Software Developers Journey - podcast cover

Software Developers Journey

Timothée Bourguignondevjourney.info

Becoming a software developer is a journey. The Software Developers Journey show is an inspirational podcast for software developers. Every week, a successful software engineer shares their journey and tells us what they learned.

Episodes

#64 Guillermo Rauch learned with communities

Guillermo first took us through his very early steps in the software world... as a child. He then explained how he discovered he could make a living out of it, and how it shaped his perception. We then discussed how he grew learning and teaching in online communities and how he finally decided to move to the Silicon Valley. We finally touched on moving away and stepping into a new life. Guillermo is a serial entrepreneur. He is the founder of ZEIT , socket.io and MongooseJS . He is also the co-c...

Aug 27, 201946 minSeason 2Ep. 64

#63 Stephanie Hurlburt encourages us to be social techies

Stephanie first told us about the detours that led her from math, art and political science to computer science. We then discussed her first jobs and her first mentor. We then touched on how she joined Oculus and Unity and their respective interview processes before switching gears and talking about entrepreneurship and her creating her own business. Stephanie was then very open about her technical burn out and explained how she feels it coming back. Stephanie Hurlburt is a graphics engineer and...

Aug 20, 201947 minSeason 2Ep. 63

#62 How Llewellyn Falco brought the joy of programming back in his life

Llevellyn took us way back to the point where he discovered his first computer and FORTRAN. We brushed over his studies and drifted toward MobProgramming after talking about dancing. Llewellyn told us about how he discovered "strong style pair programming" and how it brought the joy of programming back in his life. Llewellyn Falco is an independent agile coach who spends most of his time programming in Java and C# specializing in improving legacy code. He is creator of the open source ...

Aug 13, 201955 minSeason 2Ep. 62

#61 Elissa Shevinsky felt into Security

Elissa first spoke about her political sciences, activism background and then her love for IT. We then discussed getting into Security, Mentoring, people surrounding you and creating a business. We finally delved on failures, growth and being a role model. Elissa Shevinsky is CEO at Faster Than Light, where she is building super fast tools for static analysis testing. She previously helped launch Geekcorps, Everyday Health and Brave. But you might also know Elissa for her work promoting best pra...

Aug 06, 201947 minSeason 2Ep. 61

#60 Trisha Gee owns her career

Trisha took us from her first years at school, being an outsider, all the way to taking advantage of it as a developer advocate for JetBrains. During this fantastic discussion, we brushed over the people that helped and even pushed her. We spoke about being comfortable with being uncomfortable. We discussed taking a leap of faith, not burning bridges, taking control of your career, working on your brand, important developer skills and building on people. Trisha has developed Java applications fo...

Jul 30, 201946 minSeason 2Ep. 60

#59 Julie Moronuki a linguist turned Haskell expert

Julie first told us how she met Christopher Allen, the co-author of her Book "Haskell programming from first principles", why learning in general is hard and why they wanted to approach learning Haskell from a different angle. We then drifted into Julie's own learning of Haskell and how she came into the programming world. We then digged further into the Haskell echosystem and the world of academia. And finally, we touched on TypeClass, Julie's own company, dedicated to teach...

Jul 23, 201949 minSeason 2Ep. 59

#58 Robby Russell succeeds being selfless

Robby first told us how the selfless scratching of his own itch lead to the success of his tool "Oh my Zsh". We then backtracked to his early years and how he got into development. Step by step, Robby took us through the creation and growth of his consultancy ; which is deeply intertwined with Ruby on Rails, scratching his own itch(es) again, and helping others along the way. Robby co-founded Planet Argon in 2002, which is a a software consultancy based out of Portland, Oregon USA. Pla...

Jul 15, 201950 minSeason 2Ep. 58

#57 Adam Barr roots for more humility

Adam took us through his journey at Microsoft. From the first (failed) interviews, to his long career writing code, helping teams and teaching developers. We spoke about the key learnings that encouraged him to write two of his books and finished by talking about the state of software development and where our industry could grow in the future. Adam Barr worked with and for Microsoft for more than two decades. There he worked on various versions of Windows, Powershell and Office as well as in th...

Jul 09, 201943 minSeason 2Ep. 57

#56 Magnus Stahre is not supposed to know it all, and neither are we!

Magnus started by telling us the story of his first steps, tinkering on a Commodore64 devising on what attracted him toward computers in the first place. Then we discussed his first apps using Borland TurboPascal and how this hobby evolved into a job. We talked polyglot-ism, craftsmanship, re-reading books, apprenticeship programs and code katas. Forged of iron and walrus blood, Magnus Staahre comes from an ancient line of nordic code smiths. His technology engineering heritage was primarily res...

Jul 02, 201936 minSeason 2Ep. 56

#55 Yehuda Katz on how framework design influences communities

After brushing over his "false starts" at being a developer, Yehuda slowly took us into a deep, deep dive. We talked about framework design, design philosophy, the importance of communities and being part of a core team. Yehuda is one of the creators of Ember.js, and a retired member of the Rust, Ruby on Rails and jQuery Core Teams. His 9-to-5 home is at the startup he founded, Tilde Inc.. There he works on Skylight, the smart profiler for Rails, and does Ember.js consulting. He's...

