Debugging is an art. An art that is honed and crafted over many years and after finding many bugs – you develop a six sense to where problems might originate or how they might be fixed. However, some bugs are just too damn hard to fix quickly – in which case you’ll need the scientific method.
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How to build resilience and master your emotional responses
Being in control of your emotions and your reactions to situations is crucial as a team member and as a leader.
As software developers we don’t take a lot of interest in our own “emotions” and we often neglect how much they have the ability to improve or detriment our careers.
How using metaphors saved my bacon
Throughout my career I have found metaphors to be an incredible tool. Good use of metaphors shows how you are someone who can communicate strongly, especially when it comes to big, complicated issues. In fact I’ve even talked about my top 3 metaphors before.
What my life’s most terrifying event taught me about leadership
We often grow from the situations that make us uncomfortable. There was one situation, in the New Hampshire wilderness that definitely taught me a valuable lesson in monitoring how you respond to stress when leading a group.
A simple strategy for staying calm under pressure
If there’s one thing I’ve seen across every leader that I’ve worked with over the years, it is that they are calm under pressure. The world might seem to be crumbling around them, but they hold it together for the sake of the team. Most leaders don’t become calm under pressure by chance, they achieve it through deliberate practice and by having a process.
5 tips on how to: ask powerful questions to get powerful answers
Asking questions is incredibly important as a skill – knowing when and how to ask questions can really drive your development and not knowing how and when asking is important can leave you missing out on so many opportunities.
Enable strong conversation with 3 versatile metaphors
As software developers – our world is increasingly complex with each line of code. As technology progresses, we’re given more tools and more jargon. Our language can quickly separate us from the others that work around us, and isolate those that don’t really understand. It’s a developers job to try and make their work and their communication as simple as possible. One way to achieve simpler communication is through metaphors.
5 steps to bulletproof behavioural interview prep
Behavioural questions are often very difficult. Yet with a little preparation anyone can nail them with ease.
After a lot of failures I’ve created a method that allows me to nail those behavioural questions. Behavioural questions often look a little like this:
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“Identify and explain a time when you utilised leadership?”
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“Identify and explain a time when you had to manage a conflict?”
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“Describe a complex problem to me”
Behavioural questions can seem impossible to prepare for. It seems impossible to remember enough scenarios to cover it all. Especially, like me, you struggle with thinking on your feet. But that’s where good preparation comes in.
The Importance Of The Developer Portfolio
Throughout my early jobs – many comments were made positively about my portfolio. I had a hunch at the time that having a portfolio was important. It was only until later in my career, when I was performing interviews that I realised just how useful a portfolio is to hiring managers and organisations.
Back when I first started development, I spent one year working for a company in London when I caught the bug for being a developer, it was only after this point that I started to work on and create a portfolio. Luckily it wasn’t “too late” and I had retained a lot of the information and work from my university to be able to upload it.
Should I go to university to be a software developer?
Deciding what to do with your future can be difficult. University could be one of your options you’re considering. And, there are other options available to you, but which one should you choose and why?