1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:01,880 Because right now there's an equal level of playing field. 2 00:00:01,880 --> 00:00:04,760 Seniors have knowledge and they have history, but they don't 3 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:07,880 have experience with tooling. So experience with tooling is 4 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:09,720 where you as a junior can be equal. 5 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:12,960 Interviews are evolving. No longer will you show your 6 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:16,000 coding skills. You will be more responsible for 7 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:18,880 thinking of a system and designing and orchestrating a 8 00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:20,280 system. Don't wait. 9 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:23,640 So there is no reason for you to wait until you have a portfolio 10 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:26,600 to start applying already. In applications you can show 11 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:29,600 what you're building. Act like you have the job and 12 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:31,600 you're asking looking for information to do your job. 13 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:34,480 You will come across as someone that genuinely cares and that 14 00:00:34,480 --> 00:00:36,760 looks incredibly eager and motivated to do this. 15 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:41,680 What I want to see in an interview when you execute is we 16 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:44,040 are back with another Q&A episode. 17 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,720 I have never received this many questions, so there might be 18 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:50,320 another episode next week actually, depending on how this 19 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:53,160 goes. Sit back, relax, and enjoy. 20 00:00:57,120 --> 00:00:59,640 For the first one, as an engineering manager, an 21 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:01,760 interesting subject is how a brilliant jerk. 22 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:05,840 Can it affect individuals, the team or the whole organization? 23 00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:09,760 Do you think they have a space in an organization? 24 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:13,160 Do you believe they can be changed or need to change? 25 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:17,760 I don't even know if I've ever worked with a brilliant jerk. 26 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:21,400 For people that don't know the term, a brilliant jerk is 27 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:25,880 someone that is extremely capable but likely emotionally 28 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:30,600 something is missing where their behaviour towards others is too 29 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:33,960 short, maybe arrogant, maybe rude, maybe they don't have any 30 00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:37,880 patience for any other people. I really don't like people that 31 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:41,720 don't have patience because I feel like if we level up as a 32 00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:45,120 team and also as a department within an organization, there 33 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:47,920 needs to be patience for people that don't understand. 34 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,680 I don't think I've ever been involved with people or worked 35 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:56,160 with people to such a degree that I would label them a 36 00:01:56,160 --> 00:01:58,240 brilliant jerk. But I'm also not a person that 37 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:00,600 labels. I hate when people put labels on 38 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:06,240 me or on other people. In essence, there are big 39 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,680 companies that completely try and avoid hiring brilliant 40 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,800 jerks. Netflix I think is the one of 41 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:16,280 the early companies that coined the term and that also outlined 42 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,480 that they will not hire people that are in that way. 43 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:23,040 People that show toxic behaviour towards others when it is about 44 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:28,240 collaboration, effectiveness and execution cannot hold. 45 00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:31,920 It will tear down your team culture and sometimes even your 46 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:35,400 organizational culture if it sustains for a long time. 47 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:38,880 If people don't want to work with one specific individual and 48 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:41,320 you cannot get them out of the organization, then you have a 49 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:44,880 problem on your hand. And I've never found myself in a 50 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:47,600 position like that. However, I am of the opinion 51 00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:51,840 that through a lot of guidance and through a lot of patience, 52 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:56,200 at least from my side, compared to or if I were to have a 53 00:02:56,200 --> 00:03:00,720 conversation with someone labeled as such, I would be able 54 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:04,080 to steer their behaviour. Maybe it's a little bit of 55 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:08,760 optimism and hope that I have, but genuinely my assumption is 56 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:11,720 that people are not aware of the effects of their behaviour. 57 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:15,280 If they are aware and they essentially don't care, then 58 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:17,800 they must be so confident in their skill set and their 59 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:21,200 position within the organization that they genuinely don't care. 60 00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:26,840 So either it's nothing is going to change or there's the door if 61 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:30,160 it reaches that point. Because of my optimism and 62 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:33,720 because of my hope, I think that behaviour can be steered and 63 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:36,520 people don't just stay brilliant jerks. 64 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,560 But they in the end become brilliant and I love working 65 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:43,520 with brilliant people. So in short, would I hire them? 66 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:46,480 Likely no Would I work with them if they're already in the 67 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:47,880 organization? Absolutely. 68 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:53,400 I would do my best to make sure the behaviour changes and I do 69 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:55,400 feel like I could learn a lot from billion people. 70 00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:58,040 I love working with brilliant people if they have the patience 71 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,520 to also share their brilliance. All right. 72 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:05,120 With tools like Cursor copilot clot code becoming normal in 73 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:09,520 some teams, how should juniors balance using AI to ship faster 74 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:12,920 versus making sure we actually build deep skills? 75 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:17,480 Does heavy AI use ever backfire when it comes to interviews or 76 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,320 long term growth? First question, what should 77 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:23,680 juniors do with the tooling that is available out there right 78 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:26,360 now? My answer is use the tooling and 79 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:29,640 leverage them and excel because right now there's an equal level 80 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:31,840 of playing field. Seniors have knowledge and they 81 00:04:31,840 --> 00:04:34,960 have history, but they don't have experience with tooling. 82 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:38,000 So experience with tooling is where you as a junior can be 83 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:40,800 equal. If you can teach how to use and 84 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:45,320 how to leverage tooling compared to a senior or educate senior on 85 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:48,320 the usage based on your own experience, then that is 86 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:51,640 extremely valuable. I feel like these toolings are 87 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:54,040 evolving. I feel like these tools are 88 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:56,560 evolving, but they are here to stay. 89 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:00,480 I've been a big fan of Claude Code, Open Code I haven't tried 90 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:02,800 out yet, Cursor. I've seen many awesome things 91 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:05,600 and I know people that are extremely excited about look and 92 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,160 feel, speed and effectiveness of the tooling. 93 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:10,680 I feel like the tools are going to evolve and some principles 94 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:15,240 will stay. So use that to your leverage if 95 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,120 you are a junior. The funny thing is you can also 96 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:21,440 leverage the tooling to excel in your own learning path and in 97 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:23,840 your own learning career, your own journey. 