Recently, I read an interesting article by Ben Northrop that can be found here . In the article, Ben talks about the concept of ‘doing extra,’ which is not the same as doing more. For example, if you’re asked to implement two APIs and finish early, you can use the extra time to think about how to make the implementation more efficient, secure, or reduce the code length. That’s ‘doing extra....
When you join a new team, you are usually bombarded with a lot of information. You need to familiarize yourself with the company’s culture, facilities, and colleagues. Initially, the onboarding process tends to be welcoming and hospitable. However, after a few days, you are expected to quickly learn about the products, services, and data in order to contribute effectively. It can be overwhelming to try to absorb and utilize all of this information, and eventually, the honeymoon phase ends, leaving you feeling stressed and concerned about your credibility....
As an engineering manager, it can be easy to feel a sense of distance from the team and concerns about technical decay over time. But there are solutions to this problem! In this article, I explore ways to improve low-level engineering skills, in order to reduce the gap between you and your team members and maintain effectiveness in leading a technical team. Reading a lot (mostly on how things work and why they were created), re-doing (for yourself) technical design reviews, and having side projects can help....