Tales of a White Belt Manager
Join me in my adventure as a beginner Engineering Manager! I will be sharing many things I’m learning in my journey as a white belt manager and probably providing advice that I will later regret.
- The Fear of Becoming Michael Scott
Some months ago, I got promoted from Software Engineer to Team Lead. In this case, this also included responsibilities as People Manager. The news was really exciting since I had been working for a long time to get there and I was looking forward to moving on from my path as IC. However, one of the unexpected struggles I had was my fear of becoming some kind of Michael Scott from The Office. I had been working with most of the people in my time for more than a year, and, when we were all just colleagues, this time allowed…More - Yes, I Purposely Chit Chat in Work Meetings
I’m a big fan of intentional and well-structured meetings. I really hate when meetings don’t have a clear agenda and they get derailed and it’s just a big waste of time for everyone involved. I also can’t stand meetings lasting longer than 1 hour. (My) attention spans are limited and brains need to rest. I believe being able to organize, summarize and wrap up information in under an hour is a really valuable skill. And when this is not possible, I definitely prefer splitting a meeting into n smaller chunks than having a single meeting lasting n times more. However,…More - How to Start as a New Manager: Shut Up and Listen
Starting a new role is always challenging, and starting as a manager is no exception. We are full of energy and ideas, we want to make sure everybody sees our leadership and we may feel the (often self-imposed) pressure to always have the last word. As a beginner manager, it’s easy to get caught in all this and forget about the path of least resistance: We would be better off just shutting up and listening. The Awkward Tension Manager Just like many other people, I’ve had many managers in my career — with varying levels of competency. — One of them, who I…More - The Software Engineering Hiring Process Is Broken and Exclusionary
Many companies are still stuck on the idea of hiring that mythological 10x developer, so their selection process resembles more of The Twelve Tasks of Asterix than a realistic and honest engineering interview. Interview processes are designed to find a once-in-a-lifetime individual that may not even exist. This usually translates into interviews asking for impossible things and taking too much time from the candidates. With this, not only we are annoying everybody, we are excluding minorities in STEM. We need to be creative with the interviewing process. We need to redesign it so it can work as a way to…More
Tales of a White Belt Manager 