Your Work Introduces You
Years ago, when I first joined Tripadvisor, we had a tool that moved data to Amazon Redshift. One of the engineers went on holiday, the tool had a few bugs, and people were bloc...
Articles tagged with Professional Development
Writing on capability building, judgment, and becoming more effective over time.
Managing Your Manager
Managers change more often than you realize, especially when a company is growing or downsizing. New roles, new org charts, new reporting lines. Other times, you’re shopping aro...
AI Broke Interviews
Interviewing has always been a big can of worms in the software industry. For years, big tech has gone with the LeetCode style questions mixed with a few behavioural and rounds....
Most of What We Call Progress
Most of what we call progress in software is just motion. New tools, new frameworks, same problems. Maybe fancier logos. Our industry always has this collective thrill that a ne...
Prisoner's Dilemma
On September 3, 1949, a weather plane was flying over Japan. It detected traces of radioactive isotopes. These elements decay quickly, which means they had been created recently...
Climbing No More
Engineers have been reaching a common ceiling in their careers for decades. The pattern goes like this: an individual contributor gets promoted to a senior software engineer, an...
The Weekly Win
If you happen to work for a large organization, you’ve probably heard of quarterly checkins or some similar corporate buzzword to describe what you’ve done and what you could ha...
Yapay Zekâ Çağında Bilgisayar Mühendisliği
Son aylarda, ister posta kutumdan, ister web sitem üzerinden, isterse tanıdıklar aracılığıyla olsun, hep aynı soruya cevap veriyorum: “2025’te bilgisayar bilimi okumak hâlâ mant...
Reflecting on Software Engineering Handbook
One year. May 2024. Back then, we were riding high, celebrating the launch of this with an amazing . Five days of glaciers and waterfalls, finally enjoying the fact that we fini...
Take Self Reviews Seriously
This isn’t the first and definitely won’t be the last time I find myself in a conversation about the importance of self checkins, performance reviews, and all that socalled “ref...
The Invisible Difference
There are plenty of skills you can pick up along the way. Some come from , some through experience. A lot of it is just trial and error. And some from . You figure things out su...
Learning the Johari Window
When I wrote this piece on , I focused on the practical side: clarity, motivation, breaking down complexity. But here’s the thing. Even the clearest goal doesn't mean much if yo...
Management is a Lonely Place
Yes, it is. If you’re in it, you already know. It sucks. You can’t talk to your boss about many things because, let’s be honest, they probably don’t have that much time to hear...
AI Balance in Work
I use AI, you use AI, and almost everyone uses AI. I don’t think that’s going to change. But how should we use it? I’ve seen people turn five bullet points into three pages — I...
Bridging the Management Disconnect
I’ve seen this happen over and over. A successful engineer . They are eager to build great teams and support their people. They know some of the leaders before didn't do that. T...
Tech Hiring Bubble Bursts
I wasn’t around in the 90s, but people who were say it was incredible. If you could code, you were set. Talent was rare. There were almost everywhere. In the 2000s and early 201...
No Fluff Please
I've seen countless socalled 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 impactf...
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,...
From Misperception to Promotion
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...
Perception vs Perspective
Have you ever found yourself questioning someone's decision, only to realize later that you didn't have the full picture? You know it's really easy to get caught up in our own w...
Setting Goals
One thing I've learned over the years is that humans naturally don't have a longterm mindset. Without clear goals, it's easy to lose track of what we want to achieve. Defining g...
From Engineer to Manager
I often get asked whether someone should transition into management. In the past, this might have been the only viable growth path. However, in most large organizations today, t...
Interviewing Your Future Boss
I’m sure you have been asked if you have any questions during interviews. A few things come to mind. Often, we think we need to impress the other party. Nevertheless, tough ques...
On Writing Software Engineering Handbook
I’m thrilled to share the story behind our newly published book with you. This project has been a labor of friendship and collaboration, and I hope our journey resonates with yo...
Navigating Layoffs
In the last few years, companies have begun laying off talent, leading to tough and depressing times for many. Some layoffs came as a big surprise, especially from companies tha...
Winning Eleven
Here's 'Winning Eleven,' my own mix of eleven key ideas that have helped me grow both at work and in life. This isn't your usual list of tips. It's more like a collection of rea...
