What's one sure-fire recipe for disaster when it comes to coaching? Not being coachable. This could come from a lack of self-awareness or not being willing to be coached -- but if you're not ready for it, it's going to feel like friction. In my conversation with Noah Cantor, we walked through the various considerations that come into play when it comes to getting coaching and mentorship. Noah's framing certainly helped me see how you can try to take all the right steps, but...

There are product teams, platform teams... But what about... Developing APIs for other developers to use? In this interview with Sophia Willows, we got to chat about how she's focused on that very thing! It turns out that when you're building a system when you own the calling and serving side of an API you can get away with a few more luxuries. However, when your customers are developers who spend time getting their own code to work with yours -- you better think twice before...

What do theater, improv, and acting have to do with software engineering? I'll be honest: I thought not a whole heck of a lot. But when I sat down to talk to Rita Iglesias, I couldn't help but realize how her curiosity, problem-solving, and previous experiences truly enabled her to kick butt at being a software engineer. This conversation was AWESOME -- and Rita even stuck around while I experienced a power failure during our call! A legend! Thank you so much for the...

What does it look like to go from managing engineers at startups to a rocketship ride to VP level at Amazon? Let Ethan Evans tell you all about it! Ethan has led global teams of over 800 engineers at Amazon and helped invent Prime Video, Amazon Video, Amazon Appstore, Merch by Amazon. Let's hear what Ethan had to say about what VPs and senior leadership are looking for when it comes to leveling up as a software engineer! Thanks for the insightful conversation,...

It's the people that make the workplace a fun place to go to. These are words from Dan Silivestru in our interview that we did together -- and I couldn't agree more. Software engineers are incredible at solving complex problems and innovating in difficult domains. But at the end of the day, we're all still human. We all have things that motivate us. We can all get burnt out. We all want to feel valued for the work we do. Dan and his team at Chocolate Soup are on top of all of this...

Look, we know it's challenging. Many people are going through tough times with it. Landing your first job as a software developer is no simple task. I sat down to chat with Erik Andersen about his advice for helping folks navigate getting into the industry. Erik had lots of actionable tips for aspiring and junior software developers, and I think you're going to love this one. Thanks for the chat, Erik! ---- You can find Erik at: - LinkedIn:...

Have you worked in feature teams developing products for end users? What about working on a platform team where your customers are the ones building on top of your infrastructure? In this interview, Gaurav Rohatgi discussed these topics in depth with me. We went over his career journey with an EXCITING pivotal moment and then got right into what it's like to work on these different types of teams. Thanks for the great discussion, Gaurav! ---- You can find Gaurav at: -...

You're not a real developer unless you do TDD. Gui Ferreira is a TDD expert -- but no, not even he would tell you this. In our chat together, we covered a lot of ground. It was great to sit down with a fellow Dometrain course author to go over: - His career journey - Developer advocacy - Test-driven development - And MUCH more! Huge thanks to Gui for the talk, and I'd love to do more in the future! ---- You can find Gui at: - YouTube: https://youtube.com/@gui.ferreira -...

You know it's right when it fits like a glove. At least that's the case for Amichai Mantinband when he stumbled upon computer science! He knew right away that he had found the right career path. I had a great discussion with Amichai, and we even went into the weeds on AI taking all of our software engineering jobs! ... Well, not quite. But you'll enjoy our discussion about the impact of AI on software engineering. That's for sure! Huge thanks to Amichai for the interview --...

You've surely seen his system design and software architecture content, right? You know the man -- Raul Junco! I really enjoyed our chat, and navigating how software architecture looks whether you're at big or small companies. When you're trying to move fast, there's not as much time for these things -- so how do you balance it with your team? Huge thanks to Raul for making the time to chat with me! ---- You can find Raul at: - LinkedIn:...

It's all about delivering value to the customer. But do they even know what they want?! I was fortunate to sit down and chat with Emily Jowers where we talked about her career journey up to staff software engineer. We chatted through her core values that she aims to embody and promote in software engineering teams -- and life in general. We also got a glimpse of how to navigate user requirements between groups of users that are hands-on and hands-off! Thanks for the great discussion,...

Woodworking, building a side-SaaS, having a full-time job, helping educate others, and supporting a happy family... This is a full plate. Not only full in terms of time allocation, but also a sense of fulfillment. How could your heart not also be full from focusing on the things you're passionate about? In this video interview, I sat down with Andrew Peacock who shared his (un)fortunate journey to becoming a software developer and how he balances EVERYTHING going on in his...

