Tracy took us all the way back to the creation of her first startup as a "non-technical founder". She told us about her dabbling with technology and how she learned to code. We talked about getting in the zone and relationships. We talked about passion and success. We discussed how to find ideas be scratching your own itch, as well as tips to make your weeks successful. Tracy is the Co-Founder of This Dot Labs, a mentoring and consulting firm, helping teams build front-end applications...
Mar 17, 2020•40 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Harald first told us how he came to graphics programming: curiosity. We then talked about his first internships and jobs in the healthcare industry. We discussed what quality means in such a heavily regulated environment. We then talked about how his views on software quality and furthermore pair programming evolved through the years. We finally zoomed in on his upcoming coding tour, what it is, how it is organized and why you should consider it too! Harald is an enthusiastic software engineer w...
Mar 10, 2020•39 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Khaled surprisingly started by telling us how he loved machines, but not code... until he discovered that he could create value for customers. We then discussed his first jobs and how he moved to France. Khaled told us about learning humility and discovering that, after all, he knows nothing. Khaled then told us about how he discovered the software crafters movement and got involved with SOCRATES. We finally moved - with him - to Canada, and discussed building a new software crafters community o...
Mar 03, 2020•46 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Hadelin first spoke about his entrepreneurship mindset. This was already in his mind early on, and never left him. We spoke about his interest for math, science and technology and how it drove him to one of the best French engineering schools. We talked about him discovering Data Science and how he changed his major at the very last minute. We then talked about his professional life. How he got to work at google, and why he didn't reconduct his contract and chose to create online courses in...
Feb 25, 2020•51 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Lydia first took us through her discovery of JavaScript via the theming of Tumblr page. She then told us about how she decided not to go to university and go for a boot camp instead. Lydia explained us how she then dipped her toes into freelancing, remote work and digital nomad-life... and would never go back to an "office work" anymore. All along the way, we discussed her decision making processes, mentoring, networking, work-life-balance, routines and burn-out. Lydia Hallie is a 21-y...
Feb 18, 2020•45 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Denise's choice for STEM and maths was a no brainer, but the rest of the journey wasn't as clear. There were many forks along the way. Denise first told us about her maths studies and how she inadvertedly discovered graphs theory. She described how her aversion for a focus on teaching led her to digging deeper into the graphs field that became the subject of her PhD. We the talked about moving from academia to the industry. Denise told us about her job at the startup PokitDok and how i...
Feb 11, 2020•43 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Jamison quickly took us through his studies, how he zoomed in on computer sciences... not without a few detours beforehand. We talked about his part time jobs and how he learned what a bad manager can be. We then jumped forward a few years to talk about management, what it takes to do a good job there, the challenges and successes of the function. We finished talking about two dreaded responsibilities of a manager: hiring and firing and how Jamison made his way through this. Jamison is a code wh...
Feb 04, 2020•44 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Shedrack first took us through his discovery of Python coding and his engineering studies. We talked about how his first mentor opened his eyes on the coding world, and how he quickly moved into it. We then moved to the jobs Shedrack did on the side during his studies and how this prepared him for becoming a contractor. We then discussed the remote gigs he did, and how it is to work with different cultures. We talked about fears, trust, learning and communication. We then discussed about Shedrac...
Jan 28, 2020•43 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Molly first brushed over her unusual path to dev... via aerospace engineering and options trading. Then we focused on her journey as a Ruby developer and how she slowly got into Site Reliability Engineering. After defining the term and devising on it, we slowly moved to her current job as an SRE-Lead at Dev.to. Molly finished on a high note, bringing one fantastic advice after the other, about mentoring, expectations, leadership, and much more. Molly Struve is the Lead Site Reliability Engineer ...
Jan 21, 2020•51 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Reuven took us on a rollercoaster, from his discovery of programming, his first classes and tryouts, to his life changing discovery on the Web while at MIT. He took us through his first jobs and taught us how he became a consultant. We discussed his experience as a broad T-Shaped consultant, and slowly converged toward his training business. We then focused on learning, teaching and the key skills required to strive in this business. We finally finished brushing over the history of Reuven's...
