Lead Software Engineer

I just learned that the top lead software engineers at Google make between $220k and $240k per year. Oh snap. That is about $100k more than what I consider the going rate for lead software engineers is. I wonder if these engineers are also getting stock options that could be worth more.

Maybe a bit of the high wages is the location. I figure it is probably expensive to own a house out by Google headquarters. And we all know that Google is very selective in its hiring. They hire superstars. You know. The get guys like James Gosling, who invented the Java programming language.

If you can't beat them, join them. It might be time to get a top job at Google. The only problem is that I can't see myself moving out there, even if the rewards are outstanding. Heck. I bet these lead software engineers get to spend the 20% of their time on special projects. What a life.

Requirements Presentation Format

I am scheduled this month to do all the work for one of the new software changes we have. This seemed like a compressed schedule. I had three days to do the design. On day one, I dug into the requirements. Every single piece of the functionality seemed to be affected by the change. And the details of the change were vague. I tried my best to figure out how these changes were going to work. I was started to sweat the schedule.

The problem was that I was looking only at the new changes. This was a confusing view of the requirements. Luckily I widened my view and saw the old and new requirements side by side. It was only then when I saw what was being replaced by the change. That allowed me to hone in to exactly what was going on.

I essentially understood the spirit of the changes at that point. All the rest of the changes made sense at that point. Now I find that I am way ahead of schedule for my tasks. All of this traction is due to the side by side presentation of the requirements. Good job requirements team.