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This episode is sponsored by the O\u2019Reilly Velocity conference. Register today and use discount\ncode SKILLS for a 20% discount:\nhttp://velocityconf.com/skills.

In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

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1. \n

   Hello! Thank you for the show!

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   What do you think about employee monitoring software? I received a message from a company about a job position and they use such software. It seems weird for me to make screenshots on my computer and to see what software I\u2019ve use and what websites I\u2019ve open. How do you feel about it?

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2. \n

   I\u2019m a software engineer with about 2 years of professional experience. When I started working, I was motivated to learn all the things. I consumed technical blogs and podcasts in my personal time and proactively identified and solved problems for the team.

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   Things recently changed. I can\u2019t bring myself to care about work anymore. Curiosity used to come naturally to me but I can no longer summon curiosity about anything related to software development. A few things lead to this.\n1) I got a lower than expected rating on my performance review due to an issue with my soft skills. I thought the feedback was valuable but didn\u2019t think such a rating was warranted, considering my overall contributions.\n2) Our team has spent the past few months writing code that didn\u2019t ship.\n3) I took the Soft Skills Engineering advice and got a new job. In order to do that, I spent many mornings and weekends preparing for technical interviews. After accepting the offer, I felt totally burned out.

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   I very much want to be back to my previous, curious self by the time I start my new job. Unfortunately, I can\u2019t take a long break before the start date. How can I get to a place where I feel motivated again?

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