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 31: Combatting tech debt in war rooms

November 24, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Productivity, Testing 00:53:32

In this episode, I talk to Tomasz Łakomy, a senior frontend engineer at OLX Group. Tomasz is fascinated about teaching everything he knows and has over 170 video tutorials.  

We talk about:

  • how they develop, test, and reviews software at OLX group,  
  • what war rooms are and how they help to combat technical debt,
  • how he managed to create over 170 video tutorials about software engineering,
  • why he is AWS certified as a front-end engineer, and
  • how skydiving helped him to be a better software developer.
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Episode 30: How I got into FAANG companies without a CS degree

November 10, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Open Source 00:53:33

In this episode, I talk to Ben Lesh. Ben is a Senior Software engineer at Citadel Securities. Before that, Ben worked amongst other companies, at Google and Netflix. Ben is also the Project Lead for RxJS. RxJS is a library for composing asynchronous and event-based programs by using observable sequences.

We talk about:

  • how he got into several FAANG companies without a CS degree, 
  • the importance of building relationships, and an online brand,
  • the benefits of being helpful and kind to others,
  • the differences in engineering practices at Google, Netflix, and Citadel Securities, and
  • what RX.js is and why you might need it. 
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Episode 29: No mocks allowed – A testing discussion with Kent C. Dodds

October 27, 2020 michaela Open Source, Testing 00:53:38

In this episode, I talk to Kent C. Dodds, a software engineer, and teacher. Before starting his entrepreneurial journey, Kent has been working for PayPal. He is a major open source contributor and also the creator and maintainer of the widely used open-source testing-library.

Code that he writes is used by millions of people around the world, and he also teaches thousands of engineers how to test their JavaScript systems, and how to work with React.

We talk about:

  • Why you should not mock your software system during testing,
  • how “testing library” helps create more meaningful and maintainable tests,
  • if and how manual testing is still needed to increase your confidence in the software system.
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Episode 28: How design systems help create an inclusive user experience at Github

October 13, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Remote Work, Testing, Women in Tech 00:45:12

In this episode, I talk to Diana Mounter, the Director of Design Infrastructure at GitHub. Diana traveled the world and lived in many different countries – even continents. She started as a print designer and spent some time in government before she got into web and design. Now, she leads the design systems at GitHub.

We talk about:

  • what design systems are and why we need them,
  • how GitHub deals with legacy code and refactoring.
  • how the designer role interplays with other roles at GitHub,
  • how and why designers do code reviews,
  • and how GitHub strives for inclusive designs that make everyone feel like an expert.
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How to get a job at Spotify during a pandemic – Emma Bostian

September 29, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Women in Tech 00:43:51

In this episode, I talk to Emma Bostian, who recently started as a software engineer at Spotify. And Emma is the kind of person, that not only applies and interviews for jobs, but at the same time writes a complete book about her interviewing experience hunting for this dream job. This book sold so well, that she could pay back all her medical debt. Before joining Spotify, she worked for LogMeIn, and IBM. She won competitions and moved countries several times.

We talk about:

  • her interview experience with Spotify and Google,
  • her experience moving countries during a global pandemic,
  • what makes for a great onboarding experience and
  • how we can take action to make sure workplaces are friendly and welcoming.
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Episode 26: Software success through community building

September 15, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Entrepreneurship, Open Source, Startup 00:48:02

In this episode, I talk to Chris Biscardi, an independent software consultant about how he became successful through open source and community building.

We talk about

  •  how he niched down to only work with open source companies
  • how he build the Party Corgi community by showing up and leading by example
  • and what he thinks it takes to start your own successful software business in 2020.
 

Links:

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Special Episode 25: From art school to Microsoft Research

September 1, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Entrepreneurship, Hiring, Remote Work, Women in Tech 00:28:56

In this episode, I talk to myself. Yeah, to celebrate the one year anniversary of the podcast, I tell you about my own journey into tech, and my experiences working at Microsoft and Microsoft Research. I share with you the turning points in my career and also how and why I started my own business.

I talk about:

  • how I got into tech without any previous computer knowledge, 
  • how my dream of becoming a researcher in the industry became true,
  • and why I transitioned to remote work.
  • Finally, I talk about starting my own business because of the need for more flexibility to combine family and work.
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Episode 24: Why you should double down on integration tests with Kent C. Dodds

August 18, 2020 michaela DevOps, Open Source, Testing 00:58:00

In this episode, I talk to Kent C. Dodds, a software engineer, and teacher. Before starting his entrepreneurial journey, Kent has been working for PayPal. He is a major open source contributor and also the creator and maintainer of the widely used open-source testing-library.

Code that he writes is used by millions of people around the world, and he also teaches thousands of engineers how to test their JavaScript systems, and how to work with React.

We talk about:

  • best practices in testing modern software systems, 
  • the testing pyramid and it’s “successor” the testing trophy,
  • why integration tests might be more beneficial than unit tests,
  • how you should avoid testing implementation details,
  • and how testing sentiments have changed over the last 10 years. 
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Episode 23: Wearing many hats – From Sysadmin to Developer to Solution Architect at Red Hat

August 4, 2020 michaela Company Culture, DevOps, Hiring, Monitoring, Women in Tech 00:52:34

In this episode, I talk to Angela Andrews, a solution architect at Red Hat. Angela is a curious learner who has worn many hats over the last +20 years in the tech industry. 

We talk about:

  • her experiences as a sysadmin,
  • how she learned to program,
  • and how she transitioned into becoming a solution architect at Red Hat.
  • She also shares why she has a wall of different certifications,
  • and started a bunch of different learning circles and communities that help people learn to program and reach their goals.
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Episode 22: Becoming a Machine Learning Engineer at Twitter

July 15, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Open Source, Women in Tech 00:41:53

In this episode, I talk to Jigyasa Grover, a machine learning engineer at Twitter. Jigyasa is my first data engineer, and so it’s great to learn from her about what her day to day work entails. But in addition, she is also very ambitious and tells me about her successful career path through internships and research projects.

We talk about:

  • what a machine learning engineer does, 
  • how to get started as a machine learning engineer,
  • open source and Google’s summer of code projects,
  • and her role at Facebook combing data and software engineering. 
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