Software Developers Journey

Ryan took us over his atypical journey, proudly working for 3 companies over the span of 22 years. First, he told us about his young love for programming in the 80s and how programming completely left his life until the mid-90s. Next, he told us about his art and city planning studies and how this led him back to graphic design and HTML. We then took us along his long journey toward backend techno...

Leticia took us from her job in oceanography to her current software engineering role at Stripe. She described how Python changed her life, or to be more accurate, how the Brasilian Python community changed her life. We talked about learning, sharing, writing, and knowing yourself. We talked about mentorship and helping others. What a story! Here are the links from the show: Leticia on Twitter  ht...

Bryan took us back to his first Commodore Vic20, the first lines of code he wrote. We spoke about languages and choosing the right tool for the job. We discussed organizing your work and life. We spoke about coaching, behavior skills, and ego. Bryan dropped one useful piece of advice after the other. Don't miss it! Here are the links from the show: Bryan on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/Bil...

Caitlyn's developer career started just a few years ago when she dropped her career selling beer and enrolled in a software development boot camp. Caitlyn told us that story and how she got her first and second jobs. We talked about learning, conferences & public speaking. We talked about asking, working in the open, and the book she is writing about her experience. Here are the links fro...

Miguel has been learning by making things. This is pretty much his whole story. Pick an idea and learn from it. Want to learn something? Find an itch to scratch. And he is very prolific. And he is becoming very successful at it. Here are the links from the show: Miguel on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/m1guelpf Miguel's Homepage https://miguelpiedrafita.com His Project List https://miguelpie...

From the early 90s to 2001, Darko's only computer was a C64, and he loved it. We talked about how his life changed when he got a 486, how he didn't become a developer per se. How his SysAdmin jobs slowly but surely took him toward AWS, and finally, how his path inside AWS lead him to Developer Advocacy. Here are the links from the show: Darko on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/darkosubot...

This week, I try a new concept: telling you a developer story out of its context. This time I tell you a story of a machine interface problem I couldn't figure out 12 years ago. Let me know how you find this format, reach out on Twitter @timothep , or per email info@devjourney.info Credits Campfire sound by Den Chykut licensed CC BY Your host is Timothée (Tim) Bourguignon, more about him at t...

Bert took us from his first C64, all the way to his community work with the NLJUG. We talked about learning on the job and saying "YES" to everything. Getting involved with a community, giving back, enjoying volunteer work, finding topics to talk about, and much more. Here are the links from the show: Bert on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/bjschrijver J-Spring https://jspring.nl J-Fall...

Lior took us from her computer science major in high school, through her time in the Israel Defence Force as a network analyst, to her work at CyberMDX, providing cybersecurity for health institutions. We talked about curiosity, learning strategy, finding your passions, and finding your "skills sweet spot." Here are the links from the show: liorby@cybermdx.com Lior Bar Yosef on LinkedIn:...

Freya took us from the first levels she designed in Trackmania, all the way to her live coding Flowstorm on Twitch. She explained how her view on GameDev expanded over time. She told us the birth story of Shader Forge and the VR-Game Budget Cuts. She spoke of her burnout and how she finally felt back on her feet, streaming and freelancing in the gaming industry. Here are the links from the show: h...

Matt took us from his first lines of code and his musicology studies to his move to Spain to follow his heart and his first (unpaid) job. He then slowly but surely showed us how he worked with websites for years, realizing what was missing. He coined this missing architecture JAMStack and told us its birth story and how he created Netlify to empower it. Here are the links from the show: Matt on Tw...

Mark took us from his first date with a ZX81 all the way to the stages he regularly speaks onto worldwide. We brushed over his childhood and bumpy teenage. We talked about his love for "chips," his informal apprenticeship, and why he wants to further this apprenticeship model in the future. We talked about his hiatus as a professional stand-up comedian and how he found his way back into...

