How To Be A Great Engineer: Susanna Codes Edition

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How To Be A Great Engineer: Susanna Codes Edition

My friends, the time has come to share it with you. All of the wisdom that I have learned on this journey. Some of it is serious and most of it is based on how much I have poured my heart and soul into this journey and how much heartbreak I have had to take and endure.

How to Be a Great Engineer

  • Love your job
  • Love your job so much that it breaks your heart when you lose it 
  • Love your job so much that it breaks your heart when you risk losing it again
  • Love your job so much that you spend a year working 12 hour days and on weekends as well to follow your passion, find a new job when you lose it and then bridge the gaps in your new job
  • Love your job so much that you are open to any and all feedback and no amount of feedback is too much to take
  • Develop a thick skin - different managers will value different things in you - and when you stand out like I do some managers will hate the very things that other managers loved about you - although maybe they will learn to love them as well
  • Develop a thick skin - it is harder being a woman in engineering, it is harder being neurodivergent, it is harder having a disability
  • Love Python so much that you lose sleep over completing courses in it and struggle to perform at work the next week and yet still think it was worth it
  • Love your job so much that every wish you ever make on an eyelash is for your job
  • Post on LinkedIn everyday and write 600 blog posts, not because you want the attention, not because you care of what anyone else thinks of you, but because you want to consolidate everything you learn and then you desperately need to bridge a skills gap in your job
But I haven't been 100% honest with you. There's more.

And this is the stuff that really matters. 

Right? Or is it love?
  • Know how to use the debugger - it is really important to learn it ASAP
  • Try things out in a new terminal window
  • Check your internet connection
  • Know how to ask questions
    • Type questions out first to yourself to see if they make sense
    • You might find that you know the answer
    • Or the next steps
    • Wait 15-45 minutes before sending - see if you can solve yourself first
  • Know how to communicate
    • If you feel very overwhelmed due to neurodiversity etc.
    • See if you can type out how you are feeling to yourself first
    • See if you can take a break or something - if you are lucky enough to have an async job - you can!
  • Don't be afraid to make mistakes
  • Don't be afraid to break things
  • Never be afraid to stay 45 minutes late after work to flex on how fast you can solve a ticket (I definitely didn't do this today... definitely)
  • Never ever ever give up on yourself
  • Never stop believing in yourself
  • It really doesn't matter what anyone thinks of you - only what you think of yourself
It really doesn't matter what anyone thinks of you. It doesn't matter if anyone thinks you're smart or thinks you're dumb or if they think you learn slowly. 
  • Never ever forget that software engineering is a problem-solving job. And your ability to solve problems will trump your ability to write code.
Thank you

A picture of some wind farms. Text reads: All I wanna see is you delivering stuff


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