1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:01,760 Should I call this Ama's or Q A's? 2 00:00:01,760 --> 00:00:05,360 That's my life question because apparently a few people don't 3 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:08,320 know what Ama's is. So I think I'm back to Q A's QA 4 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:11,720 #5. Can't believe I made it to five 5 00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:13,280 already. We've got some great questions. 6 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:17,640 Very specific, very topical. Today it's topical and English 7 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:19,600 word. In any case, I'm rambling. 8 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:23,680 Sit down, relax, get comfy. I got your questions with me and 9 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:29,000 let's begin beyond coding. Big question, just started off. 10 00:00:29,810 --> 00:00:33,010 I'm gonna paraphrase it. How do you manage your own high 11 00:00:33,010 --> 00:00:35,130 expectations? Sometimes I have the feeling of 12 00:00:35,130 --> 00:00:38,650 being left behind and not moving too fast, especially while 13 00:00:38,650 --> 00:00:41,170 looking at engineers, creators, and entrepreneurs on social 14 00:00:41,170 --> 00:00:43,490 media. Do you also have that or 15 00:00:43,490 --> 00:00:48,530 recognize that feeling? I recognize that feeling and 16 00:00:48,770 --> 00:00:52,650 more and more I try to let it go and not necessarily compare 17 00:00:52,650 --> 00:00:57,400 myself to others. It's hard, I feel like because 18 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:01,000 motivation for me also comes from comparison, but I feel like 19 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,760 there's also a downside to that, that it might leave you 20 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:06,680 unfulfilled or wanting too much in too short of an amount of 21 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:08,880 time. To give you an example, I can 22 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:12,160 compare myself to people that are of the same age or younger 23 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:16,280 that I feel like have achieved more or are just in a better 24 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:18,800 spot career wise or are where I want to be. 25 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:21,240 Maybe years down the line. But they've already made that 26 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:24,000 right and because they're younger I feel like I'm missing 27 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,120 out or I'm not moving too fast. But those people do not have the 28 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:31,400 same experience as I have. If I want to get to that point, 29 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:35,160 I feel like I should get to that point my way, right? 30 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:37,200 And they don't have the same journey as me. 31 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:40,000 They have their own journey. They got their their own way. 32 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,880 They might not have had the same struggles or the same learnings 33 00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:47,680 or the same choices. I feel like if I'm going to get 34 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:50,480 there, it's going to be my way. And I feel like accepting that, 35 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:55,590 that allows me to not feel like I'm being left behind because if 36 00:01:55,590 --> 00:01:57,950 it's my way then it's always going to be my way. 37 00:01:57,990 --> 00:02:02,270 So then I'm not really behind. I'm just on my own path with my 38 00:02:02,270 --> 00:02:05,910 own pace and I'll get there. That is something I'm I'm very 39 00:02:05,910 --> 00:02:08,030 stubborn in. I like goals, maybe not long 40 00:02:08,030 --> 00:02:10,550 term goals, but I'm very goal oriented. 41 00:02:11,030 --> 00:02:14,630 If I have a vision to get somewhere and I fully believe, I 42 00:02:14,630 --> 00:02:16,590 usually have to fully believe. Otherwise I'll scratch the 43 00:02:16,590 --> 00:02:19,630 vision and I'll give it my all to get there and it then it 44 00:02:19,630 --> 00:02:21,350 doesn't really matter how long it takes. 45 00:02:22,030 --> 00:02:25,430 I feel like I'm a really good sprinter, and with this podcast 46 00:02:25,430 --> 00:02:28,670 apparently I can run marathons as well, so it doesn't really 47 00:02:28,670 --> 00:02:30,750 matter how fast it is then at the end of the day, I'll get 48 00:02:30,750 --> 00:02:33,910 there if I want to. I hope that answers the 49 00:02:33,910 --> 00:02:36,510 question. If it doesn't, reach out to me 50 00:02:36,510 --> 00:02:39,350 and we'll have a chat. Now this is one I'm gonna have 51 00:02:39,350 --> 00:02:41,750 to think about. If you could change one thing 52 00:02:41,750 --> 00:02:45,430 from the past five years of your career, what would that be and 53 00:02:45,430 --> 00:02:47,510 why now? This is a difficult one because 54 00:02:47,510 --> 00:02:49,310 I always say I like where I ended up. 55 00:02:49,310 --> 00:02:51,430 So then should I really change something? 56 00:02:53,060 --> 00:02:56,020 I think I can change something and it might completely change 57 00:02:56,020 --> 00:02:59,140 the outcome, but I have a hard time starting things. 58 00:02:59,580 --> 00:03:01,740 The reason I started this podcast is because I got help. 59 00:03:01,820 --> 00:03:04,860 Someone said I'll facilitate whatever you need and then I was 60 00:03:04,860 --> 00:03:08,220 like, yes, me pick me. Yes, then I can do it. 61 00:03:08,340 --> 00:03:12,220 It's way easier to have help and to start doing things I've 62 00:03:12,220 --> 00:03:14,380 always gained a lot and I used to love. 63 00:03:14,420 --> 00:03:17,940 I still do watch a lot of YouTube, see people playing 64 00:03:17,940 --> 00:03:20,660 video games, having fun, interacting with each other. 65 00:03:20,660 --> 00:03:24,110 And I always thought about doing that, thought about getting my 66 00:03:24,110 --> 00:03:27,430 own recording stuff, getting a Blue Yeti microphone, playing 67 00:03:27,430 --> 00:03:29,270 some PlayStation and recording my stuff. 68 00:03:29,910 --> 00:03:34,510 And I I mean, sometimes still think about that, But especially 69 00:03:34,510 --> 00:03:38,870 back then, when I was in high school, even I would think about 70 00:03:38,870 --> 00:03:41,550 that a lot. And I never did that because I 71 00:03:41,550 --> 00:03:43,870 would spin a car. I have to do this and I have to 72 00:03:43,870 --> 00:03:46,190 have this and I have to do this. And what if this and what if 73 00:03:46,190 --> 00:03:49,310 that and I never started. All those thoughts make me not 74 00:03:49,310 --> 00:03:52,770 start things. I feel like I should start 75 00:03:52,770 --> 00:03:59,050 things sooner, maybe faster, but it's kind of a dilemma because I 76 00:03:59,050 --> 00:04:01,810 also like doing things to kind of the best of my abilities. 77 00:04:01,810 --> 00:04:04,130 So if I start more things, then I can't really uphold that 78 00:04:04,130 --> 00:04:06,810 quality that I want. So maybe that's why I don't 79 00:04:06,810 --> 00:04:08,930 start things. But I feel like some stuff I 80 00:04:08,930 --> 00:04:12,250 could have started earlier. I listen to a lot of podcasts, 81 00:04:12,530 --> 00:04:15,530 especially now that I know I really enjoy doing these 82 00:04:15,530 --> 00:04:17,610 podcasts. I wish I would have started 83 00:04:17,610 --> 00:04:20,570 earlier and I would have been better, maybe faster. 84 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:24,080 Hey, who cares? That's the end of the day. 85 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:27,800 It didn't happen. I could have done it, and maybe 86 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:30,600 I wish I did, or maybe I didn't wish at all. 87 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:33,640 Other than that, there's probably one other thing that 88 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:36,600 pops in my mind when it comes to career progression. 89 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:40,040 A lot of my work, a lot of my progress has been kind of 90 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:41,960 reactive progress, if that makes sense. 91 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:45,760 I feel like if I would have planned more what I really 92 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:48,640 wanted to do, sit down and maybe write down those goals, I just 93 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:50,840 don't really like doing that. But I feel like I could have 94 00:04:50,840 --> 00:04:54,600 done more with actively growing because especially already on I 95 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,320 would come home and I wouldn't really work on anything. 96 00:04:57,320 --> 00:05:00,800 I wouldn't really work on self improvement or self development. 97 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:05,000 I would just have my work life get better at what I think I 98 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,280 wanted to get better at at work. And then when I would get home, 99 00:05:08,280 --> 00:05:10,240 I wouldn't really do a lot of things. 