problem that I miss the old way of doing things. But I’m having doubts if I want to be a part of this team. 8. Is this just what software engineering looks like in remote organisations now? And should I expect most teams are now operating like this? 9. 10. Hi Jamison and Dave, 11. Love your podcast. 12. I was recently hired as a mid-level full-stack developer with the promise of leading a new squad. On day one, I discovered management scrapped the squad idea and promoted an existing developer to sole lead instead. 13. The team consists of this new lead, two 20-year VB6 veterans, and me. The codebase is lawless: direct DB access, fat controllers, 1-2K+ LOC classes everywhere (copy/pasted boilerplate) and severe Broken Access Control (OWASP #1) where authenticated users can extract anyone’s PII (full name, home address, phone number) via a simple email query string. 14. My coworkers rely heavily on generative AI but do not review the output. They constantly commit “AI slop” that barely functions and introduces endless bugs. I used to clean it up, but I recently realized they care so little about the codebase that no one even notices if I stop. Add in a “Senior Product Manager” whose entire UX background is a three-month internship, who invents customer requirements to defend her inconsistent designs. 15. I am already applying elsewhere. 16. My questions: 17. How do you handle a bait-and-switch of this magnitude? 18. When the team cares so little that no one notices if you stop cleaning up their AI-generated bugs, how do you stay sane and professionally sharp while riding out the clock? 19. Show Notes https://tombedor.dev/human-attention-and-human-effort/
521|40M
Episode 519: Why does my team not have a tech lead and rumors!In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: 1. Hi D&J! Question from Sweden! 2. I’m a senior dev that have seen a lot of orgs without tech lead and/or staff engineer roles. I know some companies have them, but mostly newer more techy companies. Bigger older less techy companies usually have non-coding “architects”. Though that’s one title I have no good experience of, just neutral ones or worse :) 3. In particular I’ve been in many teams without a tech lead (all developers are equal, no tiebreaker vote). It’s often successful due to a leader and/or consensus emerging organically and peacefully. I loathe the failure modes however: consensus abuse through veto (we can’t move discussion forward because someone explicitly actively disagrees, a “keeping the meeting hostage” situation), disagreement on technical priorities and choices (lowest common denominator it is…) or that the team is bickering and bikeshedding during technical discussions. 4. Is this just a regional/cultural thing, or is it more about the type of org? Also would you say it’s to the detriment of these orgs to not have these “technical leadership hierarchies”? 5. Thanks! 6. 7. Hey Dave and Jameson, love the show. I’m a Software Engineer at a major tech company. The org is non technical. I consider myself pretty well rounded. I consistently hit my sprint goals, crush my story points, and even put in weekend commits when needed as well as talk but I dont look for conversations into work im too far away involved in. My direct manager thinks my output is good. He told me to work on communication, but the work and my drive is good. 8. I have a relaxed demeanor in a high stress environment. Recently, I learned there are concerns that my “vibe” seems lazy and unengaged, and those concerns may have been shared with my skip-level manager. When my friend literally pulled up my raw metrics and story points to defend me, the friend had no answer, but just reiterated that it’s a “vibe thing.” 9. It feels like a political target has been placed on my back by business people who don’t understand my work but hold corporate influence. I told my manager and he says im doing fine, and people will say what they say. Everyone talks, etc, and just to focus on his feedback. 10. My question is: How do I fight a “vibe” complaint when the data says I’m crushing it? Should I cave and alter my lifestyle to play the corporate theater game, or do I double down on my metrics, lean on my manager, or dare them to try and figure out how valuable I am? 11. Thanks, An Engineer Who Refuses to Look Bored 12.
