Soft Skills Engineering

By Jamison Dance and Dave SmithBusiness Technology

Soft Skills Engineering episodes

October 07, 2016 Episode 29: What Should I Do When Starting A New Job?
Literally the only episode that the advice “quit your job and get a better one” doesn’t apply.
Dave and Jamison answer the question:

What should I do when starting a new job?
22 min
September 26, 2016Episode 28: How Long Should I Stay At My Job and How Do I Help Junior Developers Improve
In episode 28, Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
How long should I stay before I quit my job?
Two to three years seems fairly normal.

Dave sees people with less than 12 months regularly.

Staying at a job means you experience things you wouldn’t if you hopped around a lot.

It is much easier to see the hype cycle play out if you stick around.

You get to see the outcome of your own decisions.

Quitting usually == raise.

Chronic job hopping might result in a reputation of not sticking with things.

Dave thinks you should quit your first job after 18 months because of the Monty Hall problem
How do you encourage junior developers to improve?
We assume that these junior developers really want to improve.

Make it clear that people get stuck and struggle, and that is normal.

Make it clear that you don’t want them to get too stuck.

Make it OK to ask questions.

People generally live up or down to your expectations, so help them feel trusted and that you expect they will be great.

Make the outcome of their work clear.
35 min
September 19, 2016Episode 27: Writing Great Resumes and Pushing Back on Non-Engineering Tasks
In episode 27, Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
How do I write a great resume?
Do you really need a resume these days?

How important is formatting and good design?

What content should be on your resume?
Should I push back on non-engineering tasks like PowerPoint presentations?
From listener samspot: I am a Sr. Developer and I am often asked to spend time on PowerPoint
presentations for funding and other business stuff. I want to ask why the managers, analysts,
etc can’t handle these tasks. I find them to be a frequent distraction from my actual
responsibilities, especially because these are so frequently “emergency” requests. Should I
push back on this work, or is it better to be a team player?
43 min
September 12, 2016 Episode 26: Communicate Your Efforts and I Told You So
In episode 26, Jamison and Dave answer these question:
How do you make sure people know about your good work?
See Matt Zabriskie’s great post for background on this.
We also mentioned Do Things, Write About It.
How do you get your point across effectively so you don’t have to say “I told you so” later?
42 min
September 05, 2016Episode 25: Understanding the Business and Managing Without Being a Developer
In episode 25, Jamison and Dave answer these question:
How do I understand the business side better?
Analysis of tabs vs spaces

How does your business make money?

Just ask your CEO/manager

Kill the myth of the pointy-haired boss

Smaller companies expose you to this more

Just ask questions:
What was our revenue last month?

How much did we spend last month?

Who are our biggest customers?

How does the sales process work?

The Dave Smith Method® for learning business jargon.

Be kind and have empathy when you learn.
Can I be a good technical manager without a technical background?
Technical leadership vs management.

Management means empathy and understanding. Can you get that without “coming up through the ranks”?

What are the skills of a good manager?

Does being a developer give you those skills?

Dave is a Night Elf Code Mage.

How do you handle technical concerns as a non-technical person?

Don’t fake technical knowledge.

Leading a team when you don’t directly see the effect of your actions.

Managing Nerds by Rands.

Jamison’s former boss’s technical expertise
39 min
August 29, 2016 Episode 24: Should I be a generalist or specialist developer?
In episode 24, Jamison and Dave answer this question:
As a software developer, should I be a generalist or a specialist? This was inspired
by a Twitter conversation here:
https://twitter.com/iam_preethi/status/766758679743954944
38 min
August 22, 2016 Episode 23: Joining a startup as a CTO and asking for a raise
In episode 23, Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
You are asked to be a CTO of a start-up. What questions would you ask in order to decide whether to join, and what things would you give most attention to, if you do join?
I REALLY want and deserve a raise so I hope you two discuss how a nerdy introvert gets the CFO of a small privately owned business to want to give her more money when she’s already happily donating an additional 10-20 hours a week.
38 min
August 15, 2016 Episode 22: Health insurance and contributing to open source projects
In episode 21, Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
What’s up with all this health insurance jargon?
How do I get started contributing to open source?
41 min
August 08, 2016 Episode 21: Giving work to interns and dealing with "dead weight" developers
In episode 21, Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
What kind of work should interns be given?
How do you handle developers who are dead weight?
34 min
August 01, 2016 Episode 20: Stories from people who got fired and doing effective code reviews
In episode 20, Jamison and Dave share some stories from people who have been fired.
We also answer this question: How do I make code reviews more effective? It feels like reviewers fit into 2 categories: either they are too quick and superficial, or they get bogged down in nit picks.
31 min

About Soft Skills Engineering

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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…