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by hiAndrewQuinn 953 days ago
I could use a book on how the heck to finally move into a 'normal' software engineering role after having it elude me in every way you can imagine for for the past 3 years after college.

Seriously, how did I become a software lead without first being a SWE? I'm handling it well, but I really just want a 9-5 where 80% of my day spent with the code.
2 comments
63 953 days ago
Is that even possible? I'm currently the lowest of the low code monkey with no extra responsibilities but I code for maybe 10% of my time if that. Mostly I coordinate with other people to get info about what's broken this week and when it will be fixed and how soon we can deploy the code that I wrote in 5 minutes last week and who I need to get on board for it. I kind of get it to some extent, code is a liability that's expensive to maintain, but my god it's mind numbing some days. The idea of spending 80% of my time coding is absurd. I'd settle for 25%.
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hiAndrewQuinn 953 days ago
I do think I'm as good as someone could reasonably be at getting the actual devs the info they need and then getting the hell out of their way. I chalk it up to the study and note taking habits I myself have, since I often leave my side projects lying around for months at a time between donors.

Maybe that's why I ended up here. Maybe getting 5 folks like you from 10% to 12% coding time makes a bigger difference than adding my own 10% to the pile :(

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jochem9 953 days ago
I naturally take the lead and often end up in a similar situation where I spent a lot of time on leading, instead of tech.

Early this year I joined a new team and expected the same to happen, but there were also a few other people who wanted the lead. I've taken that opportunity to let them. I'm now mainly coaching them and bothering with the team dynamics, without getting too distracted by stakeholder management. I now regularly have days where I'm pretty much fulltime coding! (And headspace to develop new initiatives outside the team; an unexpected benefit/distraction.)

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hiAndrewQuinn 953 days ago
It's always nice when you wind up on a team full of high agency people!
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