This article was first published by Chuma Okoro on Medium. Whether you’re a new engineer or one with experience, you must first prove yourself in a new organization. Experienced hires often think, “Hey, I have years of accomplishments at comparable tech companies, I should fit right into this environment because it’s just another tech company.” While your new employer may have many similarities to your previous organization, they don’t have intimate knowledge of your previous accomplishments over time. In addition, they aren’t familiar with your personality or your approach to
Maybe you’re new to the software engineer job hunt. Maybe you’ve been in the industry for some time and are trying to keep your interview skills fresh via the concept of “Always Be Interviewing”. You’ve optimized your resume for software engineers. You’ve cleared the technical interviews. But now it’s time to increase your compensation in the offer stage. Studies like this one from Harvard Law School on negotiation biases have shown that, in many instances, Black candidates were given fewer concessions when negotiating. Does this mean you should just give
This article was first published by Chuma Okoro on Medium. This one is for you, fellow engineer. Folks in other career verticals, just observe. Seeing the recent news about layoffs and hiring freezes at top tech companies like Meta and Twitter; anyone who works in tech must have their eyebrows raised. You did all that struggling to get your job as a software engineer and now the idea of losing that job, due to reasons out of your control, is real. In most employment contracts, they indicate that you’re an
This article was first published by Chuma Okoro on Medium. Many organizations think money is the only incentive that employees value. But evidence-based research suggests that employment security is powerful in increasing commitment and performance. Modern technology companies are known for high salaries, yummy snacks, and beautiful offices. Despite this, according to DevSkiller, these companies still have high turnover. This may be due to the perceived lack of an incentive that evidence-based research (EBR) suggests is powerful in increasing commitment and performance, and employment security. Employment security is a notion
I recently accepted a role as a senior software engineer at Bloomberg, and I’ve been getting all sorts of questions. So, here’s what I did and the lessons I’ve learned along the way. Anyone who’s gone through the process of getting that first job as a software engineer knows how difficult that process can be. Lucky enough for you, there are more exciting challenges you will face in your career journey. Becoming a senior engineer can be a very arduous process. This is because it requires tenure, growth in your
This article by Chuma Okoro was originally published on Medium. In the last decade, it seems there’s been a surge of black men jumping into the tech industry. What happened?? I think there are 4 main reasons. 1: 6 figure → 8 figure The historical number of 6 figures has always been a theme in society. The idea was that if you can secure a job that pays you 6 figures, you would be set for life. Those same ideas exist today and have even grown to the idea of