100 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:14,120 It's probably because what I was doing, especially early on in 101 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:15,840 operations, wasn't really a true passion. 102 00:05:16,280 --> 00:05:19,760 Maybe even cuz nowadays when I go home I do a lot of stuff. 103 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:22,160 I do a lot of extra stuff. It's because I love doing it 104 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:24,080 probably, and maybe that was missing. 105 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:27,600 So then the goal should have been finding something I can be 106 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:30,600 truly passionate about and I could have spent maybe more 107 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:34,040 personal time on that. Maybe that's something I would 108 00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:37,280 have wanted to change. What is the best piece of advice 109 00:05:37,280 --> 00:05:40,260 you've ever gotten? Best piece of advice I've ever 110 00:05:40,260 --> 00:05:42,460 gotten? It's hard to pick one I like, 111 00:05:42,540 --> 00:05:45,220 don't have any expectations, so you can't be disappointed. 112 00:05:45,780 --> 00:05:47,260 That's one that really stuck with me. 113 00:05:47,380 --> 00:05:50,260 Other one is if you want something done, pick up the 114 00:05:50,260 --> 00:05:53,500 phone and call someone. Nowadays some people don't 115 00:05:53,500 --> 00:05:55,540 answer and that is rude as hell. OK? 116 00:05:55,540 --> 00:05:58,900 But especially when I was in operations before joining 117 00:05:58,900 --> 00:06:02,300 operations, I hated phone calls. I don't like talking on the 118 00:06:02,300 --> 00:06:04,060 phone. I thought, don't like the sound 119 00:06:04,060 --> 00:06:07,850 of people's voices on the phone. I I'll just text, I'll text and 120 00:06:07,850 --> 00:06:09,450 they do whatever they want, whenever they want. 121 00:06:09,810 --> 00:06:12,930 But yeah, in operations I really needed people and I would call 122 00:06:12,930 --> 00:06:14,730 them and they would answer and we would get stuff done 123 00:06:15,010 --> 00:06:16,570 basically. Or if I would need a piece of 124 00:06:16,570 --> 00:06:19,810 information, I could really dig down into the documentation and 125 00:06:19,810 --> 00:06:22,450 spend an hour and get it myself. Or I could do one phone call 2 126 00:06:22,450 --> 00:06:24,610 minutes and I would get that information. 127 00:06:24,930 --> 00:06:27,610 I got a lot of stuff done because of getting over my 128 00:06:27,610 --> 00:06:31,450 hurdle and just calling people. Don't know if that was a piece 129 00:06:31,450 --> 00:06:33,810 of advice or more so realization, oh, I saw someone 130 00:06:33,810 --> 00:06:37,590 do that and he would get stuff done a lot faster than anyone 131 00:06:37,590 --> 00:06:40,230 else. So yeah, I definitely adopted 132 00:06:40,230 --> 00:06:43,590 that behavior. I know judgments is a big one. 133 00:06:43,870 --> 00:06:46,750 Try not to judge people, try and understand where they're coming 134 00:06:46,750 --> 00:06:49,630 from sometimes. Try and hold your opinion to 135 00:06:49,630 --> 00:06:52,430 yourself and listen before speaking. 136 00:06:52,910 --> 00:06:55,990 I feel like that's a big one in kind of reaching to a common 137 00:06:55,990 --> 00:06:59,230 ground or a common solution. It's a hard one, especially when 138 00:06:59,230 --> 00:07:03,470 you're strong headed and have opinions like I tend to be and 139 00:07:03,470 --> 00:07:06,410 have. But I do think it's valuable to 140 00:07:06,410 --> 00:07:09,570 put that aside more consciously and actively listen in that way. 141 00:07:10,250 --> 00:07:14,250 Apparently, and I realized this more and more, this tech space 142 00:07:14,250 --> 00:07:17,170 or probably the space you're in is a lot smaller than you think 143 00:07:17,170 --> 00:07:19,250 it is. You will find people that you've 144 00:07:19,250 --> 00:07:21,690 worked with before, people know, people that you've worked with 145 00:07:21,690 --> 00:07:24,490 before. It's actually pretty tight knit 146 00:07:24,610 --> 00:07:26,490 kind of area. Your connections know each 147 00:07:26,490 --> 00:07:30,470 other's connections also, and a lot of people know each other, 148 00:07:30,470 --> 00:07:32,510 so don't burn any bridges. You've talked about 149 00:07:32,510 --> 00:07:35,470 transitioning from operations to software engineering before. 150 00:07:35,790 --> 00:07:37,630 Why did you make that transition? 151 00:07:38,430 --> 00:07:40,910 This is an interesting one. Why did I do that? 152 00:07:41,550 --> 00:07:45,830 I thought it would be fun to be more so creating things rather 153 00:07:45,830 --> 00:07:48,110 than maintaining things that other people created. 154 00:07:48,190 --> 00:07:51,430 I feel like I did partly software engineering in uni. 155 00:07:51,430 --> 00:07:53,870 It was a lot of Python, some web development here and there. 156 00:07:54,270 --> 00:07:57,070 And I always liked programming because for me it was like 157 00:07:57,070 --> 00:07:59,730 problem solving. Maybe sometimes I didn't even 158 00:07:59,730 --> 00:08:02,290 know what I was writing, but if I have to write output, I solved 159 00:08:02,290 --> 00:08:04,690 the problem. That was kind of my mindset back 160 00:08:04,690 --> 00:08:07,330 then and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed coming to the right 161 00:08:07,330 --> 00:08:11,090 outcome by programming. Then I went into operations and 162 00:08:11,090 --> 00:08:14,130 for me, operations was like, OK, super broad, I can go anywhere, 163 00:08:14,130 --> 00:08:16,770 I can learn a lot. That was kind of my mantra going 164 00:08:16,770 --> 00:08:22,130 in there and I felt like if someone fires me, I'll probably 165 00:08:22,410 --> 00:08:25,410 not mind that much and be happy and find someone something else. 166 00:08:26,130 --> 00:08:28,370 That was the initial mindset. Now I really enjoyed my time 167 00:08:28,370 --> 00:08:32,010 there and at some point it was a bit more frustrating because I 168 00:08:32,010 --> 00:08:35,250 would see exactly kind of input output and I would see that with 169 00:08:35,250 --> 00:08:37,130 that input my output should not be this. 170 00:08:37,730 --> 00:08:40,490 And then I could even view some of the code and be like, OK, 171 00:08:40,490 --> 00:08:42,289 this should probably where it is. 172 00:08:44,090 --> 00:08:46,890 I don't think I ever was like here it is. 173 00:08:47,370 --> 00:08:49,650 But I always had a hunch that it's probably around here 174 00:08:49,650 --> 00:08:54,090 somewhere, and the feeling of not how do you say that I was 175 00:08:54,090 --> 00:08:57,500 really unfulfilled or someone else would fix that and I would 176 00:08:57,500 --> 00:09:00,740 not know if my hunch was right, if I was actually in the right 177 00:09:00,740 --> 00:09:06,620 area where I went wrong. I like to be right, maybe, and I 178 00:09:06,620 --> 00:09:09,780 never knew that was gonna have a problem, and I felt like I liked 179 00:09:09,780 --> 00:09:12,820 operations, but I really wanted to be more so on the creative 180 00:09:12,820 --> 00:09:15,940 side and answer questions like why did we build this way the 181 00:09:15,940 --> 00:09:18,420 way that we did? Could we have done it 182 00:09:18,540 --> 00:09:21,300 differently? What if I knew from operations a 183 00:09:21,300 --> 00:09:23,900 few things and I could implement it also while developing. 184 00:09:24,510 --> 00:09:27,030 So looking online I saw development and operations in 185 00:09:27,030 --> 00:09:30,670 DevOps coming together and I was like this is what I wanna do 186 00:09:31,230 --> 00:09:32,790 now. Also back then in operations I 187 00:09:32,790 --> 00:09:35,910 managed the tool which was a lot used by project managers. 188 00:09:35,910 --> 00:09:39,310 It was not JIRA, it was not anything Scrum related at all. 189 00:09:39,310 --> 00:09:41,630 It was like a very specific tool. 190 00:09:42,110 --> 00:09:45,870 Yes, and the person that managed that tool was basically a 191 00:09:45,870 --> 00:09:48,630 program manager overseeing a lot of projects. 192 00:09:49,070 --> 00:09:51,830 Like when people needed a bigger budget than 100K, she would be 193 00:09:51,830 --> 00:09:55,290 in the steer committee that would grant that budget. 194 00:09:55,730 --> 00:09:58,530 And she was like the ecommerce side of things. 195 00:09:58,530 --> 00:10:00,610 It's kind of our department called Nextel. 196 00:10:00,890 --> 00:10:02,090 They're doing a lot of fun stuff. 197 00:10:02,170 --> 00:10:03,970 They're working with a lot of new technologies. 198 00:10:03,970 --> 00:10:06,730 They have a lot of smart people. You're very smart. 199 00:10:06,730 --> 00:10:08,810 You're working with outdated technologies. 200 00:10:08,810 --> 00:10:12,290 You should go there. And I was like, maybe I should. 