Jun 25, 201957 minSeason 2Ep. 55

#54 Dave Rael was chosen by the .NET technology stack, not the other way around

Dave's first professional love was for teaching. He developed it while studying physics at university. But as the DotCom boom went by, he jumped on the coding bandwagon and was hooked. Dave took us through those first years, learning the ropes and climbing the ladder, going from one giant company to a small one where he could really have an impact. Finally, since Dave is the host of the "Developer on Fire" podcast, we discussed podcasting, why he got into it and what he learned fr...

Jun 18, 201946 minSeason 2Ep. 17

#53 Brian Pontarelli thinks like a customer

Brian first told us about his very first Apple E computer and his journey up to college when he learned electrical engineering before switching major to computer science. He spoke about his first startup and his learnings, being a software engineer during the "DotCom Era". Brian then told us about the job where he learned most about teamwork and then about scaling applications. And we completed this very logical buildup by talking about the companies he created. Brian studied computer ...

Jun 10, 201942 minSeason 2Ep. 16

#52 Charity Majors encourages us to strive, going back and forth between roles

Charity first took us through the pain of being a CEO and explained us why she chose to focus on tech again after a while. She then explained how she felt into code instrumentalisation during her time at Parse and how this became her idea for Honeycomb.io. We then went back to her early years, how she felt into IT, SysAdministration and ended up working in the Silicon Valley. We talked about mentorship, learning and sharing. We dwelved on the public speaking skills as a leadership skill before t...

Jun 03, 201938 minSeason 2Ep. 15

#51 Ben Orenstein advises us not to worry too much

Ben Orenstein first talked about being able to create products. We spoke about Ben's early programs and his attempt at studying in college. We then spoke about his second attempt at entering the IT industry, through the backdoor this time. Ben told us about his discovery of Ruby and joining Thoughbot. He told us about why sharing knowledge is important to him. We then touched on public speaking and the two podcasts he hosted during his career. We finally switched gears and talked about prod...

May 27, 201940 minSeason 2Ep. 14

#50 Saron Yitbarek, founder of CodeNewbie, celebrates the power of code and communities

Saron took us from the early years of career as a journalist, to her first coding steps. She explained us in details how her bootcamp and apprenticeship programs took her from a code newbie to a solid developer and avid learner. Saron explained us why she created the CodeNewbie community and how it slowly but surely evolved into her current business. We devised on the many faces of the CodeNewbie community, podcasts and conferences. Saron finally gave us the advice to focus and do things "o...

May 21, 201940 minSeason 2Ep. 13

#49 Ali Spittel works at the crossroads of development, teaching and communities

Ali started by telling us how she got into software development, almost by accident, how she became an assistant professor and how she slowly but surely embraced this career. We talked about her time working for a startup and why her time there was invaluable. We talked at length about her move from develoment to teaching and what she learned along the way. We finally segwayed into her current role at the crossroads of development, teaching and community as a developer advocate. Ali is a softwar...

May 13, 201945 minSeason 2Ep. 49

#48 Shawn Wildermuth encourages us to make decisions no matter what

Shawn took us through the early days of his career and quicky pivoted toward his first mentor "Ron". He told us how Ron managed to infect him with the willingness to write good code. We then brushed over learning and what it takes to become a lifelong learner. We touched on being a role model and how Chris Sells played a central role in his live. We finally discussed decision making strategies and the interviewing game. Shawn Wildermuuuth has been tinkering with computers and software ...

May 06, 201941 minSeason 2Ep. 48

#47 Erik St. Martin is comfortable with the struggle

Together we talked about Erik's first hacking feats and how he got his first job in the IT world. We then brushed over his learnings at Disney and Comcast before joining Microsoft to help other developers. Erik then encouraged us to question our perception of ourself, and compare ourselves only against our former self. We then touched on the definition of seniority. We discussed Erik's experience getting to know the Go language and organize the first GopherCon conference. And we finall...

Apr 29, 201943 minSeason 2Ep. 47

#46 Barry Dorrans is a curmudgeon telling us it is OK to be wrong

"Curmudgeon" (noun): a bad-tempered person, especially an old one. Barry first told us about his very first encounter with a computer... hooked to a TV back then. We then brushed over what attracted him toward computer sciences. We discussed security and all the things we expect... or hope people will do and setting them up for success. We rewinded back to how Barry furthered and then dropped out of his computer science studies and how he ended up working as a programmer anyway. Barry ...

Apr 22, 201936 minSeason 2Ep. 46

#45 April Wensel encourages us to get in touch with our core values

April is the founder of Compassionate Coding, a conscious business that helps technical teams cultivate sustainable, human-­centered software development practices built on a foundation of emotional intelligence. She has spent the past decade as a software engineer and technical leader at various startups in Silicon Valley. As an advocate for a more socially responsible tech industry, she also mentors technologists around the world and volunteers with organizations to teach coding to people from...