Jan 14, 2020•51 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Pariss started off on a scare, when she learned that her non technical skills might be threatened in the future. She then decided to learn how to code, and did really well. Pariss told us the story of her Bootcamp, Internships and Mentors. She told us how she slowly but steadily discovered her unknown-unknowns in the art of software development. She described the birth of the #BlackTechTwitter hashtag and the BlackTechPipeline. We discussed the success and future of such a side project. We final...
Jan 07, 2020•40 min•Season 3Ep. 1
This show marks the end of season 2. I make a little retrospective of the year and a few announcements. The next guest interview will be back next week, on January 7th 2020. Credits Music Aye by Yung Kartz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License . Your host Software Developer‘s Journey is hosted and produced by Timothée (Tim) Bourguignon, a crazy frenchman living in Germany who dedicated his life to helping others learn & grow. More about him ...
Dec 31, 2019•18 min•Season 2Ep. 45
Richard took us from the first time he burned his fingers with a soldering iron, all the way to the book "The History of .NET" he is currently writing. We started talking hardware, tinkering and making money on the side. Then Richard explained how he slowly incorporated software into his hardware-heavy jobs. Fast forward a few years, we talked selling the "value" to customers and the ROI of software. Richard told us about how he got involved with Microsoft. And finally, we ta...
Dec 24, 2019•51 min•Season 2Ep. 44
Joseph started by taking us all the way back to 3rd grade, when he discovered QuickBasic and the power of computers. We then discussed his musical background and the parallels between the music composition language and computing. He then briefly brushed over his USAF career and how he transitioned to the civilian life. Joseph told us about his first and second jobs, and how they convinced him to create his own company... that would be the antithesis of those jobs: remote, 30h/week, freedom, pass...
Dec 17, 2019•53 min•Season 2Ep. 43
Ted first took us to his very first lines of code, on a TRS-80, his first programs in Applesoft Basic and slowly took us all the way to his first commercial lines of code and how he slowly started making a living out of writing software. He then described how Java entered (and rocked) his life. We discussed eXtreme Programming, teaching, coaching and solving problems. We finally touched on enabling people and moving them a notch. Ted M. Young has been creating software and training developers fo...
Dec 10, 2019•49 min•Season 2Ep. 42
Bubu first took us through his discovery of computers and how he decided to study computer sciences. He quickly veered off and told us about his first startup, how it came to be and how it shaped the creation of his second startup AF-Radio. We then discussed about DevCongress, the community Bubu is heavily involved in, and how he slowly but surely took over more responsibility there. We finished on a high note with a trick on how to be easier on yourself in the future! Bubu is a software develop...
Dec 03, 2019•43 min•Season 2Ep. 41
Dave first told us where the idea for the Soft Skills Engineering Podcast first came from. Then he took us back to when he started programming, with the Basic language on a Texas Instruments calculator. We then followed his studies, and the start of his career... just after the DotCom burst. We then talked about his first steps toward management, and how he swung from individual contributor, to manager, and back. And after he changed company, how he continued swinging, becoming "Director of...
Nov 26, 2019•46 min•Season 2Ep. 40
Wes first came in contact with CSS tweaking his MySpace page... and got hooked. He first told us how he scratched his entrepreneurs itch, doing some small web-dev for Hardcore Metal bands and small clients. Then how he somehow survived university, dreaming of the time he could finally create websites. And told us about how he started creating websites full time by the time he graduated. We discussed how he entered the world of teaching and how, following the flow, he slowly created the business ...
Nov 19, 2019•44 min•Season 2Ep. 39
David first told us about his sales background and why he decided to learn the dev stack he was selling himself. He told us about Model Driven Development an how he learned development with a very holistic, systemic approach. We then talked about this tech and sales background prepared him to create his first company. After a few painful tales from the DotCom era, we pushed toward learning to code, creating a second, and then a third company. We finally fast forwarded a few years to land to talk...
Nov 12, 2019•46 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Kemdi started by telling us his first experience with Salesforce and how he then realized that he could solve problems this way. Fast forward a few years, he had then leveraged the power of existing tools to uplift voters in Nigeria and was hooked on entrepreneurship. We then talked about how he then built Versus, his current company, to pioneer sentiment analysis in Africa. We finally talked about his skills and what made him particularly fit for this very job. Kemdi Ebi is the Cofounder and CE...
