I’m Jelle Smeets, the owner of the Engineering Manager blog you are currently reading. I write about engineering leadership, team building, and productivity. I am an Engineering Manager at Drukwerkdeal.nl, a blogger, and dreamer, and I love learning in public.

Jelle Smeets the person

Since I was a little kid I worked with computers. First as a hobby, mostly because of gaming. But when I grew older I came into contact with web development. After my first site on Microsoft Frontpage, I became hooked. Wondering how I ended up in tech in the end? Read the full story on my journey into tech.

jelle smeets

After I graduated and got my bachelor’s degree in computer science I started as a developer (actually I started part-time during my studies). After a few years of working as a developer,  I got the opportunity to also start as a Scrum master.

Over the years I slowly transitioned into being a full-time Scrum master. Over time my focus has switched from building the most awesome web applications to building the most awesome teams! You can read my lessons as a Scrum master in my most popular blog post.

After 5 years of being a Scrum Master a new opportunity opened up and I had to apply. Since March 1st, 2022 I am an Engineering Manager. This opened up the blog to a lot more content in the engineering management scope!

Jelle Smeets the blog

This blog will mostly be about my experiences as an engineering manager. This blog is my outlet for the world. My unique view of the engineering/development world around me will be documented in this blog. Ranging from personal experience, interesting topics I come across, or things I want to learn more about and share with you.

You can expect topics ranging from engineering leadership, team building, productivity, and many more. Are there some specific topics you would like to see?

If you are in any way involved in engineering, development, web, or technology. A developer, scrum master, fellow engineering manager, or another role I forgot! I hope you will find my blog posts helpful. And will help you level up yourself as a professional!

My current project on the blog is the engineering leadership series. A series of posts dedicated to helping you level up as a leader in engineering.

Public appearances

Check out some of my public appearances:

Do you want to help Jelle Smeets expand this list? Contact me with the methods listed below.

Contacting Jelle Smeets

I am currently available to collaborate on content-creation-related projects. Consider contacting me for:

  • Mentoring
  • Creating Content in a partnership/guest blogging
  • Speaking on podcasts
  • Being a guest in YouTube videos
  • Speaking at a conference
  • Other forms related to collaboration

If you want to contact me regarding any of these options, check out the contacting Jelle Smeets page. Or send me a DM on Twitter.

I have to mention I am currently not looking for a new full-time opportunity. As someone in tech, I don’t have the best experience with recruiters. If you are a recruiter who is convinced I should join your company, please read how to deal with recruiters before reaching out to me. Messages without company/compensation/seniority will be ignored.

If you want to support my content creation journey, consider buying me a coffee. Interested in my setup? Check the /uses page.

The easiest way to be updated with my content is to subscribe to the newsletter. In my newsletter, I share my long-form writing, thought-provoking articles, and inspiring leadership quotes.

As a bonus, I’m giving away a free copy of my 1 on 1 starter kit to all newsletter subscribers.