Apr 08, 201938 minSeason 2Ep. 8

#44 Jeremy Likness became a developer through the backdoor and loved it

Jeremy Likness is a Cloud Developer Advocate for Azure at Microsoft. Jeremy has spent two decades building enterprise software with a focus on line of business web applications. He is the author of several highly acclaimed technical books including Designing Silverlight Business Applications and Programming the Windows Runtime by Example. He has given hundreds of technical presentations during his career as a professional developer. In his free time Jeremy likes to run, hike, and maintain a 100%...

Mar 26, 201943 minSeason 2Ep. 7

#43 Patrick Kua on being a consultant, a tech lead, a CTO and helping people grow

Patrick is the CTO of the mobile bank N26, where he is building the engineering group that will change modern retail banking for people like you and me. Formerly a Principal Technical Consultant at ThoughtWorks in London, he is also the author of three books, The Retrospective Handbook, Talking with Tech Leads and most recently, Building Evolutionary Architectures. Patrick is a frequent conference speaker, a blogger and is passionate about bringing a balanced focus between people, organisations ...

Mar 12, 201941 minSeason 2Ep. 6

#42 Charlie Gerard is learning by building (MANY) projects on the side

Charlie Gerard is a software developer at ThoughtWorks in Sydney. She is passionate about creative coding and building interactive prototypes mixing science, art and technology. She also spends time giving back to the community by mentoring new developers, contributing to open-source projects and speaking at events. We first talked about her early career in Marketing and as a Digital Producer and segwayed into the Bootcamp that started her programming career. We discussed formal education, unive...

Feb 26, 201949 minSeason 2Ep. 5

#41 Simon Harrer on strong opinions loosely held

Dr. Simon Harrer is a senior consultant at INNOQ. In his daily business, he fights for simple solutions with domain-driven design, fitting architectures such as microservices or monoliths, and clean code in Java, Ruby or even JavaScript. Most recently, he co-authored the book "Java by Comparison" that helps Java beginners to write cleaner code through before/after comparisons. We talked about his love for teaching and how he incorporated industry best-practices into the curriculum he b...

Feb 12, 201948 minSeason 2Ep. 4

#40 Ignacio Anaya on discovering your valuable skills

Ignacio Anaya is a Full Stack Developer at the company BloqInc, a Tech Trainer and a Speaker from Argentina. He's Passionate about code, teaching and field hockey. He mostly works with JavaScript, Vue.js and Blockchain but likes to contribute to many dev communities and Open Source project. Ignacio is an Ambassador for Auth0 and the organizer of the Buenos Aires Vue JS Usergroup. Together we spoke about how his first steps as a developer, his trainee curiculum and how he came to work with J...

Jan 29, 201944 minSeason 2Ep. 3

#39 Harry Roberts and his journey toward freelancing

Harry Roberts is an award-winning Consultant Performance Engineer from the UK. With a client list ranging from the United Nations to Google, the BBC to the Financial Times, he has helped some of the world’s largest organisations make their websites faster. He also holds positions as a Google Developer Expert, where he shares web performance research and findings, and as Performance Ambassador for SHIFT Commerce, where he aims to make ecommerce faster from the inside out. He writes about all thin...

Jan 15, 201948 min

#38 Ryan Latta from one extreme to the next

Ryan Latta has been building software and teams for nearly 10 years now. He currently works as an agile coach and scrum master with a mission of creating teams that change the world. As a developer he maintains a belief that writing code is the least responsible thing he can do. When he isn't spending time with his family, he is mentoring new developers in starting their careers, playing games, and learning to play the fiddle. Ryan brushed over the dark passages of his career. From Game dev...

Jan 01, 201949 minSeason 2Ep. 38

#37.5 Special Episode on what we learned in 2018

Listen to (almost) all the 2018 guests answer the same question: what is the most important thing you learned in 2018? In order of appearance: Emily Bache http://twitter.com/emilybache Darren Hoehna http://twitter.com/activefireball Markus Harrer http://twitter.com/feststelltaste Jessica Kerr http://twitter.com/jessitron Anne Cahalan http://twitter.com/northofnormal Mario Rogic http://twitter.com/realmario Richard Rodger http://twitter.com/rjrodger Steven Schwenke http://twitter.com/stevenschwen...

Dec 25, 201836 minSeason 1Ep. 37

#37 Darren Hoehna, "That Programming Guy", on getting experience no matter what!

Darren is a software developer, currently working for Microsoft, and the founder of the "That Programming Guy" company through which he does the two things that he loves most: helping people and tutoring in programming. When he's not working, he either plays video games, or does chores. Together we talked about the detours Darren took in order to become a developer, like working for U-Haul and not finishing his college degree. Then we talked about the interviews he lived through a...

Dec 18, 201842 minSeason 1Ep. 37

#36 Rob Allen on persuasion instead of authority

Rob Allen is a software consultant and developer with many years experience and writes code in PHP, Swift and other interesting languages. He leads Slim Framework's development team and contributes to Apache OpenWhisk and other open source projects. Rob is a published author and based in the UK where he runs Nineteen Feet Limited, focussing on API development, training and consultancy. In his spare time, Rob blogs at akrabat.com and can often be seen with a camera in his hand. Rob briefly t...

Dec 04, 201835 minSeason 1Ep. 37