In this episode, I talk with Samantha Lopez, whose path into software development is anything but typical -- and that’s exactly what makes it so inspiring.
Whether you’re just starting out or pivoting mid-career, Samantha’s journey proves that your past experiences can be your biggest asset in tech -- you just have to connect the dots and keep going!
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You can find Samantha at:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samlopezdev/
- GitHub: https://github.com/samlopezdev
- Portfolio: https://samlopezdev.netlify.app/
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In this episode, I sit down with Danny Thompson and Rob Oel from This Dot Labs -- two developers with wildly different paths into tech. If you’ve ever doubted your path or wondered whether you belong in tech, this one is for you!
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This Dot Labs: https://www.thisdot.co/
You can find Danny at:
- Website: https://www.dthompsondev.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dthompsondev/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DThompsonDev
- Twitter: https://x.com/DThompsonDev
You can find Rob at:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robocel
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Claire’s story is both honest and inspiring -- from growing up with dial-up internet and believing she wasn’t “smart enough” to code, to now teaching thousands of aspiring developers how to build real projects and overcome self-doubt.
We dig into how helping others can become one of the best ways to learn, why adults often thrive through applied learning over theory, and how sustainability and community can make or break your learning journey.
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You can find Claire at:
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MayanwolfeStreams - Twitch: https://twitch.tv/mayanwolfe- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mayanwolfe- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairebourdondeveloper/
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I was really grateful to have Tom Ridge join me for a deep, honest conversation about leadership, agile delivery, and what it really takes to help engineering teams succeed.
Tom shared how his team turned things around after projects fell behind schedule -- using data, reducing scope, and applying Little’s Law to make forecasting less about guesses and more about measurable flow. We also dug into the human side of engineering: having difficult conversations, building psychological safety, and creating team environments where people feel supported instead of pressured.
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You can find Tom at:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-j-ridge/
- Newsletter: https://tomjridge.substack.com/
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Today's guest on the podcast is Ray Nicholus! We got candid about leading as introverts, when to say yes (and when to say no), and how to balance hands-on code with real people leadership. We dug into startup versus big-company impact, remote-first habits that actually work, and why impostor syndrome can be a signal for growth.
If you’re navigating the IC-to-manager path (or debating it) this one will hit home! Thanks so much for the chat, Ray!
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You can find Ray at:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ray-nicholus-09a395280/
- Fine Uploader: https://github.com/FineUploader/fine-uploader
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Derek Comartin of CodeOpinion is one of my favorite YouTubers and content creators. Derek is able to talk through all sorts of software engineering tradeoffs and is one of the best at answering the "it depends" question.
That's because Derek knows that context is king. If we are making decisions in software engineering, it's all about the circumstances that we're operating in. Derek brings this front and center whenever he's talking about development choices.
Huge thanks to Derek for this awesome chat!
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You can get in touch with Derek:
Website: https://www.codeopinion.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@codeopinion
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Building highly effective teams sometimes feels as complicated as rocket science -- but that's no problem for today's guest, Ryan Varley!
Ryan Varley was en route to have a career in astrophysics, but software engineering got the best of him! In our chat, Ryan shares his career journey and how he looks to build development teams that are highly engaged.
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You can find Ryan at:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanvarley/
- Newsletter: https://newsletter.ryanvarley.com/
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Spanish teacher?! Yeah, my guest today is a career-switcher coming over to software engineering from being a Spanish teacher!
David Weiss is an awesome guy to know with a great story about making a career switch into software development. I thoroughly enjoy his software engineering content online, and it was great to chat with him about how content creation helps him have a bigger impact in the developer space.
Thanks SO much for the chat, David!
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You can get in touch with David Weiss:
- Newsletter: https://www.besidescode.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bydavidweiss/
- Resume: https://www.useresume.app/
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I sat down with Kirk Marple of Graphlit to talk about his career journey and the awesome AI platform that he's building.
One of the things I thought was awesome was the fact that they "dogfood" their platform by building solutions on top of it -- one of the BEST ways to know the ins and outs is to use it yourself!
Huge thanks to Kirk for sharing his insights and I'm very excited to see the future of Graphlit!
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You can get in touch with Kirk:
Website: https://www.graphlit.com
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kirkmarple
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In this talk with Michael Kill, he shares his perspective on why the high-priority P0 scenarios are some of the best to learn from... despite being high pressure and high stress!
