I care about making engineering leadership better... more thoughtful, more human, and more effective.

Over the last 15+ years, I’ve worked across start-ups, scale-ups, and big tech. I’ve been hands-on as an IC, built teams as an engineering manager, and helped others grow into Staff, Tech Lead, and EM roles. I’m currently an Engineering Manager at Yelp.

Most people in tech step into leadership or management with very little training. They’re expected to manage people, run projects, influence up, and drive strategy, often all at once. I’ve been through that, and I’m building https://www.engleadexpert.io to help others do it well and build our industry together. 

I’m creating honest, practical content for people who want to lead well, not just think they are getting promoted. I share everything I’ve learned (and continue to learn) about the realities of leading in tech: the decisions, the mistakes, the messy bits.

I’m building this in public, and if any of it helps you lead better... I’m doing my job.

I am unemployed, living off savings but I am truly one of the wealthiest people in the world. 

This weekend:

- Celebrated my sons birthday with all his best friends. 
- Had dinner with my beautiful wife. 
- Hugged my Dad and told him I loved him. 
- Arranged to go see my brother who lives away from me. 
- Swam for 30 minutes. 
- Watch a film with my wife where we both laughed so hard our cheeks hurt. 
- Realised nearly all the stress from a work life was going. 
- Signed the dotted line to deliver a new course on DomeTrain. 

Since leaving my last job to take time to grieve my late mother and focus on my health after a major health scare last year... it hit me... 

I really am living through those times in ones life where you need to step back and appreciate it. 

After a year of depression and constant roadblocks wondering when it will end it's nice to see the other side of the tunnel. 

Remember...

If you can make today better than yesterday imagine how good next week will be.

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Engineering Manager at Yelp

To junior engineers:

I DON'T care if you don't know the answer. 
I DO care how you handle it when you don't. 

- Ask questions. A lot of them. 
- Don't get frustrated if you are not always on shiny new stuff. Everyone works on a lot of legacy code. Everyone. 
- Tell me what you want to get better at. 
- Stop asking for permission to be useful. 
- Soft skills are 10x more important than you think. 

I don't expect you to know everything. 
I do expect you to care.

The big give away here that this is written by AI is the em dash.

That’s a wrap. Last week was my final week at Yelp.

I’m incredibly grateful to Yelp and to everyone I had the privilege of working with over the past five years. It has been a fantastic place to work. There is real freedom, a strong focus on outcomes, and a genuine sense of building things together. I will always look back on my time there fondly and will forever be a cheerleader for you.

I’ve decided to take a break.

Last year was a heavy one. I went through a significant health scare, which I’ve thankfully recovered from, and I sadly lost my beautiful mother, both have been really hard for me to process in a short space of time. 

After Christmas, early in the new year, I realised I needed to properly step back and give myself time to grieve and reset. So I made the decision to leave and take some time for myself. To be selfish.

I don’t know how long that will be. Maybe a week, maybe a year. For once, I’m not setting any rules around it. I might get bored... I might love it. 

I feel very fortunate to be able to do this. I’ve been working for nearly 20 years and probably have another 20 ahead of me, so it feels like the right moment to pause and be selfish.

To my team, past and present, watching you grow and succeed has been the greatest privilege of my time at Yelp. The support you gave me meant more than you probably realise, and leaving you all was easily the hardest part. You all know how much I think of you. I’m always here if you need anything. 

Thanks for everything everyone, I really appreciate it, and will miss it dearly, but im also excited to do this for myself and see what happens.

Returning back to LinkedIn. 

Does everyone just go on about AI assisted coding nowadays... constantly?

Me: Opens LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn: Another 25 posts telling me how AI is going to be the end of the world and that if i'm not half robot by now then my career is doomed. 

Critical thinking is doomed. 

Wow, I miss the days where people would tell me how their rabbit made them think of B2B sales. 

Yes, I'm aware of the irony.

I'm giving away free Resume reviews. 

Screw it. Let's just do it. Time to give back. 

I have loads of time now I am taking a break from work. 

I'm going to do a day of free CV/Resume reviews. 

I know you can use AI for this, but I still think a human touch here is nice and important. Otherwise they all start to feel  a bit generic and obvious. 

I have seen thousands of CVs for hundreds of roles and done hundreds of interviews. I have interviewed and published leading recruiters and hiring managers for my newsletter into what they look for in a Resume and worked behind the scenes with some of the industries leading people in the recruitment space that you will all know for my own CV so I feel like I know what I am talking about. 

I won't be able to get to them all but I will pick maybe 10 of you, arrange a call and go through your CV together for 30 minutes. 

I promise no upsell, no pressure tactics, no hidden agenda. I give you full license to put me on blast if that happens. 

Just leave a comment below if your interested and if there is a particular thing you want help with or a general review.

Look forward to working with you.

PS if there are any recruiters or hiring managers etc that want to get involved and look at a few aswell let me know in the comments and we can help even more people.

Excited for my opportunity to Engineering Career. 

Anyone else just getting bombarded with spam emails from these bots?

One of the perks of being on my own time since being off work is being able to do what I want and when. 

It's a strange feeling I'm quickly getting used to. 

One of the things I really enjoy is going to conferences and meeting old friends and seeing amazing talks. 

Tomorrow I am headed to CTO Craft London for a full day of talks and im excited. 

Let me know if you'll be there and I'll come say hi.

CTO Craft

Depressingly accurate under so many vectors.

I've been injured for 7 months and during that time haven't been able to run. 

The thing I have missed the most isn't the running. It's my running club. The stories, the jokes and the circling back to make sure I am ok. 

When you retire, and all this comes to an end you won't remember that project you delivered 2 days early, or that feature you developed. 

You will remember the people and the memories you had with them. 

We might have a long career ahead of us. But its too damn short to spend it around people you hate being around. 

You spend more time with your colleagues than you do your family so make sure they inspire you, they are good people and that they bring out your good side. 

Make sure they are the people that will make you remember the good times.

If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong. 
If your manager is an approval bottleneck, they are doing it wrong.

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