Women in Tech

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 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 19: Checking the Disability Box at Apple Changed My Life

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

This episode is part 2 of my interview with Cher. In this part, we deep-dive into her interview experience at Apple and how she worked her way up to a Staff engineering position.

We talk about:

  • the hiring process at Apple
  • the tasks and responsibilities of a Staff engineer
  • mental health, and bipolar disorder
  • and how the “disability” box can be a life-changer when it comes to 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. 
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Episode 18: From Hardship to a Staff Engineering Position at Apple

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

In this special episode, I talk to Cher. Cher shares her inspirational story about she overcame hardship and poverty, and worked her way up to now be 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 that 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. 

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Episode 17 Why we hate to read code Trisha Gee

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 11: Making Gatsby easy to understand with Laurie Barth

February 4, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Open Source, Women in Tech 00:47:24

In this episode, I talk to Laurie Barth, a staff software engineer at Gatsby. Laurie is also a vivid conference speaker, tech blogger, and egghead instructor.

We talk about:

  • how she got this awesome position at Gatsby
  • her work as an open-source maintainer
  • code reviews and making sure to give valuable feedback
  • and growing a Twitter following.
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Episode 10: Done playing Microsoft’s corporate game with Suz Hinton

January 21, 2020 michaela Company Culture, Hiring, Open Source, Women in Tech 00:57:36

In this episode, I talk to Suz Hinton, about her transition from Microsoft to Stripe, mentoring and advancing one’s career and live coding.

We talk about:

  • her role and responsibilities at Stripe, 
  • how to understand what customers and users want,
  • why she left Microsoft,
  • how she now ensures the job and company culture matches her personality,
  • and about her style of mentoring junior developers.
  • Finally, Suz tells me all there is to know about live coding. 
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Episode 9: From Consultancy To Product Company Charlie Gerard

January 7, 2020 michaela Company Culture, DevOps, Hiring, Women in Tech 00:53:22

Charlie Gerard is a career changer, that recently started working at Atlassian after working at ThoughWorks as a software consultant. In this episode, she talks with me about her hiring experience, the software engineering practices at this large tech company, and brain-controlled interfaces.

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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