Content that is focused on a particular perspective on different topics within software engineering that may not be the common lens.
This article is in response to an answer I wrote on Quora. As an engineering leader, does it make sense to approach things as hands-on management and writing code? Let's see when it makes sense, and when it doesn't.
You can find part one of this here! Applying for Software Development Jobs How do I stand out on an application? I think this is largely going to depend on where you're applying. Something to consider is that especially with large tech companies, they're getting thousands and thousands of resumes all the time. It can be really competitive to be able to even land an interview so sometimes if the caliber of other applicants is high, it can make it difficult to stand out. That's okay. We don't have control over others, but we do have control over ourselves! We can try a few different things to stand out and help you get started on your software development journey professionally. The following are things I personally would suggest and may not reflect the exact views of my employers (past, present,…
Navigating Post Secondary Education for Software Development Do you have any advice regarding university applications? For university, it's been so long since I've had to go through applications that I'm not sure I have really specific advice. I think it's important to know what schools have for prerequisites and really ensure you nail those down. In terms of which school to pick, that's certainly a personal choice. You'll have so many factors to consider including cost, what programs are offered, relocation, proximity to loved ones, etc... As a hiring manager, personally, I am less concerned with WHERE someone went to school versus what they could showcase about what they have learned. I'd also personally suggest checking out schools that offer internships since it's an excellent way to get real experience! This is something that worked really well for me since…
2020 has been an interesting year for everyone, without a doubt. For me, 2020 involved a career change that wasn't something I was expecting at the start of the year. I had been comfortable with my past employer, Magnet Forensics, for just shy of 8 years and had the opportunity to work on many high-impact projects as part of a mission to help with saving children and assisting law enforcement. But at the end of August, I started my first day in my next adventure with Microsoft. I wanted to write a couple of posts about getting up and running at Microsoft so I figured I'd start with some high level points. This post will be focused on what it was like to join a tech giant after helping scale a startup to hundreds of people internationally. Meeting the Team…
Who Needs A Team?! I've been building RPG backends for as long as I've been able to code. I think my first one that I made for my grade 11 class is the only RPG that I "finished"... It was text-based and all you could do was fight AI via clicking attack, buy better weapons, level up, and repeat. It was also 10000 lines of VB6 code and so brutal that I couldn't add anything to it without copying hundreds of lines of code. Since then, I've had the itch. I keep rewriting this thing. I keep taking "Text RPG" (super cool and catchy, I know) and rewriting it. I had my first visual representation of this game called Macerus (here's another rewrite for unity), which is actually how I landed my first co-op job. But every time I'd get…
Doubling Down: The Quick Background I recently wrote about how and why I'm looking to double down on my strength to improve a weakness, and I figured it would be a great follow up to try and explain the specifics in my strategy. It's an interesting learning opportunity for me, so why not share it with those that are interested? The format of this post is really just to call out the specifics of some strategies I'm looking at exploring when building the brand for my vehicle to help with sponsorship opportunities. Reach Outside Core Audiences This one shouldn't be a shock to you if you're familiar with this blog already. It's primarily aimed at programming, leadership in a tech environment, and self reflecting as a means to improve. One of my goals is to explore attracting other audiences that…
Double Down: Why I'm Working This I haven't written in a while, and despite setting a goal for myself to start writing more, I'm not going to kick my own butt over not getting around to it. Actually, if anything my priorities and goals have been evolving over the past while and it's been a great growing opportunity. Previously, I wanted to start up writing again to work on my ability to self-reflect. In all honesty, other factors came into play and this started to happen more naturally without forcing myself into writing more. Now that my goals are changing again, I'm realizing that I need to come up with some creative solutions for addressing them. For total transparency, one of my hobby goals is creating a brand for my show car, Ignantt. It's a fun hobby of mine, and…
What's Up With Resolutions? It's that time of year! You know, where everyone is thinking back on all of the things they wish they had actually accomplished this year and they're convincing themselves they'll get it done next year. It's time to set some New Year's resolutions! But what's up with that? Why does it take people a whole year to reflect on what's going right or wrong in their life and try to change their direction? Why does it take you a year to realize your diet and exercise regime is something you couldn't stick to and you're no better off than you were last year? Why were you still unmotivated in your career doing the same old thing? Why didn't you get your head in the game for school? Why did you continue to pursue toxic relationships? Continuous…
Identifying when you need to refocus It happens to everyone at some point to varying degrees, for various reasons, and at different times in our lives--but it'll happen! You hit a period or a rut where you can't keep your focus on continuing to be successful (and I'm over-generalizing that for a good reason). Maybe this means you can't focus at work to perform at an optimal level. Maybe you're falling off the diet you've been working hard on. Maybe your training in the gym or for your sport is taking a hit because your head isn't in the game. Maybe you find yourself unable to hit the books studying or completing your projects in school. It can look different for everyone. There are a bunch of different little warning signs that things aren't quite on track and you need…
Should Every Class Have an Interface? This is part two in the sub-series of "Should Every Class Have an Interface?", and part of the bigger "What Makes Good Code?" series. Other Peoples' Code So in the last post, we made sure we could get an interface for every class we made. Okay, well that's all fine and dandy (I say half sarcastically). But you and I are smart programmers, so we like to re-use other peoples' code in our own projects. But wait just a second! It looks like Joe Shmoe didn't use interfaces in his API that he created! We refuse to pollute our beautiful interface-rich code with his! What can we do about it? Wrap it. That's right! If we add a little bit of code we can get all the benefits as the example we walked through originally. It's…