Getting Unstuck in Your Career
Plus, how to fight spammers, Uber's foray into gen AI, faster code reviews, and more.
Staying on top of emerging trends is difficult enough, so what should you do when your whole career feels, well, stuck?
In this week's episode of Dev Interrupted, join co-host
Whether you're a newcomer seeking direction or a seasoned professional aiming to stay competitive, this conversation offers valuable insights and practical tools to confidently navigate today's complex tech landscape and get 'unstuck' in your career.
“I can't express how disempowering it is to feel stuck and how empowering it is to all of a sudden see the opportunities that are out there for you.”
Episode Highlights:
(2:30) Framework to learn emerging tech
(6:00) Are devs struggling to stay current?
(10:30) Trends devs need to be aware of
(18:00) Learning a new skill or language
(24:00) Optimizing for happiness
(27:00) Chuck’s most inspiring stories
The Download
The Download is engineering leadership content we’re reading, watching, and attending that we think you might find valuable.
1. Faster code reviews = 50% better software delivery performance
But don’t take our word for it. Listen as Nathen Harvey, Head of Google’s DORA team, chats with
about the insights gained from this year’s Accelerate report. Plus, we wrote about it Thursday.2. Get ready to Netflix and… Substack
, co-founder of Netflix and avid Duolingo enthusiast, has started a Substack. A long-time writer, he’s bringing his entrepreneurial chops to the community and musing about work-life balance, kids, and whatever else pops into his head. Welcome, Marc! We’ve already subscribed 👀✍️🤝
3. Fighting fire with fire
No one likes spammers, especially not Herman Martinus. Locked in an endless war against online spam, the mind behind the popular Bear Blog decided to fight back. Like Sun Tzu always said, if you can’t beat your enemy, be sure to really, really frustrate them.
Read: The Frustration Loop
4. Hailing AI
Uber threw a Hackdayz event to learn about the challenges and opportunities posed by gen AI, partnering with cross-functional teams across the company to see how they could jazz up the coding process. They whipped up proofs of concept for everything from automating tedious coding tasks to ramping up code quality, all while making sure to play nice with legal and security guidelines.
This week’s sponsor is The 2023 Engineering Benchmarks Report
LinearB’s new and expanded Software Engineering Benchmarks report is out! This report benchmarks critical engineering metrics from 2,000+ development teams spanning 3.6 million pull requests.
Here’s some of what the data reveals:
Enterprises have an average deploy time 2x higher than startups and scaleups.
Startups and scale-ups deploy code 18% faster than enterprises
Teams with higher merge frequencies have shorter cycle times.
Startups typically work longer hours.
Plus, much more!
5. Pod-to-pod respect
We’re fans of
and delighted to be listed at the top of their September roundup. does a killer job each week on the podcast, and it was a pleasure to host him on Dev Interrupted.If you’re not already a listener, make your way over to Code Story.
Upcoming Events
The No-BS conference for engineering leaders | November 7-8 | San Francisco, CA
Highlights: Dev Interrupted readers get discounted tickets for Plato through this link and using promo code: ELEVATE2023-DEV-INTERRUPTED.
DORA & LinearB present: Insights into the 2023 Accelerate State of DevOps Report
November 8, 10:00 a.m. PST
Highlights: A free webinar where Google’s DORA team and LinearB join forces to review Google’s forthcoming 2023 Accelerate report.
December 4-5 | Berlin, Germany
Highlights: Conference themes include: 1) Skills for leading in a downturn; 2) Doing more with less; 3) Preparation techniques for change; and 4) Crafting agile, ambitious, and achievable workflows.