1:23:48

S01:E10 Sep 30, 2024

#10 The Retrospective 1st October 2024 - Getting Hired: The Recruiter's Perspective with Peter Batiz

Getting Hired: The Recruiter's Perspective with special guest Peter Batiz This episode covers the challenges and opportunities engineering managers face, the importance of adapting to market changes, and building strong relationships with recruiters. Learn strategic negotiation tactics, key questions to ask during the interview process, and how to leverage publicly available information for informed decision-making. Whether you're employed and contemplating a change or actively seeking new opportunities, gain invaluable insights and practical tips to excel in today's tech job scene. Plus, get a sneak peek into the exciting changes coming in season two. 00:00 The Retrospective S1 E10: Getting Hired - The Recruiter's Perspective with Peter Batiz 00:13 Introduction 02:44 Hiring Scene Shifts after 2022 04:00 Technical Skills in Managerial Positions 08:17 Other Differentiators like Remote and Domain Experience 11:24 Quality vs. Quantity of Applications 13:53 Flexibility: The Number One Differenciator to Get The Job 15:38 Remote Work in the Current Climate 17:37 2024 August Hiring Market Improvements 21:56 Economic Reasons of the Current Hiring Climate 23:23 Current Climate is a Return to Normal 27:22 Expectations from Managers in the Current Climate 31:00 Company Culture Shifts 35:23 AI and Kubernetes experience is a Differenciator 39:58 Career Security vs. Job Security 41:32 Successful CV Characteristics 44:13 The role of AI in Hiring 48:57 Show your Impact to Stand Out 52:06 Automatic Job Application Bot 55:14 Job Sites beyond LinkedIn 56:33 Inteviewing Advices 01:01:06 Recruiter Relationships 01:07:40 Advice for EMs Considering Quitting 01:11:19 How to Validate an Offer 01:14:51 Negotiating 01:21:47 Outro

1:45:12

S01:E09 Sep 24, 2024

#9 The Retrospective 24th September 2024 - The Offer (Getting Hired as an Engineering Manager)

Péter and Jeremy discuss the last stage of the interviewing process: the offer. They include strategies for managing job transitions, including securing roles, negotiating offers, and resigning professionally. The conversation shifts to the transformation of content creation with the rise of social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok, examining the initial advantages and later toxicities induced by engagement-driven algorithms. The discussion concludes with Péter's new website, whatistiling.com.

50:42

S01:E08 Sep 18, 2024

#8 - part 2 The Retrospective 18th September 2024 - Interviewing (Getting Hired as an Engineering Manager)

In the second part of the 8th episode of the podcast, Jeremy and Péter discuss engineering manager interview strategies, focusing on Péter’s co-authored article about interviewing for an EM position. They emphasize the importance of the hiring manager interview for showcasing decision-making trustworthiness and delve into technical tests, case studies, and the role of psychometric tests and AI-assisted coding in interviews. To round off, they discuss effectively handling job offers and meeting the prospective team to ensure a cultural fit.

1:04:39

S01:E08 Sep 12, 2024

#8 - part 1 The Retrospective 12th September 2024 - Interviewing (Getting Hired as an Engineering Manager)

In this episode of 'The Retrospective' podcast, engineering leaders Jeremy and Peter discuss Peter’s series on getting hired as an engineering manager, focusing on the interview process. The conversation covers preparation strategies, building relationships with recruiters, adapting to the current job market, and the importance of diversity in hiring. Throughout, Jeremy and Peter provide practical advice on handling technical screenings, in-office interviews, and telling compelling career stories. They emphasize the need for thorough preparation, understanding the company, and presenting oneself effectively in interviews.

