I’ve been writing software professionally for a few years now, and I’ve been reflecting on the skills my co-workers told me would be useful when I first started working here. Writing quality software takes a lot of skills, and it can be overwhelming to decide which ones to focus on first.

After deciding to explore a career in software development, I recognized that, beyond general programming experience, I had no real exposure to the industry. I didn’t know anything more than a surface-level description of the job title. I lacked knowledge about the culture, trends, and lingo of the industry. I wanted to gain exposure, but […]

Almost three years ago, after spending 13 years as a software developer, I took on the role of Delivery Lead here at Atomic. It was a step away from code and toward all things related to project delivery: project management, backlog management, reviewing completed work, managing the team’s Scrum process, etc. It was a move I […]

Software development is a profession that requires a unique skill set. However, over the course of my career, I’ve come to appreciate two important characteristics of good developers that aren’t unique to software at all. I’ve found these traits extremely helpful in my work, and both of them involve habits that I’ve had to make […]

At Atomic, we all share the pain of writing blog posts to help with our marketing efforts. As well as helping the company, I’ve found that writing a regular blog post also helps me. The obvious benefit is that it improves my writing skills, encouraging me to share my ideas and thoughts in a succinct […]

Early in my career, I prided myself on my technical skill. I was pretty fast at writing pretty good code. I conceived more efficient algorithms more quickly than many of my peers. I took creative approaches to expressing ideas in code that were at least interesting, if (with the benefit of hindsight) not necessarily as […]

I’m a software designer, but over the past year, I’ve slowly started taking on project management responsibilities through a role we call the Delivery Lead. It’s been a big challenge, but also a lot of fun.

Don’t get me wrong–I am all about collaboration. Interesting ideas, different perspectives—it’s all great. But sometimes in a working meeting, you have to take control of the whiteboard marker and not let anyone else touch it.

Though working in a group can be invigorating and a lot of fun, it is frequently challenging. We all have different perspectives and personalities, and we continually need to figure out how to how ideate, integrate, and converge on a common direction in order to be effective.