Nov 05, 2019•45 min•Season 2Ep. 74
Kai started by describing his first steps into HTML, manually scratching his own itch. He then described his troubled studies and how he ended up in an apprenticeship position. We then spoke about the beauty of the Ruby language, about intuition and aesthetics. We discussed testing, TDD and the art of producing simple code. We finally jumped forward to the no-code movement and the future of our industry. Kai König has had several roles in tech including, Product Owner, Team Manager, Systems- and...
Oct 29, 2019•51 min•Season 2Ep. 36
Katrina first told us about her rocky start that had nothing to do with science or programming. She described the detours she took and how she finally woke up earning a living as a programmer some day. She explained how her first job in a fashion startup was a forming experience and how she picked her next job afterwards. We touched on her debut in public speaking and how it started an avalanche that led her -through hard work- to working for Github nowadays. Katrina is an ecosystem engineer at ...
Oct 22, 2019•46 min•Season 2Ep. 72
Do you want to help me grow the DevJourney podcast? Vote for "Software Developer's Journey" for the "Discover Pod Awards" until October 21st: http://podawards.devjourney.info Here's a list of our potential guests: http://potentialguests.devjourney.info Here's a form to suggest guests to interview: http://newguest.devjourney.info Here's a form to suggest a question to ask: http://askquestion.devjourney.info Here's a link to our Patreon account: http://...
Oct 20, 2019•6 min
Irwin first spoke about his studies and how he volunteered to write code everyday. He went over the ups and downs and told us how he joined Teleios. We discussed his bumpy start. He spoke about how he learned from his own failures, how this became part of the company culture and a praised example for newcomers. We discussed his move toward Engineering Management and mentorship. And we finally spoke about learning and passion for your work. Irwin has been a professional software developer for mor...
Oct 15, 2019•41 min•Season 2Ep. 34
Jeeva took us full circle. She started telling us about her first interest in computer science -because it sounded easy- and then really falling in love with it. She told us about the harsh reality of her life in Sri Lanka, and having to take on a completely different career. We spoke about her moving to the USA, how she felt about this dream-land and how she was welcomed there. We continued talking about her masters degree, her first jobs in the USA, and how she stumbled upon extreme programmin...
Oct 08, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 79
Aisha first walked us through the Musical-Conference she is putting up. Then we scrolled back to the place software entered her life. We then talked about her volunteering at the Cristo Rey High school and then in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. We discussed how this formed her teaching skills as well as letting her dig deeper into software development. We talked about her bootcamp and how teaching came full circle into her life. We discussed pairing and exploring and finished on a high note, talkin...
Sep 30, 2019•47 min•Season 2Ep. 69
Greg first told us about his need for creating things, building things and expressing himself through products. We then talked about his studdies and how he ended up working for Mozilla. Greg told us a lot about what he learned there, what he liked and why he decided to move on. He then told us about the consulting part of his career and how this all was the perfect build up to create his company ReadMe. We then discussed ReadMe itself, the 5 years when the company was profitable and bootstrappe...
Sep 24, 2019•53 min•Season 2Ep. 68
Kapunahele talked about her going back and forth between technical studies and non-technical activities, between dancing, grammar of the roman languages, tech support and hardware repairs. She spoke about her love for esthetics and how she enjoys mathematical mental models of the world around her. We finally spoke about her work for the Angular.JS community and how she strives to make the open source community a more including, welcoming and kind place to be. Kapunahele is a developer and Angula...
Sep 17, 2019•45 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Rob first told us about his first jobs on the hardware side of IT and described how he slowly transitioned into software. Fast forward a few years, he told us about applying for a new job and discovering teamwork, tight feedback loops and direct contact with the clients. Rob then told us about moving toward front-end development and embracing HTML5. We talked about Javascript, ES6 & Typescript and finding a tool that works for you. We then talked about failures and learnings. And we finished...
Sep 10, 2019•48 min•Season 2Ep. 29
Woody took us all the way back to the 70s, when he started learning programming as a side activity. He described how he learned to scratch his own itch for almost 15 years before finally making the jump to become a "professional developer". We talked about the jump itself, the imposter syndrome attached and how he overcame it. We talked about how he discovered pair-programming and eXtreme Programming. We finally devised on improving programming practices, coaching and working on system...
Sep 03, 2019•52 min•Season 2Ep. 28