201 00:10:12,730 --> 00:10:16,410 So she was like, if you want, I can connect you with the 202 00:10:16,410 --> 00:10:18,690 director there and you can have a conversation and blah, blah, 203 00:10:18,690 --> 00:10:20,010 blah. And I did that. 204 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:22,360 And for me, it's just a conversation to be like, okay, 205 00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:24,560 what are they doing, right? Because if someone so 206 00:10:24,560 --> 00:10:27,720 drastically says, these are where the smart people are and 207 00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:31,720 they're working with the latest technology, to me, I'm like, all 208 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:33,400 right, let's see what they're up to. 209 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:34,480 Let's see what they're working on. 210 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:36,800 I was curious. I'm always skeptical. 211 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:40,440 So I had that conversation. And funny enough, just the week 212 00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:43,520 before I actually was gonna have that conversation, a huge kind 213 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:47,190 of restructuring took place. And it was like, OK, these plans 214 00:10:47,190 --> 00:10:49,350 are not going to, we're not going to do anymore, this is 215 00:10:49,350 --> 00:10:51,590 going to go in the garbage. These things are going to get 216 00:10:51,590 --> 00:10:54,990 sold. People, actually, I mean, had 217 00:10:54,990 --> 00:10:58,710 worked there for a few years and we're really upset about that. 218 00:10:58,750 --> 00:11:01,630 It was like my first six, 7-8 months there. 219 00:11:01,630 --> 00:11:03,310 And I was like, OK, things are changing. 220 00:11:03,630 --> 00:11:05,510 I don't really know how that impacts me. 221 00:11:05,510 --> 00:11:08,630 I feel like my experience was a bit too, too fresh and too new 222 00:11:08,630 --> 00:11:10,390 for that. But in any case, I had the 223 00:11:10,390 --> 00:11:11,950 conversation. He was like, well, I can't make 224 00:11:11,950 --> 00:11:16,610 any moves now, but there will come a point where people in 225 00:11:16,610 --> 00:11:20,050 operations need to go back to the different companies because 226 00:11:20,050 --> 00:11:23,890 I was in a holding company and I might be able to open up a 227 00:11:23,890 --> 00:11:26,570 position then for you. So I'll keep you in mind. 228 00:11:26,970 --> 00:11:31,290 And I was like, I mean, I liked what they were doing, I liked 229 00:11:31,290 --> 00:11:33,290 the director a lot, like I had a good click with them. 230 00:11:33,530 --> 00:11:36,970 That's probably For me, choosing a position was like, one of the 231 00:11:37,690 --> 00:11:41,170 most important aspects was me liking who my manager was going 232 00:11:41,170 --> 00:11:43,770 to be, someone I could look up to, someone who I saw got shit 233 00:11:43,770 --> 00:11:47,340 done, basically. So with that in mind, I was 234 00:11:47,340 --> 00:11:49,340 like, OK, that's gonna be an option then it'll come when it 235 00:11:49,620 --> 00:11:51,980 will come. And it came a few months later. 236 00:11:52,300 --> 00:11:55,860 From my position, the people in my team could apply to some of 237 00:11:55,860 --> 00:11:57,780 the organizations that were gonna be standalone. 238 00:11:58,540 --> 00:12:01,460 It was said to us that you can apply to two positions, and it 239 00:12:01,460 --> 00:12:04,780 was not two positions separately at different organizations. 240 00:12:04,780 --> 00:12:08,380 Now one organization would have a few positions and another 241 00:12:08,380 --> 00:12:12,500 organization another few positions, and you could only 242 00:12:12,500 --> 00:12:15,690 pick two. So if you wanted two kind of 243 00:12:15,690 --> 00:12:19,130 same things, you could do different organizations or maybe 244 00:12:19,130 --> 00:12:21,010 two different things at the same organization. 245 00:12:21,450 --> 00:12:25,050 I didn't like any of that. So I applied to like 5-5 246 00:12:25,050 --> 00:12:28,930 positions and then I went on a holiday and I didn't pick up my 247 00:12:28,930 --> 00:12:30,850 phone. I always had separate personal 248 00:12:30,850 --> 00:12:32,770 phones, separate work phones. So I threw my work phone. 249 00:12:32,770 --> 00:12:35,690 Someone in a corner, didn't look at it, got a bunch of calls, and 250 00:12:35,690 --> 00:12:38,530 apparently some people made the decision that I had picked too 251 00:12:38,530 --> 00:12:42,250 many, which I agree on, and they chose two that were more 252 00:12:42,250 --> 00:12:44,790 suitable to me. I even applied to some senior 253 00:12:44,790 --> 00:12:47,030 positions and they were like, there's no way he's going to get 254 00:12:47,030 --> 00:12:48,910 that. So they picked the more junior 255 00:12:48,910 --> 00:12:54,550 positions for me and even positions that were at different 256 00:12:54,550 --> 00:12:56,750 organizations. So no, no, they were at the same 257 00:12:56,750 --> 00:12:59,950 organization, but they excluded some of the organizations where 258 00:12:59,950 --> 00:13:01,470 I like the people I wanted to talk to them. 259 00:13:01,990 --> 00:13:03,870 They didn't even put my application in there. 260 00:13:04,470 --> 00:13:07,230 I found that out later, and I pretty much pissed me off. 261 00:13:07,350 --> 00:13:11,480 And I told them something in the lines of you can't stop me from 262 00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:12,720 having conversations with people. 263 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:14,480 And if they like me for the position, I will get the 264 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:17,760 position. I know it might be unfair, but 265 00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:20,640 yeah, I'm going to do something with my best interest and that 266 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:23,040 is getting a position that is good for me and probably also 267 00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:24,840 good for the organization. Otherwise they wouldn't pick me. 268 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:29,200 So yeah, it might have not been as fair, but I wanted the 269 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:31,800 position I felt I deserved. So I talked to everyone. 270 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:34,240 And at the end of the day, that same director from the 271 00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:37,040 e-commerce side, he said, OK, this is the position, this is 272 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:40,020 what you will do. We know you don't have any 273 00:13:40,100 --> 00:13:42,700 software engineer experience. You're gonna do XY&Z. 274 00:13:43,580 --> 00:13:47,260 And what's your salary now? Yeah, this is what Ioffer you. 275 00:13:47,260 --> 00:13:49,620 He was the only one that actually said to me, this is 276 00:13:49,620 --> 00:13:51,820 your salary. It was like a 3040% increase. 277 00:13:52,660 --> 00:13:55,980 And I was like, at least that's something unique, right? 278 00:13:55,980 --> 00:13:58,060 Someone that already can say this is what you're gonna do, 279 00:13:58,180 --> 00:14:00,820 this is what you're gonna have. This is all the options, full 280 00:14:00,820 --> 00:14:03,620 transparency. And now make your decision. 281 00:14:04,290 --> 00:14:06,650 And I didn't have any of that with the other conversations. 282 00:14:06,650 --> 00:14:08,850 So then I was like, OK, this is the route I'm going to go. 283 00:14:09,370 --> 00:14:11,650 Funny enough, I joined. Then the ecommerce side of 284 00:14:11,650 --> 00:14:15,290 things, the person that was going to manage me was no longer 285 00:14:15,290 --> 00:14:16,810 with the company, got a new manager. 286 00:14:17,090 --> 00:14:20,050 He was just one week with the company after I joined. 287 00:14:20,050 --> 00:14:22,770 So he didn't really know what he has to expect either. 288 00:14:22,930 --> 00:14:24,850 The person that was going to mentor me for what I was going 289 00:14:24,850 --> 00:14:28,050 to do was not there anymore. He was just there two or three 290 00:14:28,050 --> 00:14:31,370 times a week and he had to do his normal development as well 291 00:14:31,370 --> 00:14:34,010 as transferring all the knowledge to me. 292 00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:37,520 And within a few weeks I went to my manager. 293 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:40,920 I was like, this is, this is no, no, I'm not learning anything. 294 00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:42,520 Like I don't know what I'm doing. 295 00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:44,600 I'm doing the operations side of ecommerce now. 296 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:46,680 This wasn't the deal. I want more. 297 00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:51,040 And then he finally put me in touch with the consultancy team 298 00:14:51,040 --> 00:14:53,520 that was there, which is coincidentally was from Cybia 299 00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:56,680 and he was like, Patrick's knew. Patrick needs to do everything 300 00:14:56,680 --> 00:14:59,760 that you guys can do. Basically teach him everything 301 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,470 you can. And that's really where my kind 302 00:15:02,470 --> 00:15:04,670 of learning journey and software development career started. 303 00:15:05,630 --> 00:15:10,110 It was very much I want to do this in the moment, reactive 304 00:15:10,110 --> 00:15:14,790 again, maybe going into the last question, but still I feel like 305 00:15:14,790 --> 00:15:18,350 it was the good choice for me. Probably if I didn't like it as 306 00:15:18,350 --> 00:15:20,110 much, I would have stuck with it. 307 00:15:20,110 --> 00:15:22,430 I feel like because I'm, I'm not someone that gives up early. 