It’s very likely that you have read or written a project README at some point in your career, especially if you are a software engineer working in the tech industry. But this README is totally different. Unlike a project README whose intention is to communicate important information about a project, this personal README (a.k.a. “How I like to work” doc) aims to introduce my mind and work style so that we can skip the whole “get to know yourself” warm-up phase and jump straight into a productive working relationship 😉
My Jobs
Write Code and Ship It
As a software engineer, half of my time is hopefully spent on writing code. My code can sometimes be crappy and break things (trying to get better at it every day 😆), but I always admit and own my mistakes (by fixing bugs 🐛 quickly).
Bring Energy and Happiness to the Team
Generally speaking, I am a very passionate human being. I love smiling and bringing energy to work. I am a happy man and trying to make people around me happy as well 😃
Foster Team Culture
Even though I am not a manager, I would love to work with the manager or the team to brainstorm and organize various team-building activities. I firmly believe that a healthy, diverse, and inclusive team culture fosters collaboration and communication, which ultimately enables the highly engaging team to achieve business-wide goals faster.
Learn and Share
I used to dream of becoming a high school teacher. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t say I like lecturing my teammates, but I truly enjoy sharing knowledge with the team.
Bring Out the Best in Others (#BOBO)
We create an inclusive environment and invest in people so that everyone has the opportunity to do their best work. We make each other better by celebrating great work, sharing feedback, assuming positive intent, and being authentic.
#BOBO was one of my favorite company values when I worked at Convoy. I was heavily influenced by this value, and it has now become my north star principle when interacting with people and building trust. Let’s help each other become the best version of ourselves.
1:1s
Frequency
Manager: Preferably a 30-minute session once a week.
Teammate:
- If you work remotely, I suggest setting up a 15-minute chat once a week.
- If you come to the office regularly, we should do a quick 15-minute catch-up every other week. This is because I am guaranteed to drag you into a random conversation if you sit next to me in the office (hope you don’t find me annoying 😛).
Location
Let’s find a fun place to chat, shall well (ordered by preference): Nature > a place with a great view (e.g. rooftop) > a coffee shop downstairs > a cool place in the office (IMHO, a meeting room is not considered as cool) > Zoom
Topic
I am happy to chat anything, whether it’s work related or not. Don’t know what to discuss? Check the list below for inspiration:
- Life
- Mutual feedback
- Help needed
- Career goals
- Important company, org, team-level update I should know
- Project status update (let’s talk about this one last if there is still time left)
Notes & AIs
I’ve got a very bad memory, so let’s create a doc to capture notes and action items.
Communication
Communication Channels
My favorite channels ordered by preference: Face-to-face in-person > Zoom (with video on > off) > Slack > Email > Phone > Mail
For some reason, Slack feels less distant than Email to me, even though they are both internet-based virtual communication channels.
After-Hours Communication
Not everyone is a 9–5 person. I understand that some people tend to work early in the morning while others tend to perform the best at night. With WFH (Work From Home) becoming a norm and teammates potentially working across different time zones, please be transparent about your work schedule and share with me your normal working hours.
I will try my best to not disturb you outside of your normal working hours. If there is an urgent matter, I will DM (Direct Message) you via Slack. If I ever ping you in a Slack channel or thread during off-hours, it’s probably not that urgent, so feel free to leave it until the next working day (apologies in advance I still need to ping you because I might forget about it when I wake up the next day 😆)
Similarly, If you need me during my off-hours, please DM me and explicitly state its urgency.
Feedback
Positive feedback makes me happy, and negative feedback makes me grow (and eventually be happy when negative feedback turns into positive once I address it 😛).
I love feedback to the extreme. Feel free to give me feedback at any time, place, or via any means (face-to-face is preferred). Please don’t wait to provide me feedback till the annual review at the end of every year. Even though the annual review is a great opportunity to write formal feedback to each other, I will potentially miss an entire year to improve myself!
Interests and Hobbies
I love all kinds of things and enjoy a variety of funs: Music 🎶, DJ, anime, drawing 🎨, UI&UX, hiking 🥾, snowboarding 🏂, traveling, writing ✍️, dogs 🐶, cats 🐱, and more. Let me know if we have shared interests and hobbies!
Nuances and Quirks
My favorite personal motto is “Be brave enough to suck at something new”. I get excited when I am learning new things.
Please be on time for our 1:1s. I understand that sometimes things can happen (e.g. last important meeting may run over), please DM me in advance if that’s the case. I am more than happy to reschedule if needed.
Apologize in advance if I ask too many “why” questions in meetings. Personally, knowing why behind a task or an action is more important than knowing what and how.
I am not a native speaker. My thoughts can get lost while speaking too fast or under pressure. If I am not being clear to you, please interrupt my murmuring and ask me to slow down, relax, and reiterate.
My favorite emoji is 💯 (or its variants). I would really appreciate it if you could give me 💯 via DM or respond to my Slack messages with 💯 when you believe I am doing a great job.
References
The truth is I didn’t invent this great idea. I learned it by reading others’ READMEs. Strangely, most examples I found online are written by managers 🤔 I still strongly recommend reading them even if you are an IC. They are quite inspiring!