98 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:28,840 So definitely do so now, what information actually retains in 99 00:05:28,840 --> 00:05:31,080 the end? There's studies, there's 100 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:35,200 hearsay, there's experience. If for you, you find a way to 101 00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:37,880 actually get up and running and you remember based on what the 102 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:40,880 tool is in output or what it teaches you, then that's 103 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:42,480 fantastic. That means you can excel your 104 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:46,760 learning like no other. If information doesn't retain or 105 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:51,840 genuinely is not interesting to you, then it might have to do 106 00:05:51,840 --> 00:05:54,400 with the type of engineer you are, and if the tuning was not 107 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:57,360 available then likely the same information would still not 108 00:05:57,360 --> 00:05:59,680 retain. Some information is going to be 109 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,240 interesting, some you will have an innate curiosity towards, 110 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,000 could be a various technical topic, but in essence you're not 111 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,520 going to be as interested in all topics. 112 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:13,480 For me specifically, I get really excited about what we 113 00:06:13,480 --> 00:06:17,720 have and what we need to do in business, outcomes specifically, 114 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,160 and then what technology is there that I can leverage? 115 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:23,040 I will research because I have fuel. 116 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:26,280 Basically, my outcomes are my fuels for research. 117 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:29,960 If I don't have any outcomes, if I'm not working towards a goal 118 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:34,240 or a purpose, my fuel does not come from exploration. 119 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:37,560 I like certain aspects, certain tooling. 120 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:41,520 I have interests, but leveraging that for every single tool that 121 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:44,040 is needed for an outcome, it doesn't come naturally to me. 122 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:47,760 I can do it with discipline, but my discipline has its limits. 123 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:51,880 So if I'm genuinely curious and I have this magical answer box 124 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:55,560 like Claude Coats sometimes is, I can go back and forth on a lot 125 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:58,440 of things and I'm learning a lot of things quite fast and I'm 126 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:01,120 genuinely enjoying it. So as a junior, my 127 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:03,640 recommendation would be definitely do so. 128 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:07,240 There was a second part specifically about interviews, 129 00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:09,760 and in my opinion, interviews are evolving. 130 00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:13,560 No longer will you show your coding skills is my assumption. 131 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:17,760 You will be more responsible for thinking of a system and 132 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:19,800 designing and orchestrating a system. 133 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:23,080 So my assumption is that interviews will be moving 134 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:25,880 towards that. And what I want to see in an 135 00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:29,080 interview when you execute is twofold. 136 00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:31,920 It could be that in an assignment you're going to get 137 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:35,360 an existing code base and you will either have to build on top 138 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:38,320 of it or change something or modernize something. 139 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:42,240 I want to see you interact with your AI tooling, and I want to 140 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:44,960 see you explore in parallel different aspects. 141 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:49,640 So you can either use tooling in different windows and do 142 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:52,800 different parts of exploration. I want to see how you disperse 143 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:55,200 and then come back with condensed information, how you 144 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:58,720 communicate that to the interviewer, how you learn and 145 00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:01,120 then therefore in the end execute. 146 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:04,440 Or you work in parallel with your AI tooling. 147 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:07,800 So you do a few threads with regards to research and 148 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:10,160 exploration for your code base and then you do it yourself 149 00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:12,040 manually. For me, the people that are 150 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:15,520 really good engineers will be able to familiarize themselves 151 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:19,240 in unknown code bases quicker than people that are less 152 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:21,080 senior. And this is what I want to see 153 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,080 typically in an interview, how you explore and then in the end 154 00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:27,280 use what you found to execute for the task at hand. 155 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:30,400 Does it ever backfire in the end? 156 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:34,320 Things are evolving so in the wrong organizations, wrong for 157 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:36,640 you. If you like AI tooling, an 158 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:40,880 organization is not allowing that right now, then yes it will 159 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:43,000 backfire. If you interview at the company 160 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:45,960 that is not a right fit for you in any type of start up where 161 00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:49,280 they are leveraging anything they can for speed and you are a 162 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:53,360 person that loves using AI tooling are very well equipped 163 00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:56,720 to do so also in practice and in production, then it will 164 00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:00,240 definitely not backfire for you. Now there were a lot of 165 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:04,120 questions actually in this and I've combined a lot of the 166 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:07,840 questions in my answer already. One of the parts that are still 167 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:10,680 kind of unknown is how do you continuously learn and educate 168 00:09:10,680 --> 00:09:12,760 yourself with AI tuning that is available. 169 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:17,200 And in essence, how you learn is still up to you. 170 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:20,440 You know what works best for your information retention. 171 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:23,440 So whether that's watching a YouTube video and taking notes 172 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:27,800 or that's reading a a research paper or going through books and 173 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:31,200 taking notes or doing voice memos or listening to audiobooks 174 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:34,360 and podcasts, you know what works best for you both from a 175 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,600 preference perspective as well as how you retain the most 176 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:39,760 information. That has not changed. 177 00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:42,960 We now have another option, which is basically going and 178 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:45,920 having a dialogue with a ChatGPT or a cloud or whatever AI 179 00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:48,320 tooling Gemini that is now available. 180 00:09:48,560 --> 00:09:52,560 And that is another option. You will know or experience how 181 00:09:52,560 --> 00:09:56,160 much information you retain from those types of conversations and 182 00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:59,720 in the end how much of that is applicable for the task at hand. 183 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:01,720 You will have to learn an experience. 184 00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:05,000 I cannot tell you how you are going to retain the most 185 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:09,080 information. For me, I don't even know 186 00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:11,360 sometimes how I do it. I am experimenting with 187 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:14,400 different methods. I'm doing settle casting from 188 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:17,440 something something Lumen. I don't know what his first name 189 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:18,920 is. It might be Nicholas because 190 00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:23,960 lots of Nicholas's, but I think Lumen and settle casting will in 191 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:29,520 a Google search or a AI search nowadays will teach you about 192 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:33,200 that method and methodology. And I'm kind of cheating because 193 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:35,240 I have really good memory. Some stuff just sticks with me 194 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:37,400 and I think it comes from genuine curiosity. 