Becoming a Software Engineer: Recent Episodes
Mike Kang
What's really involved when becoming a Software Engineer? Why is it so hard to get your first job? Why is it so hard to level up to become a stronger engineer once you actually have landed the job. What kind of mindset and lifestyle does one need to adopt to thrive as a developer? In this podcast, Mike Kang, former EM of a fintech unicorn, and current CEO and Co-founder of Launch Up goes on an exploratory journey to find out more about the actual becoming of a Software Engineer.
Most juniors are worried about their technical competence and believe that this is the major reason why they didn't get hired.
In my experience, technical competence, although a clear requirement, is not the most common reason why many juniors get a rejection email. In fact, it's only one of five pillars that are important for a developer to be great. Most of the times, it's the lack of the other four pillars that makes it hard for developers to learn more, to grow, and to progress as an all-star on their team.
In this episode, we go through the five pillars and talk briefly about what makes them important! Believe it or not, the other four factors have a huge influence on your interview results, and even more so on your ability to thrive in the team once you land your offer.
How does curiosity/fear affect your learning?
What is a Fixed Mindset and what is a Growth Mindset?
Mike Kang, CEO @ Launch Up, looks into Dr. Carol Dweck's concepts and explores how we should think about the learning process. We go through some examples to think about what a different mindset might look like!
Episode 2 is all about the 10,000 hour rule (popularized by Malcolm Gladwell). Mike Kang, CEO & Co-Founder of Launch Up, goes in depth into how in the entry level software engineering world, this idea has probably done more harm than good. Let's get more focused. Let's get exact.
Here are some of the points that we cover!
- Fact or off-base? What is the 10,000 hour rule and has Gladwell missed the point on this one?
- The complexity of the task determines how long it takes to be an expert.
- Professor Ericsson’s ideas of Guidance, Coaching, Naive vs. Deliberate Practice and how improvement absolutely depends on these factors.
- Jason Haden's concept of the 'Motivation Myth'. Motivation is the result of success, not the pre-requisite.
- Time and intensity are critical factors for learning. We need to focus on the wins that we can achieve in our daily lives, and in the moment. Thinking about arbitrarily large number of hours that need to be "filled up" to become an expert is the worst approach.
Enjoy and let's keep learning!
Mike Kang, former EM @ Clearco, a fintech unicorn, and now CEO & Co-founder of Launch Up talks about the process of breaking into the tech industry as a Junior Software Engineer.
Here we talk about three broad pieces of advice that are given to aspiring juniors, and why we should rethink the advice that is given!
1. Apply to tons of companies!
2. Just do some Leetcode questions!
3. Make more personal projects!
After interviewing hundreds of bootcamp graduates, and interviewing many more when he was part of the Engineering Management team at Clearco, some of the details really become self-evident. Episode 1 is all about framing the advice that we get so that folks can make progress in their careers!