520|33M
Episode 518: stuck at startup and is my employer mistreating me because I'm on a visa?In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: 1. I have been at a small startup company for 5 years now. It’s a very small technical team, 4 devs and a tech lead that contributes code & architecture. I am getting a small raise this week for my 5 years but it’s a smaller raise than I was expecting. We’re an all remote team across the globe but I had a dev co worker in the same city as me just leave the company. This has put more pressure on me as I’m the only dev in the primary time zone we operate in, everyone else is east coast or opposite side of the world. With the added pressure and some forward comments from me in one on ones with my tech lead I expected much more that I’m being offered. 2. I think I’m supposed to quit my job but I’m terrified of that idea. This is my first job in the field and I love the work. The full stack startup experience is fun and I’ve learned so much, and I like my team a lot. I’ve never even applied to another position in tech yet, I got this one with the first application I sent out. That’s not even considering the current state of the field rapidly changing with AI and the general lack of jobs I am constantly hearing about in tech. 3. Is there a world where I should tell my boss I’m thinking about leaving? I’ve become an integral part of the team I think that would result in movement upwards, but that sounds so risky if I haven’t even put in an application anywhere else. Should I take the old quit your job advice even when the field is so shaky? 4. Thanks guys! And you reading the patreon names is the best part of my week too. 5. 6. Hi there, I’m about 4 years into my career. I’m at my second job after leaving university. The first was at a firm under 50 employees and the current is at a firm with a global footprint and several thousand employees. Both are in Europe. 7. I moved to Europe on a work visa as a pathway to citizenship. I’ve never felt like either my past or current employer has taken advantage of my situation, but it’s important that I keep my job. 8. At both employers, I generally work one weekend day a week to meet expectations and keep on the promotion train. I’m not the only one; several of my colleagues do the same. 9. For now I have the time to work late, as my significant other is back home. Soon they’ll be moving over, however, and they have made clear they will not be okay with me going into work every Saturday. 10. Maybe I’m paranoid. Maybe the expectations at work aren’t clear. Maybe this is part of software. But basically, how do I get to a point where I can checkout on weekends and not feel guilty or like I’m falling behind? 11. Do I need to work longer weekdays? Do I need to sacrifice promotions? Do I need to get better at saying no? 12.
519|32M
Episode 517: Is it good for my career to work at a SaaS company and why am I being asked to manage two teams?In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: 1. Hey guys. This question comes all the way from New Zealand. Recently discovered your podcast about a month ago, and have been catching up with older episodes on morning walks ever since - you guys are awesome. Anyway - the question: Is it more beneficial to work for a company where the software itself is the product (SaaS etc) or does it no longer matter given the rise of the robots anyway? For context - I’ve been working for a telco/internet company for just over five year. Initially when I joined there was a huge roadmap of software to develop internally - things like customer facing portals, diagnostic tools, and of course internal tooling. However over the past couple of years, it has just been cost cutting and downsizing. Given that the company is not in the business of selling software, our department has been stripped to skeletal level just to ‘keep the lights on’. So, I’ve started applying for jobs at SaaS companies on the basis that even with AI, there will at least be a continuous roadmap to work on. Or, is this a case of ‘snakes in the greener grass’… or whatever the idiom is. Keen to hear your thoughts! 2. 3. I’m an EM about 7 months into a role at a larger private software company. When I joined, the explicit expectation was 1 team (~8 direct reports). I’m happy to say my team has crushed it: award-winning product launch, clear monetization path, company IPO positioning. I made some bold headcount decisions, reduced spend, built the team’s trust back up, and things are now actually quite great. I’m generally a cynical person and so I don’t say that lightly :) 4. Last week my boss told me I’m taking on a second team, bringing me to 16 direct reports. When I asked if this was a promotion track, he said no. Apparently the expectation is now ALL EMs manage 2+ teams. 5. Problem: the internal HR leveling rubric still says 2+ teams is a Sr. EM expectation, which I didn’t apply for… precisely because I didn’t want it. When I pointed this out, he said “that’s out of date, and you’re behind your peers because you only have been running one team”. I did the job I was hired to do, did it well, and the goalposts moved without anyone telling me. 6. The kicker: the team I’m absorbing used to be run by a Sr. EM, who now has just one team!! 7. So a Sr. EM is shrinking scope while I’m handed their struggling team and told I’m behind. It wasn’t framed as a vote of confidence. It felt like a quiet reassignment. 8. Three questions: Am I being oversensitive to just poor communication (it’s possible the senior EM is being managed out and I shouldn’t use that as a benchmark)? Should I push for a comp increase since I’m now doing 2x the scope I was hired for? And how hard do I push back? 9. One constraint: I’m a couple months from planned medical leave and can’t afford to leave before then, so I have limited leverage. 10.