1:12:31

S01:E08 Jun 18, 2024

#7 The Retrospective 17th June 2024:The Four Must-Have Weekly Meetings for Engineering Managers + AI Coding Experiments

In this episode of the 'Retrospective' weekly podcast, Jeremy and Peter discuss key engineering leadership topics. Jeremy delves into his latest article on the four essential weekly ceremonies for engineering managers to ensure smooth and predictable execution. The ceremonies include the weekly kickoff, daily sync, one-on-one meetings, and the weekly review. Peter shares his recent experiment with AI-assisted coding, using ChatGPT for a Google Apps Script project, highlighting the benefits and challenges of leveraging AI in software development. Show notes: Jeremy’s article on the Four Must-Have Weekly Meetings for Engineering Managers: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-four-must-have-weekly-meetings-for-engineering-managers/ Jeremy’s earlier article about sharing at 20%: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-20-percent-rule/ Explainer on Task Relevant Maturity: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/management-concept/ John Cutler on Troubleshooting Status Updates: [https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-252-how-to-troubleshoot-status](https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-252-how-to-troubleshoot-status?ref=jeremybrown.tech) Peter’s updates including AI-assisted coding experiences: https://peterszasz.com/week-24-2024-ai-coding-search-and-creativity/ BI dashboard and tools article Jeremy mentioned: https://briefer.cloud/blog/posts/self-serve-bi-myth/ - AI Summary “Sales pitches often oversell the idea of "self-serve dashboards," but in reality, it often falls short as non-technical users lack the context to interpret data accurately. The key to successful self-serve BI lies in technical support for business stakeholders using flexible tools that cater to their needs efficiently. Providing technical people with tools like LLMs, Python, and easy data sharing capabilities can bridge the gap between technical complexity and business user needs.” 00:00 Intros 00:37 4 Weekly Meetings for Engineering Managers 01:59 Why Work to a Weekly Cadence? 03:30 Projects and Milestones 09:03 The Weekly Team Kick-off / Planning Meeting 20:06 Daily Sync (Standup) and Team Connection 33:21 One-on-One Meetings 37:16 Monthly Career Focus and Continuous Feedback and Coaching 38:11 One-to-One Frequency 40:15 Task Relevance Maturity Framework 41:35 The Weekly Review Meeting 46:04 Stakeholder Communication and Status Updates 58:02 Retrospectives and Team Health 01:03:23 Using AI for Coding Projects 01:12:14 Wrapping up!

1:10:02

S01:E07 Jun 10, 2024

#6 The Retrospective 10th June 2024: Career Security, Innovation, and the Tech Industry in 2024

In this episode, we discuss the critical importance of career security over job security in the changing tech landscape, highlighting strategies for sustaining and advancing one's career in 2024. Then, we explore the Innovation Framework based on the Möbius Loop for balancing discovery, delivery, and options in the software development life cycle. We also urge organisations to consider capturing structured practices with the Open Practice Library. Additionally, we discuss the value of pair programming and mob programming for strengthening collaboration, learning, and problem-solving. 00:00 Hey! 00:25 We Are Slowing Figuring Out The Show Format and Target Audience 02:09 Politics - The Morning After The Night Before - EU and Hungarian Election Results 04:21 Artistic Pairing - The Twin Peaks Soundtrack 12:30 Pair Programming and Collaboration 24:08 What's Old Is New in Tech 30:36 How to maintain career security in the 2024 tech climate? 46:22 A Framework for Innovation 50:37 Implementing Standard Practices 01:08:47 Wrapping Up

