Category Archives: How to be a software engineer

The Software Engineers Development Plan – Part 1

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I manage a large number of developers at work. In fact to explain things a little, here is my current BIO:

“Dominic is the Tech Group Lead in Xero. He’s been .Net developer for a few years now, and spends most of his time these days herding cats. In other words : he is responsible for the management, delivery and quality for a group of 25 devs, QAs and other techies.

He lives in the Paris of the South (Canberra) but doesn’t speak french. He’s passionate about Boardgames, Cheese and Wine”

One of the main tools I have been using managing developers is the use of a Professional Development Plan.

This series of posts will focus on what a PDP Looks like, how to create one and how to use them.

If you are totally unaware of what a PDP is have a look at a few articles:

Next, Part 2 the structure of a PDP

Great Article on Interviews for Software Engineers

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Really excellent article for anyone thinking about a new job and in particular interviews.

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/rock-your-technical-interview/

I want to highlight some very important points raised by the author:

1.PREPARE AND USE THE INTERVIEW AS AN EXPERIENCE

“Study Technical Questions – Basic Questions, Rehearse Difficult Questions, White Board, Write Down Missed Questions
  • Every time while going for any interview be prepared with basic questions, research some difficult questions with the answers prior to it.
  • After coming back from an interview, write down the missed questions.”

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare. This is an important event. Treat it like a really hard exam.

Also, learn from the experience. Keep a record of questions in a doc.

2.GETTING THERE ON TIME

  • “Dress appropriately. Be on time. Arriving 30 minutes early is good
  • Take two forms of maps: Because sometimes you will get traffic on any road; you have to know another road. Also, sometimes if you have taken a photograph into mobile and unfortunately the battery of your mobile gets discharged, in these cases, you have to carry a print out of the maps with the detailed address.”

OK, that might seem very straightforward but rushing or being late to an interview.

Really important article on burnout in Software Development

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OK if you follow this blog you know by now how much I love Scott Hanselman and it’s no surprise that he’s written another great article on one of the dark areas of Software Development: Burnout

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HowToDealWithTechnologyBurnoutMaybeItsLifesCycles.aspx

I’ve seen it too many times, where great Engineers just get fed up with the daily grind of needing to deliver. As Scott says some times we just need to drop everything and take a break.

 

My presentation at University Canberra, 1 September

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I am presenting a session on Career development for software engineers on – so for any UC students interested in some advice on career planing come along. Similar to one I ran a month ago at ANU.

 

 

Skills for new Software Engineering grads

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Great article on the type of skills new Software Engineering graduates should work on before they start their first job:

https://blog.newrelic.com/2014/06/03/10-secrets-learned-software-engineering-degree-probably-didnt/

how to be a successful software engineer

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I’ve been blogging about this for a while and I guess eventually when you are in this subject area you will come across a great article. This is one of them. Don’t get me wrong there are a lot of good articles on “How to be a successful Software Engineer”. This article is special, very special:

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/how-to-be-a-successful-software-engineer/

Nice and simple and well structured and focussed on the type of things that I have seen great engineers focus on in their career. This is a gem of an article for young and not so-young aspiring developers.

Making Badass Developers – Kathy Sierra (Serious Pony) keynote

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Really cool short video from Kathy Sierra on “how to be a badass developer” … not sure I’d give it that heading because I think its a really interesting idea for allowing programmers/software engineers to improve skills. Give it a watch…

New podcast featuring interviews with famous software engineers and how they started out

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So I am on a roll at the moment focussing on how to start as a developer/programmer/software-engineer/coder. Here is a great new podcast where a number of famous programmers are interviewed about how they got started.

http://wildermuth.com/hwpod/