Brandon Harvey - Director of Software Engineering

Brandon Harvey talks through his career of personal development, personal accountability, and aligning yourself with the right company.
Talking Points:
  • The value of failure
  • Transitioning to larger roles
  • Get noticed as a potential manager.
  • Filtering applicants based on the interview
  • Three types of engineers you will meet in your software career
  • Importance of interpersonal harmony in the workspace
  • Importance of the “Airport Test”.
  • Job hopping vs long term stay
  • Aligning your values with a company
Quotable Quotes:
  • “When the tide goes out, when things are not going good, it lays bare who creates value, where value comes from, what makes it all work. As engineers we need that.” - BH
  •  “I always wanted to have a big say on not just how to build the thing, but what I was working on.” - BH
  •  ” There is a longer, bigger lever that you get to have once you step away from that individual contributor role. [ for jobs with more responsibility ]“- BH
  • “As an individual contributor, there is much more of your day that is clear right or wrong answers.” - DG
  • “We look for evidence that the person wasn’t satisfied at the framework level, builder level, the project builder, or scaffolding tool — but they’re actually going in and slinging code at a low level. And those kind of coders can be pointed at all kinds of languages and all kind of systems … so you have to worry less about skill fit.” - BH
  • “Reviewing a resume is an art … you walk through someone’s career and just think about the choices they’ve made and what kind of person made those choices.” - BH
  • “Even if they are going to be an individual contributor, I still want their head up and understand why we’re doing what we’re doing and care.” - BH
  • “The more transactional you are — i.e. I do this skill, therefore pay me this much — the more replaceable you are too.” - BH
  •  “Look to the people in your organization that you admire, and think why they’re doing what they’re doing or why leadership seems to value to them so much.” - BH
  •  “A mental benchmark I have for a young developer is: How long can that person go without oversight or without guidance or without being told what to do?” - BH
  • “If you want to level up quickly, start noticing your own patterns.” - BH
Notes:
Brandon’s LinkedIn
Junior-to-Senior Community