Professional Skills for Software Engineers • Charles Humble & Trisha Gee

GOTO - The Brightest Minds in Tech

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club.
http://gotopia.tech/bookclub

Read the full transcription of the interview here

Charles Humble - Freelance Techie, Podcaster, Editor, Author & Consultant
Trisha Gee - Lead Developer Evangelist at Gradle, Java Champion & Co-Author of "Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA"
RESOURCES
Charles
https://bsky.app/profile/charleshumble.bsky.social
https://linkedin.com/in/charleshumble
https://mastodon.social/@charleshumble
https://conissaunce.com

Trisha
https://bsky.app/profile/trishagee.bsky.social
https://twitter.com/trisha_gee
https://www.linkedin.com/in/trishagee
https://trishagee.com
https://github.com/trishagee

Links
https://www.conissaunce.com/professional-skills-shortcut.html
https://www.jeanettewinterson.com
DESCRIPTION
Trisha Gee interviews Charles Humble on his project "Professional Skills for Software Engineers", a collection of 14 articles organized into four categories:
• communication
• critical thinking
• documentation
• networking
Charles argues that career success in software engineering oftentimes depends more on non-programming skills than technical ability. Both Charles and Trisha emphasize that these skills are learnable and essential, despite being undervalued in the industry as mere "soft skills".
The conversation covers how intentional communication improves product development, the value of networking and public speaking for career advancement, and ways engineers can generate ideas for content creation while taking ownership of their career development. The interview makes a compelling case that developing these professional skills benefits both individual engineers and the industry as a whole.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Charles Humble • Professional Skills for Software Engineers
Kevlin Henney & Trisha Gee • 97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know
Anne Currie, Sarah Hsu & Sara Bergman • Building Green Software
Cal Newport • Deep Work
Martin Fowler • UML Distilled
Cathy O'Neil • Weapons of

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فصول

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Non-technical skills that drive tech careers (00:01:06)

3. Why soft skills aren't soft (00:06:30)

4. Gaining visibility without compromising your authenticity (00:12:41)

5. Communication varies by medium & career stage (00:16:10)

6. Communication as a core engineering competency (00:25:35)

7. Presenting opens unexpected career doors (00:28:57)

8. Ethical voices can influence tech future (00:31:55)

9. Career advancement through visibility & voice (00:41:15)

10. Outro (00:54:05)