SWLW #435: I've got your talent right here, Healthy goals, and more.

Heya,

I hope that you and your family are doing well, and you are able to find a new rhythm in this hard situation.

As always, below you can read my best findings for the week -
 

This Week's Favorite

​​I've Got Your Talent, Right Here.
4 minutes read.

"In my experience, the people that do tend to become star performers are those for whom the new job represents some kind of logical career progression – or a change of direction." -- Mitch Sullivan is spot on. Always understand what is it that the candidate wants to achieve, and how does it fit what the role requires. Talent should manifest in challenges the candidate had before.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Product [sponsored]

[Free Book] Definitive Guide to Feature Management
Feature Management is a new class of software development tools & techniques powered by feature flags. LaunchDarkly fills the gaps of conventional feature toggles.
Ship Fast. Rest Easy. LaunchDarkly.

 Promote your product on SWLW and reach over 26,950 leaders 

Culture

The Deal Is Basically Closed, We Just Need to Quickly Run It by Our Lawyers..
1 minute read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face, even in this difficult time.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Shifting Engineering Right: What Security Engineers Can Learn From DevSecOps
6 minutes read.

Security is a core component in today's world. Companies pay attention to it as it has a business impact - signing new customers (good luck answering RFPs without good security stand), and reducing risk for the company (e.g. data breach). Leif Dreizler shares how to get security engineers more involved in the software development processes.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


The Elusive Pursuit of Getting It (all) Done
4 minutes read.

Learning to define and be okay with your "good enough" comes with age and experience. Relentless prioritization and awareness of Present Bias are essential, but dealing with the inner monkey who wants to chase it all is brutal. With 3 kids, "good enough" is everywhere: as a husband, a father, at work, with my side projects and dreams. I'm still working on it.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


How Do Accurately Assess a Senior Engineers Skill in 30-45 Minutes Without Pattern Matching or Relying on Bias? (Spoiler Alert: I Don't Think You Can) (Thread)
4 minutes read.

Bryan Liles asked a great question that spawned an excellent discussion. For me, I try to see if they understand the fundamentals of a technology they claim to know well. Then I want to see how they lead a project, covering the process they use, e.g. starting with requirements/pains, having multiple solutions, knowing the tradeoffs, conducting pre-mortem and BetterNext, etc. But I agree with Bryan, avoiding pattern matching is like trying to avoid biases. Knowing them feels like you can do better, but we rarely do.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Jobs [sponsored]

Director of Engineering @ Phorest Salon Software (Dublin / Remote)
This opportunity is to join Phorest as a leader in our product development team to support the CTO to create and sustain a high-performing, high output, world-class team. Learn more here.

Engineering Manager, Cloud Security @ Forter (London / Tel Aviv)
Join me, the geek behind SWLW and the VP Eng at Forter, to prevent fraud and abuse in e-commerce as we're building the biggest network of trust online. Read about our dev team and join us!
 

 Looking to hire for your team? Promote your open positions on SWLW! 

Peopleware

How to Successfully Join a Company as Engineering Manager
5 minutes read.

Joining a team as a manager is hard. You want to help, but it's hard to tell when is it the right time to make a change. Daniel Korn shares his experience so you could use his insights during the onboarding phase. This one is critical to set early on: "I advise asking your manager about her or his expectations of you right off the bat and to review them together."

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Healthy Goals
4 minutes read.

John Cutler wrote one of my favorite posts on how to pick goals. The first one on the list is by far the most important to me: "Encourage sustainability. Less crunch-time"

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Leadership Soft Skills: Master Your Own Mind to Lead Your Team to Success
64 minutes read.

I highly recommend listening to the interview with Gergely Hodicska on your next "audio time" (commuting to the office? is that happening now?). Gergely covers many areas we all deal with as leaders, being insightful as always.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

And finally, inspiring tweets...

@jackbutcher: Easy to find people with shared values in the outcome, hard to find people with shared values in the process.

@rickasaurus: A true sign of a great dev early-mid career is caring deeply about technical debt. A true sign of coming out of the other side is using technical debt strategically and not freaking out about it. The best devs understand that they're a business first.



p.s. if you're interested in joining SWLW's Slack channel, simply reply to this email and let me know.

If you're leading a team, consider writing your Manager README (it's free) or getting my e-book and interviews Leading Snowflakes: The New Engineering Manager's Handbook. You can also support me and my work by becoming a SWLW Patron. Thank you ❤️




Keep reading, keep learning.
-- Oren Ellenbogen.