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Engineering Happiness

Engineering Happiness

ZendCon 2016 keynote

Laura Thomson

October 19, 2016
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  1. And engineers (pretty interested in their own happiness) Photo by

    Trev Grant, https://www.flickr.com/photos/trevgrant/13496315673 under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ 4 4
  2. Hypothesis - happy engineers: Don’t quit Produce code Don’t complain

    (Assumptions: competence, motivation, fit) 5 5
  3. Don’t quit? Metric: retention/turnover But turnover sucks as a metric:

    (Extremely) trailing indicator ~30% mean turnover in SV Changes (spikes) notable, too late to be actionable 6 6
  4. Where is turnover useful/actionable? Look for anomalies Local maxima point

    to specific problems Junior? Senior? Management? Technical? 7 7
  5. “People leave managers, not jobs” Not only managers: Company/project/culture jumped

    the shark Stopped learning Burned out Better offer (Good manager can mitigate but not fully overcome these things) 8 8
  6. 0" 5000" 10000" 15000" 20000" 25000" 2008'03" 2008'05" 2008'07" 2008'09"

    2008'11" 2009'01" 2009'03" 2009'05" 2009'07" 2009'09" 2009'11" 2010'01" 2010'03" 2010'05" 2010'07" 2010'09" 2010'11" 2011'01" 2011'03" 2011'05" 2011'07" 2011'09" 2011'11" 2012'01" 2012'03" 2012'05" 2012'07" 2012'09" 2012'11" 2013'01" 2013'03" 2013'05" 2013'07" 2013'09" 2013'11" 2014'01" 2014'03" 2014'05" 2014'07" 2014'09" 2014'11" 2015'01" 2015'03" Pushes&per&Month& Time& Pushes&to&hg.mozilla.org& Holidays FX10 Firefox 4.0 10 10
  7. Complaints? “If the worst thing they have to complain about

    is the art hanging on the walls…” 11 11
  8. Leading indicators: Hours worked Downtime or # pages/alerts Tech debt

    Stock prices / Market share Technology (TIOBE, HN, etc) in decline 14 14
  9. “Burnout is defined as a state of chronic stress and

    frustration that leads to: physical and emotional exhaustion; feelings of cynicism and detachment; and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.” “Where do you fall on the burnout continuum?” https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/high-octane-women/201205/where-do-you-fall-the-burnou (Downloaded June 1, 2015) 22 22
  10. Causes of burnout: Long hours Death marches Too many pages

    Too much travel Politics Missing out on life/family 23 23
  11. Hygiene Work environment - hardware, tools, snacks Management / policies

    Salary / benefits Safety Messing these up makes people unhappy. 28 28
  12. Motivation achievement / recognition interesting projects learning new stuff growth

    / advancement Getting these right makes people happy. 29 29
  13. √ How can I be a happy engineer? Photo by

    Trev Grant, https://www.flickr.com/photos/trevgrant/13496315673 under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ 32 32
  14. Work on things you are good at and enjoy at

    places that fit the way you like to work and change once in a while. 33 33
  15. First, know thyself. What type of engineer are you? (A

    short and unscientific quiz) Public domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sigmund_Freud_1926.jpg 34 34
  16. (There is no punchline to this quiz, but if it

    makes you feel better, you can say I said you were a Level 70 Senior Chaos Wolf of Pragmatic Finishing or whatever.) Public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_wolf#/media/File:Howlsnow.jpg 40 40
  17. I am often asked: “How do I progress as an

    engineer?” “How do I become a more senior engineer?” “How do I get promoted?” “Should I go into management?” 42 42
  18. What’s progress to you? Do you want to: Move to

    a more challenging role? Move to a more interesting company? Work on a harder or more interesting project? Become an expert in something? Knowing what you want leads to how to get it 43 43
  19. Helpful things: Change projects or teams every 1-2 years Learn

    from people who are awesome Learn to write 44 44
  20. Skills maketh the engineer, for example: Java -> Android, Big

    Data, Financial Services Ruby -> Startups C or Rust -> Systems Programming (PHP, of course, leads to a ridiculously large number of web dev jobs, so it’s good that you’re here.) Be aware of the strategic consequences of your choices 45 45
  21. tl;dl Don’t be afraid to leave bad jobs Know yourself

    and what you like to do Have a plan for what you want to learn next 46 46
  22. Two last pieces of advice for long term happiness: 1.

    Check on yourself every 6-12 months 2. Develop good boundaries between work and personal life 47 47
  23. Upwards, to the right, and straight on ’til morning. Get

    this print: https://www.etsy.com/listing/107306078/welcome-to-the-internet-hq-11x17 Questions? @lxt Slides? https://speakerdeck.com/lauraxt/ 48 48