Judah McAuley

Transparent job search post. A lot of these lately, huh? :-) I've been searching in the software development and general software leadership spaces. Not because of the money or the fad of tech, but because I genuinely enjoy it and it peaks my curiosity since it's literally at the forefront of every modern industry conversation. I didn't grow up as a software engineer. I'm not an expert programmer, although I've built some cool tools for desktop environments and applications in VB.NET (all the java guys will just laugh). I don't have a CS degree. But what I do have is a variety of experience that gives me a unique perspective on solving problems. After all, that's what software engineering, or any engineering for that matter, is all about. If you need leadership for your team or product and want someone who can see business challenges for how they impact your top or bottom line while being able to talk about things like upgrading an elastic cluster to the next major version or searching in Dynatrace for a latency spikes, I'm your guy. If you need someone who can sit with business partners and make solid relationships with them because of understanding how their jobs actually work vs just throwing tech at them - again, that's a solid skill of mine. I won't ever claim to be an expert, but have the technical know-how to quickly learn just about anything and find my trusted advisors to keep it all afloat. If you're on the fence about hiring someone like me, hire me as a contractor and let me prove myself as a vendor without all the onboarding paperwork. I've got an LLC set up with liability and professional insurance, and would love to show you what I can do. If nothing else, a partnership could bloom and that's OK too! Y'all have a great Sunday night and keep shooting for the moon! If you're a searching person reading this - take heart, it's going to get better and if I can help somehow - let me know. Let's GO! #morein2024 #opentowork #jobseeker #softwareengineering #leadership #softwaremanagement #engineeringjobs

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The entire plot of the Iliad is like one big code review gone bad. You just spent the better part of the week painstakingly building out that killer new feature. In fact, it's some of your best engineering, the unit tests are a work of art, and the function names would make Uncle Bob proud. But not so fast! The next thing you know your work is completely ripped apart by someone more senior. This is what sparked the rage of Achilles! Agamemnon used his opportunity to save the Greek army as a means to assert his dominance over Achilles, rather than leading as he should. Agamemnon took what was treasured by Achilles in front of everyone setting in motion the epic on anger and pride. At one time or another we've all been tempted like Agamemnon when giving a review. So remember, code reviews aren't a means to satisfy our own pride and insecurities about our position. Have you ever been in a code review that felt more like a battle than a collaboration? Let's turn these moments into opportunities to learn and grow with each other rather than using each other. How do you ensure your code reviews are constructive and empowering? "Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring  Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess, sing!  That wrath which hurl’d to Pluto’s gloomy reign  The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain;" - The Iliad, Book 1

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I'm worried we've thrown the DEI baby out with the bathwater as an industry. Diverse teams are important, innovative, and productive. RTO is an example of a highly damaging move in that regard. We saw a problem with DEI-specific employees such as a Head of DEI in that they were essentially paid activists that grew cost centers generally far beyond the profit maximizing level, but let's be clear: The profit maximizing level of DEI isn't zero. You don't need to hire DEI specialists. The topic is already aligned to a standard C-Suite. A simple approach is to include a minority outreach budget for recruiting. If you don't have one, make a business case based on the ROI of diverse teams. If the business case is overwhelming or you don't know how to pick targets, start with gender because it's simple and the research is clear: You don't need to get to 50/50, but teams including technical organizations with female makeup over 30% have better retention, employee satisfaction, and various other improvements. I'll link an article in the comments that I like from Accenture and Girls Who Code that indicates 35%+ is a good target, but there is plenty of other research from McKinsey to Deloitte and others.

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I'm in the home stretch on a pretty big project right now, and it's so energizing. We're at the polishing stage before release, and it just feels good to do the small, tedious cleanup for a little while. It's a break from the heavy lifting of design and experimentation. The learning curve has smoothed out a bit, and we can practice. There's much value in practice. Too often, engineers chase the new and exciting because of the thrill of discovery. However, there's much learning left to be done during practical application. You can validate your initial assumptions, challenge your choices, and develop and reinforce good habits while winnowing away the bad. Maintenance mode isn't just about sustaining. Take the opportunity to continue learning, push your boundaries, and challenge yourself to attain true mastery.

