Sarah Thian

Engineering Manager. Malaysian 🇲🇾. Opinions are my own.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

Balancing product and tech goals is a constant battle. The goal is to strike the right balance, not pushing one side to 100%. Some see that as a defeat and got upset despite the result being the best thing for the business and your customers.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

Org culture is key to growing quality employees, many ppl know that but it's a huge investment at first. In countries where SMEs struggle to scale big, you can't expect great culture everywhere. This is when talents lose the chance to grow profoundly. #enablingpeople

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

One of the things senior devs should avoid doing is to make urself sounds cool, instead of understandable. I see this a lot during my days working in Asian countries. Ppl think earning their rank is a privilege and one shouldn't easily allow others to achieve the same. #toxic

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

Matured tech team = a lot of customized tools = steep learning curve = long onboarding time. Are you monitoring your team's maturity closely to adjust your onboarding plan? Enforcing tools without context can hurt. Always prioritize documentation. #onboarding

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

@GergelyOrosz I'd echo that a strong LinkedIn profile improves your presence a lot. That's how recruiter finds me, and with more information you add to your portfolio, the more relevant you'll find the job opportunities are.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

The amount of things you can learn will always amaze you. Get out there and don't ever let yourself feel too comfortable.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

Inefficiency caused by comm gaps, unclear directions or bureaucracy is hard to weed out; it's a part of the system that's hard to criticize. Pay attention to ppl you know who value getting shxt done and ask if they are limited in any ways. Make lives easy for them. #helpthedoer

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

I've read this book many times now and I'm still learning new things. The bit where we differentiate observability vs debugging is very relatable. I used to want to log every single thing onto the o11y system and found it ridiculously non-practical.
https://t.co/3KKsBwFPtN

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

The worrying phenomenon of a young and funded tech scene is that many inexperienced engineers are under massive temptation to take up critical roles, which (contrary to their beliefs of coz) prevents them from learning humbly when they should be.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

Those who fought the real wars could appear less convincing; the flaws we detest could be the marks of unavoidable battles. Only a devil can enter the hell & still fight, regardless of how repulsive the methods are. We must change the system from its root, it'll take ages.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

What I've learnt from the political turmoil in Msia the past 2 years - we often shockingly over trust ppl who know the "what" but not "how". Moral high ground is hypocritical when the country is in deep mud. #PolitikMalaysia

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

The thing about stuffing bunch of hackathon exp in your CV is - you appear as a thrill seeker who's (probably) good at creating partially working prototypes in a very short time. It says little about good judgement, long-term visions and sustainable teamwork - things we look for.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

The art of giving & taking compliments
https://t.co/WjVE3xelHR

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

Reading the birth story of AWS, am impressed by how the leaders rallied the team through the painstaking planning process. If not planned right initially, team will spend all the time keeping it running post release. Painfully familiar! Sometimes we take "experiment" too simply.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

"The number of times people are surprised by decisions that affect their work" - anyone feels that this can be a good metric to monitor how healthy communications are within the org?

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

"New joiner feedback" is often considered a good thing that helps the team see neglected flaws. In most cases it's true, though if new ideas are fed to the team without accounting for the history that took everyone here, impulsive decisions can hurt #teamculture.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

How to be effective in 1:1s: Don't cancel or reschedule them.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

@NovallSwift @rakyll I am a breakpoint gal. I don't know what I'm looking for most of the time so being able to peek into all variables within the functional block just makes debugging so much faster.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

Great tips. Don't be stunned by sophisticated words and authority. Ask simple questions.

[Sarah Thian @sarahthian]

It's so important for a leader to build trust yet it's also hard to do it right. How do you do it while being in a high position? Do you have to be on the ground once in a while and join in the battle? Do you even have time for that? Love to hear some thoughts.