518|32M
Episode 516: Not a baby and my product manager doesn't know the productIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: 1. My company follows scrum, with daily standups. We got a new scrum master. He is very formal and procedural and I struggle with our daily meetings. 2. He goes through a long list of assigned tickets, asking each ticket owner about status and info on progress. We are all engineers with many years of experience but it feels like we are in the kindergarten. We don’t have deep expertise about each others work. It is important to know what each of us is doing more or less, but going deep in these issues makes me disconnect, and I think these meetings are above all very good to signal blocking points and ask for help. A recitation of tickets and work being done is not their purpose. On top of that, most days it takes 25-30 mins to go through all the issues. 3. Am I being difficult complaining about this? I tried to be polite when I raised the issue but I was told more or less that this way is better for the company. Is it common in the industry to go through dailys like this? 4. Thanks a lot, guys, you do great work and I look forward to the SW/industry podcast that makes me laugh the most! 5. 6. Hi! Long-time listener here, I remember Jamison mentioning this podcast on JS Jabber and I’ve been listening ever since. Best part of my week! 7. In my current organisation I have a tech lead role on a small, internal platform team. Our “customers” are mainly other engineers. Due to several re-orgs, I have over the years worked with a number of Product Managers and Engineering Managers who have all had one thing in common: they don’t understand the technical domain we work in very well. You could say we have “Product Managers” who do not understand the “Product”. 8. At the same time, these people are expected to interact with stakeholders, set the platform vision, manage the roadmap and backlog, prioritise risks, write documentation, do demos, etc. In the end, a lot of this work falls through to me. I do the work, but have also received negative feedback from my skip level that I need to do a better job keeping the product manager and engineering manager in the loop. 9. I just got a new EM and am heading into our first expectations setting meeting. How can best express that my expectation is that the roadmap for a technical platform team should be managed by someone technical? Do you think product managers have a role on internal platform teams? 10.
517|36M
Episode 515: My junior team member won't listen to me and will I be the dumbest employee at a quantum computer company?In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: 1. Hi from a long-time listener and first-time caller. I need some advice on a toxic workplace situation. 2. I’m currently unhappy with my job due to a difficult dynamic with a colleague. My manager put us on the same team, meaning we share responsibility for our output. Although this colleague is technically a level below me, they act as though they have seniority. This creates significant friction: they’re resistant to advice, insist they’re always right, and refuse to accept reality even when they can’t deliver what’s required. They’re incredibly stubborn, and arguing with them about what’s feasible takes an excessive amount of effort. 3. The situation is particularly frustrating because I’m held accountable for the shared results. If I weren’t responsible for the final outcome, I could probably just ignore their behaviour. Instead, they frequently talk a big game while contributing very little actual work. People unfamiliar with our domain are easily misled by their confidence, even though they are incompetent. Consequently, I’m forced to clean up their mess; otherwise, I’d be the one bearing the blame for the failure. 4. I tried discussing this with my manager, but unfortunately, it made me look bad rather than resolving the issue. If I were the manager, I’d fire this person immediately, but my manager is clearly one of those people who get fooled by their smooth talk. I’m very close to handing in my notice, and let the manager know how incompetent this person is. But I’m furious that I feel I have to give up a role I enjoy just because of someone who makes my life miserable. 5. My question is: Should I stick it out and try to navigate this politics-heavy environment, or is walking away the only option left? How do I leave without burning bridges or letting them win? 6. 7. Hello gentlemen, long time listener of the show and finally getting around to asking my first question (how exciting!) 8. I’m going to be joining a new company in a few months and am wondering how to best handle the transition in order to make an excellent first impression and maybe set myself up for career growth… while not biting off more than I can chew. 9. For context: I’m joining a company that builds QUANTUM COMPUTERS 🤯 after a background in working in completely different, non-scientific fields. To be fair I’m just joining as a Senior Software Engineer on the Cloud team, I won’t be building the actual computers. 10. I have some experience in leadership, but not nearly as much as I wish I had, this is something I’d love to try and get into a little bit more (and couldn’t at my last company which was too small). I’m also a little intimidated at the idea of stepping into the “big leagues”, but want to use this opportunity to show that, I too, can ball. 11. However, I am worried that everyone is going to be waaay smarter than me and that I’ve actually been playing in the ball pit for years. 12. I’m a little scared of attempting to ball too hard and fumbling, causing dissapointment on their end, and impostor syndrome on mine. 13. How would you go about joining a new company with the excitement of a new start and the drive to be the best I can be, while also remaining humble and grounded in reality? 14. Should I “fake it t’ill I make it” and be super confident? Or take a more reserved approach? 15. In France we call this a “rich person problem”, everything is great because I have a cool new job, but I don’t want to mess it up! HELP! 16.