308 00:15:23,910 --> 00:15:26,430 And then I would have probably moved on to something adjacent 309 00:15:26,430 --> 00:15:30,280 in software engineering, because I feel like the history and 310 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:31,840 operations I've always leveraged. 311 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:33,960 I could do the same with software engineering. 312 00:15:34,400 --> 00:15:36,920 I don't know if I'm going to be software engineer for in the 313 00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:39,280 future, like how long that's going to last. 314 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:41,440 But I'll always take that experience with me and 315 00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:44,200 transition to something I think is interesting and a true 316 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:47,280 passion. What languages are you currently 317 00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:49,520 learning when it comes to programming languages? 318 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:51,640 Zero. Actually, I'm not learning 319 00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:53,640 anything right now. I'm working a lot with Go. 320 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:57,200 I dabbled a bit in Rust like an innovation day we had. 321 00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:01,440 It's kind of like a hackathon day, and Rust has a way too big 322 00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:03,520 of a learning curve. Things are way too complex. 323 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:08,080 I didn't feel productive at all yet, so no, I'm not learning 324 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:09,680 anything now. I wanna learn Spanish. 325 00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:12,720 I've tried some Italian. I've always wanted to learn 326 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:15,600 Japanese, but right now I'm not learning any programming 327 00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:18,760 languages or regular languages. Maybe I should start though. 328 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,960 Oh my goodness. Feel dehydrated? 329 00:16:28,570 --> 00:16:33,770 Yeah, When people say you'll learn this. 330 00:16:34,610 --> 00:16:39,490 When people say you'll learn this on the job, I can't speak. 331 00:16:41,850 --> 00:16:44,410 When people say you'll learn this on the job, what are the 332 00:16:44,410 --> 00:16:47,050 realities and expectations of that situation? 333 00:16:47,410 --> 00:16:50,890 How much time is given to learn and are you expected to apply it 334 00:16:50,890 --> 00:16:54,570 right away when you're inside of work or even outside? 335 00:16:55,770 --> 00:16:58,490 That's a big one and I feel like it's very much context dependent 336 00:16:59,570 --> 00:17:03,170 when I say you'll learn these things on the job usually. 337 00:17:03,250 --> 00:17:07,530 Mostly it's about the domain and I feel like that's more so 338 00:17:07,530 --> 00:17:09,970 because I'm in a consultancy where a certain set of like 339 00:17:09,970 --> 00:17:11,930 technical expertise is already required. 340 00:17:12,569 --> 00:17:15,010 If there's four things on a technical level that we need to 341 00:17:15,010 --> 00:17:20,089 know, you can learn one or two, but ideally you would bring a 342 00:17:20,089 --> 00:17:22,970 lot to the table already and then the domain that you're in, 343 00:17:23,390 --> 00:17:24,710 you can leverage your past experience. 344 00:17:24,710 --> 00:17:26,230 But usually it might be something new. 345 00:17:26,510 --> 00:17:29,190 Like I've worked in more of the medical industry, I've worked a 346 00:17:29,190 --> 00:17:32,670 lot in e-commerce and right now I'm working in IoT domain and 347 00:17:32,670 --> 00:17:34,870 the domain have. The domains have always been 348 00:17:34,870 --> 00:17:39,150 kind of new and the technologies I've always leveraged or 349 00:17:39,150 --> 00:17:42,550 sometimes learned on the job. I feel like if it's within a 350 00:17:42,550 --> 00:17:47,790 team and you have a safe environment to learn from others 351 00:17:48,430 --> 00:17:51,070 and you can do that, you have that curiosity and drive to 352 00:17:51,070 --> 00:17:54,220 learn fast to get up to speed within a few weeks, even spend 353 00:17:54,220 --> 00:17:57,020 some personal time on there because you want to be 354 00:17:57,020 --> 00:17:59,780 productive at the end of the day, then you can learn a lot on 355 00:17:59,780 --> 00:18:02,020 the job. But it very much depends on the 356 00:18:02,020 --> 00:18:05,100 context of the situation. Mostly when people tell you from 357 00:18:05,100 --> 00:18:07,420 a team perspective this is what you'll learn on the job. 358 00:18:07,940 --> 00:18:12,260 That'll mostly be true, but for me, in the context I've been, 359 00:18:12,980 --> 00:18:16,860 it's been about the technical but way more on the domain side 360 00:18:16,860 --> 00:18:19,460 of things, I missed a little bit of it. 361 00:18:19,700 --> 00:18:21,780 How much time is given and what is expected? 362 00:18:22,390 --> 00:18:24,430 Now? Those I can't answer. 363 00:18:24,590 --> 00:18:26,590 I feel like the biggest thing you can do, especially if you're 364 00:18:26,590 --> 00:18:29,870 new, is ask those questions. What is expected of me? 365 00:18:29,870 --> 00:18:33,510 How much time can I get from that to make sure it's clear for 366 00:18:33,510 --> 00:18:36,630 you, you don't want to commit to something you cannot do and you 367 00:18:36,630 --> 00:18:38,390 don't want to commit to something that is very much 368 00:18:38,390 --> 00:18:40,750 unreasonable. So you have to clear that up in 369 00:18:40,750 --> 00:18:43,350 the air. And part of you clearing up 370 00:18:43,350 --> 00:18:46,350 those expectations also makes it clear for the other people, open 371 00:18:46,350 --> 00:18:48,550 cards on the table, be direct with each other. 372 00:18:48,630 --> 00:18:52,060 I mean, I can't really give that as advice because I'm a person 373 00:18:52,060 --> 00:18:54,620 that is direct, but I feel like as long as everyone is 374 00:18:54,620 --> 00:18:58,380 transparent, the expectations are clear and you can see if you 375 00:18:58,380 --> 00:19:02,460 can do it or not. I would say you can spend 376 00:19:02,460 --> 00:19:07,180 personal time on it, but only if you're really passionate about 377 00:19:07,180 --> 00:19:08,860 it. I feel like passion will get you 378 00:19:08,860 --> 00:19:12,180 far, will take you to a place where you can spend your 379 00:19:12,180 --> 00:19:14,860 personal time on it. Otherwise you can do it, but it 380 00:19:14,860 --> 00:19:18,620 requires a lot of discipline. The best way is if you really 381 00:19:18,620 --> 00:19:21,600 enjoy what you're doing, you'll also enjoy in your personal time 382 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:23,080 and you'll get better at your craft. 383 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:27,600 Basically, is only writing in vanilla CSS instead of learning 384 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:30,440 Tailwind, Bootstrap, All the other stuff going to hold me 385 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:33,760 back? If so, which one should I learn? 386 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:37,960 I don't think it's going to hold you back. 387 00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:40,840 I think it's going to give you a foundation. 388 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:45,760 And then the other, I would say extra steps, frameworks, 389 00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:48,880 conventions are gonna build on top of that. 390 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,080 I think vanilla CSS is always kind of at the foundation and 391 00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:54,080 you can do a lot with it. You can do almost everything 392 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:56,360 with it. And that's also how I learned 393 00:19:56,520 --> 00:20:00,640 was CSS first, then we were using sauce, so I learned that 394 00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:04,000 then on for me learning was always project based, so it was 395 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:05,480 OK. On this project we're using 396 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:08,680 Tachyons, which is kind of like kind of like Tailwind. 397 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:12,800 Then I tried to and at like an innovation day, like a hackathon 398 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:16,040 day, and I joined a project where it was a lot of. 399 00:20:16,540 --> 00:20:20,140 Vanilla JavaScript and we didn't have any CSS. 400 00:20:20,140 --> 00:20:23,060 We used BOMA as a framework so it was already predefined 401 00:20:23,060 --> 00:20:25,940 classes which we used. I feel like as long as you 402 00:20:25,940 --> 00:20:29,620 understand CSS you can make a lot of the tools work. 403 00:20:30,660 --> 00:20:35,340 If your project has those tools then it might help to do that on 404 00:20:35,340 --> 00:20:38,380 the job, off the job before you get the job. 405 00:20:38,860 --> 00:20:41,220 But it really depends on the project. 