Soft Skills Engineering
Soft Skills Engineering is a weekly advice podcast for software developers. Hosted by Jamison Dance and Dave Smith, it focuses on the non-technical aspects of being a great engineer, such as communication, career growth, and teamwork. Each episode offers practical advice and insights to help developers navigate the soft skills side of their profession.
Episodes
Episode 534: I'm so bad at my job and I've inherited a huge slop pile
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Soft Skills Engineering, I’m a senior software engineer with over 20 years of experience. I’m hoping you can help with with a problem where I’m dumb, weird and bad at my job!
There is a recurring problem where, despite all my experience and graybearding, despite my big words, I sometimes just miss very important details, an
Episode 533: I'm drowning in AI slop from lazy coworkers
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey Dave and Jamison.
I don’t know what to do with the amount of the AI slop I have to review and I’m getting close to burnout.
I have a lot of context on my project, so my colleagues see me as a point of reference. Additionally, at a past job, I was a tech lead and could easily cover for TL if I wanted to (which I don’t)
Episode 532: My new company is an absolute mess and should I get an English-speaking job as a Japanese engineer?
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave and Jamison,
I’ve been a Java backend dev for over 10 years. After getting laid off from a job I loved, I spent 3 tough months job hunting. I eventually landed a full-stack role at a non-tech company where I am the entire front-end department.
The team is a mess:
A CTO who hasn’t coded in years and cal
Episode 531: Shallow feedback and my coworker is a huge sloperator
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Listener Jame ain’t no dance asks,!
Hey Space Therapists,
I am a consultant that helps big companies to fix all kind of stuff. It’s ridiculous how many different hats I wear. One day I’m the interim PM, the other day I am telling SAP devs how to use a coding agent, next day I gather stakeholder requirements for a customer self
Episode 530: Product engineering and why does my team never challenge my ideas?
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Listener Myamax myamax says,
I just listened to episode 527 and could really use some advice on being good at interviews.
I was recently laid off with a decent severance package, so I have some breathing space. I’ve had several interviews, and I usually get past the initial screenings, but I don’t shine in technical round
Episode 529: Zoom calls on my open floor plan and laconic staff engineer
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Jamison and Dave, jesters of my daily commute. I’m a *mechanical* engineer at a megacorp, and since people are people, I find most of your advice transfers pretty well.
I’m the tech lead within a small-ish org of about 25 people. We’re in-office, and split between two locations (in a similar time zone), and multiple differe
Episode 528: Sleepy family software business and leaving after an acquisition
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
A listener named “Will angel answer my question?” asks,
Hi, I recently joined a new company about 1.5 months ago. It is the technology arm of a family-owned business group that has existed for over 30 years, providing technology services to all the other companies in the group.
After a one-week onboarding, I was assigned
Episode 527: I lost my job after 10 years and am I too old to switch to a security career?
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hello Dave and Jamison!
I’m a longtime listener going back to the early days of the podcast, and I’ve listened to every episode since. When I started listening, I was beginning my career as a software engineer. Your advice has truly helped shape how I think about work, engineering, leadership, and all the weird human stuff tha
Episode 526: Why can't I get promoted so quickly after my last promotion and I got hired as a software engineer but ended up doing ops
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave & Jamison! I’ve been listening for almost a year now and have worked through nearly your entire back catalog in reverse. The podcast has genuinely helped me become a better engineer, so thank you!
I’m two years into my software engineer career at a large infrastructure company. I was promoted to SWE II last year, a
Episode 525: How do I save my company of 500 people and my new company is insane with AI
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey Dave and Jamison,
First, I love your show and it has now been part of my Monday evening routine for many years to listen to your podcast while cooking dinner.
I recently joined a mid-sized software company (500 people) as a senior data engineer. The salary is a significant bump from my previous job and I really like the te
Episode 524: My CTO AI-codes big piles of slop and early mornings, late meetings
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I work for a small software company on a team of about 7 or 8 engineers. I like working here. I like the people, the autonomy, the pay, my boss, and the stack among other things. I try to remind myself of this regularly so I don’t take it for granted. I’ve been here for about 2.5 years and would love to continue working here.
