Abhimanyu placed the start of his dev journey as a math undergrad who had not touched a computer before. We talked about how he enrolled in a CS curriculum at university and found himself typing with one finger among people with years of experience. We talked about him growing into this role and creating a smart-lightning company even before graduation. We discussed working in the open source communities, moving to the USA, working for Fab as an early employee, and drinking from the firehose. We...
Feb 07, 2023•46 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Jake placed the start of his journey in middle school, having to learn his way with computers to play video games. From there, we talked about a small hardware review business he started and how following his curiosity set him up on the path of creating companies. We talked about starting and failing. We spoke of Lean Startup, MVPs, and talking to customers. We finally talked about solving your pains and how ButterCMS came to be. Here are the links from the show https://www.twitter.com/jakelumet...
Jan 31, 2023•52 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Laila placed the start of her journey in the hands of her older brothers, who showed a deep interest in seeing her grow and discover her full potential. One of them gave her her first computer and unknowingly set her on the path she is on today. We then talked about how she wanted to become a teacher but went for computer science instead. We discussed communities and public speaking. Laila shared tragic family stories, which led us to speak about mindfulness, bringing your entire self, and the e...
Jan 24, 2023•48 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Hannah placed the start of her journey when her mum brought back a Dell PC from the US. She brushed over her studies and realized that computer science was what she should pursue. We explored how she self-taught and went into mobile development. We talked about how she got involved in communities and got into the GDE Program. We discussed engineering management and her approach to mentorship. Here are the links from the show https://www.twitter.com/hannah_omu Credits Cover Legends by HoliznaCC0 ...
Jan 17, 2023•49 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Jean-Philippe pinpointed the start of his journey at age 11 when his mother placed the family computer in his bedroom. JP talked about his childhood, discovering coding, and the internet, being an excellent student, promising greatness, and dropping out. He spoke of being unable to find a tech job and working as a truck driver. He then explained how he started doing phone support and grew to become the leader of a few hundred employees while following his passion: learning. He explained how &quo...
Jan 10, 2023•51 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Dustin placed the start of his journey somewhere between the age of 7 and 18... or 16... with a C64 or a TRS-80. Fast forward a few years, he spoke of enrolling in a computer engineering curriculum to play on hardware and software. We then talked about the first company Dustin worked for. We spoke about the multiple roles he took during his 12 years tenure and how he slowly realized that if his money bucket was full, his freedom and happiness buckets were empty. We discussed transitioning to fre...
Jan 03, 2023•51 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Oshri placed the start of his journey at the age of 13 when he got his first computer and started being an online vigilante. Fast forward a few years, he was out of high school, searching for a job as a developer during the dot-com boom. We talked about his first job, the company he created, and crashed. We spoke of returning to being an employee and playing the title rat race until he became a full-time fractional CTO. We discussed what it is and how Oshri lives it daily, and he never had that ...
Dec 20, 2022•54 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast Kevin started his story in the 80 & the 90s but quickly said, "Coding found me more than I found it." We then discussed his (very early) Bootcamp and how he went from one job to the next, slowly feeling less incompetent. We talked about ADHD, networking, people & organizational problems, and environment variables. We then dug our heels into eXtreme Programming and the Spine model: Needs, Values, Principles, Practices, and Tools, and how it helps us create better teams and organ...
Dec 13, 2022•48 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast Amy took us on a wild ride, made of embracing crazy adventures by fear of failure. We talked about her time as a hippie in a commune, her time in academia, and during her Ph.D., we spoke about transferring skills from one career to the next. We discussed slowly coming to software engineering and how she approached this next transition. And finally, we talked about her positioning as a highly skilled professional yet junior software engineer. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter....
Dec 06, 2022•48 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast Melanie's love for web development started in 1997 (not with Dreamweaver) and followed her to 2022, where she is pushing the state of Accessibility. We brushed over her childhood, spoke about her time as an Intelligence Analyst in the Navy, and saw how she slowly but surely built her skills. We talked about disabilities, reframing Accessibility for UX, we discussed improving the web, and how every one of us developers has a role to play. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter...
