One year. May 2024. Back then, we were riding high, celebrating the launch of this Software Engineering Handbook with an amazing trip to Iceland. Five days of glaciers and waterfalls, finally enjoying the fact that we finished up a two year project. We thought we’d cracked it, pouring our hard won experience into a guide for anyone navigating the software […]
This isn’t the first and definitely won’t be the last time I find myself in a conversation about the importance of self check-ins, performance reviews, and all that so-called “reflection” stuff. It’s funny how this mindset shows up at every level. Everyone including people leaders seems to have this fun little idea that they don’t need to take it seriously. […]
I remember one of my directs stepping into a new manager role, only to inherit a team with one or two employees who just weren’t cutting it. From day one, it was a challenge. He hesitated. He first tried to avoid HR, sidestep PIPs, and hoped things would somehow work themselves out. And honestly? I get it. When you’re managing […]
If you are in the realm of management, sooner or later, you will encounter someone who wants a promotion but isn’t quite ready for it. In fact, I have seen many cases where the person isn’t even close. Naturally, we all desire growth and advancement, and it’s great to have professional aspirations. However, promotions are earned through consistent effort, demonstrated […]
When we were building Areca, a real-time billing engine for Turk Telekom, we were a small team competing against giants like Amdocs. They had the brand recognition, the scale, and the legacy contracts. We had one shot to prove ourselves. In that environment, titles were irrelevant; in fact, we technically didn’t have them. What mattered was execution. If something failed, […]