Bireysel Katılımcılar ve Yöneticiler
İş hayatında sıkça karşılaştığımız yöneticilik(management) ve bireysel katılımcı (BK / individual contributor) rolleri, aslında birer yaşam tarzını temsil eder. Bu iki rol, kişi...
Leading from Where You Are
When we were building Areca, a realtime billing engine for Turk Telekom, we were a small team competing against giants like Amdocs. They had the brand recognition, the scale, an...
Coding in Leadership
When you start coding, you start the adventure. It feels like unlocking a new world of logic and creativity. From programming classes where we tried to solve pyramid programs to...
The Power of Consistency
One of my friends from primary school didn’t go to high school. At first, it was a bit surprising, but his family was making kebap, and he wanted to run the family business. Bec...
The Path to Leadership
Leadership is not a position. It is a journey that changes how you see yourself and the people around you. You begin as an individual contributor, focused on your own craft. Ove...
Quick Reflexes in Decision Making
In the fastmoving world of software development, decisions rarely wait for me to feel ready. I’ve lost count of how many times I wished for more data, more clarity, more time bu...
Becoming a Rockstar Engineer
In the software development realm, people often debate about 10x engineers or rockstars. But what does that really mean? How can you become one? There isn’t an easy answer, but...
Leadership Archetypes
I’ve had all kinds of bosses over the years. Some of them were visionaries. Some others were quiet geniuses. One thing I’ve learned is that if you want to survive and maybe even...
Embrace the Unknowns
The first time I landed in a country where I couldn't read a single sign, I spent twenty minutes staring at a metro map trying to figure out which train went toward the city cen...
Hiring Harmony
Hiring is drag. Every open role slows the people around it, creates coverage gaps, and pulls your best performers into interviews instead of work. The instinct is to close that...
Why Legacy Systems Are Worth Your Time
I know. When you hear legacy, you think , , weird edge cases, and “what the hell just broke now.” Every moment feels frustrating. You don’t know what the next change will trigge...
Teaching Software Engineering
As a software engineering instructor, I’ve taught a diverse group of master’s students with varying technical backgrounds. Not everyone comes in with the same level of expertise...
System Design Interviewing Tips
System design interviews are inherently subjective. Outcomes depend on many factors, including the backgrounds of both the interviewer and the candidate. Even if both have exper...
Apple ve Gizlilik
Uzun zamandır Apple ürünleri kullanmama rağmen kimseye Apple ile ilgili tavsiye vermemiştim. Hatta uzun süre boyunca Apple ürünlerinin gereksiz pahalı olduğunu düşünüyordum. Lak...
Missed Opportunities
Itʼs been a while and I havenʼt posted anything new on my blog. Life, work, and priorities often got in the way, but the urge to write never really went away. Itʼs time to get b...
Yazılım Mühendisliği Kariyer Merdiveni
Yazılım şirketleri, mühendislik mesleği seviyelerini dikkatlice oluşturmalı ve çalışanlardan ne beklendiğini, roller arasındaki farkı ve kariyer gelişimi için alanları açıklayan...
Firefox: Son Kale
Tarayıcı seçimi oldukça kişisel bir şey. İnsanlar, uzun süre bir tarayıcıyı kullanınca, ister istemez arada bir bağ kurmaktalar. Bu nedenle, birinin varsayılan tarayıcılarını de...
The Real Work Is Social
I get along with people. I talk, I joke, I do the normal office stuff. But even with that, something about how work actually works has always felt off. You think the job is most...
Yazılım için İngilizce Öğrenin
Geçenlerde sitem üzerinden bir eposta aldım. Yazılım mimarisi ödevine yardım edebilir misiniz diye soruyordu. Meşgul olduğumu ama zaten internette benden bu konuyu daha iyi açık...
Java Developer vs. Software Engineer
Java developer vs. software engineer is discussed quite often, especially among programmers trying to define what truly separates a coder from an engineer. One of my friends kep...
Açık Kaynak Lisansları
Açık kaynaklı yazılımlar her geçen gün daha da yaygınlaşıyor. Artık herkes açık kaynaklı yazılımlarla karşılaşıyor, en basit örnek Android işletim sistemi. Bugün sadece bireysel...
Yazılım Mühendisliği Mülakatlarına Hazırlık Rehberi
Yazılım mühendisliği mülakatları her geçen gün daha da zorlaşıyor. Mülakatlara iyi bir sonuç almak ise yılların birikimi ve insanın mülakat esnasındaki performansı ile doğru ora...