Leadership

Throughout my career, I have been involved guiding, training, and leading the individuals I work with. My skills have been honed by experience on both sides; witnessing others in a leadership role; how they face challenges, and how their responses both succeeded and failed, as well as conquering challenges and making mistakes when in those shoes myself.

My most recent challenge has been at Blind Squirrel Games, working within a team of approximately 35 people. The engineering team consists of 13 people, with 6 of those reporting directly to me — a mixture of juniors, mid, and senior engineers. The make-up of the team has changed frequently, as the staffing situation on other teams impacts who is available to assist.

I chose this team to lead for the opportunity to bring my experience and guidance to the less experienced members of the team. This has come in the form of one-on-ones, informal lectures, detailed code reviews, and frequent casual conversations about the industry and technical curiosities.

The studio also provided the opportunity to give a talk on debugging, covering topics relevant to engineers at all skill levels.

Over the course of many months, I continue to receive positive feedback from my team, as I continue to work closely with each member to identify the project, team, and personal problems each individual faces.