195 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:41,560 So learn and educate, but learning and educating yourself 196 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:45,040 continuously and doing that in a condensed matter is going to be 197 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:48,400 more and more important. So if you found a framework or 198 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:51,120 if you find a certain methodology that works for you 199 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:54,320 and that can compound also towards the future, that is 200 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:56,400 going to pay dividends. So invest in that. 201 00:10:57,080 --> 00:11:00,080 From your experience, what really differentiates a good 202 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:04,160 developer from a great one in real world teams, The great 203 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:07,000 versus good? I feel like I've done episodes 204 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:08,880 on and I've covered in Q and as as well. 205 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:13,280 So I think last Q&A went more into depth with a question like 206 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:16,440 that. And I typically take the really 207 00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:19,160 good developers are able to execute and I feel like that's 208 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:21,480 more in a smaller scale. I've recently joined an 209 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:24,600 organization which is a bigger scale and that's going to be a 210 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:27,360 new experience for me. What I see really good engineers 211 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:31,520 and they also get attributed the staff role functional title. 212 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:34,600 So they are staff software engineers is that they are 213 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:39,080 really good in flying into teams, exploring things and 214 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,960 orchestrating things or even learning about their code bases 215 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:44,440 in a rapid manner. And they can do that across 216 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:46,600 teams. And typically those people are 217 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:50,560 responsible for driving initiatives that spans multiple 218 00:11:50,560 --> 00:11:53,880 teams. Which is really cool because if 219 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:57,120 your organization is at a scale where it has different teams 220 00:11:57,120 --> 00:12:01,040 that are distributed and working together on initiatives and some 221 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:05,200 teams or a few teams together need to execute and achieve 222 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:08,680 outcomes before 1 overarching outcome is then achieved. 223 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:10,880 Or even a feature in that matter. 224 00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:13,880 If multiple teams need to deliver before one single 225 00:12:13,880 --> 00:12:16,360 feature, a big feature is orchestrated. 226 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:19,880 The people that are then responsible because it could be 227 00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:22,680 high risk, high reward, are the staff, engineers, the people 228 00:12:22,680 --> 00:12:26,120 that are really good at seeing the bigger picture, that can go 229 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:29,120 dive deep when it comes to a specific team and that can 230 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:32,040 definitely maintain overview across multiple teams. 231 00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:37,480 So the skills that are involved in their systems thinking, 232 00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:41,520 figuring out quickly what type of architecture patterns a 233 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:44,200 certain code base has, where it runs, what it does, and how it 234 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:48,040 relates to other teams, those are all skills evolved involved 235 00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:51,640 in there. So yeah, lots to learn always. 236 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:56,000 What is 1 mistake mid level developers commonly make that 237 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:59,000 slows down their growth and how can they avoid it? 238 00:13:00,560 --> 00:13:03,880 This is maybe not necessarily a mistake, but it is something 239 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:07,000 that they don't act upon. When you're in a session, for 240 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:09,600 example, and you disagree with someone, or you genuinely have a 241 00:13:09,600 --> 00:13:12,480 question but you don't want to ask it because you feel like it 242 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:15,760 might make you seem stupid. Doesn't matter what the context 243 00:13:15,760 --> 00:13:17,240 is. You might be in a conversation 244 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:21,000 which with a lot of seniors, or with your CTO, or somehow 245 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:25,320 miraculously also your CEO. You will have thoughts, you will 246 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:30,960 have questions, and you might seem intimidated by the room or 247 00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:32,840 by the setting or by the people you are working with. 248 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:36,200 If that withholds you from asking those questions, that is 249 00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:40,360 holding you back. I don't see a situation in which 250 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:44,600 a question will be seen as bad, but that is also due to my 251 00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:47,360 experience and my history, so take that with a grain of salt. 252 00:13:47,680 --> 00:13:51,000 I feel like there should be room for you to ask questions. 253 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:53,920 Obviously you should be paying attention, you should have done 254 00:13:53,920 --> 00:13:56,880 your homework and you should know kind of what the intention 255 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:00,280 of the meeting is. But if you have a suggestion, if 256 00:14:00,280 --> 00:14:03,760 you have a perspective, if you have feedback, the only way for 257 00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:06,280 you to learn and grow and see if that's the right time and the 258 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:10,840 right place is to experience. And if you do not experience 259 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:13,680 that, then automatically withholds you from growing. 260 00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:17,560 Because conversations like that, there might be a single 261 00:14:17,560 --> 00:14:20,760 instance, and there might be similar instances, but they are 262 00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:23,520 only similar. And if you have many 263 00:14:23,520 --> 00:14:26,800 conversations that are similar, you will get better, but you 264 00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:29,480 will never have exactly your same context again. 265 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:33,960 So you can only experience certain conversations once with 266 00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:37,680 specific people, in certain settings, at a time and in a 267 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:41,240 place. So ask those questions, learn, 268 00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:44,200 grow. Specifically, after a session 269 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:48,480 like that where you are unsure how you came across, ask for 270 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:52,240 feedback with people that you trust and even if it is with 271 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:55,800 people that you don't have a relationship with, it can create 272 00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:58,960 those relationships with you. If you are saying I'm working on 273 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:01,800 my personal development, I want to grow as fast as possible. 274 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:04,440 I was not sure how I came across in this setting. 275 00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:07,880 I felt some pressure due to the people that were there and I 276 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:10,520 genuinely want your feedback on some of the questions that I 277 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:13,960 asked, some of my behaviours, how I presented, how I explained 278 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:16,760 this part of the code base. Can you please help me with 279 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:18,840 that? If you have the right people in 280 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:21,920 the right environment, and my assumption, again I'm quite 281 00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:25,200 hopeful and I'm quite positive, is that most of the environments 282 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:29,480 that you'll find yourself will be that then people are there 283 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:33,480 and are able and will help you and through doing so you might 284 00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:35,240 build a relationship with them as well. 285 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:38,920 More for the long term salary negotiations for juniors. 286 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:41,960 In your opinion, what is the best way for the applicant to 287 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:45,520 reply when asked what their salary expectations are? 288 00:15:45,920 --> 00:15:48,200 And how would you recommend juniors to prepare themselves 289 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:51,320 for such questions? Honestly this junior thing you 290 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:54,520 can just disregard because salary conversations are 291 00:15:55,160 --> 00:15:59,280 challenging, difficult depending on how often you do them and 292 00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:02,680 unless you switch jobs quite often this is not something 293 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:04,880 you're going to get good at through experience. 294 00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:08,560 So I do agree the more you inform yourself the better you 295 00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:11,520 will be equipped at such conversations. 