Soft Skills Engineering

By Jamison Dance and Dave Smith

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 dev... more

· Technology

4.8

266266 ratings

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FAQs about Soft Skills Engineering:

How many episodes does Soft Skills Engineering have?

The podcast currently has 465 episodes available.

Soft Skills Engineering episodes:

November 30, 2017Episode 85: Annoying Know-it-alls and Company Headshots
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
One of my co-workers is a know-it-all, which is pretty annoying. How do I work with them?

A former employer still has my photo on their team website eight years after I left. How do I get them to take it down?
...more
25min
November 23, 2017Episode 84: Shy Developers and Outsourced Architecture
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
I work with a very shy and anxious remote developer. How do I work effectively with them?

Our manager is outsourcing the core architecture of our next products to an offshore team. How do I tell him I think this is a bad idea?
...more
27min
November 16, 2017Episode 83: Gaps In The Resume and Moving To Business
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
I think I’ve saved enough money to get out of the rat race. If something goes wrong and I need to get a job again, how do I explain a long gap in my resume?

I like writing code but I’m interested in moving to a more business-focused role. How can I test this without burning bridges? Do I need to take a pay cut?
...more
27min
November 09, 2017Episode 82: Blow Ups and Job Security
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
How do I smooth things over after a blow-up between team members?

A team mate admits he writes bad code on purpose for job security. What do I do?
...more
37min
November 02, 2017Episode 81: Unwilling To Grow and Forced Out During Two Weeks Notice
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
A developer on a team I lead doesn’t seem interested in growing. How do I help them engage more?

I gave two weeks notice, but was told part of the way through to not come in any more. I still had work left and this made me feel bad. Is this common? Did I do anything wrong?
Jamison talks about the Khan Academy engineering culture. He kinda misquoted it though. They don’t explicitly say they lay people off who don’t progress.
...more
26min
October 29, 2017Episode 80: New Team Leads and Constant Follow Up
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
How do I keep up with new tech as a team lead?

I manage a team. A manager from a different team wants me to run everything I do in my team by him. What do I do?
Jamison mentions this by Charity Majors on the pendulum between technical and people leadership.
Jamison also mentions this HBR article on employee happiness.
...more
32min
October 19, 2017Episode 79: Story Point Misses and Measuring Productivity
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
It seems like my teams always miss their story point commitments. Is this normal? How do you change it?

How do you actually measure developer productivity?
The article comparing research on productivity in static and dynamic type systems is here. It is a great read.
Jamison also mentions Goodhart’s Law. Read more about it here.
...more
39min
October 13, 2017Episode 78: Endless Rewrites and Fake Deadlines
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
We’ve re-written the project I’m on 10 times without launching. What should I do?

I worked hard to hit a deadline, only to find out the deadline was moved. How do I avoid this in the future?
We talked a bit about the value of deadlines way back in episode nine if you want to hear some positive things about deadlines.
...more
28min
October 04, 2017Episode 77: Boss Wants Me To Speak and The 2% Raise
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
My boss wants me to speak at conferences, but I’m very new to software. What should I do?

How do I get more than a 2% raise? That is the company average.
We talked about conferences a bit more way back in episode 6.
We also talked more about playing the salary game in episode 23, which is a technique for sharing salary information with your co-workers.
...more
36min
September 25, 2017Episode 76: Writing Goals and Firing Jokes
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
My organization requires me to set goals for myself. What advice do you have for writing good technical and non-technical goals?

My managers openly joke about firing people all the time. What should I do?
...more
31min

FAQs about Soft Skills Engineering:

How many episodes does Soft Skills Engineering have?

The podcast currently has 465 episodes available.

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