Episodes

  • 017: Typical Mistakes of new engineering managers

    017: Typical Mistakes of new engineering managers
    Feb 5 2022

    What possible mistakes should I be aware of as a new engineering manager? Typical mistakes that almost every new engineering manager makes, why they are bad, and how to avoid them. 
    Show More Show Less
    13 mins
  • 016: Unconventional ways to kickstart a career in tech (Interview with William A. Adams)

    016: Unconventional ways to kickstart a career in tech (Interview with William A. Adams)
    Jan 23 2022

    How can people without a traditional tech background get access to jobs in technology? As a manager, what can I do to find that kind of talent, and provide on-ramps to a career in tech? What roadblocks are there typically, and how to solve them? For this episode, rather than just me talking, I interviewed an expert in this field: William A. Adams, an engineering manager and advisor to the CTO at Microsoft, with a long history of succesful initiatives to increase diversity in tech hiring. 

    Find more info at aka.ms/leap and william-a-adams.com
    Show More Show Less
    39 mins
  • 015: Holiday Special: Christmas gifts for nerds, Christmas gifts by nerds

    015: Holiday Special: Christmas gifts for nerds, Christmas gifts by nerds
    Nov 21 2021

    Holiday gifts from nerds - how you can give the gift of technology to make your loved ones' lifes better.


    Some services or products mentioned:
    Online backup: https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html
    Photo backup: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.clouddrive.photos
    PC Remote control: https://www.teamviewer.com/en/products/teamviewer/
    my favorite ebook reader: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KTZ8249
    iOS podcast app: https://overcast.fm/
    Android podcast app (also cross-platform): https://www.pocketcasts.com/

    Holiday gifts for nerds - what you can give the nerd in your life that they would not think of themselves

    Retro gaming:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_Classic_Edition
    https://genesismini.sega.com/
    https://gpd.hk/gpdxdplus

    Coffee table books:
    iconic: a photographic tribute to apple
    https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/098858171X/
    super nes or mega drive pixel book https://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk/products/the-snes-pixel-book
    Atlas obscura https://www.amazon.de/Atlas-Obscura-Explorers-Worlds-Wonders/dp/1523506482
    the geek atlas
    https://www.amazon.de/Geek-Atlas-Places-Science-Technology/dp/0596523203
    Show More Show Less
    27 mins
  • 014: Books: What are the best books about Software Engineering?

    014: Books: What are the best books about Software Engineering?
    Oct 31 2021
    This time the title says it all: The best books about software engineers, and for software engineers, from timeless classics to books that everybody knows and nobdy reads, to books that are not about software development at all but still highly recommended for programmers.   The giant list of links to all the recommended software engineering books mentioned: https://bignerdranch.com/books/ios-programming-the-big-nerd-ranch-guide-7th-edition/ https://www.newline.co/ng-book/2/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/effective-java/9780134686097/ http://therubyway.io/ https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2 https://pragprog.com/titles/utj2/pragmatic-unit-testing-in-java-8-with-junit/ https://www.postgresql.org/docs/ https://pragprog.com/titles/pwrdata/seven-databases-in-seven-weeks-second-edition/ https://nostarch.com/howlinuxworks3 http://regex.info/book.html https://www.algorist.com/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/code-complete-second/0735619670/ https://pragprog.com/titles/tpp20/the-pragmatic-programmer-20th-anniversary-edition/ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3735293-clean-code https://martinfowler.com/books/refactoring.html https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/85009.Design_Patterns https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-design/9781492077992/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-object-oriented/0596008678/ https://www.dddcommunity.org/book/evans_2003/ https://www.infoq.com/minibooks/domain-driven-design-quickly/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/domain-driven-design-distilled/9780134434964/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/ https://martinfowler.com/architecture/ https://pragprog.com/titles/mnee2/release-it-second-edition/ https://dataintensive.net/ https://hpbn.co/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/category/uibook/ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41790.User_Interface_Design_for_Programmers https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-non-designers-design/9780133966350/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Projects_and_Teams https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/product/Pindyck-Microeconomics-9th-Edition/9780134184241.html https://freakonomics.com/books/ https://timharford.com/books/undercovereconomist/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/greatest-hits/ https://twitter.com/patio11 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11 https://stripe.com/en-de/guides https://press.stripe.com/
    Show More Show Less
    29 mins
  • 013: What should I wear to a job interview?

    013: What should I wear to a job interview?
    Oct 3 2021

    One of the most frequent topics when giving advice to new graduates about an upcoming job interview is: "What is a suitable outfit for a job interview?". The most important answer here is: Do not worry too much about it, what you are wearing is much less important than you think. For more details, listen to the episode.

    Want to have your questions answered? Send them to askanengineeringmanager@gmail.com

    Already listening? Please take 2 minutes to let us know what you think: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/28SSB95

     
    Show More Show Less
    11 mins
  • 012: Skills: How important are foreign languages?

    012: Skills: How important are foreign languages?
    Sep 20 2021

    How important are foreign languages for a career in software development?

    There are really two kinds of foreign languages: English - and everything else. We talk about why that is, what matters about being able communicate in a foreign languages, and some good ways to learn.

     

    Want to have your questions answered? Send them to askanengineeringmanager@gmail.com

    Already listening? Please take 5 minutes to let us know what you think: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/28SSB95
    Show More Show Less
    14 mins
  • 011: Management: What does an Engineering Manager actually do? A.k.a. What did you do at work this week?

    011: Management: What does an Engineering Manager actually do? A.k.a. What did you do at work this week?
    Sep 5 2021

    I assume the questions is supposed to mean "What does an engineering manager actually do?" But to start with, lets answer the question literally: If you've wanted to know what an example of a work week looks like for me, here's your chance to find out. 

    Then we go deeper into what determines the parts of the job of an engineering manager, and what the most important part of the job is.

     

    Want to have your questions answered? Send them to askanengineeringmanager@gmail.com

    Already listening? Please take 5 minutes to let us know what you think: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/28SSB95
    Show More Show Less
    21 mins
  • 010: Engineering: Do you think unit tests are important?

    010: Engineering: Do you think unit tests are important?
    Aug 22 2021

    The short answer here is of course "yes". The episode elaborates why, when, and for who unit tests have the greatest value, how to overcome reasons not to write tests, and lists arguments for why unit tests are important. 

     

    Note: I mis-spoke in the episode - the full term for TDD is, of course, correctly "Test-driven development", not "test-driven design" - although, since one of the main benefits of TDD is its influence on the technical design, that would work, too.

     

    Want to have your questions answered? Send them to askanengineeringmanager@gmail.com

    Already listening? Please take 5 minutes to let us know what you think: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/28SSB95
    Show More Show Less
    19 mins