1:28:54

S01:E06 Jun 4, 2024

#5 The Retrospective 3rd of June 2024

Jeremy’s article on How to Innovate: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/how-to-innovate Clayton Christensen’s books on Disruptive Innovation (Jeremy was referring to “The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail”): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19203217-disruptive-innovation Lex Fridman and Mark Zuckerberg interview in the Metaverse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EohIA7QPmmE Perplexity, an AI search engine: https://www.perplexity.ai/ Kagi, the search engine Jeremy uses: https://kagi.com/ Tom Demarco’s book about slack: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123715.Slack 2018 study on slack and innovation: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/full/10.1287/orsc.2018.1215 Peter’s article about Getting hired as an EM / Searching and applying: https://peterszasz.com/get-hired-as-an-engineering-manager-part-3-searching-and-applying/ Craft Conference: https://craft-conf.com/ Book on Platform Strategy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208871782-platform-strategy Search Engine podcast episode on the media apocalypse and how to survive it, part 1: https://overcast.fm/+BBVQRBOVak part2: https://overcast.fm/+BBVQTfeXl4 Example of a hyper-local website: Les Pépites du 19e - https://www.lespepitesdu19e.fr/ and Instagram (@lespepitesdu19e) 00:00 Introduction and Greetings 00:34 What the hell is this show? 02:47 Jeremy's article on "How to Innovate" 07:25 Do you need a healthy Culture to Innovate 09:55 Can big companies innovate? 18:53 Is slack (time) needed to innovate? 28:57 Peter - Getting hired as an EM / Searching and applying 44:55 Get ahead of the crowd strategies for job seekers 47:08 An example of a great cold outreach 48:54 Can networking at conferences help me get a job? 50:54 Experiences at Craft Conf 52:21 Emerging trends from the talks at Craft Conf? 55:17 AI will replace developers! 01:01:19 Supporting Conference Attendance as a leader 01:05:13 The Media Apocalypse and Ethical Consumption 01:07:44 The Role of AI in Content Creation 01:14:16 The Importance of Local News and Media 01:25:35 Reflections and Closing Thoughts​

1:50:39

S01:E05 May 27, 2024

#4 The Retrospective 27th of May 2024

Chapters (notes below): 00:00::00 Awkward intros 00:00:51 Reflecting on Benoit's (CPTO of Lunii) guest appearance last week and the 4 day work week 00:14:28 What correlates with happiness? 00:28:59 Peter's articles on getting hired as an EM - part 1 & 2 00:32:32 Hands on/Hands off Engineering Managers 00:39:02 You need to have multiple CVs! 00:44:07 Drop some nuggets in your CV 00:46:34 Is AI being used to screen me? 00:51:16 Should I use AI to write my CV? 00:53:01 Hot tips for how to use AI 00:58:08 Clickbaity AI 01:01:59 Four Key Questions for Managers That Boost Team Performance 01:09:32 Trust and performance management 01:15:26 Should I share my answers? 01:18:11 Layoffs and low performers 01:22:58 Low performers, the vampire in your team 01:24:25 Retention risk and tracking over time 01:25:40 Give it three months 01:26:23 How to get started 01:28:09 Share your work at 20% done 01:31:55 Being right the first time and the Ikea Effect 01:34:09 Jeremy's pivot 01:36:48 Should our newsletters be perfect? 01:39:49 Homelabbing woes 01:48:44 Looking forward to next week Show notes Our previous show about Lunii’s 4-day workweek experiment: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7199358260410245121/ Peter’s earlier article about a Hungarian company trying the same: https://peterszasz.com/the-end-of-a-4-day-workweek-experiment/ Timsons, a family-owned business focusing on employee happiness: https://www.timpson.co.uk/ you can read more about how they are run here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1J7x50pDt5DrcPJ57B7kkM9/6-things-we-learnt-from-the-ceo-of-timpson-s The History of Guinness and it’s social impact - https://faithandleadership.com/stephen-mansfield-god-and-guinness Peter’s newsletter including the activities / happiness correlation research: https://peterszasz.com/week-21-2024-frustration-and-happiness/ Not the article Peter mentioned, but a great talk on why we should not send money to Africa: https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/series/39/20090409-dead-aid-why-aid-is-not-working-and-how-there-is-a-better-way-for-africa Hungarian charity giving targeted help to specific homeless people: https://vanesely.hu/english/ Peter’s articles about Getting Hired as an EM: Women less likely to apply for jobs they don’t feel fully qualified for: https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified Jeremy: AI prompting article to ask for clarifying questions: https://www.descript.com/blog/article/11-best-chatgpt-prompts Growth design website to give tips in design experiences: https://growth.design/ Jeremy’s recent Performance Questions article: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/four-key-questions-for-managers-that-boost-team-performance/ …and the original one about debunking performance rating myths: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/17-debunking-performance-rating-myths/ Nine Lies about Work book: https://goodreads.com/book/show/40086702-nine-lies-about-work Jeremy’s article about the Baseline Principles for Teams: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/21-baseline-principles-for-teams/ The Five Dysfunctions of a Team book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21343.The_Five_Dysfunctions_of_a_Team The 9-Box Performance Evaluation Model: https://www.bamboohr.com/blog/9-box-grid Jeremy’s article about sharing your work early: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-20-percent-rule/ …and his earlier one about the IKEA Effect: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-ikea-effect/ Peter’s article about Homelabbing for Engineering Leaders: https://peterszasz.com/homelabbing-for-engineering-leaders/ Craft Conference 10: https://craft-conf.com/2024

