What happens when a gaming enthusiast transitions into the world of tech, data science, and community management? That's the intriguing journey we explore with Chuck Ting Hall, a Community Manager at OpenSSF and prolific contributor to various tech libraries. From her early love for gaming, Chuck's passion for technology took a unique turn, leading her down a path that merges both the worlds of academia and business.  Chuck Ting's story begins where most of us find ourselves, at crossroads....

Ever wondered how a software developer's journey unfolds? Well, today, we have a story that is sure to inspire. Join us as we explore the life of Aleksandra Sikora, a software engineer based in Wrocław, who shares her journey from learning to code in primary school to becoming a full-stack developer. A poignant chapter of her journey delves into the power of patience, the art of listening, and the invaluable skill of delegation when leading a team. She also recalls an article about a young...

From humble beginnings to scaling the corporate ladder, Ori Keren's career in the tech industry is nothing short of inspiring. His passion for software development and team dynamics shines through as he recounts the challenges and rewards of evolving in the ever-changing tech world. Ori’s experiences have shaped not only his professional life but also the very fabric of how he views the confluence of technology and business. Ori placed the start of his journey at the age of 13 when he...

From graphic design to coding, Anna Sala's foray into software development was anything but conventional. Anna's initial curiosity was sparked by a chance conversation with a tennis player who shared insights about the world of development. This unexpected interaction set Anna on a transformative career journey, combining her unique design background with the ever-evolving world of software. Anna placed the start of her journey three years ago on a tennis court when a joke involving a...

Una Kravets's journey in the tech world has been nothing short of captivating. From her dedication to creating and enhancing the user interface space to her insightful perspectives on the ever-evolving challenges of web development, Una's story is one of passion, innovation, and unwavering dedication. Her experiences span a wide range of tech endeavors, from her involvement in the W3C community and standards to her unique insights into the intricate world of web design. Una placed the start...

From facing unexpected challenges in his school days to rising to the occasion as a software developer, Tejas Kumar's journey is nothing short of remarkable. He candidly speaks about facing adversity and how those experiences shaped his perspective, even leading him to unexpected avenues in the world of tech. Tejas placed the start of his journey when he discovered HTML. We then followed the story of his childhood, juggling between a life-threatening medical disease called hemophilia and...

From humble beginnings working on a spreadsheet application to grappling with the rapid transformations in the developer industry, Lilly Chen's journey through the software realm has been nothing short of fascinating. With experiences ranging from the challenges of being a first-time manager to the profound influence of mentors who "lifted as they climbed," Lilly offers a unique perspective on growth, resilience, and paving the way for others. Lilly placed the start of her journey in high...

Stepping into the tech world is one thing, but embracing it with a passion for teaching and enhancing the way technology is learned represents a calling of a different order. Felienne Hermans' life has been a vibrant blend of software development, advocating for better ways of teaching coding and recognizing the importance of guiding the young generation into the programming world. Her journey from receiving her first computer and experiencing unique educational opportunities to her...

In the ever-evolving realm of software development and testing, it's rare to encounter someone with as vast and varied an experience as Steve Upton. From his early foray into quality assurance to his insights on teamwork and agile methodologies, Steve's journey offers a lens into the nuanced world of development from a quality-first perspective. Steve placed the start of his journey coding in YABASIC on a PS2 and creating the infamous program "Insultor." Fast forward a few years, he...

The realm of software development is as vast as it is intricate. For Cory O'Daniel, it's been a journey marked by coding and understanding the deeper nuances of being a software developer. Cory took a detour, discovering that there's more to the world of tech than just writing code – there's a profound beauty in problem-solving, connecting with peers, and carving out personal space in a rapidly evolving remote work landscape. Cory placed the start of his journey in high school, modding Duke...

Unfolding the story of a truly diverse career trajectory, Mirjam Aulbach joins us to share her captivating journey from pursuing an accounting career and dog training to evolving into a full-fledged software developer. Mirjam's tale isn't just about career changes; it's about her lifelong passion for coding and how she kept it alive while juggling multiple roles in different domains, highlighting the power of persistence and dedication in shaping one's career. In this episode, Mirjam opens up...

Nnenna Ndukwe is a seasoned software developer who profoundly understands the essence of community and its value in shaping one's career journey. In a world often dictated by individual prowess, Nnenna's story is a testament to the power of shared wisdom and the transformative capacity of communal learning in the tech industry. With a passion for continuous growth and a heart to impact others, her story reverberates the truth that one's journey can indeed inspire the journeys of many...

