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An incomplete list of skills senior engineers need, beyond coding
(skamille.medium.com)
A community for discussion amongst professional software developers.
Posts should be relevant to those well into their careers.
For those looking to break into the industry, are hustling for their first job, or have just started their career and are looking for advice, check out:
Most of the points are good advise, a few of them rub me the wrong way. Considering that the author is somebody in higher management, a few of them sound like "how to collect brownie points" and "how I'd like my butt to be kissed by my underlings", utterly self-serving - OTOH maybe those indeed are the rules of the game, and those who think that particular game is worth playing might want to pay attention.
Any specific examples? I never got that impression, but maybe I'm being naive.
More likely that I am the naive one - I know that there is no place without politics (we're all humans after all), but I strive to minimize politics, because it drains me.
What I meant specifically were those two points:
and
Beyond basic human courtesy, I don't agree that the fragility of other peoples ego should be the leitmotif of communication in a professional setting. I'd think a senior engineer should be able to speak up without beating around the bush, both to peers and higher-ups. I would assume for the higher-ups it should be more valuable to get candid responses from those in the trenches than smile-and-nod-yes-men responses.
And I think the counterpart of the second "listen to other engineers’ ideas without feeling threatened" is really good advice, because unlike the other one it is under your control and also a good thing in itself.
Then I also find "How to get another engineer to do something for you by asking for help in a way that makes them feel appreciated" has a bit of a manipulative touch.
That doesn’t seem politics to me, but empathy. Approaching people without considering their moods and feelings is a recipe to be badly interpreted (specially given the ambiguities in human interaction).