How to Become a Resourceful Engineer
Best engineers don't know everything off the top of their heads, but they can find essential information quickly. This is how to do it!
Intro
Last week, we talked about how it’s totally fine not knowing something in Software Development and say “I don’t know”.
On the contrary, it’s a sign of seniority for me, as it shows that you are comfortable admitting, which is a good indicator of experience, maturity, and humility.
And to go a step further:
In Software Development, it’s not so much important what you know at the moment → the important thing is that you are able to get the essential information quickly, if needed.
So, not knowing something is totally fine as long as you know that you can either learn it or find the information if needed!
Today, we are going to go through how to become a person who is not only comfortable saying “I don’t know”, but also confident that you can find or get any information quickly.
Definitely a must-read article to become a highly effective engineer/engineering leader!
This is an article for paid subscribers, and here is the full index:
- Best Engineers Inspire Trust no Matter What Kind of Problem They Face
- Being Resourceful is Truly a Timeless Skill
- Resourcefulness Starts With Curiosity
🔒 Build a Knowledge Base of Resources and Learnings
🔒 The Learning, Storing, Sharing Flywheel
🔒 Become Good at Researching
🔒 Develop a Good Network of People That You Can Ask Questions
🔒 Last words
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Let’s start!
Best Engineers Inspire Trust no Matter What Kind of Problem They Face
You probably know a person who is maybe a fellow engineer, or someone else -> any problem they would face, they would solve it with high quality and agency.
That’s the exact kind of engineers I like to work with. Those that even if they don’t know the answer YET, you just know they’ll be able to find it and solve it within the right quality and in a timely manner as well.
That’s normally how they’ll respond to something they don’t know the answer to:
“I don’t know yet, but this is how I’ll find out!”
They openly share that they don’t know yet and provide a concrete plan on how they’ll find out.
This is what being resourceful means. It’s not about knowing everything off the top of your head, but about being able to organize yourself and get the information that you need.
And here is what big of a difference is when an engineer is resourceful versus not:
Being Resourceful is Trully a Timeless Skill
As we mentioned in the article Future Proof Your Career as an Engineer in Gen AI World. The two important areas for engineers to do well in the Gen AI world are:
Human-related skills and
Being good at solving problems.
Being resourceful plays a huge part in being good at solving problems.
No matter in which way AI progresses or how Software Development changes in the future -> being resourceful is a timeless skill that is always going to be highly worth.
A resourceful engineer not only understands how to approach problems but also knows how to leverage people, knowledge, and resources to build practical solutions.
So, how to actually become resourceful as an engineer? Let’s start with the first important thing. It all starts with that.
Resourcefulness Starts With Curiosity
What I like to say:
Curiosity equals growth mindset.
Curious people will always find new things to learn or new concepts to explore. And especially in our industry → We should all be learning new things all the time, no matter the title, seniority, or years of experience.
So, this is very important to understand. Curiosity is the foundation of resourcefulness. A curious engineer:
Explores how systems really work beneath the surface.
Learns from failures and mistakes rather than avoiding them.
Always explores new tools, workflows, and perspectives.
A curious mindset is turning any kind of unknowns into learning opportunities and not obstacles.
And this is a great question that I like to ask when I’m interviewing a new engineer: “What new have you learned in the past 6 months?”. This gives me a good overview of how curious the candidate is.
And I also like to look at the way the candidate is answering the question, especially observing their non-verbal communication.
If they sound very excited, they provide details, they are smiling, or they use their hands a lot when answering. These are all signs that they love what they are doing, and learning new things is something they like to do.
Now, let’s go to the next important thing that makes you a resourceful engineer.