Phil Alves, founder of DevSquad and LiveStats, is a software entrepreneur driven by building impactful solutions. From his humble beginnings, coding at age 12, to becoming a leader of development teams, his path has been marked by curiosity, determination, and a desire to improve developers' lives. Phil placed the start of his journey with Flash and ActionScript and then with PHP, with which he created his first business at the age of 16. We then discussed learning in the open, growing and...

Join us in this enlightening conversation with Chris Zimmerman, the co-founder of Sucker Punch Productions, the powerhouse behind globally successful games like Infamous and Ghost of Tsushima. Chris started his journey as a software developer and evolved into a trailblazer in the gaming industry, showing the same resilience and innovation in his career as the characters in his games do. Chris placed the start of his journey in the mid-70s, programming games for an Apple II computer. During...

Chelsea Troy, an inquisitive software engineer, data scientist, and respected educator, passionately shares her story, from the impactful challenges she faced in the nascent stage of her journey to her growth into a successful developer and teacher. Chelsea found her love for software development and data science in a winding path full of determination and resilience. Her inspiring story is a testament to her belief in the importance of accessible education and the potential that can be...

Sev placed the start of her journey back in China as a child passionate about maths and logic. She then described how she struggled to find her way through education after losing her hearing. She talked about how she could go to the USA and study Information Technology at Gallaudet University. She then spoke about the Microsoft Explorer Program, which allowed her to dip her toes into software development and realize she was unprepared for more. We discussed how she enrolled in a Computer...

Larysa placed the start of her journey in the country she was born in, the Soviet Union, with her discovery of those books filled with 0s and 1s that she could not understand. Fast forward a few years, and she is hooked by Maths and Computer Science and doesn't want to do anything else. After her Master's degree in Odessa, she moved to Germany and studied again. From then on, we talked about how she pursued a Ph.D., pivoted on the problem she was tackling, and discovered a new field ML-Ops....

From a trainee reconversion program in the early 80s, Lisa took us on a fantastic testing journey. From discovering Agile before its time, living through highly collaborative Waterfall projects, to embracing XP and being one of the first to challenge the absence of "Testers" in the first installments of the method. Lisa spoke of how she came to write her first book, working with legends of our industry and kept being fascinated by quality. Here are the links from the...

Emmanuel placed the start his journey in the 80s in a computer club. He described how he learned GW-BASIC and became hooked. He told about his love for music and how his parents encouraged him to pursue "real studies." He explained how he went to the USA to study Computer Science, music, and Japanese... and became a theater composer. He discussed his first job as a programmer and being bored (and bad at it) until he discovered eXtremeProgramming. He talked about learning TDD, exploring what...

Krisztina placed the start of her journey by writing a few lines of PHP on a website and being hooked. But then we rolled back to hear about her life behind the iron curtain in her home country of Romania. We discussed her first career as a mechanical engineer and how this led her to write her first BASIC lines of code, move to Germany, and start from scratch. We talked about her reconversion and not finding jobs. We spoke about the job she finally found and how this opened her to a world of...

Tomas placed the start of his journey in high school, where he was part of a group of friends interested in computers. His interest in "understanding what's under the hood" ignited there. He explained how working in the open, publishing small open-source components got him to "professional development" alongside his university studies. Then we talked about how his interest in transpiling C# to Javascript (before transpiling to JS was cool) led him to F#, which led him to a working...

Marjorie placed the start of her journey during her work as an agronomist when she wrote her first R lines of code. She explained how her childhood in southern France brought her to study plants, create a hydroponic startup, work on risk and project management, and slowly become interested in web development. We spoke of her Bootcamp and how she found her first job. We discussed eXtreme-Programming and Mob-Programming, and what it's like to be a newbie in a teaching environment. Here are the...

Mathias placed the start of his journey with both hands on a TRS-80 computer and no other games to play than a compiler and the BASIC language. But fast forward a few years, we spoke about his music studies, his work creating music for ads and movies, and how programming came back as a hobby, which finally took precedence. We then jumped with both feet into languages and modeling. We spent the rest of the interview talking about interactions and how models serve us programmers and help our...

Diana placed the start of her journey with her grandmother and maths, and having the feeling that she loved the wrong things. We discussed how she discovered computers but didn't embrace them for a long time. Diana explained how she wanted to become a writer, moved to Montana, and opened a bookshop. We talked about isolation and rediscovering programming, online gaming, and communities and how she finally went all-in, moved to Austin, TX, and said "YES" to everything. We saw how she became a...

Aida wanted to place the start of her journey three years ago when she started being a developer at ThoughtWorks. But then she went back more than a decade and started talking about her programming classes at university and how her first job was a manual QA Engineer job. Ensued a learning journey, trying to get into QA automation, thinking about going "back" to software development, and finding new problems to solve instead, like being the only engineer at a startup, building a QA team from...