Mar 21, 2017

Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. I feel guilty about how slow I’m working. What should I do?
2. I’d like to find a job, but I don’t have any completed side projects or an interesting GitHub profile. How can I explain this?

Mar 15, 2017

Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. I’m a junior developer on a team of seniors, and I’m also the Scrum Master. Our team has lots of problems. What do I do?
2. Jamison openly talks about not finishing his degree. How did he put it on his resume or explain it to potential employers?

In question two Jamison discovers he has been lying on his LinkedIn profile for half a decade, and freaks out a little bit. The mistake is corrected, but can the damage ever be undone? Tune in next week on SOFT SKILLS ENGINEERING.

Mar 7, 2017

Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. I didn’t quit my job. Did I mess up?
2. I was hired to manage a team, but it is actually just me. What do I do?

Feb 28, 2017

Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. What do I do if I suspect my co-worker plagiarized my homework assignment in their own interview?
2. My employer is making me provide my own laptop. Is this normal?

We mention The Joel Test. Also remember to tweet about the show for endorsements from Dave and Jamison for completely serious and relevant skills like doomsday-bunker-building and yodeling.

Feb 21, 2017

Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. When and how do you quit a company that is on a death march?
2. How do I find out if I’m underpaid?

Feb 14, 2017

Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. How soon into a new job is it appropriate to raise concerns?
2. What do you do when issues in your personal life affect your work?

Thank you to Algolia for sponsoring this episode. Check out their job posting at algolia.com/softskillsengineering.

Also thanks to Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which I spent 310 hours playing.

Feb 7, 2017

Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. How do I deal with my new job that turns out to be crappy?
2. How do I know how hard to push back against more experienced engineers when suggesting a new idea?

Thank you to Algolia for sponsoring this episode. Check out their job posting at algolia.com/softskillsengineering.

Jan 28, 2017

It’s our first RAPID FIRE episode, where we answer a bunch of questions rapid-ish-ly.

1. Why do I get passed up for developer jobs?
2. Should I take this high-paying job even though it’s a scary change?
3. Should I quit my first job after five years?

We also answer a longer question:

How do I deal with a micromanaging project manager?

Thank you to Algolia for sponsoring this episode. Check out their job posting at algolia.com/softskillsengineering.

Jan 25, 2017

Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. When I let someone go, should I tell them the reason why?
2. How do I write a good job description?

We mention Julia Evans’ blog post A litmus test for job descriptions in the second question.

Jan 16, 2017

Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. What do internships cost companies?
2. How do you feel about asking hard technical computer science questions in interviews?

The second question was prompted by this tweet:

In 20 years of engineering I've never said, "thank goodness we hired someone who can reverse a b tree on a whiteboard while strangers watch"

— Samantha 🐝 Quiñones (@ieatkillerbees) December 14, 2016