Data & Dev with Jon and Mel

S3E1: Asking the hard questions. In this episode we touch on all of the following. Business context: using AI to replicate a business. aiding project management workflows Chain of thought techniques with LLMs AI taking jobs Risks of automation Lawyer big oops using ChatGPT AI to complete tasks: Robot burger flippers Robotics to take over more dangerous jobs to protect people Prompt Engineering New...

What to expect from Season 3 of Data and Dev!

A follow-up on our previous compilation, our season 2 guests share more advice on working in the tech industry as well as some role specific advice. You can also leave us a voice message with feedback on this, or any of our episodes  here . The voiced you here in order: ⁠⁠Brenda Moss⁠⁠ Kexin Xie ⁠⁠Nikhil Maddirala ⁠⁠⁠Tim Chung⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Emily Morgan⁠ ⁠⁠Mat Fournier⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Rocco Basalmo⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Vic Vijayakuma...

Hear from our season 2 guests on advice for just starting out and what they wish they knew when starting their career in tech. You can also leave us a voice message with feedback on this, or any of our episodes here . The voiced you here in order: ⁠⁠Brenda Moss⁠⁠ ⁠Daniel Vassallo⁠ ⁠⁠Emily Morgan ⁠Mat Fournier⁠ ⁠Nikhil Maddirala⁠ ⁠Rocco Basalmo⁠ ⁠⁠Tim Chung⁠⁠ ⁠Vic Vijayakumar⁠

If you work in tech long enough, you will eventually break prod, drop a database, have a major work miscommunication, or any number of other mistakes that feel horrific at the moment but provide you with stories to share that elicit both laughter and horror from your hearer. Our season 2 guests share some of their worst work mistakes in this compilation episode. Leave us a voice message with your...

Hear our Season 2 guests answer the question, 'Advice for handling interview nerves.' This compilation episode recaps those prior conversations in the following order: Daniel Vassallo Mat Fournier Brenda Moss Kexin Xie Nikhil Maddirala Rocco Basalmo Vic Vijayakumar Trish Do Tim Chung Emily Morgan

To cap off Season 2, Jon and I spoke to what many might consider a tech success story.  Daniel Vassallo is no stranger to tech Twitter, but in case he is a new name to you, Daniel is a former Amazon Software Engineer who now makes a living with a portfolio of small bets.   He made his way to Seattle by way of Ireland, working for 7 years at Amazon before leaving the corporate world...

Kexin's story is a great demonstration that sometimes building a career in tech is more about seeing and taking the opportunities placed before you rather than having a pre-planned series of steps to follow.  In this episode we talked about: Intro and College in Australia Freelancer Learning in Industry Machine Learning at scale Distributed Computing Hiring for Distributed Computing roles Cul...

Get to know your podcast hosts.  After interviewing a dozen or so amazing technologists, Jon and I figured it might be good to interview each other!  We flip the script, and ask each other questions about how we got into tech.  Hands down, being the interviewer is far easier than being the interviewee. Tune in for: Jon College and getting into ML Microsoft, Krux, and Salesforce Lead...

Nikhil pursued a career in Product Management through the route of an MBA.  In this conversation we talk about whether an MBA is required for a PM career, traits that make for a good PM, and more.  Listen in to hear: Life at Adobe Role of Product Manager Squashing Bugs vs New Features PM/Eng org structure Decision making Traits for a PM Is an MBA required? Interview advice Product Manage...

Rocco started his career in the game industry. He shares the good, and the bad, of that area of tech, his experience as an entrepreneur, and how he ended up at Meta.  In this episode we cover: Started in gaming Moved to CA Gliffy, diagraming software Imposter Syndrome, life-long learning His company, simmer.io Working at Meta How you 'fit' with a company Connect with Rocco via LinkedIn or his...

Brenda has taken a circuitous route into Software Engineering.  She served her country in the Air Force before leaving active duty to be at home with her children. She eventually chose to re-enter the workforce via Software and opted to pursue a Master's degree to that end. Brenda's story is a great one.  Tune in to hear: - ROTC route into the Air Force. - Life as a Space Operations Offi...