516|35M
Episode 514: Trust issues and underperformers and my coworker resents me for being fasterIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: 1. My parent organization has trust issues: we registered on a recent survey as one of the lowest across the bigger software org (thousands of employees). 2. There are two groups: functional, trustworthy people who get stuff done, and people who are behind, stuck, or just not working. Those struggling say they need better emotional support, but there is consistent, documented evidence that they cannot keep up. 3. I’m perpetually frustrated that there are only two or three people in an org of 30 who can effectively complete tasks and manage the insane workload. I am biased: those in whom I have no trust have repeatedly demonstrated that they cannot be trusted. I believe that the organization would be able to go faster without them. 4. Whats the right answer here? Should I start my own company to abandon this mess? Do we cut scope super aggressively to allow underperformers to be reasonable contributors? 5. One example: one of these contributors was walked through the process, given written documentation of the process, verbally confirmed an understanding of the process, and committed to starting that day. And then two days later identified they hadn’t started for those two days because they were blocked by something that was explicitly captured in the document and discussed in the recorded meeting. They do not raise this until they were asked for their progress multiple days beyond the critical start date. 6. 7. Hi Dave and Jamison, 8. First, thank you for the podcast. As someone on the spectrum, it really helps me analyze social situations I struggle with. 9. My question: I work at a software company where management is pushing the use of LLMs for coding, and my team recently started using Spec-Driven Development. SDD often requires strong upfront planning, which has quietly split my small team between developers who plan well and those who get lost in “vibe-coding” loops. 10. One of those people is a close coworker I consider a friend (we hang out after work and have honest chats about everything). He’s not strong at planning, so I end up explaining each ticket to him in detail. But he’s really great in other ways: communicative, asks a lot of questions in refinement sessions that set a good example for others, does thorough handoffs with the QA team, always responsive in chat, always trying to help. He’s also one of the rare people who actually pay attention to alerts. 11. Since we started using SDD, the gap in our speed and output quality has become very visible. One of our tech directors noticed and asked me to teach him planning. We spent several days drawing schemas and working through small features together, and it was clearly painful for him. The TD also had his own sessions with him, but eventually gave up because my friend seemed so discouraged, and the TD decided to “stop the torture” and leave him alone. The hard part is that after all these teaching sessions, he actually seems even slower than before and also more discouraged and down. 12. Since then, our friendship has changed. He stopped talking to me outside work, and I think he now feels jealous or bothered by the difference in our performance. I’m okay with continuing to explain tickets and outlining detailed execution plans for him, but I worry that I’m keeping him in his comfort zone and not really helping his career. And I also miss how things used to be between us 💔 13. What should I do? 14. P.S. I’m not an LLM fan or enthusiast, I take a practical approach to using them. But I hate how they’re taking jobs away from devs who really love coding but are weak at planning or not interested in it. It doesn’t feel fair. 15.
515|38M
Episode 513: Forgotten employee and what skills actually matter in the AI worldIn this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: 1. How long until I am ethically obligated to let my company know I’m doing no work? There was a big re-org at the company I recently joined. It’s a huge financial company, so there’s a lot of bureaucracy. Somehow in this mess I was kicked off the first team I joined so that I was pending re-assignment. It’s been a month and I haven’t been re-assigned. Instead of being in between jobs not working, I am currently in between teams, but still getting paid! This feels unintentional on the part of the company as no one has followed up with me. I’ve been happily using the time to catch up on hobbies, but I’m starting to get concerned about what will happen when the other shoe drops. At what point do I start to venture into irreversible reputational harm? For some added context, teams at this company are about 6 people and the manager handles several teams, so I’ve never talked to my manager since I joined. I got the message about the re-org from a screenshot of an email that my scrum master shared in my last stand-up. 2. 3. AI changes how software is build. Actual coding is mostly done by LLMs now (I hate it, but it is what it is). What do you think should I focus on learning now to not become obsolete in 1-2 years? I am a senior dev with 13yoe, and loved coding, but now I find it hard what my role will be in the next years (still have 30+ before retirement). I do not want to go to the EM track, at least not in the near future. So is it more architecture knowledge, security, AI internals, …? What do you think? 4.
514|36M

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