296 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:14,840 But they will not happen continuously unless you job hop 297 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:17,760 quite often. So people that are freelancers 298 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:20,640 and that do consulting assignments for like a year or 299 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:23,840 even shorter than a year, sure, you will have way better 300 00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:26,400 experience in having those conversations because you're 301 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:28,720 you're going to talk about your hourly rate. 302 00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:31,800 It's not even about salary. I mean, yes, it's like a salary, 303 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:33,640 but still you will be better equipped. 304 00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:39,240 But for the majority of you, the better you do your homework, the 305 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:40,880 better you will have that conversation. 306 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:43,640 If you know people in your position with your same function 307 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:48,560 title already operating at that company in your country with 308 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,200 regards to salary, what they earn or with regards to total 309 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:54,160 compensation package, you can use that and leverage that in a 310 00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:57,160 conversation. In the end, you need to have a 311 00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:00,560 target number. You will say, this is what I 312 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:04,119 expect I'll be worth in the end. And that number needs to come 313 00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:06,839 from somewhere. So anywhere on the Internet, 314 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:10,599 anywhere from ChatGPT, claw Gemini, anywhere from having 315 00:17:10,839 --> 00:17:14,119 conversations with real people. And that third one, it might 316 00:17:14,119 --> 00:17:17,839 surprise you how often people are open and willing to share 317 00:17:17,839 --> 00:17:20,560 about their experience on the job. 318 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:24,359 If you send a message to someone that already has your function 319 00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:27,040 title within that company, could be within your team, could be 320 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:30,040 outside of your team and say, hey, I'm interviewing for this 321 00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:32,840 position and I would love to learn about what you do on a 322 00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:34,840 day-to-day. What gives you energy at this 323 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:38,080 company? Why you genuinely enjoy working 324 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:39,520 together with this group of people? 325 00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:42,160 I will be in this department. People are typically like, yeah, 326 00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:45,040 why not let me talk to this person, Let me help someone out. 327 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:48,040 It gives both you an opportunity to learn and then the 328 00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:50,600 opportunity to help someone and it likely will make them feel 329 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:53,960 better in doing so. And if you through that 330 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:56,000 conversation, build up a relationship with someone and 331 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:59,360 say, hey, I'm not great at salary negotiations, I'm 332 00:17:59,360 --> 00:18:00,920 genuinely not looking forward to this. 333 00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:04,840 I have no clue what kind of range is typically given your 334 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:08,080 company for this position. Can you help me with a range? 335 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:09,920 You don't have to ask what are you earning? 336 00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:12,320 Because that's where I direct and people sometimes are not 337 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,440 comfortable in that depending on the context and the culture. 338 00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:17,960 But if you say, hey, can you help me with a range so I'm 339 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:20,680 better equipped in actually having that conversation? 340 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:23,400 People will give you a range. I'm sure of that. 341 00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:27,520 So then you have a range. In essence, if you fall 342 00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:31,080 significantly below that range in an offer that you receive, 343 00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,800 yeah, this is where the negotiation starts. 344 00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:38,880 I already don't like it and I've not done it many times. 345 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:41,600 Let me preface that. But for example, in my own 346 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:44,680 experience, I landed a job and I had a range in my head. 347 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:47,360 I had a minimum. And let's say that was at the 348 00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:52,240 time 50 Ki got below 50K. And I said, well, due to my 349 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:55,800 experiences that I bring on the table, I've done XY and Z and at 350 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:59,760 the job I'm expected to do, AB and CI feel like I'm a really 351 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:01,760 good fit. And I feel like the offer that I 352 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:05,640 received is not fair compared to what I think I bring to the 353 00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:08,960 table, compared to my worth. Something along those lines. 354 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:11,320 And you can definitely formulate that better than me off the top 355 00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:14,360 of my head. But in essence, I replied like 356 00:19:14,360 --> 00:19:16,400 that I said, this is what I think I'm worth. 357 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:18,840 And that was my minimum at the time because also I really 358 00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:22,080 wanted to join at this company. And in the end, I didn't get it. 359 00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:26,240 I, I had zero wiggle room. Apparently the salary that I got 360 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:29,400 was the salary I got because my manager at the time said, if I 361 00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:32,120 were to write down all the salaries of every single person 362 00:19:32,120 --> 00:19:35,680 at the team on a white board, I, whenever you want to say, OK, 363 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:38,440 this is fair. And in essence, I had no reason 364 00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:42,880 to mistrust my manager. And in that reasoning, I could 365 00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:45,720 not ask for more because in the end, I also wanted to be fair 366 00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:47,040 for the people that I'm going to be working with. 367 00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:49,640 I really liked the team I was going to be joining so I didn't 368 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:52,560 want I did not want to screw up this position or this offer. 369 00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:57,480 Now that thought, typically if I reply in a similar way, can I 370 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:00,880 mess up my offer? Unless you are a Dick head, an 371 00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:05,280 asshole, and expecting the moon, I don't think typically you can 372 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:08,000 mess up your offer. It definitely happens. 373 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,800 There's always H cases, but in essence. 374 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,400 It should not be that much off your expectations versus your 375 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:16,480 offer. Expectations are something you 376 00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:20,120 can manage from the first conversation you have with a 377 00:20:20,120 --> 00:20:22,840 recruiter, with your hiring manager, or with your actual 378 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:25,840 manager continuously. It's something you can manage. 379 00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:27,720 So it should not be that far off. 380 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:29,800 But still, you might get an offer. 381 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:32,720 And I feel like you should always negotiate because there's 382 00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:35,240 not much. Sure, there's a very slight 383 00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:37,440 chance. In essence, I don't think 384 00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:40,480 there's anything to lose. So I asked for 50 Ki, did not 385 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:44,120 get 50K. The next step I was like, well, 386 00:20:44,120 --> 00:20:48,080 I still genuinely believe I'm worth 50K50K is not the number 387 00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:49,400 by the way. I just just saying, I'm just 388 00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:54,120 randomly saying a number. Can we have this conversation 389 00:20:54,120 --> 00:20:55,800 again in two months? That's what I asked. 390 00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:59,080 That is genuinely what I asked. Because I was young, I was 391 00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:01,440 eager, I wanted to do it as fast as possible. 392 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:05,320 Two months I thought was fair. My manager said, well, two 393 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:08,480 months is very, very quick, so let's have this conversation 394 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:10,640 again. In six months, I went from 395 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:14,120 having not what I wanted and nothing else to not what I 396 00:21:14,120 --> 00:21:16,880 wanted, but at least a dot on the horizon. 