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Soft Skills Engineering is a weekly advice podcast for software engineers. Since 2016, Dave Smith and Jamison Dance have published 527 episodes answering listener questions about the parts of the job that have nothing to do with code.
The full archive is in date order. If you came here with a specific problem, start with the topic that matches it.
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Getting Promoted as a Software Engineer
Promotions are the questions we get asked about most. These episodes cover how promotion decisions actually get made, how to build a case your manager can take upstairs, what changes between the junior, senior and staff levels, and what to do when you have done the work but the title has not followed.
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Salary, Raises and Negotiation for Developers
Nobody teaches engineers how to talk about money. These episodes cover asking for a raise, negotiating a new offer, what to do when you learn a teammate is paid more for the same work, and how equity, bonuses and counteroffers really work.
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Quitting Your Job as a Software Engineer
Deciding whether to leave is rarely about the job alone. These episodes cover how to tell a rough patch from a real problem, how to give notice without burning the relationship, what to do with a counteroffer, and how to leave a team you genuinely like.
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Interviewing and Job Hunting for Engineers
These episodes cover the whole job hunt: writing a resume that survives a skim, dealing with recruiters, getting through technical and take-home interviews, spotting red flags during the process, and evaluating an offer once you have one.
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Working With Your Manager
Your manager shapes your day more than almost anything else. These episodes cover getting something useful out of your 1:1s, giving feedback upward, surviving a performance review, and what to do when your manager is absent, overbearing, or simply the problem.
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Dealing With Difficult Coworkers
Most engineering problems turn out to be people problems. These episodes cover coworkers who will not budge in technical discussions, credit taken for your work, teammates who go quiet, and how to disagree with someone you have to keep working with.
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Advice for Junior and New Software Developers
The first couple of years are the steepest. These episodes cover landing and surviving a first job, coming in from a bootcamp or another career, asking for help without feeling like a burden, finding a mentor, and the imposter syndrome that shows up for nearly everyone.
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Remote Work, Meetings and Focus
These episodes cover working from home and the meeting culture that comes with it: staying visible when nobody sees you work, return-to-office mandates, calendars with no gaps left in them, and getting focus time back.
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Burnout, Stress and Work-Life Balance
Burnout rarely announces itself. These episodes cover overwork and crunch, the boredom and disengagement that look like laziness but are not, unrealistic deadlines, on-call that never lets up, and what recovery actually takes.
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Layoffs, PIPs and Job Security
These episodes cover the anxious end of the job: reading the signs before a round of layoffs, what a performance improvement plan really means, being let go, and how to talk about any of it in your next interview.
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Technical Leadership and Influence
Leading starts well before the title does. These episodes cover influencing technical decisions without authority, the tech lead role, running code review so people still speak to you afterward, mentoring others, and whether to move into management at all.
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AI, LLMs and Software Engineering Careers
AI arrived in engineering orgs faster than anyone worked out what to do with it. These episodes cover reviewing code nobody actually wrote, managers who mandate LLM use, teammates whose output quality quietly changed, and the question underneath all of it: is this job still going to exist.
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Performance Reviews and Feedback for Engineers
Review season turns a year of work into a paragraph and a rating. These episodes cover reading a bad review, feedback so vague it tells you nothing, how to give a peer something honest without wrecking the relationship, and what to do when the work you did never made it into the writeup.
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Estimates, Deadlines and Agile Process
Every team has a process, and most of them hurt somewhere. These episodes cover estimates treated as commitments, deadlines handed down without you in the room, retrospectives where nothing changes, and the difference between process that helps and process for its own sake.
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Learning, Skills and Staying Current
The technology moves and the worry that you are falling behind moves with it. These episodes cover generalist versus specialist, whether degrees and certifications are worth it, finding real time to learn inside a full-time job, and switching stacks without starting over.
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Code Quality, Code Review and Tech Debt
The codebase is a people problem in disguise. These episodes cover inheriting code nobody wants to touch, making the case for paying down tech debt, rewrites that never finish, documentation nobody reads, and running code review so your teammates still talk to you afterward.
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Personal Brand, Speaking and Side Projects
Being good at the job and being known for it are different problems. These episodes cover speaking at conferences, blogging and open source, whether side projects are worth the evenings, updating LinkedIn without setting off alarms, and getting visible work inside your own company.
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Contracting, Consulting and Freelance Engineering
Contract work runs on different rules. These episodes cover choosing between contract and full-time, clients who will not decide, getting paid on time, what happens when a contractor is treated as second-class, and leading a team that is half employees and half agency.
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Startups vs Big Tech for Software Engineers
The same engineer has a completely different career at a ten-person startup and at a hundred-thousand-person company. These episodes cover the trade between equity and stability, chaos versus bureaucracy, leveling inside big tech, and what happens to your job after an acquisition.
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Communication Skills for Software Engineers
Most of the job is talking to people about the work. These episodes cover saying no without damage, speaking up when the room is senior to you, writing that people actually read, async and chat etiquette, and the conversations everyone puts off having.
Not finding it? Search every episode or ask Dave and Jamison your own question.