Yet I'm not that guy - even though I'm 6'3 and workout a lot (and some say I look the part) - I'm a programmer and I work in an industry dominated by women who can't get passed the idea that I'm a programmer and I'm hot (I've overheard many of the moms at our playground call me a FILF).
Somebody finally takes an original shot at the whole “[Wo]men in Tech” debate.
After a couple of discussions like that, I realized that he was saying was that I should think about whether that was really the most valuable thing I could be doing – there were plenty of people who were skilled at optimizing the Source engine already working on Portal 2, so it would be more useful to think about what high-impact things I could do that no one else was doing. That, and conversations with various people around the company, kicked me into a different mode of thought, which eventually led me to a surprising place: wearable computing.
It looks like Valve launched a marketing campaign to support their hiring efforts. They seem to have some ace cards up their sleeves.
While waiting for my coffee, I ran into Liz and Niblyn! I used to work with Liz on a different Zynga game team about two years ago. She works in Community and was/is often "The Voice of the Player" in meetings and in group emails. She’s wonderful to work with and her dog, Niblyn, is too cute not to pet. I end up crouched down, petting Niblyn, the whole time I’m having a conversation with Liz.
Zynga employee's shocking journey through the office.
Optimizing for Happiness
A presentation about github's culture in which yours truly realizes he's not cool enough.
We also have frequent issues with diversity in our industry, because it turns out that “You will have no time for relationships, human interaction, or family” appeals a heck of a lot more to young single guys than it does to e.g. married folks with children. Do we seriously care about diversity in this industry?
Good read on the startup culture and the pressure to work overtime.
during monthly cross-team meetings, the engineers are the ones who present progress reports. product marketing and product management attend these meetings, but if they are particularly outspoken, there is actually feedback to the leadership that “product spoke too much at the last meeting.
So, you thought that working for Google is a cool gig? Welcome to nerd's dream.
The article very well explains why Facebook is now such a great company to work for.
Lesson Three is this: five-day weeks of eight-hour days maximize long-term output in every industry that has been studied over the past century. What makes us think that our industry is somehow exempt from this rule?
Excellent article on impact of overtime work on productivity. People regularly working long hours aren't heroes, they're slackers. I'd love every manager to read it.
None of these strategies work if you're not really an excellent contributor. If you don't write good code, and lots of it, you're just going to be resented for messing around with bug databases when you "should be" writing code. There's nothing more deadly to your career than having a reputation of being so concerned with process that you don't accomplish anything.
You work in a horrible software house? Leave it. Or change it, starting from yourself. Joel's guide to improving workplace.
Akkammadam thinks that smoking breaks allow him to meet people who aren't on his team, that they encourage cross-departmental collaboration that wouldn't otherwise occur, and give him time to brainstorm work ideas. Smoking, the way Akkammadam sees it, is a lot like a really cheap off-site meeting.
On smokers, one of the most prosecuted group of workers in US.
Forget the free coffee and drinks. Sure they're free at Microsoft... who wants to be like Microsoft?
Joel's article on broken ideas for a workplace. Now they seem even more obviously stupid, but are still widely applied.
