I don't think I want my next promotion (yet) (5 mins read).
Taking a second to pause and think about what Staff Engineer means to me, and why (right now) I may be looking to stay happy at Senior Engineer.
I don't think I want my next promotion (yet) (5 mins read).
Taking a second to pause and think about what Staff Engineer means to me, and why (right now) I may be looking to stay happy at Senior Engineer.
For those that may or may not have seen the news that Deliveroo are going through redundancies, I'm unfortunately one of the roles at risk.
Although I'm not looking for a change - redundancy process permitting 🤞🏽 - I'd be happy to hear if there are roles that you think I may be interested in.
Looking for Senior level roles for similar compensation to now and working on and with Go, Open Source, OpenAPI, Renovate, Dependency Management and distributed systems.
Check out my CV for a bit more info
Does the tech industry thrive on free work? (6 mins read).
Thinking about how there are subtle expectations to work on your career outside of tech, and how it's not necessarily great.
Lessons learned since posting my salary history publicly (8 mins read).
What I've learned in the year since posting my salary history publicly.
It's payday at #Deliveroo and wow was it a fun one to wake up to 🤑 it included my starting bonus, but it's really something to think about how my salary increases in a year have almost doubled my compensation. Money isn't everything, but given I've spent most of this month writing code and working on interesting things, it's a massive cherry on top!
Lessons learned from the recent job hunt (13 mins read).
A recap of the recent interview process with several companies, what I learned, and what others should know.
I'm Joining Deliveroo (2 mins read).
Announcing my move into Deliveroo as a Senior Software Engineer.
Recommended read: Advancing from a Mid-Level to Senior Developer https://joshghent.com/mid-to-senior-dev/
There are plenty of successful engineers and there are some that are brilliant jerks. But there are no brilliant jerk engineers that are also successful. If you think someone will get value from this, consider retweeting the first tweet. Thanks for reading.Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
Bonus: Persevering when it's not looking good. Most devs know a brute force approach to a problem works when all else fails. But many don't take that attitude toward career problems. They become easily demoralized or disengaged. So much success in life comes down to grit.Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
8. The risks engineers are willing to take Engineers have to make the right tradeoffs, especially on things like tech debt. But tech debt is risky; it could cripple you and your teams. But those same risks, if they go right, could have a massive upside for you and your teams.Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
7. Knowing what's worth learning. Learning is important in our industry, but not everything is worth learning. Some patterns, technologies, or techniques will have a disproportionate impact on engineering careers. Knowing what's worth learning is just as important as learning.Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
6. A love for lifelong learning. Our industry & the world keeps evolving. If developers don't love learning, they'll struggle. Not learning leads enginers to be stuck in roles or places they hate.Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
4. An engineer's self-awareness. Understanding: - how one comes off. - the impact of one's actions. - the way they treat others and make others feel. Those who are self-aware can bounce back from mistakes and succeed long term.Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
9. Collaboration with other humans. Tech is cool. We're engineers because we love tech. But if we don't care about ppl, it won't matter how good we are at tech. People run the world, if we don't treat some well, it'll come back to us. They'll preside over our career success.Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
5. How humble they are. Ego destroys long-term success. Software engineers make good money; some happen to be really smart. But there is no reason for an ego. There will always be smarter and richer engineers too. Many engineers need to humble themselves a little bit.Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
10. A focus on others' needs. Everyone is focused on what they want: Your colleague wants a promotion. Your Boss wants to grow the team. When was the last time you recommended your colleague be promoted? When was the last time you told your bosses-boss what your boss needs?Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
2. How an engineer treats those more junior than them. If an engineer mistreats juniors early on, won't help or guide them, they likely won't treat them better later in their career. In turn, they'll struggle to grow. Our field is complex; much growth comes from teaching othersLouie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
The top 10 predictors of successful engineering careers. I've helped hire 100s of engineers in my 12+ year career. I've managed and steered the careers of multiple engineering teams. Some of these may surprise you, but I am confident they predict career success in our industry.Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
1. How an engineer handles grunt work. Engineers love the latest & greatest tech. But the majority of software development is: - gluing together APIs - refactoring shitty code - fixing other people's bugs They'll struggle to get to the exciting stuff if they hate the boring.Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
3. How engineers communicate, especially with non-technical people. Being understood across domains & up the chain means knowing when to use: - plain & simple language - less or more technical detail Invest in this. It is a solid predictor of success for technical people.Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj)Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:58 +0000
This was a great talk at Women in Tech when Carol Gilabert did it, and there was a lot of really great things that I took away from it for my own application process đź‘€
Recommended read: Looking for a job while looking after yourself https://carol.gg/blog/looking-for-a-job/
Recommended read: Why Change Jobs? https://candost.blog/do-not-change-jobs/
Will work ever love us back? Two millennials disagree.
Thanks to Carol Gilabert for sharing this podcast last week.
Since leaving Capital One, I've realised that a lot of my self esteem and self worth has been poured into my work, and I was (mostly) getting a lot of satisfaction out of work, and enjoyed the fact that I was always busy, with sprint work, out-of-sprint work, and a tonne of internal side projects to work on, as well as general maintenance of libraries, as well as a wealth of proactive production support.
With my new role at the Data Standards Authority, I've been working to strike a better life-work balance, and the lack of "here's a billion things to work on at the same time" that I thought I was thriving on has made me realise that maybe I've been so used to being in this mode that I just assumed that I did enjoy it.
This podcast (and its transcript) is a good look at The Great Resignation, the way that workers across industries have been reconsidering their relationship to work, and with a wealth of options for jobs out here, as well as thinking about not what they want, but deserve.
