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 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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Episode 21: Inside Doist – The Bootstrapped Market Leader

June 23, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Entrepreneurship, Hiring, Productivity, Remote Work 00:50:12

In this episode, I talk to  Amir Salihefendić, CEO and Founder of Doist,  the company behind the widely successful productivity app ToDoist. Amir shares with me his entrepreneurial journey and talks with me about the company and engineering values lived at Doist.

We talk about:

  • bootstrapping from idea to market leader, 
  • how asynchronous communication helps create better products,
  • why he believes in the vitality of recharging,
  • and how to get a job at the remote-first company Doist.
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Episode 20: Fundamentally Changing How We Develop Software

June 9, 2020 michaela DevOps, Entrepreneurship, Monitoring, Open Source, Productivity, Startup 00:45:04

In this episode, I talk to Tudor Gîrba, CEO and co-founder of Feenk, a software consultancy. Over the last 10 years, Tudor researched new ways to develop software – called moldable development. In this interview, I did deep to understand what that exactly means, and how he started to work on a novel IDE that enables moldable developments. 

We talk about:

  • how reading code slows down software productivity,
  • building developer tools,
  • starting your own software company,
  • transitioning from consultancy to product company,
  • and applied research.
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Cher Scarlett talks about getting hired at Apple despite her bipolar disorder

Getting hired at Apple Despite a Bipolar Disorder with Cher Scarlett

May 26, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Remote Work, Women in Tech 00:58:28

Cher Scarlett talks about how she was open about her bipolar disorder when interviewing at Apple. In this part, we deep-dive into her interview experience at Apple and how she worked her way up to a Staff engineering position.

This episode is part 2 of my interview with Cher Scarlett, where we cover more of her early life and how she worked hard to make it to a staff engineering position at Apple.

We talk about:

  • the hiring process at Apple
  • the tasks and responsibilities of a Staff engineer

  • how to handle mental health, and bipolar disorder during job interviews

  • and how the “disability” box can be a life-changer for getting accommodations for your special needs.
 
Check-out also part 1 of this interview, in which Cher talks about how she overcame poverty and hardship. 
Cher Scarlett talks about getting hired at Apple despite her bipolar disorder
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Cher Scarlett talks about getting hired at Apple despite her bipolar disorder

From Hardship to a Staff Engineer at Apple with Cher Scarlett

May 12, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Women in Tech 00:27:17

Cher Scarlett shares her inspirational story about she overcame hardship and poverty, and worked her way up to become a staff engineer at Apple.

Cher has incredible strength in her, and bravely shares her struggles dealing with mental health issues publicly. 

She also regularly reminds people they belong in tech independent of their education or background. 

I am impressed by how she openly shares her vulnerabilities and encourages and lifts up others. Also, listen to the second interview, where Cher Scarlett talks about how she got hired at Apple despite her bipolar disorder.

Cher Scarlett talks about getting hired at Apple despite her bipolar disorder
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Episode 17: Why we hate to read code

April 28, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Remote Work, Women in Tech 00:48:41

In this episode, I talk to Trisha Gee, who is the Lead of the Java Developer Advocacy Team at JetBrain. She is an expert for Java high-performance systems, and developed software for a variety of industries, such as finance or manufacturing.

We talk about:

  • how she got started in tech, 
  • why it’s harder to read than write code,
  • how it is to work at JetBrains,
  • her hiring experiences,
  • and how she overcame imposter syndrome and started to feel confident with her competences.
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Episode 16: Running A Successful Dev Shop with Martin Gratzer

April 14, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Entrepreneurship, Remote Work, Startup 00:56:55

In this episode, I talk to Martin Gratzer, CEO, and founder of Topmind. Topmind is a successful boutique dev shop in the heart of Carinthia in Austria. Martin shares with me, how he managed to build a striving development agency far way from Silicon Valey and other tech hot spots.

We talk about:

  • why he decided to start his own company, 
  • what helped him get started on his entrepreneurial journey,
  • how he managed to be successful by focusing on a niche,
  • what he advises others that want to freelance or build up the dev shop,
  • and behind the scenes info on what it means to develop software as an agency. 
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Episode 15: How to Succeed in Building Developer Tooling with Peter Pezaris

March 31, 2020 michaela Company Culture, DevOps, Open Source, Productivity, Remote Work 00:57:47

In this episode, I talk to Peter Pezaris. Peter is the CEO and co-founder of a start-up called CodeStream. What’s interesting about Peter’s story is that CodeStream isn’t his first startup. CodeStream is one of the many companies Peter built. So, in this interview, we talk about his 25 years-long journey building tech startups and what he has learned along the way.

We talk about:

  • how he started his journey as a founder,
  • which technology changes he went through throughout the different tech start-ups,
  • the tech stack and architecture of the developer collaboration software CodeStream,
  • how he was able to build a team that stuck with him through four different startups,
  • and his advice for first-time founders. 
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Episode 14: What developers should know about security with Troy Hunt

March 17, 2020 michaela DevOps, Entrepreneurship, Startup 00:58:14

In this episode, I talk to Troy Hunt, a leading security expert. Troy is a successful Pluralsight author and runs security workshops all around the world. He also is person behind the popular web haveIbeenPwned, which allows everybody to check whether their data has been exposed in a data breach.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • how to prevent data breaches,
  • what software engineers have to know about the security and software vulnerabilities,
  • how to take your career in your own hands and
  • how he started to teach security to millions of developers worldwide.
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