Episode 523: (Rerun of 331) Prickly ticket and title downgrade
This is a rerun of episode 331.
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Listener ninjamonkey says,
I am a new grad who is half a year into the role now at a very large company. Recently, a senior engineer on my team asked me to create a ticket for an infra team for a problem with a service. I provided logs and steps to reproduce the issue and did a health check bef
Episode 522: I stayed too long at my first job and should I get a masters degree
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I stayed too long at my first company and now my career is ruined?
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.)
I graduated in 2022. Didn’t really apply around much and almost
Episode 521: negotiating . . . now? and doing good work is not enough for promotion?
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Dwill Ainghell asks,
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 Patr
Episode 520: I came back to my former team and was shocked by AI and my team does not care at ALL about the code
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey Dave & Jamison,
Long time listener. Love the podcast.
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 wel
Episode 519: Why does my team not have a tech lead and rumors!
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi D&J! Question from Sweden!
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, jus
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:
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
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:
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 d
Episode 516: Not a baby and my product manager doesn't know the product
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
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.
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
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:
Hi from a long-time listener and first-time caller. I need some advice on a toxic workplace situation.
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
Episode 514: Trust issues and underperformers and my coworker resents me for being faster
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
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).
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
Episode 513: Forgotten employee and what skills actually matter in the AI world
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
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
Episode 512: Can non-engineers really contribute code with AI and not sharing
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Should I declare my struggle with this AI world we live in here? Nah. I mean, I’d like the hype to die down, a lot, but we keep getting new tools and I get to experiment, so here we are.
My real struggle, and this podcast is implicated in it, is around non-technical people contributing to production systems. Why are we so obse
Episode 511: Should I take a temporary management position and performance-based bonuses
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m approaching 15 years of experience with the last 7 years at fang. About a year ago I was promoted to staff engineer (thanks to the podcast) and switched to an adjacent team under the same director. I have never actively pursued a management role but I’ve been starting to think about it more.
A colleague of mine just announ
Episode 510: Old and behind and how do I hang on for the last few years until retirement?
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I work at a large remote company. We meet up once or twice a year. I don’t really know much about my engineering coworkers aside from the 5 people on my team, so the in person meet ups seem like a good place for me to get to know people from the other teams.
I am a career switcher, and am currently a mid level IC (borderline j
Episode 509: I hate AI software dev, so should I become a manager and leading, not doing
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I am a senior software engineer at big tech and need a career change. With the rise of AI, I no longer enjoy this profession and panic everyday just waiting for a huge round of layoffs. At this point I feel like I am on some assembly line hitting enter like a monkey. Therefore I have been thinking of changing lanes and would like t
Episode 508: My company is an unethical spammer and my coworkers take so much sick time
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
How can I get our company to follow the law and stop sending SPAM without being regarded as negative?
We’re sending out emails that don’t comply with CAN-SPAM, and I think we should comply due to the risks, but I don’t want to risk any blowback! People want the emails to look more ‘human’ sent, and putting your mailing address
Episode 507: I got fired unexpectedly and breadth and depth
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey there, I started a new job in August at a large European retailer. There were ups & downs, but long story short, my weekly one-on-ones with my manager was either positive or neutral. This was my second job after graduating, so the firm factored in, I’d like to think, when setting expectations this was my first time switchin
Episode 506: I hate my job with AI and my team-mate thinks I suck
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Djavison,
I’ve heard y’all say something along the lines of “this is the most exciting time to build software” in a few recent episodes.
I’m glad that has been your experience and seems to be the experience of many others.
But for me as someone 5 years into the career who is, thankfully, employed—I can’t help mour
Episode 505: Called to the principal's office and my team leads are super dogmatic
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m a senior software engineer at a remote company (~500–700 people), and over the last year a new HR org replaced our old people team. They’ve spent six months building a new goals/leveling framework. During a public meeting I asked in slack: “We’ve had goals before and then stopped using them. How will these be different?” Nobody
Episode 504: Should I quit my AI job before my first day and professional button-clicker
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Jamison and Dave. Eight years into my software engineering career, all of it at Series B and C startups, I’ve been craving two things: a recognizable brand name on my resume and the chance to work on real scale problems. After a long search, I finally got both. The catch? I got them in the wrong order.