397 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:19,280 In six months, we were going to have this conversation again. 398 00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:24,720 And in essence, in outcome, I took out, I took the position, I 399 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:26,920 was very happy. I grew quite quickly. 400 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:29,760 And six months later I told my manager we were going to have 401 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:33,360 this conversation. He was like, Yep, that's true. 402 00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:36,880 Let me see what I can do. And he did not plan in the 403 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:39,000 conversation. I mean, we, we were still having 404 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,080 our regular check insurance, our regular catch UPS. 405 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,200 But there was no specific conversation about salary 406 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:47,680 because what he did was he went and he talked to the salary 407 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:51,040 people and then one week later he said, OK, your salary has 408 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:53,960 been upped. And it was up to what I asked my 409 00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:55,920 50K. So I was happy. 410 00:21:56,360 --> 00:21:59,760 Six months later, a regular salary process happened and I 411 00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:01,520 got above and beyond what I expected. 412 00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:05,280 So I was the only person that year that got 2 raises because 413 00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:09,120 in my company at the time we only had annual raises. 414 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:12,720 But because I negotiated, I got a mid year raise and then I also 415 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:16,280 got an end of year raise and I got more than what I asked for 416 00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:20,240 in the end of in one year. I was quite happy with that. 417 00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:25,360 I think I grew that year around 16% in salary, which is quite a 418 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:27,480 lot and none of my team members got that. 419 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:31,480 But also I had put in the effort and I had shown results so my 420 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:36,280 manager felt confident to do so. Negotiation wise, I'm not the 421 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:38,880 best but I feel like there is always something, there is 422 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:42,000 always a conversation to be had. And if you cannot get something 423 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,800 in the moment, ask for the future, ask for your growth 424 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:47,320 path, your career path. When can we have a conversation 425 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:49,080 again? Because this is genuinely my 426 00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:51,760 feeling. In reality, it could have also 427 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:54,800 been that I was completely overwhelmed and if my team 428 00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:58,560 members were significantly better, which I genuinely feel 429 00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:02,160 like they were, I would not have asked, I would not have pushed 430 00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,560 because I felt good with what I had and I trusted my manager to 431 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:07,960 do justice to that, but he acted accordingly. 432 00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:10,360 So I'm actually quite happy with this experience. 433 00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:14,400 So yeah, long answer short, always negotiate, do do the best 434 00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:17,080 you can, prepare, get your numbers and just have a 435 00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:20,480 conversation experience and there is not much that can go 436 00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:23,040 wrong. What questions in an interview 437 00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:26,120 would you like to hear from an applicant if you were the one 438 00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:29,160 that interviews them? Or rather, what questions could 439 00:23:29,360 --> 00:23:32,840 an applicant make that makes them stand out from other people 440 00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:37,120 within the interview process? This is a fun one because when I 441 00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:41,040 interview, it's typically the questions that I ask that, and 442 00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:43,400 this is quite an assumption, but hopefully that makes me stand 443 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:46,320 out. I don't interview for jobs 444 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:49,600 often, but because I'm a consultant, I am in kind of 445 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,560 similar interview positions. Basically, people get my resume, 446 00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:55,520 then they have a conversation with me and it helps that I have 447 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,920 a podcast that they can already see how I behave in Q and AS 448 00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:02,760 like this, for example, or how my thought reasoning works. 449 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:05,720 But in essence, I definitely take the opportunity to ask 450 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:07,760 questions. First of all, I check in with 451 00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:12,600 them with regards to time. Do you really have an exit or am 452 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:14,640 I going to have a little bit wiggle room depending on the 453 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,480 amount of questions that I have? If people ask you, do you have 454 00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:20,400 any questions? The answer should always be yes 455 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:22,120 and you should have done your homework. 456 00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:25,000 You should have either a list of questions already pre prepared 457 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:27,360 or based on the conversation that happens. 458 00:24:27,360 --> 00:24:30,520 If you're a good listener you should practice writing down 459 00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:32,120 questions based on what people say. 460 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:35,240 The better the questions are aligned with the conversation 461 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:39,080 that we had, the better me as an interviewer will see you as 462 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:41,800 someone that is a good listener and I want people that are good 463 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:43,800 listeners. Good listeners are people that 464 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:48,800 are able to congest information, digest it, condense it, and then 465 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:52,080 ask follow up questions for them to be able to better understand 466 00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:54,000 it. People that are not curious in a 467 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:57,360 conversation will have a harder time with that. 468 00:24:57,360 --> 00:25:00,400 And I like people that are curious because curiosity can be 469 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:05,640 a big fire, a big flame in fuel. I don't think that's the saying, 470 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:07,920 but it can be a big motivator, a big driver. 471 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,760 So that's what I look for. The next to that, what I like to 472 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:15,280 do is go more personal. If these are people genuinely 473 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,640 that you're going to be working with, then the interviewer is 474 00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:21,160 also thinking, is this a person that that I can actually see 475 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:23,880 myself working with? And the best way to build a 476 00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:28,160 relationship quite quickly is to make people think, introspect 477 00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,400 and share something either they are proud of, either they are 478 00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:34,960 what they learned or something about their history and 479 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:37,520 experience. So what is the most fun thing 480 00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:40,760 you've done since joining this company or how did you grow from 481 00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:43,520 the position you had before to the one you have now? 482 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:44,840 And what are some of the challenges? 483 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:47,680 Do you actually enjoy it or do you miss the hands on part? 484 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:50,840 What do you look for with regards to people in an 485 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:54,600 interview process like this and do you feel like I showed that 486 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:58,080 or what is something that I can do better in interview processes 487 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:02,040 or in conversations like this? My brain is kind of all over the 488 00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:05,080 place, but everything with regards to the interviewers 489 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:09,000 experience or immediately asking for feedback for growth, I feel 490 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,720 like is is a good approach genuinely. 