kate{mats} » career

Creating Good SDE Interview Questions – Effective Interviewing

kate — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:28:51 +0000

This post covers the anatomy of a good interview question and is part of my series on effective interviewing. I have already written about planning ahead for interviews, and a key part of that is having good questions. There are lots of sites online with questions you can pull from, it is also good to [...]

Creating Good SDE Interview Questions – Effective Interviewing is a post from: kate { mats }

Planning an Offsite

kate — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:32:41 +0000

When people read my blog, sometimes people email me in response to something I post, or to ask me about ideas. I generally don’t mind this because it makes me think about problems (and like puzzles, solving problems can be a lot of fun), and it allows me to connect with the people who actually [...]

Planning an Offsite is a post from: kate { mats }

What to do when an employee misses their deadline – my tips on recommitting

kate — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 05:11:45 +0000

Software estimation is a nefarious art at times – no matter how hard you try, or how small you break up tasks, there will be times where the unforeseen adds up past your deadline. Of course, when this happens to you as an individual contributor, there are lots of things you can do to compensate [...]

What to do when an employee misses their deadline – my tips on recommitting is a post from: kate { mats }

Writing a Good Job Description

kate — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:36:33 +0000

Hiring great people is often hard for most employers. Finding the right person, with the right skill set, a good attitude, and at the right price can be a lot like searching for a needle (or perhaps a small to medium sized stick) in a haystack. There are lots of options for sourcing candidates: using [...]

Writing a Good Job Description is a post from: kate { mats }

Netflix Culture Presentation

kate — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:24:54 +0000

Recently a friend of mine suggested I take a look at a slideshow Netflix put together on their culture. The slide show is long (128 slides) but I definitely think it is worth the pass through as it embodies and codifies a lot of traits most organizations would like to adopt. Some of these are [...]

Netflix Culture Presentation is a post from: kate { mats }

Looking Good At Work After 2 Hours of Sleep

kate — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:21:58 +0000

Early in my career I lived up to the mantra “work hard, play hard.” There were many days when I would come into the office after a late night of eating, drinking and being merry. Of course, when you don’t get enough sleep, and calling in sick is not an option (I don’t know about [...]

Looking Good At Work After 2 Hours of Sleep is a post from: kate { mats }

Being Positive

kate — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:35:16 +0000

Recently I started taking the bus to work. I did this for two reasons, one is that I lost my parking benefit at work, and the second was that I thought it would be a good way to help the environment (and save money). When I lived downtown I used to ride the bus everywhere [...]

Being Positive is a post from: kate { mats }

Creating Your Own Brand and Personality

kate — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:11:36 +0000

I subscribe to a lot of newsletters. My email box is filled with around 25-35 new emails messages daily that come from various shopping sites to which I subscribe (you get advance notice of sales, coupons, etc), and a few other select sites. One of those sites is The Ladders. I used this site when [...]

Creating Your Own Brand and Personality is a post from: kate { mats }

Random Thoughts on My Career

kate — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:34:43 +0000

So this weekend was the 6th weekend in a row that I had worked. And I am not talking a little email here and there, I am talking about full on sitting down at my computer and working for multiple hours. Normally I am not one to complain, and I truly love the company I [...]

Random Thoughts on My Career is a post from: kate { mats }

The Golden Rule

kate — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:24:25 +0000

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Often times when people move into management roles or power of authority they forget what it is like to be in the trenches themselves. One of the most important things a manager can do is to empathize with their employees and take the time [...]

The Golden Rule is a post from: kate { mats }