Programmer's log. Epoch time 1662335928. It's the official start of the autumn season—that is, Starbucks just put the ✨pumpkin spice latte✨ back on the menu. Our maple trees in the backyard have just started to slowly turn red. At the same time, there is another heat wave in the Bay Area: it's 5:30pm and still 88F outside in Oakland. We still have at least another month of growing summertime crops in our kitchen garden so it really doesn't feel like fall at all...
Hi all,
It's been a minute since my last post! We had a lot of social events and obligations this summer, which was a natural build-up of pandemic-delayed events 😮💨 Things have settled down a bit so now I can think about doing more reading and writing.
This is a digest for my blog, Simulated Annealing. The website and blog has gotten a small visual refresh, hope you like it! Reach out with thoughts on Twitter @vivqu or by replying to this email.
Recent posts:
Juggling software projects
Changing your work mindset to level up your career
There is a lot of information out there on how to level up in your career as a software engineer. Usually, the main suggestion is to sign up for more projects and leadership opportunities. The goal is to incrementally experience and then master the responsibilities of a senior technical lead or engineering manager. Eventually, so the advice goes, your increased scope/accomplishments satisfy the requirements of the company’s career ladder and you receive the promotion to the next level.
(I’ve written previously about how company career ladders are imperfect representations of expectations at each level. It can be easy to get tunnel vision on these so-called “requirements”, ultimately developing skills that are hyper-specific to that particular organization and not generalized to the larger tech industry. Level advancement therefore may not be as straightforward or smooth as the advice implies.)
Putting career ladders aside, the major thing I notice is missing from the conversation around becoming a senior engineer is how broader technical scope adds to your mental load. It’s not possible to sustainably take on more projects and responsibilities without fundamentally changing your approach to engineering work.
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(Click here to read the rest.)
That's it for now! Hit me up with your thoughts @vivqu.