Do you think engineers spend enough time thinking about the user experience of internal tools? I’ve seen teams tolerate painful internal systems that they’d never ship to customers.

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?

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?

I'm a senior IC with over six years at my company, and nearing the end of my career. There are only two others at my level in our department. When I resign, how much notice is appropriate? Also, does it make a difference if I'm resigning for early retirement versus moving to a competitor?

Obviously, no one expects a newly graduated hire to know everything during their first week, but early impressions stick. Question for the managers and senior engineers on here: What can a new grad do in those first few days to make you incredibly glad you hired them? What sets them apart early on?