I'm still working on my own relationship with work and how I find fulfillment in my life, and would recommend you have a listen/read to see if there's anything in there for you, too.
Recommended read: Opinion | The Case Against Loving Your Job - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-sarah-jaffe.html
Imagine getting on social media to brag about underpaying someone THOUSANDS of dollars. What an evil person twitter.com/jsttechcharge/…Post details
🗣 Always negotiate your salary 🥴 #blackwomenintech #techtwitter #InterviewTips #techtalk #WomenWhoCode #BlackTechTECH RecruitHER (MAANG) (@jstTECHcharge)Fri, 28 Jan 2022 23:41 GMT
too old, too tired, and too talented (@ieshabewriting)Sat, 29 Jan 2022 04:37 GMT
Recommended read: Being the DRI of Your Career https://cate.blog/2021/09/20/being-the-dri-of-your-career/
It's long past time for major companies to stop requiring degrees that are expensive and correlate primarily with parental wealth rather than actual ability.
Post details
Yesterday, my son informed me that many #microsoft dev jobs don’t ask for degree… I am happy for this change and hope others follow too..Rafat Sarosh (@RafatSarosh)Sat, 06 Nov 2021 17:52 GMT
Laurie Voss (@seldo)Sat, 06 Nov 2021 19:14 GMT
How We Built a Team with a High Net Promoter Score (23 mins read).
Sharing the "Secret Sauce" of why the Purple Pandas was a team that was highly effective, and had a high NPS, too.
First Last is a Title at Company best known for Achievement. Pronouns works on Project and values Thing in Project. Name focuses on Feature because Reason. Name enjoys Activity when Pronouns are not Summary of Job.
Kris NĂłva (@krisnova)Sun, 31 Oct 2021 08:36 GMT
I know holding out through terrible work conditions to officially reach your bonus can be enticing, but remember to account for what you're losing while you wait. Once you've accounted for that, compare that to your estimated bonus to see if it's truly worth it.
Taylor Poindexter (@engineering_bae)Sun, 24 Oct 2021 15:33 +0000
Thinking about it - same!
every job I’ve had in tech I found through Twitter
Post details
4 of my last 5 jobs were all thanks to my Twitter network. It’s a big deal. twitter.com/cassidoo/statu…Cher Scarlett (@cherthedev)Sun, 17 Oct 2021 03:32 +0000
ceora🌺🌸 (@ceeoreo_)Sun, 17 Oct 2021 14:14 +0000
Don't agree with number 8, but otherwise very interesting!
Recommended read: The Pragmatic Engineer Test: 12 Questions on Engineering Culture https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/pragmatic-engineer-test/
Recommended read: 20 Things I've Learned in my 20 Years as a Software Engineer https://www.simplethread.com/20-things-ive-learned-in-my-20-years-as-a-software-engineer/
Job hop all you want, kids, even if the job you currently have feels "okay". You don't have to be miserable to do it. Companies are seriously missing out on retaining talent because they're more willing to pay a new hire way more than before, which is BONKERS for retention??Post details
how changing employers + industries as a designer created compounding growth $$$ in the early-to-mid stage of my career
lil gengar (@skullface)Wed, 13 Oct 2021 14:41 +0000
kat marchán (@zkat__)Wed, 13 Oct 2021 14:45 +0000
"I Thought You'd Be Paid More" - What I Learnt From Posting My Salary Publicly (3 mins read).
A writeup of my lightning talk at Tech Nottingham about my salary post.
Providing a Public Salary History Page (2 mins read).
Publishing my salary and compensation history for public use.
I'm Joining the Cabinet Office (5 mins read).
Announcing my move into the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) as a Tech Lead.
Celebrating Four Years at Capital One (3 mins read).
Reflecting on my time at Capital One so far.
Capital One Promotion Celebrations (2 mins read).
Reflecting on the fun of today's promotion announcements session.
New Job Title, Who Dis? (1 mins read).
Moving into the world of being a Tech Lead.
2018 in Review (25 mins read).
Looking back at 2018 as a whole - both the positives and negatives, and looking forward to 2019.
Moving Teams after Three Years (4 mins read).
Announcing my move between teams at Capital One, and looking back over three years in my previous team.
This is a really interest post about the dangers of installing work apps (such as email) on your personal device. This is something I've spent a lot of effort avoiding in the last couple of jobs, as well as going out of my way to not use any personal services (i.e. social media, email) on my work devices, as there is most likely traffic inspection or they are Man-in-the-Middle'ing the traffic, and will therefore be able to glean passwords. Although this seems paranoid, I feel it's a good mindset to have.
This is especially useful because it has a great way of enforcing the separation between home and work. However, there are still ways that this can break down - for instance, I have a work phone which is provided so I can be out of hours on call. However, I have things like email and Slack which allow me to use it throughout the day and reply to messages when I'm not necessarily with my laptop. But that's an issue because that phone goes home with me, even when I'm not on call. I'll find I'm catching up on work on the bus on the way to work, as well as keep in the mindset of work when I'm physically out of the building.
This makes it quite difficult because I'm not really switching off, even though I've said above that I'm trying to keep work and home separate. So what I've been doing for the last few months is leave my work phone at work (as long as I'm not on call!) which means if I've left the office, I'm no longer able to action anything, even if I think about it.
Recommended read: Don’t Put Your Work Email on Your Personal Phone https://onezero.medium.com/dont-put-your-work-email-on-your-personal-phone-ef7fef956c2f
Some exciting job and knowledge-sharing news (4 mins read).
Moving into Quality Engineering, publishing Chef training courses, conference speaking about Chef at OggCamp and the complex mess that is this very static website at DevOpsDays London.
You're currently viewing page 1 of 1, of 48 posts.