We chat with Gatsby recruiter, Trish Do, and gain some insider info on the tech recruiting process. You can connect with Trish on LinkedIn Show Highlights: Transition from education to tech recruiting Potential pitfalls in the initial screen What is the recruiter looking for in that initial screening? The importance of knowing your personal values and goals in evaluating potential companies and ro...

This was a great conversation with Vic Vijayakumar . We covered MANY topics, including: Importance of hobbies outside of work Job titles across companies What “good” onboarding looks like for a Junior Engineer How Vic got into programming Computer Engineering vs. Computer Science as a major Gaining an intuition about code Looking at Software engineering less as “the tech industry” and more about u...

Prety early into Tim's professional career, he opted to change directions. He enrolled in a Master's program and ended up in Data Science. In this episode we talk about: Tim's background as a business major and his first role as a software implementation consultant role The epiphany that led to a desire for a more data-specific role Misconceptions of what a career in tech would look like Accessibi...

This was another great conversation. I know I say that every time, but it seems to always be true. Emily and I (Melissa) crossed paths 5 years ago at Flatiron School.  Our careers have taken different trajectory paths since then and this conversation was a chance to both catch up as well as to get her full story of going from English Professor to Frontend Engineer. We cover: Choosing the rout...

This was a great conversation with a former Geological Engineer turned Software Developer. Mat is a Canadian who recently took advantage of the shift to remote work.  He's enjoying the good life with a slower pace of life, outside of the city.  Mat talks about his background in his former career.  The impetus to make a switch. Going back to school for Data Science before landing on...

We're back for Season 2. Here is what's coming...

We covered quite a bit in Season 1.  For some "Go Deeper" resource suggestions for each topic, check the notes below. Episode 1: How email travels Differences between POP3 and IMAP - GeeksforGeeks SMTP or IMAP: What’s the Difference? Bonus: What is POP3? Episode 2: OSI model. Internet Network Engineer Specialization: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/computer-communications The first c...

Show Notes Security is about tradeoffs Security is a business decision Product and Security persons need to understand each other. The correct solution depends on understanding how a user is interacting with your platform New risks in cloud databases Traffic to databases is now over the internet Users care about confidentiality and predictability New role: database programmers now need to build se...

What's on the agenda!? Intro Databases security focuses on warehouse data, keep save and available. (Aaron) How did Aaron get into security What does a security career trajectory look like What does Aaron do at security The joys of ‘beeper duty' Generalist vs. Specialist approach to tech Formal degree vs. self study for a career in security The importance of deep understanding The “tinkerers mind"...

Jon and Mel talk about what TCP and IP are. How they work. And why they are important. Show notes: Intro Traffic rules and Internet rules Terms du jour: 3-way handshake, encapsulation, in order delivery, reliability, flow control What does TCP stand for and what is its job? What does IP stand for and what is its job? Lego masterpieces to send data over internet Furniture Manufacturer analogy How d...

Tune in for the second half of our interview with Marwan! You won't be disappointed. Show notes: The resilience of TCP/IP - how have they survived this long? The evolving of TCP/IP About the IP layer * addressing * routing and forwarding * but no guarantee UDP - “best effort" TCP layer * reliability / guaranteed delivery * flow control * congestion control TCP fairness TCP & congestion control...

Our first interview of the season.  The accomplished and ever so humble, Marwan Fayed, joins us today. Find him at St. Andrews or at Cloudflare . Timstamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:56 - Interview; Marwan Introduction 2:16 - Role at Cloudflare 4:25 - Community Broadband ISP 5:56 - Industry vs. Academia 7:08 - Day to Day at current role 8:56 - What does an industry lab look like? 10:45 - Security and Pr...

Jon and Mel dive into the question of the day: "When I open the weather app on my phone, how do today's weather get my screen, and where did it come from? Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 0:18 - Question of the day 1:48 - Defining the endpoints? Client and Server 2:43 - Mental picture for information traveling across internet: Skateboard ramp.  Swimming pool 5:00 - Defining some terms: client and ser...