I accepted an offer a
Episode 503: Hardware is hard and my PMs are pushing AI slop code
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m a software developer with about 15 years in the industry, and I am soon starting as the CTO of a robotics company with about 50 employees.
Though I have years of experience and an academic background within the field of robotics, I have always been focused on the software side of things. In my new role, I am ultimately res
Episode 502: Management keeps leaving and I hate using AI to code
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi, thank you for the podcast, I am long time listener, first time asker. Something weird is going on at my company. A colleague of my always wanted to get promoted to management, he got the opportunity, but after multiple preparatory meeting for this new promotion, HE QUIT! He did not tell what happened there, only that “it was ti
Episode 501: Vibecoding CEO and doing to teaching
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
A listener named Derek asks,
I am the CTO and cofounder of a startup. Now that vibecoding is a thing, our CEO has kind of gone rogue, and and he’s vibecoding a bunch of random stuff, one of which he bought a domain for and has pushed a potential customer to pay for, without talking to our team. I feel like this is fragmenting
Episode 500: Am I the only one not getting raises and firing my whole team
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I have been with my current organization for 5+ years. I like the company and have generally had a good experience working here. However, the last several years I have not really gotten a raise except for the standard “merit raise”, which does not cover inflation, so effectively the last several years I have made less money than th
Episode 499: Should I quit my solo dev job with a sports team and senile seniors
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m a new listener to the podcast and work as the sole developer for a sports team, which is the only company I’ve worked for since graduating from university 8 years ago. I listened to episode 493 while clenching my teeth as you told a listener to absolutely not take the job with the European football club as a solo developer. Yik
Episode 498: Testing in big corporations and how to get my first management job
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave and Jamison,
Internal dev asker from the second half of Episode 441 checking back in. Your “ask what scared the previous dev” advice in particular has paid off handsomely; I now carry around a little book of eldritch warnings and, somehow, people keep bringing me their unknowable monsters to interpret. It’s almo
Episode 497: Patronizing perf reviews and can't get anything done as a tech lead
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m a relatively new people manager and I really struggle when it comes time for performance reviews, or even regular praise or critical feedback in one-on-ones, because I can’t help feeling like an adult “talking down” to another adult, regardless of whether the feedback is generally positive or critical and instructive. Something
Episode 496: Passing non-technical interviews and my internship with only other interns
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Listener Tom says,
I’m a software developer with six years experience, mostly at small startups with engineering teams anywhere between 2 and 10 developers.
Because these startups have been small, most of the interviews were really casual. I’d speak to either the CEO, or CTO about my past experience, and we would talk abo
Episode 495: What to do when my boss quits and moving to Romania?
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hello gentlemen, long-time listener here, and I’d love your take on something that’s been keeping me up at night.
The high powered boss that I report to is someone I genuinely like and respect.This manager is smart, kind, honest, and overall great to work with. We have a solid relationship. I also come from big tech, so I some
Episode 494: Am I interviewing all wrong and leaving old team chats
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Dear Damison and Javison, I work at a very small startup (<10 engineers) and am trying to hire 2 engineers. I’m doing the intro/screener interview for these roles & am working with a recruiting firm to source candidates. My problem is that sometimes my intuition tells me that a candidate is not going to make it through our h
Episode 493: My boss one-ups my negativity and football engineering
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey Guys, long time listener, first time asker!
At my BigCorp Co., whenever I talk to my skip level about my concerns, it seems we are playing the ‘Gloom Olympics’ every time we meet. I’ll mention I worked late, and he’ll counter with, ‘That’s nothing, I haven’t slept in three days!’
This repeated lack of empathy is demot
Episode 492: Fresh grads and startups or the goog
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Listener AWS multi-region is not real multi-region, ask me how I know asks,
We’ve recently acquired some bright-eyed and bushy-tailed new grads. What have you found to be the most effective way to onboard new grads into development roles? How has it changed (if at all) since the advent of LLMs? I want to make sure my new-grad
Episode 491: Re-arranging deck chairs on the Titantic and my boss leaks private info
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I handed in my resignation this past Monday. During the conversation, my manager confided in me that this coming Wednesday, 25% of the workforce is being laid off.
