Life as a Distinguished Engineer | Joakim Recht (Uber)

Out of thousands of engineers at Uber, only a handful hold the title of Distinguished Engineers, and Joakim is one of them. In this conversation, we discuss:

- The comparison of software engineering to a sausage factory,
- Factors to consider when leaving big tech for a startup,
- Strategies for "beating the promotional committee",
- How to effectively shape an engineering culture,
- The notion that "mentoring two people on the same team is a waste",
- And much more.

Segments:
00:00:00 - Intro highlight
00:01:52 - The “reverse sausage” architecture
00:07:36 - Strategies to get people on board with the new deployment system
00:13:55 - What it means to be a distinguished engineer
00:17:47 - Under-appreciated soft skills
00:21:28 - Techniques to improve technical writing
00:24:16 - Do all senior engineers need to write and review code every day?
00:30:19 - How to find where to contribute when time is constrained
00:43:10 - Strategies to maximize your impact as a mentor
00:48:52 - Advice on "how to beat the promotional committee"
00:52:56 - Effective ways to influence engineering culture
00:57:09 - The reasoning behind capping the company at 150 employees
01:03:33 - Considerations on joining a startup versus another big tech company
01:11:14 - Updates on what Joakim is currently working on at Beyond Work

Show Notes:

- Joakim on leaving Uber to start Beyond Work: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-...
- Read Joakim’s other excellent posts here:   / all  

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Music Credits: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...