Mike Brevoort - Platform Architect at Slack

Mike and David discuss in depth the pros and cons of being in Management vs. an Individual Contributor role, the positive traits of any successful dev, and how developers can keep pace with the rapid progress of technology.
Talking Points:
  • Management and Individual Contributor roles
  • Career Awareness and Growth
  • Technology Acceleration
  • Transferability of skills between programming languages
  • Negative aspects of a generalist career path
  • Hirable aspects of an applicant
Quotable Quotes:
  • “It’s hard to be really serious about being good at [ either management or individual contributor ] and do each well.” - MB
  • “If you want to be a really great manager you really have to care about people. You have to invest your time with those people.” - MB
  • “Projecting where you want to be in 5 years … is enough for a perspective shift.” - MB
  • “If you are not deliberate [ about your career path ] it’s not going to happen.” - MB
  • “The knowledge and the things that [ flash developers ] did and their capabilities really translated into other technologies.” - DG
  • “We tend to overestimate these [ technological ] shifts; that we’ll be left behind.” - MB
  • “Everyone’s path is different, but there is a lot of commonalities and there is a lot that you gain from your experience over time.” - MB
  • “There are multiple skills or attributes of a person that are more important than the proficiency of the framework that you are using.” - MB
  • “The thing that separates a lot of engineers from others is just your drive and ability to adapt and solve problems.” - MB
  • “There’s no substitute for becoming deeply proficient in some technology.” - MB
  • “When it comes down to it, this isn’t a single-player game. You have to work with teams of people.” - MB
Notes:
Mike Brevoort's
Twitter
twitter.com/mbrevoort
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/mikebrevoort
GitHub
github.com/mbrevoort
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io