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Do you think you need to hire developers as w2 employees to build a highly-skilled, devoted and culturally aligned team? Let Blueprint show you otherwise. Here's how we're changing the game: 1️⃣ Unmatched Quality: Quality is our creed. Our vetting process includes interviewing with former CTOs and senior software engineers, ensuring only top-tier talent makes it to your team. 2️⃣ Long-Term Commitment: Forget the turnover and churn worries! Our developers stay longer than industry norms for W2 developers (average tenure of 2.2 years), providing stability and continued expertise to your projects. 3️⃣ Cultural Integration: Culture isn't just an add-on for us. We dive deep to understand your core values and ensure every developer we match with your team enhances and embraces your company culture. 4️⃣ Equity is Optional: Save your cap table for your growing startup! We ensure that our developers are passionate believers in your product right from the start - without incentivizing them with equity. We rigorously test for craftsmanship, ensuring they value not just a quality end result but also the journey of creation. 🌟 Shoot us a DM to connect and see how we can improve your staffing strategy. #StaffAugmentation #InnovationInStaffing #TechTalent #CultureFit #LongTermGrowth

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Some thoughts on being available "off hours": I've seen a few threads on LI/otherwise about being available for work during off hours, vs having work/life separation, and changing trends there (ie: younger people are less willing to let work intrude in their personal time). As someone who has been in both situations in his career, I have some thoughts. A company will always want employees to work 24/7 (at least exempt employees). They will applaud employees who "give extra", "do what's necessary", "are good team members", or whatever other euphemisms are deemed effective to encourage this. But, employees are also generally disposable to employers (especially larger companies). This is often a rude awakening for younger people, who have been conditioned with propaganda like "your work family", etc. Generally, you should work for compensation, not some sense of obligation to a company that would discard you without a second thought for a small bump to their bottom line. Ideally, those types of expectations should be up-front and by consensus with one's employer. Generally, circumstances permitting, I will check messages off-hours, and respond/work if there's a critical situation which needs my attention (and not otherwise). However, that's inherently dependent on the employer also; if the employer makes that "hard" (eg: restricting the ability to check messages to only corporate devices), then I interpret that as a signal that working off hours is not something they value (at least enough to make it "easy"), which is fine with me. In some ways, that's a better situation, if/when the employer is implicitly making it hard to work off-hours anyway, it easier to ignore any implied pressure to do so. Anyway, that's my take, fwiw.

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Does anyone else remember sitting in class thinking, "Am I ever going to actually use this?" 🤦‍♂️ I still ask myself this weekly when reading blog posts, listening to podcasts, catching up on massive Slack threads, or diving into documentation and feature listings. I don't always use the info, but it feels great when a memory from six months ago suddenly becomes relevant. I always think of that original Jurassic Park Unix scene. This often happens when discussing DevOps and Serverless, where boundaries blur already. Trying to keep all of the AWS documentation in my head while discussing the design of new features and optimizations feels like a superhuman task. What are some things you wish you had remembered when solving an issue or problem? For me, we designed a Lambda function to fail purposefully instead of attempting to recover for efficiency. Unfortunately, the Lambda control plane self-throttles a function once a failure threshold is reached... slowing our processing to a crawl and forcing some quick code changes. 😅 #AWS #lambda #serverless #learninginpublic #hugops

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The classical yes-person is a terrible thing in the workplace. Equally bad, however, is the no-person. I've observed this pattern in some engineers who have been too long in a single place. This isn't ageism talking, I've most recently seen it in a person in his late 20s. The no-person gets stuck in one area, it gets too comfortable for them, and rather than innovate or adapt, they use their often formidable institutional knowledge to knock down any idea. They are adept at finding reasons not to do anything and can easily convince weak managers to always play it safe. They kill team morale. Folks begin to censor themselves, and shortly thereafter they stop caring altogether. If you have such a person, do not delay in dealing with them.

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If you think dragging people back to the office is the only way to get stuff done, maybe it's time to let them go and hire folks you actually trust to work from anywhere—like their couch, or a beach...or wherever their dog is. Companies forcing these back-to-office mandates are basically hanging up a 'We’re About to Lose All Our Best People' sign. Not a great strategy for staying competitive. And hey, if you can't find a job that works for you, maybe it's time to make one! Don’t let these employers hold you hostage to their old-school rules. Oh, and people say ChatGPT is going to replace programmers. Nah, it’s more like ChatGPT is going to take over all the boring admin stuff. Running a one or two-person company? Totally possible—if you know how to code. So, the future’s looking pretty slick. (Totally not talking about Amazon's 5-day office mandate here... Nope. Not at all. Just a wild coincidence.)

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I'm increasingly disappointed by the lack of response, in-general. For example, I had a talent recruiter reach out to me, agreed on a time to chat and they ghosted me. Then, we rescheduled, they called me and (as is often the case in Seattle) the call went straight to voicemail. Realizing this, I immediately called the recruiter back, left multiple messages and have received absolutely no response in multiple days. Recruiters: you must avoid this situation. There are lots of folks who are interested in finding great roles, your follow through (or lack thereof) is critical to develop trust.

