Engineering Readings

What’s the one thing I bring to this career (and a potential employer) that nobody else can?

Much of my working life has been spent in customer service and sales. To be successful in either of those things, one must first identify what the customer desires and find a way to deliver that desire to the customer in the least painful way possible. This has informed my approach to building a brand that outcompetes others in the same scope. It also leads one to focus on the things that really matter, i.e. eliminating waste from the supply chain. Waste is anything that the customer wouldn’t want to pay for in the delivering of a product or service. By keeping the customer front-and-center, the teams that I have been part of have been able to deliver high-value products and services to customers, and turn them into raving fans.

What are 3 things I’ll start doing to “un-stick” myself whenever I get stuck on tough piece of code, logic, or feature?

1. Seek to first understand what the problem is to the point where I can explain it in plain English. Then, diagram, write-out, and rubber-duck the problem.
2. Plan the exact steps to solving the problem and achieving the desired output.
3. Break the problem down into its simplest components or sub-problems. Then, one-by-one, solve each sub-problem. Start with the simplest or closests to being solved, move on to solving the problems that don’t rely on having the solution to anbother problem.
4. Debug: Go step by step through your solution trying to find where you went wrong.
5. Reassess: Take a step back. Look at the problem from another perspective. Is there anything that can be abstracted to a more general approach?
6. Research: Google is your friend.