The Dreaded Salary Question: What is your current salary?

October 04, 2019 by zac sky in career, interviews, job hunting, Jobs, Recruitment, Work

I remember the surge of fear I would feel when asked this in the early years of my career. I was afraid of saying the wrong thing and selling myself short.

What if I told them my current salary and then they only offer me that when I think I am worth so much more? What if I ask for 5k more but they would have been happy to pay me 10 or 20k more? What if…what if….what if?!

But, for the majority of situations, that's not how that question works. Let me tell you why.

I started a YouTube Channel

November 15, 2018 by zac sky in Creativity, interviews, Jobs, Leadership, Personality, Recruitment, Work, Tips and Tricks

In the last 3 months I have seen my pet project - Dream Career Project - gain a following of nearly 200 people who want to hear from me about job applications, CVs, interviews tips, and advice on how to build a fun and exciting career.

Buoyed by this interest in my content I have decided to try my hand at videos. I've created a personal YouTube channel and I’m having a lot of fun…

3 Uncommon Reasons Why You should Do Reference Checks

February 07, 2018 by zac sky in Leadership, Recruitment, Work

Reference checks are a funny beast.

Most hiring managers I have met tend to view them as a waste of time. In larger bureaucratic organisations they end up becoming merely a box-ticking exercise in arse-covering and in smaller organisations they just seem like an unnecessary overheard.

HR for Engineering Teams

January 30, 2018 by zac sky in Leadership, Personality, Productivity, Software Engineering, Work

It was two minutes in to my first 1-to-1 meeting with one of my team members at my new job. As one of the first management hires outside of the existing founders I had given an explanation of what my role is when I was met with a comment-masquerading-as-a-question: So you're just kinda like HR for Engineering?

Communicate Early and Often to Build Trust

January 22, 2018 by zac sky in Leadership, Relationships, Success, Work, Habit

I have just recently started a new job that I am excited about but it only took me three days to forget a cardinal rule of working in a team, especially when you are new: communicate early and often to build trust.

Running a Hackathon Your Team Loves

November 14, 2017 by zac sky in Business, Creativity, Leadership, Software Engineering, Work

Running a hackathon is an important part of leading a high performing team in a software company. It has almost become a rite-of-passage in modern day software development leadership, marking the transition from reactive manager into proactive leader. Here is my take on how to run a hackathon your team will love.

Playing Games at Work

September 19, 2017 by zac sky in Creativity, Productivity, Software Engineering, Work, Leadership

Playing games at work is something I recommend to everyone trying to build a high performing team. A good old fashioned fun gaming session has a number of benefits and creates a great fun culture and friendly atmosphere at work. We recently instigated a gaming culture and we're seeing fantastic results...

Tripling an Engineering Team in Six Months - Part Five: After Hiring

August 25, 2017 by zac sky in Business, Leadership, Software Engineering, Work

At last we reach the end of the series on tripling an engineering team in six months: what to do after you've made an offer to a candidate. This is something close to my heart and something most hiring managers seem to forget or ignore.

Tripling an Engineering Team in Six Months - Part Three: Setting up for Success

August 14, 2017 by zac sky in Leadership, Software Engineering, Work, Business

In 2016, after being acquired by private investors, we were given the green light to triple our engineering team as fast as possible. In this article (part 3 of a 5 part series) I focus on all the preparations required before starting to hire.

Tripling an Engineering Team in Six Months - Part Two: Planning to Scale

August 10, 2017 by zac sky in Software Engineering, Leadership, Business, Work

In 2016, after being acquired by private investors, we were given the green light to triple our engineering team as fast as possible. In this article (part 2 of a 5 part series) I dive deeper on how we actually planned the massive task we were embarking upon, the questions we needed to ask, and the important lessons we learned about planning to scale.