406 00:20:41,770 --> 00:20:44,530 A lot of people I've met learn out of interest, they're like 407 00:20:44,530 --> 00:20:46,770 hot tailwind is a thing. I've never worked with it, Let 408 00:20:47,170 --> 00:20:50,650 me see if I can apply it right. They take an existing project, 409 00:20:51,130 --> 00:20:54,170 they rework it part of the components with tailwind and 410 00:20:54,170 --> 00:20:57,210 they form an opinion about it. They will always say it's a 411 00:20:57,210 --> 00:21:00,770 brief first impression, very brief opinion as well. 412 00:21:01,450 --> 00:21:04,130 And at least they then have kind of an experience with it. 413 00:21:04,170 --> 00:21:06,250 You don't have to master all the tools. 414 00:21:06,770 --> 00:21:10,210 You can form an opinion and then still be like this was my 415 00:21:10,210 --> 00:21:13,120 initial thought. I would love to learn more in an 416 00:21:13,120 --> 00:21:16,040 actual conversation on a project or with a colleague, Something 417 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:18,720 like that. I think that would be my advice. 418 00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:21,720 Like all the vanilla stuff is always the foundation the 419 00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:23,880 framework's built on top of that, so understanding the 420 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:27,520 fundamentals, it's also going to allow you to use the framework 421 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:30,120 more aptly and understand what's happening under the hood. 422 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:34,400 I don't know how to answer this. How many projects should My 423 00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:38,000 Portfolio include and what concepts should I incorporate in 424 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:41,160 them when applying to junior front end roles? 425 00:21:41,710 --> 00:21:44,070 Yeah, that's the hard part. I don't have a portfolio so it's 426 00:21:44,070 --> 00:21:46,510 hard for me to judge. I feel like I've always kind of 427 00:21:46,510 --> 00:21:48,990 used my network or got lucky enough. 428 00:21:48,990 --> 00:21:52,750 Let me just let me just put luck there to land the job without 429 00:21:52,750 --> 00:21:55,470 having to have a portfolio. I think being good at 430 00:21:55,470 --> 00:21:56,870 communication really helps with that. 431 00:21:56,870 --> 00:22:00,190 But if it's hard to get the first conversation then I get 432 00:22:00,190 --> 00:22:03,230 that having a portfolio really helps for me. 433 00:22:03,230 --> 00:22:06,980 What I would want to see in there is a certain amount of 434 00:22:06,980 --> 00:22:09,580 passion that someone has. I don't just want to see a 435 00:22:09,580 --> 00:22:12,460 portfolio with a bunch of stuff that anyone that can follow a 436 00:22:12,460 --> 00:22:16,420 tutorial can do. What interests you and what can 437 00:22:16,420 --> 00:22:20,020 you build with that? For example, I've seen someone 438 00:22:20,020 --> 00:22:22,620 create like a website with a lot of Pokémon stuff. 439 00:22:23,180 --> 00:22:26,140 I thought that was cool and they chose a framework which they had 440 00:22:26,140 --> 00:22:29,620 never worked with before, something like that to show them 441 00:22:29,620 --> 00:22:30,900 they can learn something as well. 442 00:22:33,180 --> 00:22:36,810 Otherwise, portfolio wise, junior front end wise, I don't 443 00:22:36,810 --> 00:22:40,010 really require someone to work with every framework that is out 444 00:22:40,010 --> 00:22:44,650 there and for me, honestly, what you bring to the table 445 00:22:44,650 --> 00:22:46,570 beforehand is not going to matter as much as the 446 00:22:46,570 --> 00:22:48,850 conversation. I can hire someone without a 447 00:22:48,850 --> 00:22:51,570 portfolio versus someone with a portfolio based on the initial 448 00:22:51,570 --> 00:22:54,570 interview I have with someone. And the interview is going to be 449 00:22:54,810 --> 00:22:57,450 sure a bit more about the technical side of things. 450 00:22:57,810 --> 00:23:00,610 But I'm also going to ask questions that are going to give 451 00:23:00,610 --> 00:23:04,290 me or help me form an opinion about how someone thinks. 452 00:23:04,850 --> 00:23:07,130 If I want to work with them, genuinely want to collaborate 453 00:23:07,130 --> 00:23:09,890 with them, want to have them in my team if they are someone I 454 00:23:09,890 --> 00:23:12,770 would trust and can rely upon. Because if I trust someone I'm 455 00:23:12,770 --> 00:23:15,970 going to trust them the 400% from the get go. 456 00:23:16,330 --> 00:23:18,970 If that is not there within the conversation then it's a hard 457 00:23:18,970 --> 00:23:22,370 fit for the team that might not say anything about the person, 458 00:23:22,370 --> 00:23:24,250 could say something about the team as well. 459 00:23:24,570 --> 00:23:26,130 So then it's just not a good match. 460 00:23:26,810 --> 00:23:29,930 Technical expertise wise, there is a baseline and a portfolio 461 00:23:29,930 --> 00:23:33,100 can help you show that. What usually with conversations 462 00:23:33,220 --> 00:23:35,940 I can already find out what someone knows or what someone 463 00:23:35,940 --> 00:23:38,340 doesn't know based on what they're talking about. 464 00:23:38,700 --> 00:23:40,660 Basically based on what they focus on when they're 465 00:23:40,660 --> 00:23:44,660 communicating and based on what they say their impact was on 466 00:23:44,660 --> 00:23:48,100 previous projects. If you don't have any previous 467 00:23:48,100 --> 00:23:51,700 experience, then yeah, I do get how a portfolio might help. 468 00:23:51,820 --> 00:23:54,660 But again, find something that aligns with your passion. 469 00:23:54,940 --> 00:23:59,780 Try and build something in a web app or an application online, a 470 00:23:59,780 --> 00:24:04,100 web app or a mobile app, I guess to show that passion as well as 471 00:24:04,100 --> 00:24:06,060 kind of your technical skill set in that way. 472 00:24:06,300 --> 00:24:08,860 Ask for feedback. I think that's a big one, but I 473 00:24:08,860 --> 00:24:12,100 look for someone is someone that is curious, someone that is 474 00:24:12,100 --> 00:24:14,780 driven and eager to learn. I think that's the biggest 475 00:24:14,780 --> 00:24:16,340 factor. If you're a sponge and you're 476 00:24:16,340 --> 00:24:19,420 eager to learn, you want feedback, then I'm like, OK, 477 00:24:19,420 --> 00:24:22,380 this person is going to grow real fast and he can grow the 478 00:24:22,380 --> 00:24:24,980 right direction because we can teach him, basically, and that 479 00:24:24,980 --> 00:24:26,580 might be a good ad for the team then as well. 480 00:24:26,700 --> 00:24:29,480 If people teach, they also get better, so it's a good ad for 481 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:32,080 the team. I hope that kind of answers the 482 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,720 question again. If it doesn't hit me up and 483 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:38,200 we'll have a conversation, how important is it that a software 484 00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:42,120 or software as a service startup in its initial stages has in 485 00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:45,320 house developers versus outsourcing developers to build 486 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:49,640 your MVP? Very interesting one and I've 487 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:52,440 never had a SaaS company. I've never had a company, so 488 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:55,160 take this with a grain of salt. I'm on a lot of subreddits 489 00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:57,250 though, so you definitely have an opinion on there. 490 00:24:57,250 --> 00:24:59,690 I feel like you definitely need a technical cofounder. 491 00:25:00,370 --> 00:25:03,810 For me to imagine being a cofounder or being a founder 492 00:25:03,810 --> 00:25:05,570 without having any technical knowledge. 493 00:25:06,010 --> 00:25:10,290 You're giving away all of your trust, basically, and if someone 494 00:25:10,290 --> 00:25:13,090 does not have any skin in the game in the form of being a 495 00:25:13,090 --> 00:25:18,250 technical cofounder or having any stock for that matter, it's 496 00:25:18,250 --> 00:25:20,850 really hard for them to deliver what you want. 497 00:25:21,130 --> 00:25:22,290 They don't have any skin in the game. 498 00:25:22,330 --> 00:25:24,610 They'll just do what you say and if you're not saying the right 499 00:25:24,610 --> 00:25:26,930 thing, it's going to be a mistake. 500 00:25:26,930 --> 00:25:29,650 At the end of the day, someone that is a technical cofounder 501 00:25:29,650 --> 00:25:33,010 can challenge people, can make sure the quality of the product 502 00:25:33,010 --> 00:25:35,730 is high, can make sure you focus on the right things. 503 00:25:35,730 --> 00:25:40,730 Also low hanging fruit, getting out the MVP faster, not over 504 00:25:40,730 --> 00:25:44,850 developing or over focusing on quality, really getting feedback 505 00:25:44,850 --> 00:25:46,690 as fast as possible. Because if you're in an MVP 506 00:25:46,690 --> 00:25:50,330 stage, that is what you want. I think when once you have 507 00:25:50,330 --> 00:25:54,600 customer validation, right, product, market fit, that's when 508 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:57,040 you have to build something that is gonna then scale for the 509 00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:00,880 people that you imagine it can be for the initial phase. 