Kristy took us from her early ROM-hacking years, all the way to her crypto-mining rabbit hole. She described in detail how she optimized her machines to ever-better mine cryptocurrencies. We then bifurcated toward the tale of how she almost changed the proof algorithm of Ethereum, became the center of a smear campaign, and earned a heavy burnout instead. We finally talked about helping developers...

Nadia first told us how she discovered coding, at the age of 25, as a second career. She painted her expat's story, leaving Belarus to Poland to reboot her professional life. We talked about interviewing. We talked about learning. And we talked about the book she wrote, "Crossing the Rubycon" ( http://bit.ly/crossingrubycon ), telling this exact story, plus many tips for fellow futu...

Dotan first spoke about scarcity and satisfying his hungry curiosity. We then brushed over his hacking past and how he learned his way through computers. We talked about his military service and studies. We finally spoke about his quest for growth, the plans, and the sacrifices he made. We talked about languages, how to learn them and how to become efficient. Here are the links from the show: Dota...

Emily took us from her custom studies to her Ph. D. studies, her DataScience Bootcamp, and her first job at Etsy. We classified DataScience and (finally) made sense of those weird titles. We talked about how working in the open, creating her community and writing opened doors for her. Finally, we spoke about the book she just wrote with Jacqueline Nolis. Here are the links from the show: Emily&apo...

Amiti took us from her first logic puzzles and first lines of code, all the way to her tenure as a Bitcoin core member. We also talked about Bitcoin itself, the project, its governance, processes, and how one could participate and change the world. Here are the links from the show: Amiti's Twitter https://www.twitter.com/amizi Amiti's Github https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin Optech news...

Dennis took us from his first Commodore computer, all the way to his job at AWS. We talked about curiosity, finding your own way, taking a break, learning, searching, failure much more. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/dtraub The AWS-Podcast in German https://anchor.fm/dennis-traub https://www.dennistraub.com Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/dennis_at_work Commodore VIC-20 htt...

Eva took us from tinkering with CSS on Blogspot to organizing CSSConf Argentina. She told us her story, and how she slowly but surely settled on Front-End development. She detailed how scary, but also life-changing it was to go to a conference in the USA. She finally told us all about the conference she organized and her vision to inspire developers in South-America. Here are the links from the sh...

This year was crazy, time for a review. Credits Music Aye by Yung Kartz is licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 . Your host is Timothée (Tim) Bourguignon, more about him at timbourguignon.fr . Gift the podcast a rating on one of the major platforms https://devjourney.info/subscribe.html Support the podcast, support us on Patreon : https://bit.ly/devjpatreon Support the show

Wesley took us from his first job as a bench nerd, through his student job at Centaur and his tenure at Dell. He explained in detail how those jobs helped him develop empathy, learn how to communicate with people, relate to them, and explain the technology. We transitioned to his time at IBM, MongoDB, and Daily, discovering developer relations and finding where he belonged all along. Here are the...

Natalia took us along her whole career. From her computer engineering studies to her first job as a DBA, to her learning javascript. We then followed her footsteps toward Vue.js and how she slowly but surely embraced open-source, communities, conferences, teaching, and became the accomplished front-end engineer, core team member of the Vue.js framework and the GDE we know. Here are the links from...

Jackie took us from her first magazine and philosophy major to the realization that a software engineering background could help her realize her dreams. We then discussed her studies, her first internship, and her first job. We talked about moving from New York to SanFrancisco, and back. We talked about refocusing your life and the societal impact of tech. We finally talked about Jackie's pro...

Paula told us how she was introduced to computers at a very young age. She told us how she learned to program and to solve problems her own way. She took us through her whole career, learning when being bored, and growing into the very deep software engineer she is today. She told us about writing Asami & Naga and how she started working in Open-Source. Here are the links from the show: https:...

We talked about Emmanuel's start building an Amazon Concurrent at the French FNAC Company. We spoke about making architectural decisions, experiencing freedom, and Conway's Law. Emmanuel described how he discovered Hibernate, fell into OSS, and finally joined JBoss. We then discussed the acquisition of JBoss by Redhat, the cultural-chances, and the problems that ensued. We finally touche...