Nov 29, 2022•54 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast Bill placed the start of their journey at three different places. In their childhood, thanks to a geeky dad. Then right after college when they started working as a web developer. And finally, in 2020, when they embraced the fractional CTO idea. We dug into the fractional CTO business idea, the heuristics helping them decide to take on a project, and how to make it successful with different clients. Here are the links from the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billboulden https://www.twitter.com...
Nov 22, 2022•47 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast Jenn first took us back in her studies, discovering FORTRAN and MATLAB and hating every minute of it. Fast forward a few years, she found she was missing the visual aspect of programming, and as soon as she put a finger into web development, off, she went. We spoke about her first jobs, good and bad managers. We spoke about transitioning from small to big to small companies. We discussed the advantages of a strong product company. And we finally talked about engineering management and how Jenn b...
Nov 15, 2022•48 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast Katerina placed the start of her journey in her studies when she found where she belonged. She spoke about her first job and how it set up the rest of her career. It led her toward freelancing and then creating her company Adeva. We spoke about how Katerina grew into her CEO role and remains grounded in tech. We talked about remote work and making connections in a remote world. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/ktrajchevska https://www.linkedin.com/in/trajchevska/ https:/...
Nov 08, 2022•38 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast Jonah started by telling us about her family and how she juggled her studies and put food on the table for her three siblings. We then discussed how she moved to Sweden and how her micro-manager of a boss led her to burnout. We then moved to her next and current job, which looks like the opposite, and touched on being led, freedom, learning, communities, teaching, public speaking, being an MVP and Microsoft Trainer, and writing a book. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/cj...
Nov 01, 2022•45 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast Max took us back to his childhood, at 6, when he got his first BBC-Micro computer. We spoke about learning BASIC and C++, using manuals and documentation instead of Stackoverflow, and how he studied chemistry. Max talked about depression, how he started working in open-source, and how alternating between open-source and paying gigs set him up for working on tea.xyz nowadays. We finished brushing over tea's innovation and why you should look into it. Here are the links from the show: https:/...
Oct 25, 2022•53 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast Grant told us about his childhood and how he ended up doing an internship at 12, programming Flash animations. But what could have been a straight line toward software engineering took a long detour of 20 years. After years of fighting with alcohol and drug abuse, Grant embraced the career of Substance Abuse Counselor, helping teenagers like he used to be. We then discussed why and how he decided to return to tech after almost 20 years. We talked about learning, becoming competent, figuring it o...
Oct 18, 2022•45 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast Adi took us on a journey of following learning opportunities. From a machine learning research project in college to learning about distributed systems and big data. We explored how she approached joining Microsoft and creating a scalable network of colleagues while continuing to share her knowledge and learning in the open. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/AdiPolak https://www.linkedin.com/in/polak-adi/ https://linktr.ee/adipolak Adi's Book https://www.oreilly.com/...
Oct 11, 2022•42 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast Marcy told us about her photojournalism studies and how they led her to web development. We soon bifurcated into accessibility and remained there until the end. We discussed what it means to create accessible websites, the no-brainers and low-hanging fruits, why investing in accessibility early on in our projects are essential, and where to learn more about it. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/marcysutton http://marcysutton.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcysutton Ma...
Oct 04, 2022•49 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast Sergey's story started with circumventing the BIOS passwords his Dad put on their family computer. Fast forward a few years, we dug deep into Sergey's P.hD, research, academia, assistant professor position, cryptography, the blockchain, taking a risk, failing, the startups he founded, and his back and forth between the industry and the academia. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/sergey_nog https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergegorbunov https://axelar.network/careers ...
Sep 27, 2022•44 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast Tanja's story started in a computer science family in the 70s, where Tanja fell in love with computers. She spoke about programming in high school, coming out of college during the DotCom bubble, and learning best practices of software engineering she had never learned during her early self-studies. We then spoke about the role communities, and lunch&learn activities played in her career. She described how penetration testing and security slowly made their way into her life. Tanja expla...
