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An engineer's guide to people, office politics and career growth
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What I am reading: Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella

jordankrey December 12, 2019 December 11, 2019reading leadership, listening, microsoft, reading 0
Microsoft stock price courtesy of google finance.

Why I read (listened to) it Microsoft’s stock price just keeps going up and everyone should be interested in how Satya Nadella, the current CEO, keeps it going. I write a lot of code in Visual Studio, I work on a PC, I’ve used SQL Server and I’ve investigated Azure…

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There is no Unit Testing without U

jordankrey December 5, 2019 December 4, 2019code code, performance, testing 0

Unit testing is incredibly important. I learned that early in my career. And here is my story. *dramatic music* When I studied Computer Science at Northeastern a million years ago, I was never taught to write tests for my code. So, when I got my first real job, the idea…

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What you should be doing during the company meeting

jordankrey November 21, 2019 November 20, 2019people companymeeting, people, politics 0
Lisa Simpson "You have to listen to the notes she's not playing" source: https://frinkiac.com/meme/S09E17/893024.jpg

The last thing most engineers want in their life is another meeting. The company meeting is no exception. High level hand waving and revenue results are a long way from code. There can be an overwhelming temptation to skip out to get some code done while everyone else is distracted…

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I’ll say it. A Software Engineer should understand the business

jordankrey October 3, 2019 October 3, 2019politics career, politics, reading, thebusiness 0

A software engineer can go a long way without understanding how their company really works. There are certainly advantages in focusing on the code and ignoring the politics and processes that go on around the office. At some point, if you want more control over the work that comes your…

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Production support: Keeping your heart rate down

jordankrey September 19, 2019 September 19, 2019career career, communication, off-hour-support, production-support 0

When you went to school, boot camp or learned to code on your own, there is a good chance that supporting production code in the middle of the night was not something you dreamed about. Yet, here we are. When I started my career, I was handed a pager and…

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What I am reading: Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

jordankrey September 12, 2019 September 12, 2019reading brenebrown, leadership, reading, vulnerability 0

Why I read (listened to) it If you are not familiar with Dr. Brené Brown’s research into vulnerability, I would start with her first book, Daring Greatly. The first book approaches the topic in the space of personal and broader inter-human relationships. Dare to Lead is Dr. Brown’s guide towards…

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Are you managing your stakeholders?

jordankrey August 29, 2019 August 28, 2019people people, stakeholder 0
A coat rack "stake holder" with various stakes and a bat and vampire looking shocked.

Code is not always the most challenging part of a project. People come out of the woodwork to ask about progress, discuss the release plan and opine on the feature and functionality. Stakeholders will keep you away from your work and the more you avoid people, the more they will…

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Defensive Code: What you don’t know will bite you

jordankrey August 22, 2019 August 22, 2019code code, defensive 0
The word code falling behind a fence.

Defensive Code is an overloaded term. Many articles revolve around topics like the fail fast principle where you verify the bounds of a function before proceeding. There are opinions about the effectiveness and maintainability of a code base with redundant checks. Still, the principle behind defensive code is that Murphy’s…

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The Art of Estimation

jordankrey August 15, 2019 August 14, 2019politics estimating, politics, projects 0
A clock with an engineer in the middle with his arms as clock hands. Numbers are period of delivery time like 1 day, 2 sprints etc.

There is one question every software engineer knows (or will know) all too well: How long will it take to get to production? The question will make even the most seasoned engineer nervous. Here is why: Fact 1: Your answer will be wrong. Fact 2: Your business needs an answer…

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Working from home: Are you doing it right?

jordankrey August 8, 2019 August 8, 2019career career, remote, workfromhome 0

Companies have a variety of alternative work options that allow folks to work from home, if only just occasionally. Developers, with their need for deep work, can appreciate avoiding the distractions of the work place. Home makes it much harder for a co-worker to “fly by” your desk to interrupt…

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  • Recent Posts

    • What I am reading: Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella
    • There is no Unit Testing without U
    • What you should be doing during the company meeting
    • I’ll say it. A Software Engineer should understand the business
    • Production support: Keeping your heart rate down
  • Recommended books

    • Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
    • Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction, Second Edition
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