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…

Simplicity is underrated — Reusable code is a holy grail of programming. Software engineers are obsessed with creating utility libraries and functions that can reuse by all brand ranges of business applications. They argue all day over coffee about making their code more reusable and not reinventing it repeatedly. As they continue to evolve…

How to not break code that works properly and decrease the effort on adding new functionality — In a conversation with a colleague these past few weeks, we discussed that our core codebase needs to be refactored because developers need more time to change any tiny features in the code. “I don’t like how the code is structured right now. It wasn’t intended to be this way…

Work Smarter, Not Harder — The difference between a good developer and a mediocre developer is that a good developer knows how to spend their time well. I’ve noticed that the purpose of many of our day-to-day tasks is to save time. We get rewarded for building systems and services that can launch to market…

Impactful goals can help accelerate your growth as a software engineer — “So, Edward, let’s do career goal setting on our next 1:1. Be prepared to write down a list of goals you want to achieve this quarter.” I’m not too fond of goal-setting conversations during 1:1 because I don’t know if my goal aligns with the company’s north star. Don’t get…

Traits and Steps to Become a 10X Engineer — The growth progression of the software engineer career is a mystery. You see that some engineers are more likely to get promoted than others. Yet, sometimes, you don’t see them working as hard. I used to think that you have to be technically skilled to be a 10x engineer. I…

Documenting == A Game of Empathy — Documentation saves us a lot of time and hassle. Yet, many developers need to pay more attention to providing documentation along with their code. In this article, I will share with you everything you need to know about writing documentation, with some quick tips on writing good documentation for your…

Teach what you know, be transparent in every action, and more — Trust is a leading indicator of your personal brand as a software engineer. We often evaluate others positively or negatively based on trust. In business, trust is highly correlated to a person’s propensity to consider, try, or buy a product. In career development, trust can help you get that promotion…