491 00:26:12,120 --> 00:26:14,080 And then thirdly, if you're a good listener, what I mentioned 492 00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:18,200 earlier, look for specific hooks for follow up questions for 493 00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:21,000 depth. I right now have a position and 494 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,960 I feel like a big part of in me getting that position was 495 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:27,520 already asking questions that I would ask if I got the position. 496 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:31,160 It's maybe a bit vague, but if you are responsible for a 497 00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:34,920 certain thing and building out a certain thing, when you join, 498 00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:37,720 you will need information. So throughout the interview 499 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:41,040 process, you can ask every single question on the 500 00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:44,360 information that you will need to execute and to excel at what 501 00:26:44,360 --> 00:26:48,080 you do already throughout the interview process, act like you 502 00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:51,480 have the job and you're asking for information to do your job 503 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:56,640 as much as people can. They will share things with you, 504 00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:00,160 and I feel like it comes across as someone you you will come 505 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,120 across as someone that genuinely cares and that looks incredibly 506 00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:06,200 eager and motivated to do this because you're already starting. 507 00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:10,400 So maybe my main take away, don't start immediately. 508 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:15,560 Start asking your questions. Yeah, as if you already have the 509 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,080 job. That last sentence is important, 510 00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:21,040 I guess. When you're job hunting early in 511 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:23,000 your career, what actually moves the needle? 512 00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:27,040 Side projects, open source certificate courses or something 513 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:30,200 else entirely? If you were to start out today, 514 00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:33,800 how would you prioritize your time outside of work? 515 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:38,880 This is a hard one because my default behaviour, my answer is 516 00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:42,000 I feel like projects show results. 517 00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:45,320 I'm not just looking for someone that thinks of projects. 518 00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:48,520 I want someone that has shown what they can do and that I can 519 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:51,160 actually look at. But I am not a recruiter. 520 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:55,000 So you getting the foot in the door, you're not going to talk 521 00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:58,120 to me initially. Typically you can reach out to 522 00:27:58,120 --> 00:28:01,240 me if you're interested in a job and I can refer you, but you 523 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:03,640 will talk to the recruiter and I don't know what recruiters 524 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:07,800 typically look at. It might not be your projects, 525 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:09,280 right? It could be your resume. 526 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:12,880 So experience also matters. If you've done internships, if 527 00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:15,600 you're early in career, or if you have been in companies that 528 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:18,960 are in similar domains or similar in size, that already 529 00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:21,040 helps. If you are even located. 530 00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:23,280 I know people that are hiring and they are specifically 531 00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:26,920 located in a place in Amsterdam and they are looking for people 532 00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:30,160 that also live in Amsterdam and already through that you might 533 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:32,520 think, man, that's a bit harsh, but the amount of applicants 534 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,320 they get, the hiring manager basically said, yeah, if someone 535 00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:37,840 doesn't live in Amsterdam, I don't want to talk to them and 536 00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:40,360 you can have an opinion on that, but this is someone's choice. 537 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:44,200 So there are a lot of variables that you can tweak and there are 538 00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:46,720 a numerous valuables that you cannot tweak. 539 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,960 Something can also just change in the organization and no one 540 00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:52,040 will ever know, but they will just scrap a position. 541 00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:55,040 The way you can distinguish yourself is by building up 542 00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:57,840 relationships with the people and with the company that you're 543 00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:00,280 already hiring that is actually hiring. 544 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:03,880 So sending a message out on LinkedIn, I feel like I've done 545 00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:09,320 a whole episode on how to get a job remote or abroad remotely, 546 00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:13,600 working remotely or coming from abroad, and that goes a lot into 547 00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:15,520 detail with regards to getting your foot in the door. 548 00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:18,320 Now, I still believe strongly that projects are a 549 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:22,400 differentiating factor next to experience, but if you don't 550 00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:25,440 have experience, then showing results in projects I feel like 551 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:31,120 is the way to go. Nowadays coding is cheap because 552 00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:34,440 tooling does a lot of the job. But building software, in the 553 00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:36,560 end we are engineers, we are not coders. 554 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,880 So showing software that runs in production with certain 555 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:44,120 operational aspects and also in a good development pipeline with 556 00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:47,200 regards to continuous feature development shows results. 557 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:51,480 It shows you've thought end to end and not just within specific 558 00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:53,920 development. And the more people think both 559 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:57,680 in depth and in width, it's maybe a lot to ask, but it's 560 00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:01,120 really to distinguish yourself, the better you will come out 561 00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:03,840 when it comes to the general population. 562 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:06,200 So yeah, build out those side projects. 563 00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:12,080 I started this answer with kind of feeling torn because I don't 564 00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:15,120 have many side projects. They're not all on GitHub. 565 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:17,120 My GitHub looks awful, to be honest. 566 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:18,640 A lot of it's just running locally. 567 00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:22,240 But yeah, in essence, I feel like if I were to apply, I would 568 00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:23,920 definitely have to work on that part of it. 569 00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:25,880 I feel like I have the networking down. 570 00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:29,120 I have a lot of relationships down, but when it actually comes 571 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:33,280 to projects, I don't have much. And for people that don't have 572 00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:36,000 much, the more you have the better it is because it 573 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:40,040 distinguishes you. In my circumstance, 50 hour work 574 00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:43,640 week, newborn at home, no prior tech experience. 575 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:46,680 Do you think focusing on completing a high quality 576 00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:50,080 portfolio before starting to apply is the right approach? 577 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:54,120 Or should I balance job applications alongside portfolio 578 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:58,960 building even with limited time? You're busy and the fact that 579 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:03,280 you are re educating yourself to go to a different career is 580 00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:07,160 incredibly admirable. I would say don't wait. 581 00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:10,760 So there is no reason for you to wait until you have a portfolio 582 00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:14,280 to start applying already in applications, you can show what 583 00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:16,760 you're building specifically in the portfolio that you're 584 00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:19,480 building. So yeah, no newborn on my end 585 00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:21,960 and I cannot compare directly with you. 586 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:26,000 My only fear is don't burn yourself out, Eric. 587 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:28,720 It's a lot of work maintaining a job, being responsible as a 588 00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:29,880 father. You probably have other 589 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:31,400 responsibilities. Maybe you own a house. 