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It’s easy to complain about the thorns on a rose bush, but what if we assume they’re there for a reason? In today’s issue of the Dot Release newsletter I’m talking about the power of assuming positive intent. And I share two super pragmatic tips: how to fake it when you’re not feeling it, and how it can save you from putting your foot in your mouth. You'll find it here - and you can subscribe to get every issue sent (free!) to your inbox. https://lnkd.in/gs-7fZAs A little positive thinking couldn’t hurt today, right? And it definitely helps when it comes to hard conversations. 

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🎥 Video Introduction and Pre-Interview Question #1 🎬 I can only imagine the sheer volume of candidates that folks are wading through right now. For people like me, it might take weeks or months to even get to a first-level phone screen, much less a physical or video interview. So, let me re-introduce myself in the form of a pre-recorded interview. I’ve selected some questions that I get asked a lot—and some that I’ve asked myself over the years. 🍿 Grab some popcorn, watch at your own pace, and then feel free to reach out if you want to continue the conversation! 🙏 I appreciate the time you’re taking to get to know me a little better. Here’s to looking forward to the future and the opportunities ahead! 🚀 #careerjourney #interviewready #jobsearch #preinterview #careeropportunities #opentowork #hiringmanagers #recruitment #futureforward #connectwithme #videoresume #introducingmyself #opentowork #softwareengineeringjobs #leadershipjobs

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Has anyone used the Sourcegraph Code Search tool? It's adjacently related to something else I'm researching and evaluating but I'm just not "getting it". I feel like I'm missing something critical because I know people use it but I don't see the value in dropping money on a "better code search" tool. If you've ever used it, could you please help me understand why it matters? It's not a dig at the product, it's just not clicking for me. Better semantic searches? Stronger contextual awareness? Makes Ruby easier? What is it?

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How do you prioritize initiatives? I've tried many frameworks, and often it feels like we're pushing "favorite projects" and letting bias creep into the process. I've been following John Cutler's Beautiful Mess Blog https://lnkd.in/d5gkkkaE, and his prioritization exercise is a mind game that helps teams decouple urgency from value, revealing cognitive biases: 1. Start with Urgency: Urgency isn't always valuable. It involves timing market entry, competitor concerns, and balancing near-term vs. long-term risks. 2. Follow with Value: Assume nothing is valuable and recognize that not all initiatives can be equally valuable. Identify tweaks, optimizers, and game-changers. 3. Add Duration: Categorize tasks into short, medium, and long-term efforts to allocate resources efficiently. Prioritizing varies based on challenges and goals. Any other frameworks or exercises you find effective? #ProductManagement #Prioritization #StrategicPlanning #BusinessStrategy #ProjectManagement #Productivity #DecisionMaking #CognitiveBias

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Super interesting (and technical) breakdown on how the folks at ClickHouse are transforming the simple, flexible JSON format into something that can be leveraged at hyperscale. An excellent example of how sometimes scale can make you do crazy things.

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I'm not surprised when the hiring process for an IC product manager role involves 8-10 interviews (and a presentation). I've been through a number of these; regardless of the reason for so many interviews, only a few of them have been helpful for *me* to gain an understanding of the company and the job. In my opinion, the most important ones are 🔵 Hiring manager (obviously) 🔵 Engineering manager: I want to get the perspective of the person I'll be partnering the closest with 🔵 Senior stakeholder(s): I want to understand the biggest challenges I'll be dealing with, from a customer and organizational perspective And the ones that I find "meh": 🟠 Skip level: What I want to know the most is whether the hiring manager is good or not, but it's hard to get a transparent (or accurate) answer 🟠 CTO: It's not always clear why I need to talk to the boss of my engineering partner(s) 🟠 CXO: The "formality" is largely a waste of my time (and if the CEO needs to approve every hire, that's indicative of a certain culture) To be clear, I do find these interviews to be insightful, and I understand why there needs to be broader buy-in in some organizations. At the same time, they stretch the entire process out by weeks, and are often checking for "cultural fit," which should be happening primarily with the core interview team. Unfortunately, interviewing/hiring is a bit of a crapshoot, whether you're an interviewer or an interviewee. And if that's the case, it's probably better for a company to spend more time and energy on coaching and growing someone who appears to check most of the boxes -- particularly for a PM, whose actual job is likely to be somewhat ambiguous anyway. #productmanagment #hiring #interviews #jobs

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Scaling a team is often necessary as demand grows, but it’s essential to ensure it’s done effectively. Before adding headcount, consider if scaling is the best approach—sometimes addressing process inefficiencies or architectural issues can yield better results. If scaling is the answer, keep these factors in mind: * Define clear goals for each team. * Ensure accountability and support. * Minimize dependencies and avoid inefficiencies. * Scaling impacts people, process, and technology. Successful team growth requires careful planning to maintain efficiency and productivity. https://lnkd.in/eTkqykmG

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