510 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:03,680 I would probably, I mean, since I am a technical person, I would 511 00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:06,920 build it myself or I would find a technical cofounder and build 512 00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:09,880 it together with them. If they think it needs a bigger 513 00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:13,240 team, you might be overdoing it. Because if you're reworking on 514 00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:16,680 MVP for market validation, at the end of the day you can throw 515 00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:18,320 that in the trash and you can do that again. 516 00:26:19,340 --> 00:26:21,980 If you really want to build something complex and you want 517 00:26:21,980 --> 00:26:26,340 your MVP to also then completely scale to the masses that you 518 00:26:26,340 --> 00:26:31,660 expect it to be, then it might help to go to a consultancy 519 00:26:31,660 --> 00:26:36,420 company and help them. No have them help you out with 520 00:26:36,420 --> 00:26:37,900 kind of the initial phases, right? 521 00:26:38,180 --> 00:26:42,460 They can put out 7080% of the architecture for it to scale to 522 00:26:42,460 --> 00:26:45,020 what you've imagined. Again, only when you have kind 523 00:26:45,020 --> 00:26:47,460 of part of market fit and you want to be through this, it's 524 00:26:47,460 --> 00:26:50,510 been validated and then you can take it from them and build it 525 00:26:50,510 --> 00:26:53,350 out with an internal team. I feel like that's where a 526 00:26:53,350 --> 00:26:56,230 consultancy and an internal team can kind of go hand in hand 527 00:26:56,750 --> 00:26:58,990 because they can help you and they can challenge you on doing 528 00:26:58,990 --> 00:27:00,950 the right things. But at the end of the day, 529 00:27:00,950 --> 00:27:03,750 consultants are expensive. Implementing is cheaper if you 530 00:27:03,790 --> 00:27:06,350 can do it in house, if you can find the people. 531 00:27:06,870 --> 00:27:11,070 And I feel like if you are adding value, I would always 532 00:27:11,070 --> 00:27:14,310 give out and allow people to have skin in the game because 533 00:27:14,310 --> 00:27:15,310 then they're really going to care. 534 00:27:15,770 --> 00:27:18,690 So let's say your team also asking in the game, then you can 535 00:27:18,690 --> 00:27:20,770 form a team around this and build it in house. 536 00:27:21,290 --> 00:27:24,370 That is what I believe. Again, I haven't done it myself, 537 00:27:24,410 --> 00:27:28,170 but that is kind of the track I would go and I would always give 538 00:27:28,170 --> 00:27:31,370 out a stock. I feel like maybe I've listened. 539 00:27:31,570 --> 00:27:33,810 I've listened to the show with Kevin Hart and Mark Cuban and 540 00:27:33,810 --> 00:27:35,490 they also talked about that and I agree. 541 00:27:35,490 --> 00:27:36,450 So that's where it's coming from. 542 00:27:36,450 --> 00:27:39,170 That's why I say give out stock. OK, Yeah. 543 00:27:40,290 --> 00:27:43,000 What are the trades that differentiate good developers 544 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:45,600 versus great developers? Senior level or not doesn't 545 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,240 really matter. I feel like that's a hard one 546 00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,720 for the people that I've worked with that are really senior that 547 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,400 I think are great. They get a lot of stuff done. 548 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:58,880 They challenge the business in where they think the value is. 549 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:00,880 They really try and understand the domain. 550 00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:05,440 They don't just wanna, how do you say that When they speak, 551 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,320 they use the terminology consciously and if there's a 552 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:11,440 mismatch in the language, they focus on that mismatch and say 553 00:28:11,940 --> 00:28:14,140 what is it? Basically, they really want to 554 00:28:14,140 --> 00:28:16,580 understand the domain that they operate in because then the 555 00:28:16,580 --> 00:28:19,540 product at the end of the day is going to match the domain that 556 00:28:19,540 --> 00:28:21,900 you're in. And maybe it's because I'm in 557 00:28:21,900 --> 00:28:24,980 IoT. But when we say device versus 558 00:28:24,980 --> 00:28:28,740 unit versus digital twin, what do we mean with that? 559 00:28:29,020 --> 00:28:32,780 And let's understand each other, write it down and speak the same 560 00:28:32,780 --> 00:28:35,500 language. I've seen senior developers, 561 00:28:35,500 --> 00:28:37,780 really great developers, refocus on that. 562 00:28:38,460 --> 00:28:42,080 And then it really depends on the type of developer as well as 563 00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:46,320 the project phase. Because for me, great developers 564 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:50,000 in an early phase can make decisions real quick because 565 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,120 their throughput and their output is just insanely fast. 566 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:55,960 If we have to pick a database solution, we have some non 567 00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:59,840 functional requirements which means we only have a few options 568 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:03,960 from those few options. Past experience plus research 569 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:07,000 out there, not even that much research shows this is the best 570 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,840 option or these are the two best options. 571 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:11,960 We pick one which we think is the best option. 572 00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,560 We don't do too much research, we don't go analysis paralysis. 573 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:20,440 We pick, we go, we iterate. If it doesn't work we pivot and 574 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:22,680 we pick the other one and they're fast enough to make the 575 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,480 decisions quickly to really focus on the decisions that 576 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:28,600 matter and yeah, the throughput is just insane. 577 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:32,360 I think that your pinpoint in a conversation with someone if 578 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:34,960 they can do that, if they have done that, if they're not afraid 579 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:37,880 to make those decisions because they know they can pivot at any 580 00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:40,440 moment. For me truly that makes a great 581 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:45,160 developer that is at the early stage of a project once things 582 00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:46,800 are a bit more established again. 583 00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:49,840 Also they focus on conventions, making sure that people other 584 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:52,840 people are unblocked and making the team more efficient. 585 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,800 But once that is established, they more and more focus on 586 00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,920 other people, making sure that everyone is more effective. 587 00:29:59,920 --> 00:30:02,240 Because then there's this kind of multiplier within the team, 588 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:04,520 right? They can focus on communication, 589 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:06,760 making sure requirements are aligned. 590 00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:10,680 They can basically go in and out of different roles, whether it's 591 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,840 product owner, Scrum master, software engineer and make sure 592 00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:17,280 that the whole operation, the whole delivery of the project is 593 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:19,120 more smooth than it would be without them. 594 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:23,400 For me that makes a great engineer, makes a great team 595 00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:26,080 player even, because they can be more than an engineer. 596 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,840 I feel like if I can give them kind of the product owner title, 597 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,000 they would still make sure the outcome would be great. 