this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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Experienced Devs

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An incomplete list of skills senior engineers need, beyond coding (skamille.medium.com)
submitted 1 year ago by jim@programming.dev to c/experienced_devs@programming.dev
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I generally don't like "listicles", especially ones that try to make you feel bad by suggesting that you "need" these skills as a senior engineer.

However, I do find this list valuable because it serves as a self-reflection tool.

Here are some areas I am pretty weak in:

  • How to write a design doc, take feedback, and drive it to resolution, in a reasonable period of time
  • How to convince management that they need to invest in a non-trivial technical project
  • How to repeat yourself enough that people start to listen

Anything here resonate with y'all?

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[–] jim@programming.dev 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Any specific examples? I never got that impression, but maybe I'm being naive.

[–] fabian@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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:

How to indulge a senior manager who wants to talk about technical stuff that they don’t really understand, without rolling your eyes or making them feel stupid

and

How to get other engineers to listen to your ideas without making them feel threatened

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.

[–] balder1993@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

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).

[–] valence_engineer@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago

I would say part of being truly efficient in any role is being able to do the role efficiently even in less than ideal situations or with less than ideal coworkers.

In my personal experience significantly more people think they don't react emotionally than actually don't react emotionally so it's better to support each other than trying to inefficiently turn into machine together.