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Yusuf Aytas Posts

No Fluff Please

I’ve seen countless so-called resume coaches who stuff resumes with flashy buzzwords like ‘scalable’ and ‘fast.’ It’s all fluff, and it doesn’t land real results. A truly impactful CV is about substance over style. Let’s dive into how to craft a CV that stands out by focusing on concrete achievements. I center my approach around “Stay away from adjectives.”  Resume Tips I have been hiring for many…

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Losing a Top Performer

Over time, I had to manage and help to manage many times when a top performer quits. It sucks but we need to be reasonable. Imagine you’re on a winning streak, your top striker, like El Fenomeno, is scoring crazy, winning you matches. End of the season, they’re out. Well, that’s literally what Bobby Robson had to deal with the departure of El Fenomeno. You hired that…

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Balancing Act of Reliability

Software development involves both creating and maintaining systems. Once you put anything into production, reliability becomes critical. When your systems aren’t reliable, you face issues in various ways. If you’re a SaaS company, you could lose customers. Nobody wants their business to stop because of your reliability problems. They will go to the competition. In B2C, customers can’t search, book, or use your service. They get frustrated.…

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Building Trust in Engineering Teams

We all know that transparency builds trust. The lack of it? Well, that can lead to major issues. Engineers sometimes join teams and, from the start, struggle with trust. It’s as if information is being kept from them. Have you experienced that? I have seen examples of that throughout my career. I’ve often been asked, “Why does X do that?” or “Why is Y hiding this?” It’s…

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Ideal Number of Direct Reports

Amazon’s decision to cut 15% of its managers likely comes from a closer look at ratios. Were there too many managers with only 2-3 direct reports? That’s entirely possible. From my time at AWS, I didn’t see this much in engineering, so I doubt those teams will feel it as hard. But other departments with too many managers overseeing too few people were probably more bloated. It’s…

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