Going from weak to strong engineer?
There's been a lot of talk in Taro posts recently about "being a strong engineer". Is there a single post or could we build one here where we outline all of the must haves of a strong engineer as to form a type of roadmap? I think imposter syndrome hits us all but I kind of want to be able to know am I fulfilling most of the right behaviors?
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Discussion
(1 comment)- 12 years agoRobinhood, Meta, Course Hero, PayPal
In terms of the single post about this, this one about software engineering fundamentals is the best one. I also recommend this discussion from a Senior Engineer at Netflix about imposter syndrome.
In terms of understanding whether or not you're a strong engineer, I think the main litmus test is perception of your ability. Do teammates trust you with difficult tasks and respect the quality of work, shown via their feedback? Or are they always looking very closely over you, expecting you to make a lot of mistakes? This will vary based on level:
- Junior and mid-level: The team is comfortable giving you tasks, knowing that you'll ship them with high-quality code and minimal hand-holding.
- Senior+: The team is comfortable giving you entire projects, knowing that you can do what it takes to disambiguate them, connect the proper people, and respect the timeline while putting out a healthy release.
