Mastering the Art of Meetings: Turning Boredom into Career Growth Opportunities

If you feel bored all the time in meetings, you're probably not making the best out of them, here's how you can...

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Meetings can be boring if there are a lot of useless ones. I used to have those all the time with my first employer. Some can be truly boring, with very little added value, especially because they used to strictly adhere to Scrum (agh! Very dull, I know.)

But when used wisely, reasonably, and only with a clear purpose, they can truly make a huge difference to you and your team.

I used to dislike meetings because I wasn't consistently engaged, which led to quick boredom. I was missing out on crucial information that was being shared, and I could have enhanced my knowledge more rapidly by actively contributing and asking more questions.

I learned gradually and by putting in a consistent conscious effort to change this. Here’s how…

How to Make any Meeting Enjoyable/Beneficial

I have recently come to a realization that gaining confidence in team meetings and presenting ideas doesn't happen all at once. It requires consistent effort, and this effort is all about stepping out of your comfort zone by:

• Asking questions even if you fear that others might perceive you as unintelligent.
  

• Asking follow-up questions: Avoid nodding and saying "Yes, thank you" if you genuinely haven't grasped the answer.
  

• Listening attentively to what is being discussed in meetings (previous points will help you clear out the ambiguity that takes your attention away).
  

• Understanding that the phrase "It's not my problem" can be detrimental in software engineering. Make an effort to get involved in tasks that may not align directly with your current responsibilities.

• Contributing your thoughts as you gain more experience in the team's domain. This will lead to more concrete and practical ideas.
  

• If you don't contribute at all and keep your thoughts to yourself, you won't be aware of your areas for improvement, which can significantly slow down your progress toward seniority.

• Be conscious that senior individuals are not always right, but they exude confidence due to their experience, which is where you aspire to be.

• Don't hesitate to challenge more senior and experienced colleagues. You might be correct, and even if you're not, you'll gain insight into where you went wrong.

The Meetings That Can Be useful to You

There are two types of meetings that are my personal favorite because I find a lot of value in them.

1. Meetings that cut the back-and-forth conversations

Back-and-forth conversations that last for hours, or more generally, more than a day, are a nightmare and a waste of time. So, it’s best to jump on a 15-minute call to resolve the issue during:

• Pull (Change) Requests reviews.

• Solving a complicated incident.

• Explaining something to someone or helping them out in general — only when the written conversation is going on for some time.

This gives you the opportunity to

• Learn from others — (in my experience, people present their ideas best when they pair program, draw diagrams, or share their screens)

• Teach someone something — (this helped me explore my knowledge gap and educate myself)

• Don't get intimidated to explain things to seniors

For example, recently I jumped into a meeting with someone who is 2 senior levels above me and a tech lead; both are from another team, and I was super intimidated because I felt they were probably much more experienced than myself. I spent some time reviewing what I was going to explain to them and found that I already knew a lot of stuff, and I identified and filled many gaps in my knowledge as well. After the meeting, I became much more confident with myself because they told me what I explained was super useful to them!

• Communicate effectively with other team members, so you eliminate any assumptions about them or assumptions they made of you.

I made the mistake of assuming someone is thinking of me as not smart enough; this is why they are giving me blunt, harsh comments on my PRs. But this always turns out to be not true. It’s just the way they write that is a bit harsh. This always clears out when they speak, and I understand that their intention is only to make things better. It’s not personal.

2. Knowledge-sharing meetings

When Engaging in Knowledge-sharing:

• It grows your brain (metaphorically): Knowledge sharing is a great chance for your brain to perceive the information and easily retain it in the future.

• Practice speaking in public: This is a skill that you’ll need in your day-to-day life or whenever you want to sell anything — software engineers sell ideas, so we need to be good at selling.

• Increases your credibility: Showing the team(s) your work and how useful it is.

• Helps you become a go-to person: Almost any senior engineer I know advises that in order to elevate in the software engineering ladder, you need to be a go-to person in some domain, or system the team owns. It makes you indispensable.

Also, don’t forget to keep attention and listen actively when others share knowledge:

• Engage by commenting or asking questions.

• Try to critically think about what’s being said, don’t just take the information as it is — helps you and others identify gaps.

• Give the presenting person private feedback after the session — it’ll help them grow.

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How to Deal With Useless Meetings

• Use messages/emails/documentation … etc when you can.

• If someone suggests a meeting that you don’t think will be useful, respectfully say no and tell them that there can be other alternatives (see above point). Tell them if that still doesn’t work, then you’ll be happy to hold a meeting with them.

• Don’t attend company-wide meetings unless you think you can reap some benefits from them. Otherwise, simply ignore them.

In summary, try to avoid meetings when you are 100% sure you won’t get anything useful out of them. Find alternatives. This will save you a lot of time.

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Takeaways:

• Active engagement in meetings is crucial for personal growth and knowledge enhancement.

• Stepping out of your comfort zone is essential for gaining confidence in team meetings and idea presentations.

• Consistent effort is necessary to contribute meaningfully and challenge assumptions.

• Valuable meeting types include cutting back-and-forth conversations and knowledge-sharing sessions.

• Knowledge-sharing meetings grow your brain, enhance public speaking skills, increase credibility, and establish you as a go-to person.

• Active listening, critical thinking, and providing private feedback during knowledge-sharing contribute to personal and team development.

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