For context, this is the second round of layoffs. The first round happened a year ago and was a disaster. It was announced via an internal video the night before, b
Episode 490: How do I break into software dev from QA automation and underselling
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave and Jamison, I’ve been in QA/QA automation for 13 years now with a CS degree, and I’ve been trying to change my role to a software developer for a while. My only issue is that every time I brought my career aspirations to my managers they seemed to “not care” or give vague answers to “kick the can down the road”. In the pas
Episode 489: Ethical dilemma for a gambling app dev and ethical employers
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey Jamison and Dave, love your show!
A question for you guys coming all the way from the Netherlands 🧀
I’ve started as a software engineer in a gambling company lately and the moral aspect of it bothers me a bit.
And while listening to you talking about the importance of accessibility in the last episode (#488) I ca
Episode 488: How do I survive in a culture of optics and jira slacker
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey Dave and Jamison,
Big fan of the show — listening from Portugal! (Proof that even across the Atlantic, software politics are universal.)
I’m a tech lead, and lately I’ve noticed a culture where people seem to care way more about how things look than what actually gets done. It’s like the appearance of productivity mat
Episode 487: My manager ignores me during 1:1's and I am required to work in an empty office
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
“My manager insists on a weekly 1:1 with me, but he rarely pays attention. He’s often on his laptop, texting, checking email — basically anything but listening. I’ve tried sending agendas, rescheduling, reducing frequency, waiting until he’s less busy — nothing helps. I’ve even started sitting in silence until he notices I’ve stopp
Episode 486: No one on my team talks and skip level meetings
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I work at a big tech company on a remote team of about 10 people, and most of them have been here for 5+ years. I’m in the “newer” half of the team with 4 years here. My problem is, in group meetings, absolutely NO ONE talks. I mean zero small talk, they have trouble responding to simple yes or no questions. Everyone participates t
Episode 485: I'm terrible at hiring decisions and my coworker spams us with AI-generated memes
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
What signals do you look for when interviewing candidates? I’ve helped interview many people at this point and almost all of the engineers that I marked as “hire” that we brought on board ended up being low performers and were eventually managed out. I wasn’t the only one who approved them either, so not all the blame falls on me,
Episode 484: How to get a raise after slacking off for YEARS and my PM won't stop DM'ing me
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi! Love your show and how casually you talk and make fun of everything! I started my career as a freelancer and then joined a mid-size software development company to learn how the sausage is really made, salary wasn’t that important back then. A few kids and a lot more expensive lifestyle later the compensation has become more mo
Episode 483: My team hated me from day one and should I stack PTO before my resignation
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
How would you handle a situation where a team forms a negative opinion about you from day one — without any clear reason and without ever giving you a real chance to prove yourself?
Even when you contribute technically, your suggestions are ignored… until someone else repeats the same thing and suddenly it’s considered valid.
Episode 482: I got a promotion, but a tiny raise and an imposter interviewed for my team
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
After a year of trying, I recently got promoted to staff engineer!
It’s great to receive recognition for my work, but i’m not actually very happy, because I only got a 4% raise! I spoke with a former coworker about how much a staff engineer in my role should expect, and he said that he would be insulted by less than . My comp
Episode 481: I'm bored and will I ever find out why I was fired?
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave and Jamison,
After fleeing a sinking ship of a startup, I became a solo developer at a medium sized college. This role has really allowed me to expand and grow in ways that I haven’t imagined, but I have encountered an interesting issue I didn’t have in the startup world: there isn’t much to do.
