Lubo Drobny

"You should have a Team Spirit" - you could hear this from the team building trainer. It is funny because they usually works alone but I agree with them. I believe that a good team is precondition for a success: be together if some members of the team are at Bratislava and others at California, where is the Team Spirit? Probably somewhere deep in Atlantic Ocean common goal we have ours personal goals but in the team work we need to agree on one common goal. This team goal must be written somewhere in the team room where everybody could see it every day. It is very good sometimes re-ensure that everybody understands the goal the same way respect we are human beings and without mutual respect we are just wasting our time and only pretending team spirit pleasure to work together usually we spend more then 8 hour a day together and if it is painful it cannot lasts for a long time good mix different personalities and skills which complete each others are very wel...

I have been thinking about very complex and sophisticated test at least 20 questions, but finally I have shrunk it to only one test question: On Sunday evening ask yourself: "Am I happy to go Monday morning to work?" a) Yes, I am happy and I am really looking forward - 1 point b) No, I am unhappy, I am under stress or I am scared  - 0 point Now calculate points. Result: 1 = you like your job 0 = you don't like your job, repeat this test next 3 weeks, a then calculate cumulative result; if it still 0 you should change your mindset or job P.S.: My result is 1, what about you?

Never lie in CV I asked one candidate about technology mentioned in his CV and he did  not remember what it is. It is a shame. If it is accidental or intentional it does not matter. It is bad. Sometimes IT guys make CVs nicer, they list a lot of technologies because HR people just compare buzz words and if you have not right words in CV you cannot pass to next round. That is partly true, but do you really want to work for a such company? Maybe it is reasonable to prefer company with a more technical approach. I think it is better to be honest and do review of CV with respect of reality. If you have changed one annotation or corrected one xml in a Spring project that does not mean you are a Spring expert or somebody somewhere in application uses a Hibernate does not make also a Hibernate expert from you or you first time compiled a Linux kernel you are definitely not a Linux expert. Please just think about it and never lie in your CV.

Usually companies call young employees Juniors and more experienced Seniors. Sometimes you need to just sit and wait and it will come. Sooner or later. From my point of view it is not enough. I met a lot of old employees they call themselves Seniors but they behave like Juniors. So I defined my point of view on Seniority: professional simple understand what I am doing and understand reason why I am doing it can coach others this is very basic; who can coach others is just fine but who can coach others to became a new coaches is super not genius but have deep knowledge on some specialized parts geniality is overestimated, we do not need "magical guru", to be expert is good enough; if you are "one to go" when there is problem, it is OK big picture overview it is not probably possible to understand a whole system in details but it is necessary to have at least overview know what I know and know what I do not know to see myself in correct light is very ...

Recently my company expanded the Software Engineer positions in my team. This leads me to thinking about the skills which are necessary for these positions. So I prepared a list of qualities which I think are important for a good Software Engineer. Abstract concept modelling This is essential and there is no room for discussion on this because this is what we do. Love to code It does not matter if you are 15 or 50 or if you write code 10% or 90% of your time, code writing is crucial. Team player The surgeon style teams (one genius with helpers) are obsolete, I prefer real team players who are able to work towards a common goal and share responsibilities. Communicative Silent geeks siting in the corner with a notebook on their knees are not cool any more, we need to talk to each other, we need to be able explain technical stuff to non technical managers, we need to be able to choose the right phrase at the right time. Take responsibility There is...