598 00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:36,160 It's because they're a great team player, they're a great 599 00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:38,200 product developer. I don't know how to phrase it, 600 00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:40,920 but I want them in my team and I want them next to me so I can 601 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:42,800 learn from them. Those are the people I'm talking 602 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:43,800 about. Yeah. 603 00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,680 And they're going to rat. I hope not just a little. 604 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:49,920 Is it a little? If if I'm out of breath, does 605 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:55,440 that mean it's a rat that that that confirms, That confirms, 606 00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:59,400 Yeah, I think so. I just have a few questions with 607 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:01,720 regards to hiring and I I already touched on hiring 608 00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:03,860 actually. If you were a hiring manager, 609 00:31:03,860 --> 00:31:06,260 how would you conduct the interview of a junior front end 610 00:31:06,380 --> 00:31:09,420 role for example, What questions would you ask and what kind of 611 00:31:09,420 --> 00:31:12,340 tests would you administer when it comes to a junior front end 612 00:31:12,340 --> 00:31:17,300 role? What would I ask questions like 613 00:31:19,540 --> 00:31:21,100 what would I do? Let's say what would I do? 614 00:31:21,460 --> 00:31:24,140 I would probably find a problem space that I think would be 615 00:31:24,140 --> 00:31:26,300 doable. I would want to do that together 616 00:31:26,300 --> 00:31:28,540 with them. Now I know it's confronting and 617 00:31:28,540 --> 00:31:31,860 some pair programming sessions can be really disheartening to a 618 00:31:31,860 --> 00:31:34,260 lot of people. But for me that's the quickest 619 00:31:34,260 --> 00:31:39,500 insight into how someone thinks. And I hope this is my hope that 620 00:31:39,500 --> 00:31:41,620 I can make someone comfortable enough to have that 621 00:31:41,860 --> 00:31:44,580 collaborative session that is also contributing. 622 00:31:44,580 --> 00:31:47,460 Because I feel like if there's any reason why it's going to be 623 00:31:47,460 --> 00:31:51,300 no, I can give the feedback then more direct, maybe direct is the 624 00:31:51,300 --> 00:31:55,140 wrong word, more honest. At least I have a better place 625 00:31:55,140 --> 00:31:57,420 to give feedback because I've actually seen the more hands on 626 00:31:57,420 --> 00:32:01,800 things I can give feedback that is going to help them also in 627 00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:05,120 next interviews and it's just going to give me better insight. 628 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:07,920 Basically the insight that I need to see if we're going to 629 00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:11,080 hire this person or not. When it comes to the questions I 630 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:16,040 might ask for certain decisions on tooling or on what they would 631 00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:17,880 use. Not necessarily because I'm 632 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:21,640 interested technical wise, but I want to know if they have an 633 00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:25,480 opinion that is not just from a book, if they genuinely care and 634 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:29,180 have an opinion on something. Because I want to talk to them 635 00:32:29,180 --> 00:32:31,460 about that opinion. I want to have a discussion, I 636 00:32:31,460 --> 00:32:33,580 want to see how they interact, how they communicate. 637 00:32:33,900 --> 00:32:35,100 I feel like that's very important. 638 00:32:35,500 --> 00:32:38,180 And also if they're open and willing to learn if they don't, 639 00:32:38,180 --> 00:32:41,180 just read a book and say this is how it is, but say this is one 640 00:32:41,180 --> 00:32:43,940 of the options and I'm willing to learn many options and I want 641 00:32:43,940 --> 00:32:47,380 to know all the options and I want to know how to use those 642 00:32:47,380 --> 00:32:49,340 options aptly when I'm on the job. 643 00:32:49,380 --> 00:32:51,660 I feel like people that are eager, people that are curious 644 00:32:52,140 --> 00:32:54,700 and people that can make this their passion doesn't have to be 645 00:32:54,900 --> 00:32:57,740 it from the start, but people that are just eager and hungry 646 00:32:57,740 --> 00:33:00,220 to learn, Those are the best people, those are the best 647 00:33:00,220 --> 00:33:01,620 people. And usually that's what junior 648 00:33:01,620 --> 00:33:04,620 developers bring to the table in my experience. 649 00:33:05,140 --> 00:33:07,420 And having that also can strengthen the team. 650 00:33:07,620 --> 00:33:09,580 Because then the team is going to be challenged, really 651 00:33:09,580 --> 00:33:14,140 challenged on its decisions. And things that might just 652 00:33:14,380 --> 00:33:17,980 stride and glide all of a sudden have to be more so explained, 653 00:33:17,980 --> 00:33:20,380 have to be defined, have to be really thought over. 654 00:33:20,860 --> 00:33:22,500 Because someone is going to challenge them and be like, why 655 00:33:22,500 --> 00:33:25,620 are we doing this? And the genuine how you say 656 00:33:25,620 --> 00:33:28,940 that, the genuineness of that question, the honesty and the 657 00:33:28,940 --> 00:33:32,500 openness I feel like is going to contribute to the team as a 658 00:33:32,500 --> 00:33:34,860 whole because people are going to be like, OK, why do we do 659 00:33:34,860 --> 00:33:36,620 that? Have to really form their own 660 00:33:36,620 --> 00:33:39,500 opinion or understanding first before you can teach it to 661 00:33:39,500 --> 00:33:41,660 someone else, before you can explain it to someone else? 662 00:33:41,980 --> 00:33:43,780 And then the shared understanding, this kind of 663 00:33:43,780 --> 00:33:46,420 shared mental model of the team, for me, it's just going to be 664 00:33:46,420 --> 00:33:49,980 more robust, more hardened. And for me, that is also what I 665 00:33:49,980 --> 00:33:53,540 expect of people that have not had as much experience. 666 00:33:54,020 --> 00:33:59,180 Questions hungry, learn eager stuff like that. 667 00:33:59,580 --> 00:34:02,820 Can you share any tips for hiring senior developers? 668 00:34:03,420 --> 00:34:08,100 Any tips for hiring senior developers for me, again, senior 669 00:34:08,100 --> 00:34:12,980 developers can do a whole slew of things, so for tips on that, 670 00:34:13,500 --> 00:34:16,300 I would really just have a conversation about their first 671 00:34:16,300 --> 00:34:19,219 of all previous work experience. I want to understand how they 672 00:34:19,219 --> 00:34:21,060 communicate, what impact they had. 673 00:34:21,580 --> 00:34:25,230 I want to talk about them in a case where if they weren't 674 00:34:25,230 --> 00:34:28,630 there, what would have happened If they allocate a lot of value 675 00:34:28,630 --> 00:34:31,710 to themselves, I want to see if it's their ego or if they 676 00:34:31,710 --> 00:34:34,830 genuinely can have this kind of argument. 677 00:34:35,270 --> 00:34:38,110 I don't have to convince me, I guess, but I I just want to hear 678 00:34:38,110 --> 00:34:41,030 their arguments towards that. What if I took them out of the 679 00:34:41,590 --> 00:34:43,270 out of the project? What would have happened then? 680 00:34:43,550 --> 00:34:46,389 If they would say that they would have the trust in the team 681 00:34:46,389 --> 00:34:50,190 for example to have everything running smoothly because they 682 00:34:51,050 --> 00:34:53,449 basically help them with that or help them with a lot of factors. 683 00:34:54,130 --> 00:34:57,170 I feel like I would have more faith in someone that is honest 684 00:34:57,690 --> 00:35:01,010 and also self reflective in that way than I would have otherwise. 685 00:35:01,890 --> 00:35:04,810 I probably would want still to have kind of a pair programming 686 00:35:04,810 --> 00:35:07,530 session with them. I would expect them to be more 687 00:35:07,530 --> 00:35:10,290 comfortable with that if they're not comfortable with pair 688 00:35:10,290 --> 00:35:12,730 programming and their senior developer. 689 00:35:12,730 --> 00:35:15,490 For me that is a bit of a red flag because what what does that 690 00:35:15,490 --> 00:35:17,530 mean? Then you don't wanna your stuff 691 00:35:17,530 --> 00:35:19,810 to hide or you don't do that with other people. 692 00:35:20,550 --> 00:35:22,670 How do you create this kind of shared mental model or how do 693 00:35:22,670 --> 00:35:25,470 you learn from each other if you're not open and willing to 694 00:35:25,470 --> 00:35:27,550 pair? So for me, that would definitely 695 00:35:27,550 --> 00:35:30,430 be a must and I would want to do that with them. 696 00:35:30,710 --> 00:35:33,230 Then in there I would just challenge more so the decisions 697 00:35:33,230 --> 00:35:36,030 not to challenge whatever they're doing or everything that 698 00:35:36,030 --> 00:35:38,630 they're doing, but I want to know and understand what they're 699 00:35:38,630 --> 00:35:40,310 thinking. I want to see if they can 700 00:35:40,310 --> 00:35:43,230 explain it to me, for it for me to make sense. 701 00:35:43,310 --> 00:35:44,910 It can be something I know about. 702 00:35:44,910 --> 00:35:48,110 It can be something I play dumb about and know a lot about. 