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Showing posts from July, 2020

A Management Decision

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Summarizing a post from Reddit about decisions of Managers vs. Engineers: The night before the space shuttle Challenger disaster on Jan28, 1986, a 3-way conference was held between Morton-Thiokol, Inc (MTI), the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This conference was organized at the last minute to address temperature concerns raised by engineers who had learned that temperatures were dropping below 20°F. Decades of data and the specs showed the rocket boosters  should never be operated below 40°F. Launch go / no-go votes had to be unanimous. MTI recommended not launching based off the engineer's data. MSFC personnel rejected and pushed back, insisting MTI managers to go back and “reevaluate the data.” The MTI general manager told the VP of Engineering: “Take off your engineering hat and put on your management hat.” With that pressure, the VP changed his vote to “go.” On the MTI side there were 4 managers and 4 engineers. All 8 initially voted ag...
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Burning Calories

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Between working and being the best dad I can be, I've always had a hard time finding a way to regularly burn calories. Lately I've hated how convenient that excuse has become - so I'm finding a way to make it work (and fully embracing that I may look silly while doing it.) Sharing to encourage others to do the same - but also looking for suggestions, if you've found something that works for you, let me know about it! 🖥️🚴
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NashForward

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I'd launched NashForward.com (now closed) to help those who'd lost their jobs due to Covid19. And while I was overwhelmed with volunteers, participants were a slower and steady build. For all the negative news about the virus, the economy, furloughed employees, unemployment rates - this comment by a recent participant (who just landed a job!) was really encouraging. I wasn't the mentor in this case - I had just connected them through NashForward, and let the Nashville spirit work it's magic.
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Work Experience vs Professional Experience

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In reviewing a bunch of resumes this week, I noticed quite a lot of resumes with a  "Work Experience"  section. In each of those resumes, people had de-valuing some very valuable  experience - and I write that with no exaggeration. The problem is people were looking at their experience purely through the "Job Title/Relevancy" lens and had reduced their experience down to a list of discrete, random, disconnected jobs. No interconnectedness, no narrative thread weaving through it all. As much as you may feel some jobs have no way of being connected, the reality is  you   are always the connection . To not connect them on your resume is to lose all that growth, knowledge, skills, impact, value, and trajectory. In other words - you lose the " You " in the resume. I recommended they start with a small change. Reword "Work Experience" to "Professional Experience" because, ultimately, every single job they had was in service of building their ...
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Let's Clear Up The Ambiguity!

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Job seeking is hard - especially when you factor the ambiguity around expectations, the lack of transparency and consistency around process. It's frustrating dealing with the sheer subjectivity of everyone's opinions. Just think of even the basics: How long should your resume really be? Traditional black and white, or modern? Should you include a headshot? Oh - and cover letters - are those needed? Is anyone actually reading the cover letter? What are they looking for? Is there a bias for people with a more traditional background? Worst of all: The dreaded typo  that you catch only after applying to your dream job.  Are typos really going to cost you the opportunity??? To help bring some clarity to the process, I surveyed a bunch of hiring managers. The results were really interesting, and very illuminating.     If you're on the job hunt, I hope this information helps out! One final note: My recent post,  7 Steps to Writing an Amazing Resume , factors a lot of...
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FAQs for a Software Engineering Hiring Manager

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Technical Interviews have evolved a lot since the early I transitioned from being a Software Engineer to an Engineering Manager. Particularly in the post-Covid era, there's been a greater emphasis on the person, which I think is an important and welcome change. Over the decade of interviewing hundreds of coders, I've also had the pleasure of working with various bootcamps, colleges, and hundreds of individual job seekers on LinkedIn. Across all the changes over the past years, across the various locations and mediums, something remained consistent throughout: The questions I get asked.  With that in mind, I thought - why not make a FAQ from my perspective as a hiring manager? While this is my perspective, it's based off years of observation and supporting data. But that being said, advice is not fact. You may disagree with certain points, and that's OK. Opinions we disagree with allow us to better understand our own views. At best, I hope these responses help you...
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7 Steps to Writing an Amazing Resume

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  Since sharing my resume template  I've received plenty of feedback from job seekers, HR and hiring managers - all of whom value its purpose. Two (now former!) jobseekers even shared that as soon as they used my template, they were getting calls. Something about this template works, and given the traction it's getting others, I wanted to share - in more detail - why  this approach works so well.  Before continuing, let me give an important disclaimer: This resume isn't a miracle cure that's going to land anyone their dream job. Unless they're filled with lies, resumes are only as good as the candidate themselves. But they can also be a whole lot worse. This template and approach are all about maximizing the potential candidates have by highlighting and summarizing key areas.  Last point before beginning: If you don't know me, it's worth stating this advice comes from more than a decade of having hiring a broad range of coders: straight out of college, hig...
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7 Steps to Building your Portfolio MVP

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Often when I suggest to coders that they build a portfolio, I'll hear back: "I don't need one..." "With all the effort it takes to apply, where will I find the time?" Simply put, having a portfolio's never going to hurt your chances at landing a job - it can only help. That second question is where a lot of struggle - because applying to jobs can be time consuming. Especially if you're wrapping up a bootcamp, or having to manually type in your resume info after uploading your resume. That's why I made these 7 steps which, when done correctly, can really help you stand out with a hiring manager. And, the best part is, it should only take you 2 days. Being the Agile-Obsessive that I am, it's all about maximizing value while minimizing effort. Fix links to your Resume, GitHub, LinkedIn, etc. at the top where they're always accessible. Link to everything here - and then remove all other links on your Resume except your Portfolio link . It sa...
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