590 00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:33,960 I don't have any of that. So I have a lot of time. 591 00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:36,680 I have a lot of free time to apply to work, to apply to 592 00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:38,720 passions that I have. I'm building a company, doing a 593 00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:40,680 podcast, 1 to another YouTube channel. 594 00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:43,600 I have a full time job, I'm in the works council. 595 00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:45,960 In my job I do different things. I do trainings as well, 596 00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:49,000 consultancy, always fun. I was a team lead. 597 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,480 I could not do that anymore because it was too draining. 598 00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:53,480 So at some point you have to cut things. 599 00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:55,960 I have a girlfriend, a partner who I wish I could spend more 600 00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:58,520 time with, friends and family, some friends I haven't spoken 601 00:31:58,520 --> 00:31:59,760 to. I'm horrible at keeping 602 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:03,200 connections and relationships. So already I feel like time is 603 00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:06,920 tight and for you it must be amplified to some of the 604 00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:11,040 responsibilities you have. So good luck with whatever 605 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:13,040 you're doing. I think it's very ambitious and 606 00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:15,640 amicable and I wish you all the best man. 607 00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:20,160 In your opinion, which five job platforms or resources are the 608 00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:24,080 most trustworthy and effective for finding real tech roles in 609 00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:26,640 today's market? Five job platforms. 610 00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:29,800 I think if I did my best and someone asked me can you name 611 00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:32,000 three? I think I would only stop at 612 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:34,320 LinkedIn to be honest, as a job platform. 613 00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:38,680 So LinkedIn first and foremost, both by building relationships 614 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:41,640 with people and keeping touch with companies that have new 615 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:44,680 positions. I don't know if LinkedIn is as 616 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:48,040 up to date as the company profile pages themselves, the 617 00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,200 company website pages, company career pages. 618 00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:53,000 So that might be potentially a second. 619 00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:55,400 But yeah, doesn't really scale as well. 620 00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:59,480 What I would say is go to meetups specifically organized 621 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:02,400 by the companies you want to work for or in a specific 622 00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:05,360 domain. There is now a new meet up in 623 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:07,280 Amsterdam. It's called AI in Amsterdam. 624 00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:12,160 They have had a conference and I think a few sessions both 625 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:15,800 earlier in Korea, which I didn't go to, but also organized by a 626 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:19,080 lot of AI tooling and companies. So I went to the one from 627 00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:24,120 ChatGPT, from Open AI, I should say, and the one from Google 628 00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:26,320 specifically about Gemini. And there's going to be another 629 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:28,560 one from Anthropic. I'm going to go to that one as 630 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:30,760 well. I haven't checked the agenda but 631 00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:34,920 hopefully soon, somewhere in February, you will find people 632 00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:39,120 that are like minded with regards to a certain topic, 633 00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:43,240 specifically where the meet up is about and you will build 634 00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:45,040 relationships. And they could be people that 635 00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:46,600 are already working at a company. 636 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:49,320 Maybe you have an idea you want to pitch to people, you can 637 00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:51,960 practice your pitching and you can build up a relationship with 638 00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:54,360 regards to that. Some people come there and they 639 00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:57,400 have start-ups, they're building so they are looking for people 640 00:33:57,400 --> 00:33:59,280 to collaborate with or to work together with. 641 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:02,520 There is no equity, there is no revenue, but the fact that you 642 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,320 are already building and creating something can be 643 00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:08,960 extremely valuable or it shows that you have ambition and drive 644 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,719 and are also acting upon that. So there can be a lot of 645 00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:17,040 benefits to go into meetups, but a lot of responsibility is on 646 00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:20,719 you because you have to go and you have to network. 647 00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:24,560 And the only way to get good at networking is to actually do the 648 00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:27,760 networking, talk to people, say, hey, my name is Patrick. 649 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:29,440 How long have you been living in Amsterdam? 650 00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:31,440 Oh, I've actually, yeah, I'm Dutch. 651 00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:34,360 Nah, no, you wouldn't think of that because that's typically 652 00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:37,000 how it goes. Did you like to talk? 653 00:34:37,199 --> 00:34:39,080 Have you had fun so far? Have you gone to any previous 654 00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:41,239 meet ups? Have a conversation with people? 655 00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:43,400 Genuinely. You will get better at doing 656 00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:46,920 that the more you do it and whatever outcome comes out of 657 00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:51,480 that, I cannot guarantee you can get a job, but it might help, so 658 00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:54,040 why not do it? If you're a front end developer, 659 00:34:54,159 --> 00:34:57,000 how good is it going to be to keep up with the back end? 660 00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:00,240 Are we going to lose with regards to knowledge in a 661 00:35:00,240 --> 00:35:04,160 specific stack? My experience has been I was 662 00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:05,680 quite comfortable on the back end. 663 00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:08,600 I did a little bit of front end in my first software engineering 664 00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:12,960 job. And then when I joined CBR, my 665 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:16,560 manager asked me, we have a lot of front end projects, do you 666 00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:18,720 want to learn more about the front end? 667 00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:22,960 And my perspective at the time is more knowledge is better. 668 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:26,400 So I said yes. I said to a lot of yes, yes. 669 00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:28,640 I said almost just everything. Do you want to learn about the 670 00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:30,640 yes? Yes, because I had no clue what 671 00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,400 I wanted to do. So the more I learn, the more I 672 00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:35,000 learn. If I like it, if I enjoy it. 673 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:38,200 What aspects do I enjoy and what do I not like in the end? 674 00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:41,120 Front end is quite specific coming from back end, but I can 675 00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:43,880 see that the inverse could also be the same. 676 00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:46,480 If you start in the front end, there are there can be some 677 00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:50,400 abstract things on the back end that are interesting to you 678 00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:53,000 maybe. Or even if not, I do feel like 679 00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:55,720 general knowledge is going to be valuable. 680 00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:59,680 So if you're specific with regards to front end, at least 681 00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:03,000 know some of the basics on the back end API design or 682 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:06,640 interactions with databases, or where business logic lives or 683 00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:08,760 how to architect. What does good back end 684 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,800 architecture look like? Know it from a surface level 685 00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:14,600 enough to have conversations with back end. 686 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:18,320 If then those responsibilities are really separated and that 687 00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:21,720 curiosity Dr. you. In the end, if you genuinely 688 00:36:21,720 --> 00:36:25,040 enjoy it, you can do both. People do both and they are very 689 00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:28,680 effective and nowadays with AI tooling, I feel like you can be 690 00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:33,440 more and more responsible for a lot of aspects because you're 691 00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:36,160 enabled due to the tooling that you have nowadays more so than 692 00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:39,320 ever. So I don't think it can hurt. 693 00:36:39,720 --> 00:36:43,200 Don't shy away from it. If you genuinely say I've never 694 00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:45,600 done it but I don't want to do it, that makes no sense. 