703 00:35:48,510 --> 00:35:51,010 But I want them to. I have the opportunity to 704 00:35:51,010 --> 00:35:54,250 explain things to me, to also be able to dumb it down because I 705 00:35:54,250 --> 00:35:57,530 want to see how they can breakdown complex problems and 706 00:35:57,530 --> 00:36:00,730 communicate it in a simple way. And I'm realizing that a lot of 707 00:36:00,730 --> 00:36:04,450 it is on more so communication rather than technical expertise. 708 00:36:04,930 --> 00:36:08,810 But yeah, probably the exercise we would do, I would kind of 709 00:36:09,490 --> 00:36:12,690 tailor it skill wise to something that I would expect a 710 00:36:12,690 --> 00:36:17,450 senior engineer to kind of do on a more easier basis. 711 00:36:17,450 --> 00:36:22,250 I feel like I would try and talk about also the architecture of 712 00:36:22,250 --> 00:36:25,170 things, give them a few nonfunctional requirements and 713 00:36:25,170 --> 00:36:29,170 then see what they draw up on or what they would implement on a 714 00:36:29,170 --> 00:36:32,050 more architectural level. I feel like software architects 715 00:36:32,370 --> 00:36:35,650 or software developers also need some architectural knowledge. 716 00:36:36,090 --> 00:36:37,810 If they don't have that, that's fine. 717 00:36:37,930 --> 00:36:40,890 I would still want to have that conversation with them based on 718 00:36:40,890 --> 00:36:43,530 what they've used in the past, based on what they think. 719 00:36:44,470 --> 00:36:47,670 Also because for them, I feel like it's probably going to be 720 00:36:47,950 --> 00:36:50,670 something they want to learn then if that's what's expected 721 00:36:50,670 --> 00:36:54,590 of them. So yeah, I feel like I just said 722 00:36:54,590 --> 00:36:58,670 a whole lot and I hope it's helpful, but it is a whole lot. 723 00:36:58,750 --> 00:37:01,350 I feel like senior software engineers, really great senior 724 00:37:01,350 --> 00:37:06,270 engineers, a lot of there's a lot of expectations on them, at 725 00:37:06,270 --> 00:37:08,270 least the senior engineers that I've worked with. 726 00:37:08,630 --> 00:37:10,710 I've also worked with people that have been labeled senior 727 00:37:10,710 --> 00:37:13,020 engineers. Oh yeah, there's different 728 00:37:13,020 --> 00:37:14,780 levels I feel like to this game as well. 729 00:37:15,180 --> 00:37:19,180 What interview questions would you ask to people that you're 730 00:37:19,180 --> 00:37:22,820 hiring now? The funny thing is some or 731 00:37:22,820 --> 00:37:26,060 actually almost all of the interview questions I have asked 732 00:37:26,740 --> 00:37:28,700 and ask. I don't interview a lot anymore, 733 00:37:28,740 --> 00:37:33,420 but I did in the past would be also what I ask when I'm 734 00:37:33,420 --> 00:37:36,980 interviewing, because it's more so about people's experiences 735 00:37:36,980 --> 00:37:40,580 and people's journeys. So let's move away from more the 736 00:37:40,580 --> 00:37:42,770 technical side. I wanna know what people are 737 00:37:42,770 --> 00:37:45,050 proud of. For example, in the last few 738 00:37:45,050 --> 00:37:47,850 years, in the last two projects, maybe in the last project, what 739 00:37:47,970 --> 00:37:51,690 were you most proud of? Because that I feel like, makes 740 00:37:51,690 --> 00:37:54,410 people more at ease, makes people open up more. 741 00:37:54,890 --> 00:37:56,930 And I wanna know why that is something they're proud of 742 00:37:56,930 --> 00:37:58,890 because that tells me something about the person, right? 743 00:37:58,890 --> 00:38:01,370 The person that's sitting in front of me, the way their mind 744 00:38:01,370 --> 00:38:04,450 operates, what they truly value, who they are as a person. 745 00:38:04,930 --> 00:38:08,130 I feel like those questions kind of allow me to get a better 746 00:38:08,130 --> 00:38:11,500 insight in that. I've heard people talk about the 747 00:38:11,500 --> 00:38:14,540 fulfillment they got when people used it, when other people used 748 00:38:14,540 --> 00:38:17,340 it finally, and they said finally because they've been 749 00:38:17,340 --> 00:38:19,340 working on projects and those projects never went live, for 750 00:38:19,340 --> 00:38:22,380 example. Then I really know that is it is 751 00:38:22,380 --> 00:38:24,620 really important for this person to work on something that they 752 00:38:24,620 --> 00:38:27,140 think is fulfilling because that's why they hoped from 753 00:38:27,140 --> 00:38:29,460 project to project, right? And I can see if my project 754 00:38:29,460 --> 00:38:32,780 currently is a good fit. Otherwise, I talked to people 755 00:38:32,780 --> 00:38:34,740 and they said when they've really solved a certain 756 00:38:34,740 --> 00:38:37,180 technical problem, that's something they really felt 757 00:38:37,180 --> 00:38:39,610 fulfillment in. And then I have to see, OK, do 758 00:38:39,610 --> 00:38:41,210 we have these technical challenges, right? 759 00:38:41,210 --> 00:38:42,850 Otherwise this person's going to be unfulfilled. 760 00:38:43,210 --> 00:38:47,090 When I'm I'm, I want them in my team or when I'm hiring, I do 761 00:38:47,090 --> 00:38:50,130 the same on the opposite side because that gives me an idea of 762 00:38:50,130 --> 00:38:53,210 who I'm working with, the type of people, either my manager or 763 00:38:53,210 --> 00:38:55,690 my direct colleagues, who they are as people. 764 00:38:56,330 --> 00:38:59,410 And it's mostly what they're proud of, what they would do 765 00:38:59,410 --> 00:39:03,490 different, how they've moved from career to from position to 766 00:39:03,490 --> 00:39:06,770 position, how they did that, even what their thoughts are. 767 00:39:07,300 --> 00:39:10,300 And I feel like also I want people to understand what 768 00:39:10,300 --> 00:39:13,300 organization they're going into. So I want them to be aware of 769 00:39:13,660 --> 00:39:15,620 what type of organization do you want to work with? 770 00:39:16,020 --> 00:39:18,980 Is it a consultancy, an agency? Is it more a product company? 771 00:39:18,980 --> 00:39:20,300 And why? Right. 772 00:39:20,300 --> 00:39:21,860 Do you understand the differences? 773 00:39:22,460 --> 00:39:24,300 And do you understand why you're choosing for this one? 774 00:39:24,300 --> 00:39:27,500 For example, in what type of size of company do you work 775 00:39:27,500 --> 00:39:28,820 with? Have you worked with different 776 00:39:28,820 --> 00:39:31,420 size of companies, right. Can you understand the 777 00:39:31,420 --> 00:39:34,100 differences? Is this a conscious choice for 778 00:39:34,100 --> 00:39:36,270 me? I need to distinguish all the 779 00:39:36,350 --> 00:39:39,990 known facts that someone already has, kind of the biases I have 780 00:39:39,990 --> 00:39:42,790 to remove and then see if it's a good fit for the organization, 781 00:39:42,790 --> 00:39:46,470 for the team that I'm in. And I feel like those those 782 00:39:46,470 --> 00:39:50,750 questions at least help me give an idea on first of all, how 783 00:39:51,550 --> 00:39:54,670 some how, how prepared someone is, if they've actually given 784 00:39:54,670 --> 00:39:57,830 this a thought, if it's a conscious thing they're doing or 785 00:39:57,830 --> 00:39:59,950 this is just one of the options they have and they're kind of 786 00:39:59,950 --> 00:40:03,390 buckshotting different applications in that way 787 00:40:04,030 --> 00:40:06,830 sometimes. I've had people that have not 788 00:40:06,830 --> 00:40:10,590 been proud of a lot of things that would just be like, that's 789 00:40:10,590 --> 00:40:12,710 a good question. I'll I'll get back to that 790 00:40:12,710 --> 00:40:14,670 later. Like I would really ask and 791 00:40:14,670 --> 00:40:18,270 really felt like I was like putting this conversation on my 792 00:40:18,270 --> 00:40:21,350 back and really like putting a lot of effort into it and I 793 00:40:21,350 --> 00:40:22,910 wasn't really feeling it from the other side yet. 794 00:40:22,910 --> 00:40:25,590 Then it's a quick note, but for the conversation where it really 795 00:40:25,590 --> 00:40:28,750 flows, where I can find someone that is truly passionate, that 796 00:40:28,750 --> 00:40:32,310 is eager, then usually yeah, I would want to work with that 797 00:40:32,310 --> 00:40:35,220 people. I trust that person, basically. 798 00:40:35,820 --> 00:40:38,740 And that is like a base level of requirement that you need to 799 00:40:38,740 --> 00:40:42,300 have for a team and someone and a colleague. 800 00:40:42,820 --> 00:40:45,980 So yeah, that's what I focus on, on hiring questions that are 801 00:40:45,980 --> 00:40:48,900 like in that region, talking about questions. 802 00:40:51,100 --> 00:40:53,500 If you have any questions and you want me to answer them next 803 00:40:53,500 --> 00:40:56,220 time, leave them in the comment section below. 804 00:40:56,500 --> 00:40:58,820 Otherwise, I'll throw up a post again on LinkedIn. 805 00:40:59,060 --> 00:41:02,500 I'll reach out to some people personally, or I'll throw up a 806 00:41:02,500 --> 00:41:06,410 poll and a post on YouTube so you can put in your questions 807 00:41:06,410 --> 00:41:08,050 there. For the next one, it's going to 808 00:41:08,050 --> 00:41:11,970 be in 2 1/2 months, so that should be like the end of the 809 00:41:11,970 --> 00:41:14,170 year, actually. Man, stuff moves fast. 810 00:41:14,490 --> 00:41:19,010 But yeah, this was Q&A #5 episode 120. 811 00:41:19,010 --> 00:41:21,810 We're getting up there. So thank you for listening. 812 00:41:22,090 --> 00:41:22,970 We'll see you on the next one.