Ask an Engineering Manager

What possible mistakes should I be aware of as a new engineering manager? Typical mistakes that almost every new engineering manager makes, why they are bad, and how to avoid them. 

How can people without a traditional tech background get access to jobs in technology? As a manager, what can I do to find that kind of talent, and provide on-ramps to a career in tech? What roadblocks are there typically, and how to solve them? For this episode, rather than just me talking, I interviewed an expert in this field: William A. Adams, an engineering manager and advisor to the CTO at Microsoft, with a long history of succesful initiatives to increase diversity in tech hiring. 

Find more info at aka.ms/leap and william-a-adams.com

Holiday gifts from nerds - how you can give the gift of technology to make your loved ones' lifes better.

Some services or products mentioned: Online backup: https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html Photo backup: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.clouddrive.photos PC Remote control: https://www.teamviewer.com/en/products/teamviewer/ my favorite ebook reader: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KTZ8249 iOS podcast app: https://overcast.fm/ Android podcast app (also cross-platform): https://www.pocketcasts.com/

Holiday gifts for nerds - what you can give the nerd in your life that they would not think of themselves

Retro gaming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_Classic_Edition https://genesismini.sega.com/ https://gpd.hk/gpdxdplus

Coffee table books: iconic: a photographic tribute to apple https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/098858171X/ super nes or mega drive pixel book https://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk/products/the-snes-pixel-book Atlas obscura https://www.amazon.de/Atlas-Obscura-Explorers-Worlds-Wonders/dp/1523506482 the geek atlas https://www.amazon.de/Geek-Atlas-Places-Science-Technology/dp/0596523203

This time the title says it all: The best books about software engineers, and for software engineers, from timeless classics to books that everybody knows and nobdy reads, to books that are not about software development at all but still highly recommended for programmers.

The giant list of links to all the recommended software engineering books mentioned:

https://bignerdranch.com/books/ios-programming-the-big-nerd-ranch-guide-7th-edition/

https://www.newline.co/ng-book/2/

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/effective-java/9780134686097/

http://therubyway.io/

https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2

https://pragprog.com/titles/utj2/pragmatic-unit-testing-in-java-8-with-junit/

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/

https://pragprog.com/titles/pwrdata/seven-databases-in-seven-weeks-second-edition/

https://nostarch.com/howlinuxworks3

http://regex.info/book.html

https://www.algorist.com/

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/code-complete-second/0735619670/

https://pragprog.com/titles/tpp20/the-pragmatic-programmer-20th-anniversary-edition/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3735293-clean-code

https://martinfowler.com/books/refactoring.html

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/85009.Design_Patterns

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-design/9781492077992/

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-object-oriented/0596008678/

https://www.dddcommunity.org/book/evans_2003/

https://www.infoq.com/minibooks/domain-driven-design-quickly/

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/domain-driven-design-distilled/9780134434964/

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/

https://martinfowler.com/architecture/

https://pragprog.com/titles/mnee2/release-it-second-edition/

https://dataintensive.net/

https://hpbn.co/

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/category/uibook/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41790.User_Interface_Design_for_Programmers

https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-non-designers-design/9780133966350/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Projects_and_Teams

https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/product/Pindyck-Microeconomics-9th-Edition/9780134184241.html

https://freakonomics.com/books/

https://timharford.com/books/undercovereconomist/

https://www.kalzumeus.com/greatest-hits/

https://twitter.com/patio11

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11

https://stripe.com/en-de/guides

https://press.stripe.com/

One of the most frequent topics when giving advice to new graduates about an upcoming job interview is: "What is a suitable outfit for a job interview?". The most important answer here is: Do not worry too much about it, what you are wearing is much less important than you think. For more details, listen to the episode.

Want to have your questions answered? Send them to [email protected]

Already listening? Please take 2 minutes to let us know what you think: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/28SSB95

How important are foreign languages for a career in software development?

There are really two kinds of foreign languages: English - and everything else. We talk about why that is, what matters about being able communicate in a foreign languages, and some good ways to learn.

Want to have your questions answered? Send them to [email protected] Already listening? Please take 5 minutes to let us know what you think: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/28SSB95

I assume the questions is supposed to mean "What does an engineering manager actually do?" But to start with, lets answer the question literally: If you've wanted to know what an example of a work week looks like for me, here's your chance to find out. 

Then we go deeper into what determines the parts of the job of an engineering manager, and what the most important part of the job is.

Want to have your questions answered? Send them to [email protected] Already listening? Please take 5 minutes to let us know what you think: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/28SSB95

The short answer here is of course "yes". The episode elaborates why, when, and for who unit tests have the greatest value, how to overcome reasons not to write tests, and lists arguments for why unit tests are important. 

Note: I mis-spoke in the episode - the full term for TDD is, of course, correctly "Test-driven development", not "test-driven design" - although, since one of the main benefits of TDD is its influence on the technical design, that would work, too.

Want to have your questions answered? Send them to [email protected] Already listening? Please take 5 minutes to let us know what you think: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/28SSB95

It's not only about getting a job - it's about getting the right one. But how can you figure out if a company that makes you an offer is actually a company you want to work for?

This episode describes a few non-obvious factors, like how the stage of life or the type of company influences what kind of workplace it will be. We also go deeper into what kind of companies employ software engineers, and what that means for you as an employee.

Articles mentioned in the episode:

Joel Spolsky: Five worlds (https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/05/06/five-worlds/)

Patrick McKenzie: Do not end the week with nothing (https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/do-not-end-the-week-with-nothing)

Today's question: Should I get a PhD? We depart from the usual well-balanced answer style to provide a definite recommendation - but of course, including all the reasoning behind it, as well as possible alternatives.