Author

About the Author
Michaela is passionate about making the life of developers and engineers better. She hosts the SE Unlocked podcasts and also researches and helps to make software engineering processes and tools better. She writes about her work on https://www.michaelagreiler.com.

Episode 8: Parent Driven Development at Github with Allison McMillan

December 3, 2019 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Remote Work, Women in Tech 00:56:36

In this episode, Allison McMillan, a software engineering manager at Github joins me to talk about

  • how she broke into tech from a non-traditional background,
  • how she overcame obstacles and problems as a new mother in tech and
  • how she builds herself a striving career.

As always, we also talk about software development methodologies such as code reviews and testing at Github. And surely, I pick her brain about remote work and her strategies to stay focused and happy in a remote setting.

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Episode 7: Troubleshooting and Monitoring systems through Observability – with Charity Majors

November 19, 2019 michaela DevOps, Hiring, Monitoring, Startup, Women in Tech 00:42:19

In this episode, I talk to Charity Majors, founder, and CTO of honeycomb. Honeycomb is a tool for introspecting and interrogating your production systems. It represents the new generation of monitoring systems that can handle highly distributed and complex systems. Charity shares with me what observability means and how we can make systems more reliable and maintainable.

We talk about:

  • the new generation of DevOps,
  • how and why we should assess systems in production,
  • the flaws of staging areas,
  • what it takes to make on-call a good experience,
  • how to assess engineering excellence,
  • and how and why she founded honeycomb.
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Episode 6: Derrick Stolee on making Git faster, contributing to open-source, and creating win-win-win situations for all involved.

November 4, 2019 michaela Company Culture, Open Source 00:51:42

In this episode, I talk to Derrick Stolee, a principal software engineer at Microsoft who makes sure the Git version control system is lightning fast.

We talk about:

  • his career switch from being a professor to become a software engineer at Microsoft, 
  • what it means to contribute to open-source during your worktime for Microsoft,
  • how he improves the speed and performance of such a widely-used and mature software system as Git,
  • how to do code reviews via mailing lists,
  • and what it takes to become an open-source maintainer. 
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Episode 5: Alper Kemal Koç on being the first engineer at a startup, building a low code solution, and the importance of listening and ignoring customer feedback.

October 22, 2019 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Startup 00:45:58

In this episode, I talk to Alper Kemal Koç, who was the first engineer building a low code platform called Kuika, that helps users develop mobile applications. Alper shares with me how he build this startup from idea to serving over 15 customers, and which cultural differences he observed when building software in Turkey, the Netherlands and the rest of the world.

We talk about:

  • why and how he joined this startup, 
  • how he decided on the right tech stack,
  • how customer feedback influenced their direction,
  • which engineering practices he values at this startup,
  • and which relationship they have with their investors.
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Episode 4: Leif Singer on changing from academia to industry, humility and work culture at Automattic, open-source and working remotely

October 8, 2019 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Remote Work 00:47:41

In this episode, I talk to Leif Singer, an engineer at the fully remote company Automattic. Automattic is the company behind WordPress, a famous and powerful content management system with an estimated 75 Million user base. 

We talk about:

  • why he switched from academia to industry,
  • how he got hired without knowing the company’s tech stack,
  • why he worked for several months at Automattic before being hired,
  • how the Automattic creed, influences, and guides company values and mindset,
  • Automattic’s software engineering practices,
  • and how they fight technical debt during quarterly scheduled clean-up weeks.
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Episode 3: Sandeep Panda on building a developer community, working with a Venture capital firm, and Software development practices in a startup

September 23, 2019 michaela Company Culture, Remote Work, Startup 00:51:42

In this episode, I talk to Sandeep Panda, CEO and Founder of Hashnode, a friendly and inclusive developer community. Sandeep shares with me his entrepreneurial journey and all the lessons he learned along his way.

We talk about:

  • building a developer community from scratch, 
  • getting investors to fund your projects,
  • the ups and downs of entrepreneurship,
  • transitioning to remote work,
  • and software engineering practices in a startup,
  • code reviews, testing, deployment, and keeping technical debt at bay. 
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Episode 2: Scott Hanselman on how to get a remote position at Microsoft, improving tech interviews, Diversity and open source

September 10, 2019 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Productivity, Remote Work 0:36:19

In this episode, I talk to Scott Hanselman, a partner product manager at Microsoft. Since years, Scott is one of the most successful tech bloggers, he has three podcasts and actively works on making tech a more diverse place.

We talk about:

  • how it is to work remotely for Microsoft,
  • how to get such a remote position at Microsoft,
  • making tech a more diverse place,
  • starting with open source,
  • and productivity.
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Episode 1: Cassidy Williams on working remotely, changing a technology stack, finding a fulfilling career, and humor in tech

August 28, 2019 michaela Company Culture, Remote Work, Women in Tech 00:59:09

In this episode, I talk with Cassidy Williams, a senior software engineer that works for the fully-remote company CodePen. CodePen is a social development environment for front-end designers and developers. You can find  Cassidy on Twitter or visit her website.

We talk about

  • working remote for a small startup
  • how to find fulfillment in your career and through side projects
  • how to port an application from one technology to another
  • how humor can make tech a more welcoming place
  • and how she interviewed for CodePen
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Teaser – Software engineering unlocked

July 13, 2019 michaela Tech 00:01:19

Hello and Welcome to the software engineering unlocked podcast. I’m your host Doctor McKayla and I open you the doors to software companies such as Microsoft, Google or Facebook. But also to smaller startups such as Hashnode, Bitmov or Automatic.

I talk to experienced developers from different companies about how they develop software.

How did they come to where they are today?
How is it to be working at their company?
Which software engineering processes and best practices do they follow?
Do they do code reviews?
Do they have automated tests?
And how do they assess the productivity of the team or an individual developer?

My guests share with you their personal stories and their believes and values when it comes to software engineering. We talk about the companies tech stack, processes, and tools but also about mindset and culture.

Finally, we dig deep to really understand the recipes for success.

How do those teams and companies manage to build maintainable, scalable and reliable software people love?

Find out together with me in the software engineering unlocked podcast.
Subscribe today. We launch soon!