A status update is where you can showcase how well you manage ambiguity and is an important way to build trust with your team — Imagine this — they assign you a task to finish up this sprint. It is a task that requires you to push a new feature within a brand-new architecture you have never touched on. On the first day, you look through all the documentation on the Confluence page to get…

I am launching a newsletter — Path to Senior — to give software engineers more insights on navigating their careers in tech. — How I started my blogging journey? I began writing about my software engineer career in 2019 when I started working at Disney+, the streaming service for Disney, Hulu, and ESPN. I felt like I wasn’t growing the way I wanted to. It was my first time working in a fast-paced, high-tech environment. I was inexperienced with…

Your Career Is an Infinite Game — I recently listened to the Simon Sinek 5 Fundamental Leadership as I practiced great public speaking. His analogy of finite and infinite games in corporate leadership captivated me, and I realized one thing. Most of us play career games in the wrong way. Many of us are playing finite games…

Good systems take away unnecessary choices. The fewer, the better. — Nobody loves to argue all day due to disparate opinions. It is because it drains your energy, and you get wrong-a lot. However, to design a compelling system that withstands the lifetime of a business, opinions, and principles must be enforced in all of its developer cultures. Last week, the…

As I navigate through my journey, I keep seeing that high-value engineers are not engineers who are the best programmers but engineers who know how to network. — If you would ask me how to become a high-value engineer five years ago, It involve compilers or gates or time complexity. However, if you ask me now, my answer will be to understand the reality of your industry and work backward from that understanding. …

Provide data without anticipating all possible use cases. You might find that your API usage evolves in unexpected ways, leading to coupling your API with flows that it wasn’t initially designed for. — Mistakes in software development can be costly, especially as you delve into critical areas like payments and manufacturing. As the reliance on your software grows, so does the impact of any errors. APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are pivotal in this scenario. …

Can we deconstruct luck? — “Aren’t you tired of having to think about things to write about every week and ending up not having any huge turnover after being published?” My brother asked me during a dinner one day. “Yeah, I do”, I said. “However, I enjoyed it because it keeps me sharp and up-to-date…

Instead of “How can I do to fit my lifestyle for this job?” ask yourself, “How can this job help me reach my goal?” — It’s no secret that we’re pushed to the limit. We often feel rushed and overwhelmed, so we keep our heads down and focus on the next thing and the next without having a moment to evaluate if the next opportunity we are striving for leads us to our long-term goal. …

The hardest thing about technical documentation is not about the technical aspect. It is how to persuade your audience to choose a certain solution. — One of the hardest parts about designing a spike is not coming up with the solution; it is how to evaluate the best solution. However, I often found it hard to evaluate the best solution because each stakeholder has opinions and needs. How do you devise the best solution for…