Arguably the coolest thing I've been able to do in my content creation journey for software engineers to date: I got to sit down and chat with Scott Hanselman. I bet that the overwhelming majority of my audience knows Scott. It's almost impossible to be in this area of tech and not know him! If you've seen a 3d printer online you definitely know Scott. Scott is the VP of Developer Community of Microsoft -- but if you ask him, he's happy to simply say "I'm a teacher". For those of...

I laughed FAR more than I have in any interview so far. But I also managed to pocket more lessons along the way. In this interview with Bond, James B... wait. Wait no. That's the infamous Taha Hussain! Taha was an absolute pleasure to talk with for this interview. Truly, I spent so much time laughing and being engaged by his amazing story-telling. But it's not just some fictional tale -- These are lessons from Taha's impressive career journey. Group Engineering Manager at Microsoft....

There's one thing for sure that I know about Eric Roby. This guy knows how to do remote work. He also: - Understands how to navigate customer interactions - Knows the benefits of soft skills for developers - Has success with digital courses - Is an awesome content creator - Has my next haircut Eric was an absolute pleasure to talk to in this interview, and I'm sure you'll learn a lot from his experiences. Many engineers go most if not all of their careers without ever having to...

Fuel that brain with interesting topics to stay on top of! And that's exactly what Alex Zajac does with his approach for Hungry Minds! I had the pleasure to sit down with Alex and hear his story about how he found an interest for coding. He was able to take that interest and transform it into starting his career at Amazon with some of his close friends. Not only that! Alex is a successful content creator focusing on software engineering and artificial intelligence! He's been doing an...

You fear Friday Deployments. We live for them. We are not the same. I had the pleasure of sitting down to talk with Vasilii Oleinic about his career journey, his focus on software architecture, and how he approaches testing. He had many interesting perspectives that I really enjoyed hearing about, including how to frame up a proof-of-concept vs software systems that need to be robust. Of course, Vasilii also explained his testing philosophies and how his career has helped shape...

I've said it a million times and I'll say it a million more: Communication is a critical skill for software engineers. And if you don't want to listen to me, listen to Maria Glazunova who I had the pleasure of interviewing in this video! Maria coaches many software engineers and tech professionals on how to improve their communication skills. Many of these people have English as their second (or third) language -- but the fundamentals of what we discuss regarding communication apply to...

My journey through software engineering was pretty traditional: go to college/university directly after high school to study... then go into the workforce. But it's important that we keep an open mind about the different paths that aspiring software engineers can take to get into the industry. In this video, I was joined by Brooke Sweedar who shared with me her journey through coding Bootcamp. It's great to hear about her successes going through such a program and understanding what made...

I was joined by Jade Wilson in this video interview! Jade is not only a senior software engineer at Microsoft, but a successful content creator. When we got to talking, it was really cool to hear that we have very different experiences with how our teams approach building software: - My teams go through a pseudo-agile / waterfall hybrid (i.e. we try to be agile but commitments are done on larger horizons) - Jade gets to work DIRECTLY with customers quite regularly A huge takeaway from...

Imposter syndrome is something that affects many people -- especially software engineers! But imposter syndrome is not just limited to aspiring programmers or junior software engineers... In fact, the more success you have, often the more imposter syndrome that you encounter. In this video, I was joined by a previous intern of mine (Woohoo Magnet Forensics!), Julia Hohenadel, who knows allllll about imposter syndrome. Julia is a great speaker on imposter syndrome, and I've even had her...

In this interview, Bhavana Hindupur enlightened me with some different perspectives about the challenges going through tech. She explained how cultural background and expectations from society can create additional barriers when navigating how to progress in the workplace. One of the great points that Bhavana brought up was about her turning point in her career going from senior to principal level -- You need to be the one driving the change! Thanks for the awesome chat,...

Don't worry though -- the aliens won't hurt you. I confirmed this with Mohamad Dbouk when we sat down to discuss his journey in software engineering and he surprised me with an awesome little demo of a Blazor game! Not only was this the very first show-and-tell code we got to see from a guest on the channel, but Mohamad had other very insightful things to share. One of my biggest takeaways? You can have an amazing and fulfilling career without having to chase down higher and higher...