Sep 20, 2022•52 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast Stephanie's story is one of creativity. She told us how she got into Flash animations and ActionScript in high school. We then talked about WordPress and how she slowly but surely drifted toward web development while freelancing on the side. We discussed open source, pushing projects out of communities, giving back, creating courses, and giving talks. Finally, Stephanie encouraged us to find what sharing medium works for us! Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/5t3ph ht...
Sep 13, 2022•44 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast Christina's story started and ended with observing and understanding why the world works as it does. She first told us about her biology studies, then crime & forensic sciences, and biotech. She then spoke about discovering coding. She explained how she got hooked, helped by mentors, and pushed by destiny to embrace it. We spoke about moving to SanFrancisco and the Bootcamp she went through. And finally, we talked about how she found a job at Postman and has been happy (ever after) for ...
Sep 06, 2022•45 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast Paul started talking about gaming, creating websites as a kid, and following his dream of becoming a pilot in the RAF. He told us how he transitioned back into the industry and taught himself a new trade: web development. We talked about agencies and product shops. We spoke about learning, knowing it all, and maturing in an industry. We finally spoke about communities and how Paul became an instructor. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/ThePaulMcBride https://paulmcbride.c...
Aug 30, 2022•46 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast Shruti's story started with a push from her dad. Little did she know it would trigger such a career. She told us about her studies, moving to Canada and then to the Silicon Valley. We talked about entrepreneurship, WordPress, QA automation, React, getting (and losing) a job, accessibility, communities, and the joy of giving talks! Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/shrutikapoor08 https://shrutikapoor.dev/ https://tinyletter.com/shrutikapoor Credits Cover Heliotrope by...
Aug 23, 2022•45 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast Geepaw (Michael Hill) story started like no other, with the tale of his firing. He told us how he began as a computer salesman and got interested in programming and the Forth programming language. We briefly discussed being independent before talking more and more about the state of our industry. We spoke about joy being mandatory for the team's success. We discussed methods and how they won't solve a thing if joy isn't present, not even Extreme Programming. We finally talked abou...
Aug 16, 2022•51 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast Michael's story started in a time of crisis, in 2008, when he realized that being a mediocre accountant wouldn't cut it. So he embraced web development by picking hourly gigs on CraigsList. Michael told us the story of a coach she worked for and who changed his life. From then on, we went deep into emotions' social and empirical science. We talked about feedback and being ready to listen. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/chantastic https://chantastic.org/ ...
Aug 09, 2022•53 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast Wynn took us on a story made of APIs, wrappers, and interfaces. He first told us about his law studies and how HTML and building websites slowly made their way into his life. We talked about classic ASP and working in a team. We spoke about creating your company and wearing many hats. And we spoke about how API design and wrapping APIs took Wynn to Github and further. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/pengwynn https://wynnnetherland.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/netherl...
Aug 02, 2022•50 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Erin took us from tweaking her page on MySpace to her master's in journalism. She then spoke about her jobs and how she was not challenged/stimulated. She told us how the idea of going through a Bootcamp emerged, how she found the right Bootcamp for her and bit the bullet. We talked about her first job, her first mentor, pair programming, and moving on. We talked about having a hard time finding a new job, finding a bad fit, and finally landing at the right place after being laid off. We sp...
Jul 26, 2022•47 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast Christos took us on an extended origin story made of movie inspiration, dreams, traveling, and a lot of learning. He told us how following the idea of becoming a hacker took him from not having any knowledge of computers to graduating with a master's degree in networking in a foreign country (and being able to touch-type). He then brushed over job-hopping, working on old systems, painful rewrites, consulting, communities, and finally being hunted down by Microsoft and moving to the USA. Her...
Jul 19, 2022•48 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast Glaucia's story started when she taught computer classes to her co-students in high school. Fast forward a few years during which she graduated from a very selective program while working full time to feed her family, Glaucia finally got a job as a developer. From there on, it was a story of being lucky, making her own luck, and always focusing on human connections and communities. One thing led to the next, and this path led her to Microsoft, working as a cloud advocate, where she is today...
Jul 12, 2022•53 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast 