1:06:58

S01:E04 May 20, 2024

#3 The Retrospective 20th May 2024 - Adopting the 4-Day Workweek with Benoit Terpereau CPTO @ Lunii

Show Notes: Lunii, where our guest Benoit is CPTO: https://lunii.com/ Lunii’s LinkedIn announcement about going 4-day a week: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7196425731042693121/ Two other French companies mentioned who do 4-day a week: https://www.ldlc.com/ and https://www.welcometothejungle.com/ Péter’s article about a 4-day workweek experiment at Magyar Telekom: https://peterszasz.com/the-end-of-a-4-day-workweek-experiment/ 00:00:00 show intro 00:02:06 Benoit joins us 00:06:34 4-day workweek and Peter's article 00:09:52 Lunii's journey to the 4-day workweek 00:13:33 Why did it take a year to implement? 00:15:27 Lunii's model - 80 100 100 00:16:11 How have you started to adapt? 00:18:27 Async 00:20:39 Monday is not the same 00:21:36 Time to learn 00:32:12 What about Customer Support? 00:36:29 Early responses 00:43:19 Performance management 00:46:55 Levelling Up Individual productivity 00:51:37 Lunii is hiring 00:54:12 Screentime and kids 00:56:42 AI, Storytelling and translation 01:05:18 The person using AI will take your job 01:06:26 bye!

1:17:21

S01:E03 May 13, 2024

#2 The Retrospective 13th May 2024

Episode #2 of The Retrospective Live Show Show Notes:Apple ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntjkwIXWtrc Peter's Focus article: https://peterszasz.com/why-cant-i-focus/Linktree: https://linktr.ee/, OSS alternative: Link Stack https://linkstack.org/ Tom Demarco: Slack https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123715.Slack Timeboxing hobby article - https://bulletjournal.com/blogs/bulletjournalist/how-to-set-boundaries-using-time quotes: Time-boxing creates boundaries that force us to think inside the box, that is, at a much more granular level. If we can only dedicate thirty minutes, three times a week to something, we have to figure out what we can get done in that short amount of time. That shift in thinking can make all the difference. By only granting ourselves a limited amount of time, we’re primed to make the most of it, and we’re left wanting more. This is a powerful way to stay motivated, and gives us something to look forward to each day. Lastly, time-boxing can be very practical for those whose passions often get in the way of their commitments. Article on questions to ask ceo - https://getlighthouse.com/blog/questions-to-ask-a-ceo-healthy-culture/ CTO survey: https://ss-usa.s3.amazonaws.com/c/311833600/media/1935663a48f6d7f0702329394031256/CTO Craft Compensation Survey Report 2024.pdf

1:10:03

S01:E02 May 6, 2024

#1 The Retrospective 6th May 2024

Jeremy & Peter discuss their weekly newsletters.

1:16:53

S01:E01 Apr 8, 2024

#0 The Retrospective 8th April 2024

Raw and unedited, this was our pilot or test recording that motivated us to take this experiment further.