695 00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:49,360 If you say I've done it and I genuinely enjoy the front set 696 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,560 more because of XY and Z, that is so much more powerful than 697 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:54,960 you and never having tried so do it. 698 00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:57,400 Is it going to take away from focus and context? 699 00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:00,120 Yes. You can also say I am focusing 700 00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:03,280 on these aspects on the front end before I'm going to educate 701 00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:07,280 myself on the back end also. Fine, have a plan but definitely 702 00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:10,600 experience. How many certifications should a 703 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:14,000 serious IT professional aim to earn in a year? 704 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:17,560 How important is it to get certified in today's IT 705 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:21,040 industry? Have I ever had a certification? 706 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:25,400 Maybe a few, not more than I can count on one hand to be honest. 707 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:31,000 So with that my perspective is I don't think it is as important 708 00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:36,000 even to the point where I feel like general education, your 709 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:38,840 university degree might not matter as much. 710 00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:43,040 We are more moving towards a skills based economy. 711 00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:46,600 So whatever you have built that shows your skill, how well you 712 00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:50,080 are equipped in how you communicate it and show results 713 00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:53,960 is going to matter more than a piece of paper that is a 714 00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:55,960 certificate. That is my opinion. 715 00:37:56,960 --> 00:37:59,760 Not everyone is going to agree. So for some people, the fact 716 00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:03,800 that you have educated yourself and that you have the width that 717 00:38:03,800 --> 00:38:07,200 in outcome gives you this certificate, they also hold 718 00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:09,880 value to that. I'm not saying it has 0 value, 719 00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:14,080 I'm saying I feel like other things are more valuable as 720 00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:17,120 people build more. What you build specifically and 721 00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:19,400 how you build it and how you communicate what you've built 722 00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:22,240 and why have you built this thing is going to be more 723 00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:24,920 valuable than I haven't built anything but I have these 724 00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:26,800 certificates that show that I can build. 725 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:29,200 But why haven't you built something? 726 00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:31,840 I would ask and if you don't have a good answer for that, if 727 00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:35,400 it was I was working on getting these certificates, then you 728 00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:37,840 haven't shown me anything. You have shown me you are good 729 00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:41,320 at getting certificates, but my job is not to do that. 730 00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:43,400 My job is to build. My job is to execute. 731 00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,800 My job is to have business outcomes due to what I do. 732 00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:50,360 So that's what I want to see and that's what I think is the most 733 00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:53,120 valuable. Do you recommend soft skills 734 00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:55,720 trainings or is it all about experience? 735 00:38:56,160 --> 00:39:00,560 When it comes to getting better at soft skills, I get a training 736 00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:04,120 budget every single year. And the mantra in this company 737 00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:06,920 is you finish your training budget every single year. 738 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:11,560 It is a significant amount of money and you are a responsible 739 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:14,360 adult and you can spend it in whatever way you want. 740 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:16,080 Do you want to go to a conference? 741 00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:19,400 You book the conference, you reimburse it or you ask office 742 00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,000 management to book it for you so you don't have to reimburse it. 743 00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:24,320 Do you want to go to a conference abroad? 744 00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:27,360 You arrange the hotel, the flight and the conference and 745 00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:30,600 all the food you have there you can reimburse and it goes off 746 00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:32,760 your education budget. Do you want to follow a 747 00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:34,600 training? Doesn't matter what training it 748 00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:38,040 is, you can do so and you can you can reimburse. 749 00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:39,920 So that's the context that I'm in. 750 00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:43,240 I've been at this company for seven years, which means 7 times 751 00:39:43,240 --> 00:39:47,040 that significant amount is the money that I've spent in both 752 00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:52,920 trainings, conferences, flights, food, online courses, you name 753 00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:56,120 it, I've tried it. There are specific trainings 754 00:39:56,120 --> 00:40:01,040 that will always stick with me that I feel like even though the 755 00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:04,440 information that I've gained is somewhere anchored in my brain 756 00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:07,320 and it's hard to regurgitate exactly what I learned. 757 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:10,640 The experiences of those trainings, both my teacher as 758 00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:14,680 well as the participants, they have stuck with me and their 759 00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:18,480 experiences have stuck with me. And specifically what I learned, 760 00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:20,600 there are certain aspects that I'm like. 761 00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:23,760 This is something that I can still communicate to you, 762 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,360 something that I've learned and something that I am aware of and 763 00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:30,640 that I can educate others with my peers or the people that I 764 00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:33,880 mentor. So I feel like there are 765 00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:36,240 valuable soft skills related trainings. 766 00:40:36,240 --> 00:40:42,480 Yes, a lot of experience might even be more valuable. 767 00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:46,520 It is just easier to gain. You cannot do a training every 768 00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:49,640 single week in a calendar year. It just does not happen. 769 00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:53,280 So the more you can experience on the job with difficult 770 00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:57,000 conversations that you have with a peer or with a brilliant jerk, 771 00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,200 or with your manager, or in a conversation in a group of 772 00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:03,920 seniors, or by presenting a pitch that you have or an idea 773 00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:09,360 or a proposal or something to a large audience is going to be of 774 00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:11,560 value to you. So do both. 775 00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:16,840 Figure out what trainings have your interest, ask around, ask 776 00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:19,600 for guidance, ask specifically to people. 777 00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:21,120 What trainings would you recommend? 778 00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:24,280 What has always stuck with you or have you had the most value 779 00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:25,720 when it comes to specific training? 780 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:28,800 Do that and experience on the job. 781 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:31,560 That's how you get better at soft skills. 782 00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:37,080 Now, I've talked a lot actually, and I still have about 20 783 00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:40,320 questions left, I feel like. So I'm going to park this. 784 00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:43,880 This was today's episode. Tune back in next week because 785 00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:45,920 we're going to do another Q&A. See you then.