At my one year mar
Episode 480: Do I just coast until I quit and going back to work after a long time
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
(follow-up from question 449)
Hello. Return question asker here. You answered my question from episode 449 “my tech lead ignored my warnings”. I want to give a follow up. I sat by and did not say anything else, he shipped the broken feature, and it broke in production. Instead of fixing it he rose the threshold on the datadog
Episode 479: Contractors to the rescue and dinged for delay
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey skillet nation, long time skilletee first time skilleter here. I started at a scale up about 6 months ago and recently, I was asked to help with a project that was greatly behind schedule. The folks responsible for the original system are no longer at the company, and the team currently attempting to get it over the finish line
Episode 478: Can you coach self-awareness and my boss is an llm
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Can you coach self-awareness? I manage someone who seems to believe their skill set is on par with their teammates, regardless of their constant PR feedback regarding the same issues over and over, the extra attention they are regularly given to help them overcome coding challenges, and the PIP they are currently on to address thes
Episode 477: Four months and I already hate my job and grumpy and fuzzy
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey guys,
I have been working for four months at my job and I already don’t like it.
This is my first job out of college and I work as a C# backend engineer for a small B2B SaaS company. I really think this company is a dead end. There is a lot of technical debt and antipatterns and we have no automated testing whatsoever
Episode 476: How much help is too much help and guarding against slop
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Two junior engineers recently joined my team, and I’ve been tasked with onboarding them. This is the first time I’ve been responsible for junior devs, and I’m struggling with how to coach them up. For context, we’re a small engineering team where self-sufficiency is highly valued; processes/overhead is minimal, and we have a real b
Episode 475: Am I too loyal to my big tech job and politely preserving time
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi!
I’m currently working for a big tech company and I’ve just accepted an internal transfer to another team. At the same time, an external company reached out, offering me a job for a role I’m interested in and twice my current compensation.
I’m not sure what to do. The offer from the new company is very interesting and
Episode 474: I hate the idea of firing a low performer and cheaper context switching
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave & Jamison,
Long time listener, first time google-form filler outer!
I work in a hybrid role as a lead developer and manager of a small team (less than 5). I’m new to management and most of ny experience so far has been with smart, motivated engineers. . .
UNTIL! My new recruit is driving me crazy, they ar
Episode 473: Mental health support and overcoming FOMO of taking a break from work
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Jamison and Dave!
I am not a developer, but my question is hopefully transferable. I sit in between lawyers and developers. I advise on technology that can be applied to legal processes and I support our teams in using a range of platforms and AI tools to be more efficient across their work.
I have ADHD (late diagnosis
Episode 472: Should my junior dev use AI and thrown in to ETL
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m the CTO of a small startup. We’re 3 devs including me and one of them is a junior developer. My current policy is to discourage the use of AI tools for the junior dev to make sure they build actual skills and don’t just prompt their way through tasks. However I’m more and more questioning my stance as AI skills will be in deman
Episode 471: Why does my junior engineer do so little and I fell asleep in a Zoom meeting
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m a senior developer on a small team, and I’m feeling frustrated with a junior developer I work with. They’re smart and perfectly capable, but they stick very strictly to the confines of their assigned work. They’ll finish their tickets, but unless they’re directly asked, they don’t offer to help with other areas, pitch in on sha
Episode 470: I said something stupid in a meeting and just want to code
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I was on a meeting with a team generally regarded to be pretty annoying to deal with and not particularly useful. The meeting was pretty annoying and not particularly useful. I audibly said to myself after leaving “holy crap what a waste of time.” Turns out I hadn’t left and may not have been muted (?) but I’m really not sure. I le
Episode 469: Passed over for lead role and perhaps I'm the jerk
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I’m a long time listener to the podcast. Thanks for reading and answering my question!
I have over 20+ yrs experience as a manual QA and 6+ yrs experience as a SDET. I’m in a new role as a hybrid manual QA / SDET for a company that hasn’t had QA for a few years. After a couple of months a new hire was added to support a new pr
Episode 468: Should I take a mini-retirement and doubling down on anachronisms
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hi Dave and Jamison,
Long-time listener, first-time question asker. Thank you both for the wisdom, perspective, and jokes you bring to the podcast.
I recently received an inheritance of around $500,000. It’s not “quit your job and buy a yacht” money, but it is enough to reshape my life. I’m in my late 30s, currently worki
Episode 467: I can't get promoted if I do my job and should I get a degree to get a job in this economy
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I am a data scientist and was recently passed over for promotion to senior because my projects weren’t “senior level” enough, and I do too many ad hoc requests that delay delivery of my bigger projects.
