There’s a question that I have found myself asking a lot over the last two years: “do you know what a good environment looks like, though?” I ask it when a friend comes to me with anxiety about performance reviews. I ask it to the friend who left a bad environment only to end up in […]
My notes from @Jo_Miller‘s session at GHC. The Emerging Leaders Quandary – can’t get recognised as someone who is ready to lead a larger team. Why we get stuck – you can’t get that higher level job without the leadership experience… but you can’t get the leadership experience without the job. Do not outsource your […]
The list of things I’ve learned this year is pretty long, but one thing I keep coming back to is: if you want something different, you have to create space for it. And so I have tried to deliberately create it (with mixed results) but above all be mindful about what (and who) I let […]
Early on in my career, I worked on something that shipped without tests. And I learned something important: That’s a bad idea. To frame it positively, I learned that any tests were better than no tests. And so I went away and read things, talked to people, and experimented. And over time I’ve learned a lot […]
Sometimes you have to do the scary thing. So here it is: I’m leaving Google at the end of the month. Will post more about The Plan at a later date, but for now suffice it to say I’ll be working on some personal projects that I’d love to see if I could turn in to something, and […]
Someone tweeted that this post reminded them of my post about leaving. And I read it, finding it oddly compelling (even though I’m not excited by comics, or superheros), and then I found this quote. it seems to me to be the worst thing in the world to want to do something that badly and […]
There was an article a while ago with Marissa Mayer’s thoughts on work life balance. Essentially it was that long hours were fine, as long as you didn’t miss out on things that would make you resent it. I try and work manageable (sustainable!) hours but sometimes my work gets prioritised over my life. And my […]
I go to a startup event, and it’s interesting to hear non-technical people talking about developers like over-priced commodities. L comes to me for advice, she’s contemplating her next move and worrying about whether or not she feels passion for the project. C reads my blog, tells me that she can tell I’m passionate about writing from my writing. I say, […]
Internships are often billed as a “3 month job interview”, but from the other side they are a 3 month stint in being a people manager, and the first opportunity people have to have a real impact on someone else’s career. This can be in a good way – the internship that makes the intern feel […]
I’m lucky to have a large and broad network, internally and externally. Well, I say lucky. I work at it. I stay in touch, ping people to say hi, schedule lunches, arrange to meet up when I’m in the area, or they are in the area, ask how they are doing, take an interest in […]