How to build resiliency into your software engineering career
Disclaimer
This article is not financial advice. You should consider seeking independent legal, financial, taxation, or other advice to check how the information relates to your unique circumstances.
As with every other scientific and non-scientific methodology, this is still a developing set of methods. However, I can navigate myself and help others via these methodologies. Hence, I decided to share this, hoping this would help someone in the current economic situation. I built this draft strategy around my experiences over the last ten years.
CL: Continuous Learning
Skills and knowledge
I have identified two main types of skills and knowledge over time.
- Transferable skills and knowledge
- Non-transferable skills and knowledge
Transferable skills and knowledge
The definition of transferable here means that these skills can transfer from one job to another.
In the modern fast-moving technology arena non of the skills are permanent. However, some skills traverse the half-decade or decade milestones. Having a few of those in your arsenal will serve you well in the long game.
Learning one or two languages to their depths and mastering it a transferable skill. And on the other hand, computer science fundamentals never get outdated.
That’s about tech skills; even domain-specific knowledge like financial, travel and telecommunication are transferable from one organisation to another.
The first part of the strategy is to take every opportunity to learn transferable skills. Spend time mastering those. Strive to become an expert in those areas.
Non-transferable skills and knowledge
It is inevitable in this industry to gain non-transferable skills. A software engineer’s job is to learn some of this organisation specific knowledge.
However, the moment you leave the organisation, that knowledge becomes obsolete.
Do not fall into the trap that the organisation would not make you redundant since you have deep domain knowledge or expertise in the internal build tool.
All of us humans are attracted to our comfort zones. That is not a fault of us; it is what our evolutionary journey taught us over millions of years. It is true that on African savannas, taking a risk means losing your life.
But we live in a different era now; we do not hunter-gather anymore but sell our time for money. It is another ball game, and the rules are different; being in a comfort zone is not making you safe but more vulnerable.
The second part of the strategy is to not rely on non-transferable skills. Do not fall into the trap that the organisation would not make you redundant since you have a deep level of non-transferable skills.
Continuous learning
We have learned over time one of the best ways to improve the quality and gain trust in the software we built is to do continuous integration and deployment.
The same applies to our careers; continuous learning is the key to building quality and resiliency. The more you learn, the more we realize the gaps in your skills and knowledge and help to bulletproof us from any shifts in the industry.
Continuous learning raises the question, what should you learn? You only have limited time to invest in that, and you want to gain the maximum out of it.
That is where the first part of the strategy will help you. Invest time in learning transferable skills.
It is excellent if you can learn on the job as part of the job. However, the world is not fair, and it never was. Hence, you may not have the chance to learn at work, but you allocate time to learn.
Remember, it is an investment you are doing yourself.
The third part of the strategy is to continuously learn transferable skills and knowledge as an investment in yourself.
CI: Continuous Interviews
Getting a job offer is not easy in the current economic situation. It is ever more competitive; there is much more talent out there than it used to be.
Standing out from that crowd requires careful practice and the ability to showcase your skills.
Whether we like it or not, most companies use the following interview phases to filter the talent they take in. It is challenging to ace these interviews without continuously preparing for them. After all, as with everything else, the practice improves you facing this.
The current software engineering interview comes in a few different formats.
- Casual phone call with algorithm complexity and previous work.
- Live coding session
- System design interview
- Behavioural Interview
- Take home assignment
- Review of the assignment with the team
- System design interview
- Behavioural Interview
- Timed coding interview (on hacker rank or equivalent)
- Live coding interview
- System Design interview
- Behavioural Interview
There can be other permutations, but these are the core of any combinations. The following list of items will help you to be interview-ready on demand. Preparing for the interviews is a part of continuous learning.
Practicing 1–2 algorithm questions weekly
Learn and practice system design exercises every fortnightly, and train yourself to think like a system designer.
Build systems, APIs and applications from scratch.
Read books on improving your interpersonal, leadership, and negotiating skills.
Prepare for the behavioural type questions, and formulate answers based on your experience.
When you are in the rhythm, this will become a part of your day-to-day life. You no longer need to spend 12–15 hours sessions before the interviews, and you are not afraid of losing your job anytime.
The final part of this segment is interviewing every six months. You can prepare with all your energy, but it is not utilised if you are not testing your interview skills in the real world.
You may get an offer from some but get rejected by others. Do not blame yourself when you get rejected. It is part of the learning and journey.
Instead, think retrospectively about what went wrong; sometimes, you have done everything right, but the company is looking for someone who can memorise the API. If that is not you, leave it there. You can look forward to the next opportunity.
Most importantly, do not get yourself attached to these interview results. Good or bad, they do not reflect you. That is part of the exercise to build resiliency in you.
The fourth part of the strategy is continuously interviewing every six months to gauge the level of skills and to get a realistic measure of your market value.
Resiliency as first-class citizen
Financial safety net
The world is strange; three months ago, every tech company on the planet was hiring with neck-breaking speed. They were reporting record-breaking profits. Today every tech company is doing mass lay-offs. That is the inevitable reality of life; there are good times and bad times, and we need to accept them and navigate through them.
The company which called you “part of their family” today deactivated your account without even saying goodbye. Yesterday you missed half of your kid’s concert due to the P1 production incident, you showed up no matter what, but today they cut access to the system while you were asleep.
Sooner or later, you have to accept that this is the harsh reality of our world. Shareholders’ interest is always more significant than the well-being of the employees.
We all can find ourselves in this situation at any time. Hence, while you continue learning and interviewing, build a financial safety net for you and your family.
SafetyNetAmount = (MonthlyExpense + (MonthlyExpense *30%)) * 6The above formula would give you a six-month survival guarantee if your company suddenly decides to treat you as a non-family member.
Save this amount in a separate bank account and never touch it until you lose your job. The safety net fund is not a fund to buy tickets to your favourite musical concert or mini vacation. The fund is a vital part of your resiliency mechanism, do not touch it all cost.
(Please read the disclaimer, this is not financial advice by any means)
This defense layer should be able to absorb the financial shock if you lose the job suddenly.
The fifth part of the strategy is building a safety net fund to absorb the financial shock if you lose your job. The critical factor is not to touch it at all costs until you lose your job.
How does this build resiliency into your career?
When this structure is in place, you don’t have to worry about the fake performance appraisal which disappoints you.
You don’t have to think about what will happen if the company changes direction and suddenly your team is irrelevant to that new strategy.
You don’t lose sleep thinking about what will happen to the world economy.
All these things are out of your control. This strategy focuses on you and what you can do to safeguard your livelihood and well-being. It puts you in the control seat of your career.
What is the price you pay for it? The price is your sense of comfortability in your comfort zones.
