Career paths: Silicon Valley vs. traditional technology companies

The best books on software management

(That I have read)

I’ve read a few books over the years, especially when it comes to learning and improving the skills it takes to grow and lead a startup software engineering team. These are not all books on software…

What does a startup VP of Engineering do all day?

It’s a good question, and something I used to wonder myself, earlier in my career. In response to an honest question on this topic from someone I know, I was motivated to write an honest answer. This is what I do all day.

Technical vs Management tracks

In recent conversations with some of the more senior engineers on my…

Do You Want to be a Manager?

Years ago, in an interview for an engineering management position, I was asked, “Why do you like being a…

Today, I hired 6 developers on oDesk.

How to hire on oDesk

Teachability: The top thing we look for in software candidates

In discussing and preparing for software interviews, people typically focus on the technical aspects: Algorithm design, data structure…

A manager’s most important deliverable

People moving toward management in their careers often develop a sense of unease about their contributions. This is natural. While it’s fairly straightforward to see your output as an individual, a manager’s work product is harder to define. Making peace with…

Six destructive myths about hiring software engineers

Finding great engineers is possible, but you may need to question some of your assumptions

The Hiring Decision Checklist

The most important questions to answer when deciding on making a job offer.

As a startup in rapid-growth mode, at Course Hero we have a lot of hiring meetings. Early on, they tended to be long…