What’s one thing that new employees often underestimate when starting a new job? In my experience, it’s how long it takes to learn the informal processes and relationships that actually make things happen. The technical side is often easier to pick up than the organizational side. What do you think?

What was the biggest mistake you made early in your career that ended up teaching you a valuable lesson? One of mine was assuming everyone interpreted requirements the same way I did. Learning to ask clarifying questions saved me from a lot of rework. What’s yours?

Do you think the best engineering decisions are usually the simplest ones? The longer I’ve worked on complex systems, the more I appreciate solutions that are easy to explain.

What’s one engineering “best practice” that you think is actually overused or applied in situations where it doesn’t add much value? For me, it’s excessive documentation on very small, low-risk changes. Documentation is important, but I’ve seen teams spend more time documenting simple fixes than implementing them. Where do you draw the line?

What’s the biggest productivity killer in your typical workday? For me, it’s usually constant context switching between unrelated tasks. It feels like losing momentum over and over again. What’s the biggest distraction where you work?