Soft Skills Engineering is a weekly advice podcast for software developers. We answer questions about all the stuff you didn't realize you needed to know about being an engineer:
For answers to these and other questions, our hosts Dave Smith and Jamison Dance are here to help.
Soft Skills Engineering listeners are awesome. Here's what they are saying about the podcast.
Hdennen says:
Facing a 9 hour drive, I grabbed a bunch of podcasts to listen to. I don't even know what the other ones are. Seriously, this podcast is full of massively helpful and relevant content from two people who are experienced, funny, and insightful.
Saad says:
I owe you a lot, listening to Soft Skills has completely shifted my thoughts on what it means to be an engineer. It’s probably one of the more useful things I’ve gained during my time at Amazon. I kind of brushed this stuff off, considering some of it politics, and the rest unimportant, but boy was I wrong. It definitely helped me grow, and I’m totally indebted to you for that.
In episode 10, Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
How about an episode about mentoring? Why is it important, how do we do it, and how do we find the right mentor for us?
How do stock options work? How can I tell whether an offer with stock options is any good?
In episode 9, Jamison, Dave, and special guest Layne Mosely answer these questions:
As a software developer, is it better to put an aggressive deadline on myself? Or should I let it be open ended? What are the effects of these two approaches on me and my team?
What do all these titles mean? Technical lead. Senior software engineer. Director of engineering. VP of engineering. CTO.
In episode 8, Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
How do you achieve work life balance? Do you have any strategies that work for you? Any bad examples from your own lives?
How do you on-board new engineers?
In episode 7, Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
How do I quit my job? What’s the process? How do I avoid burning bridges? What will my employer expect from me? How do benefits work?
I’m worried my job is not meaningful? Am I just cranking out code for “the man”? What can I do to get more meaning out of my job?
In episode 6, Jamison and Dave answer this question:
I’d like to do some public speaking. How do I get accepted to speak at conferences? How do I give good talks once I’m there?
In episode 5, Jamison and Dave answer this question:
What are common ways developers are compensated? Do developers usually get a bonus? Stock options?
In episode 4, Jamison and Dave answer this question:
I have heard a lot about “marketing myself” and my “personal brand”. For example, some people say I should be writing a blog post every week or creating lots of YouTube content. They talk about being a “thought leader”. I love building stuff as an engineer, and obviously I want to have a great job, so how important is this stuff?
In episode 3, Jamison and Dave answer two questions:
What should I look for in a dev team?
I don’t get enough done at work. I work on a small team that has aggressive plans for developing its product, but I don’t feel like I get enough work done or move fast enough for the company.
In episode 2, Jamison and Dave answer two questions:
I work on a team, and I am not the team lead. I have lots of ideas for how to do things better. How can I influence my team without being the team lead, or without stepping on his or her shoes?
How do you deal with anger at work, both on the receiving and giving end?
Welcome to Soft Skills Engineering, where we answer your questions about non-technical topics in software engineering. Come get some wisdom, or at least some wise cracks.
In episode 1, Dave and Jamison answer two questions:
I’m a developer who gets approached from time to time to work on new software ideas. While I find working on something new and intriguing I have no experience with business. How do I determine how legitimate these opportunities are?
At my current job, our codebase is a few years old and we use an “older” javascript framework. In my spare time I’ve really really enjoyed using one of the newer paradigms and technical stacks and I wish I had more opportunity to get experience with these technologies. I don’t see a rewrite or even a migration any time soon for our codebase at this company and have been considering taking a job where I’d have opportunity to work with these newer technologies. This despite enjoying my coworkers, and lacking any major complaints at this company. On a scale from 1 to 10 how crazy am I for considering a job change?
Soft Skills Engineering