What’s the greenest flag you’ve seen in an engineering team’s culture? For me it’s when senior engineers ask questions in public channels instead of always having the answers. It normalizes not knowing everything and makes it way easier for junior folks to speak up without feeling like they’ll be judged.

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?

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?

Do you think engineering gets more technical or more psychological over time? The longer I work with teams and systems, the more human behavior seems to matter.

I’ve been working in construction since I graduated 5 years ago. I’ve gradually realized I don't want to do this for the next 3 decades, but I feel stuck. Is it too late to switch engineering disciplines without destroying my career progression?