- As a software engineer, you are not there to take requirements blindly.
You are there to partner with your business and product partners.
That means you have to earn an equal seat at the table on product decisions.
- Being smart or good at what you do does not give you the right to be a jerk.
Empathy as an engineer is a superpower.
Caring about those you work with will do more for your career than writing beautiful defect-free code.
- As someone in the code, every day, you will see things that others will never see.
You will know what’s possible; they’ll guess what’s possible.
Some of the best product features are born because engineers found clever ways to solve something.
Look out for those things.
- You are there to add value first.
All the code you wrote will end up in the recycling bin of some computer if it does not add value directly or indirectly to the business.
It doesn’t matter how pretty your code is or how much you love it if it doesn’t add value.
5. Your code should follow this pattern:
i) Make it work
ii) Make it fast
iii) Make it beautiful
Reminder: You won’t have a chance to make it fast or beautiful if it doesn’t add value.
- Build relationships with engineers in other teams and other companies.
Learn about the problems they are solving. Learn different architecture and designs than the ones your team uses.
You never know when their solutions will save you days of work.
- You don’t need permission to add value.
If you see something and know you can fix or improve it, do it.
Nobody will ever say to you, “why did you add all that value? What is wrong with you!?”
Every time I’ve done that unexpectedly, I’ve earned outsized rewards.
- Advocate for junior engineers.
Just because they don’t have 5+ years of experience does not mean they won’t be good.
Without junior engineers on the team, no one will grow.
Help others grow; you’ll grow too.