I am a go to for VP and C suite level execs in my company and am commonly asked to help with incidents, all of which are main
Episode 466: Bad performance review and moving in to the caves
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I had my performance review two months ago where I scored a “Does not meet expectations”, which I definitely understand, and my manager told me that some of my coworkers had been complaining about me. I’ve been working hard on improving ever since and my manager told me that they were really impressed with my progress and told me t
Episode 465: Talking to your report's previous manager and how to replace a 30-year-old ticketing system
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
A listener named Mike says,
To what degree do you think it’s appropriate to talk with your peer managers about people that have moved from their team to yours? How much weight do you give their criticisms of an IC that they used to manage that is working out just fine under your leadership? How do you know if it was mostly due
Episode 464: Rehiring an overpaid boomerang and AI has taken over my teammate's brain
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Mr A. N. Onymous says,
Hi Dave and Jamison,
Long time listened, second time caller! I wrote a little while back with a common new-manager question about how to handle one of my reports who was at the lower end performance wise, but at the top end on the pay scale. I’d been trying to manage it by getting raises for the res
Episode 463: CTO w/ weak resume and I tried management and it was TERRIBLE
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Albert Nonymous asks,
I am the CTO at a small (5 engineers) tech start-up with non-technical founders. I was their first full-time employee and as such have been able to fully form this company the way I want. I’ve worked here for 9 years now and own 10% of the company. I enjoy the tech and the job itself. The pay is ok, not c
Episode 462: Supporting laid-off employee and how to rebuild culture after layoffs
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
One of my employees is probably getting laid off, what do I do!?!
I’m a tech lead / manager for a consultancy and a contract reduction means that one of the people I supervise is likely going to get laid off soon! We’ve found new roles for most of my people, but it’s likely that at least one will get laid off.
I want to h
Episode 461: How to do side projects with a family and demanding job and my company promised me a raise, but didn't give it
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey, long-time listener, listened to almost all episodes now and have been loving it since day 1!!
I am a senior engineer at FAANG and work 45-50 hours a week and have a lot of cross-org responsibilities. I am lucky to have a beautiful wife and two wonderful young children. I guess, you can imagine how difficult it already is
Episode 460: Losing autonomy and I got skipped for a promotion even though I'm awesome
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I have managed a product for some months now. My previous manager split their team in to mini-teams of 2-3 people. They gave me a small team and plenty of autonomy to own the product and go crazy on it. I had the time of my life as the team lead. I learned a ton and was really developing management skills.
My new manager is more ha
Episode 459: Am I cutting edge and how to compliment someone who went from super jerk to super nice
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I work for a B2C fintech startup as a senior engineer. Our onboarding funnel has a lot of moving parts due to regulatory compliance and a litany of requirements from various parts of the business. As a startup, we also live and die by optimizing for and demonstrating growth, so we need to gather data from our product and pipe it to
Episode 458: Infinite tech debt hack and figuring out what is going on
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Nearly every time certain developers on the team want to address technical debt, they end up just adding more technical debt. Of course, after one round of addressing technical debt, the developers in question believe that yet another round of redesigning and refactoring is in order. This stresses me out for many reasons, as you ca
Episode 457: How do I get off the on-call rotation and "big tech" == "big leagues"?
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I am a senior software engineer in a big tech/faang company and this week is my first ever on call rotation. My team is doing a lot of CI work, monitoring pipelines and support queues during on call. It is probably not as much of a hassle as on call for product teams, but for me personally on call was the nearest I have ever been t
Episode 456: Will I look bad on the job market if I'm a crypto developer and struggling to go from management back to dev work
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
Hey, I am a web developer getting bored of the regular development work. I am interested in finance and the monetary system and due to the overlap of finance and engineering I feel down the Bitcoin rabbit hole and even spiked interest in crypto like Solana and Sui. I am pretty sure most of crypto is a FUD, delulu or straight up sca
Episode 455: UX designer without a mentor and I get bored too easily and stressed too easily
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
A listener named Dakota asks,
I’m a UX designer, and I’m constantly looking for growth opportunities. I’m having trouble finding mentors to help challenge me, as every time my boss/senior designer leaves the company, I assume their work and we don’t backfill their spot or my old position.
This leads me towards podcasts li
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