It takes more than great code
to be a great engineer.

Soft Skills Engineering is a weekly advice podcast for software developers.

The show's hosts are experienced developers who answer your questions about topics like:

  • pay raises
  • hiring and firing developers
  • technical leadership
  • learning new technologies
  • quitting your job
  • getting promoted
  • code review etiquette
  • and much more...

Soft Skills Engineering is made possible through generous donations from listeners. A heart with a striped shadowSupport us on Patreon

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Recent Episodes

Latest Episode

Episode 108: An Insecure Teammate and Disclosing Past Ratings

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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

  1. What do I do about an insecure teammate whose insecurity causes them to lash out at others?
  2. I’d like to change teams within my company, but I’ve had some negative performance reviews in the past. How early should I disclose this to my prospective manager?

Jamison talks about the Khan Academy Engineering Principles, which are great and which you should read.

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(Rerun) Episode 40: Office Visibility and New Tech

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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

  1. How can I encourage my team to be more visible in the office?
  2. How do I learn new technologies without going through a noob phase?
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Episode 107: Silence After Interviews and Newsletter Politics

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Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

  1. I recently interviewed for a role I was very interested in. I didn’t get the job,and despite several attempts, didn’t receive any feedback on what I could have done differently. I still really want to work there at some point in the future, but have I taken it too far? Have I accidentally burned all of the bridges before I set foot on them?
  2. I am a lowly SSE that recently started a tech newsletter at my company. One of the senior VPs (let’s call them “E”) sent out an email to the org asking people to reply to a newsletter survey so that their team can be featured. A senior manager (“K”), was upset his team wasn’t featured but I informed him that he didn’t reply to the original survey. I explained to “K” that he can still send me information for the next issue. “K” then replied back with something very condescending and has now made the newsletter a political device. How should I proceed from here?