Everyone has something to bring to the table, and everyone has something they can learn -- regardless of your title or your seniority.
Thanks for this awesome discussion, Michael!
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Get in touch with Michael:
- Twitter: https://x.com/mdkill
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He's worked at Amazon, Meta, and Google... But that's not what I found most interesting about Lee McKeeman!
While Lee has lots of awesome experiences (in AND outside of work), one of them that really got me interested was becoming an engineering manager and transitioning back to a software engineer. It's not that this is unheard of, but it's not a common one that I get to talk to others about!
Lee shares some of his ups and downs on his extensive career journey, and I'm super thankful that I had the opportunity to chat with him!
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You can get in touch with Lee:
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lmckeeman
Substack: https://leemckeeman.substack.com
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This is a very special episode for me because I really look up to and admire today's guest. Hassan Habib does an incredible job of combining technical insight with philosophy -- something that I don't see done so elegantly by many others.
But one thing that REALLY sets Hassan apart is his focus on putting people first in software engineering. It's something that's so very obvious when talking with him and in his approaches to building and describing software systems.
I think you'll have a LOT to take away from this one, and I thank you very much, Hassan, for making the time to chat with me today!
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You can get in touch with Hassan Habib:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HassanHabib
The Standard: https://github.com/hassanhabib/The-Standard
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassanrezkhabib/
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Mike Akins made the move from flying helicopters in the military to tech -- an AWESOME career switcher story! He has attended Oregon State and walks us through the challenges of searching for jobs as a student, from internships to applying for those first jobs.
We discuss imposter syndrome and working alongside a different generation of developers -- overall, a very enlightening discussion!
Thanks very much for your time, Mike!
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Brian has one of my favorite career-switcher stories, and I'm glad that he sat down with me again to share it. In our conversation, we get to see what it was like for him to go from a low place to crushing it as a software developer.
But we're not done there, because Brian and I get into our AI tool usage. Is it safe to vibe code? Let's find out...
Thanks for coming on the podcast, Brian!
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You can get in touch with Brian:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjenney
- Develop Yourself Podcast: https://buzzsprout.com/1819601
- Parsity: https://www.parsity.io/
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Josh Hicks of Jumpmind knows a thing or two about just how complicated data replication can get.
On the surface, it's a simple problem. Data in one spot needs to get to another spot. Add a new location in? No problem.
... But it gets complicated FAST, and that's a problem they solve at Jumpmind.
Big thanks to Josh for sharing his career journey, featuring AWESOME networking opportunities that really demonstrate just how important it is to keep up those relationships.
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Josh Hicks is a senior technical sales engineer at Jumpmind, a leading retail technology company in Columbus, Ohio. Jumpmind’s cloud-native, mobile POS platform empowers retailers like American Eagle Outfitters, Build-A-Bear Workshop and Petco to streamline operations, enhance customer experience and achieve sustainable growth. As one of the first senior-level developers to join Jumpmind, he has played a significant role in the company’s growth since 2014. He quickly found himself involved in SymmetricDS, Jumpmind’s open-source database replication software. Today, he still writes software and also works in a customer success capacity, helping customers in their first six months of their deployments. Before Jumpmind, Josh held developer roles at Abercrombie & Fitch and Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan. He has a B.A. in Systems Analysis from the University of Miami. Outside of work, he loves spending time with his three kids, especially watching them play sports.
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If you think leadership topics only apply to managers and above, think again! In this video interview, I was joined by Adrian Stanek. We got chatting about leadership principles, and they're all applicable to different roles and levels.
I really like how Adrian framed his four pillars. The concepts rang very true for me, and I think there's a lot of value here for software engineers.
Thanks for the chat, Adrian!
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You can find Adrian at:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianstanek/
Newsletter: https://blog.snackablecto.coach
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theSnackableCTO/videos
Leadership Pillars Blog Post: https://blog.snackablecto.coach/p/the-4-steps-to-becoming-a-leader
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My podcast guest went from engineer to manager to career coach -- and what a journey it's been!
In this video interview, Michael Greenspan joins me to share his career journey and shed some light on what engineering management looks like to him. We bridged into topics of burnout as well as the importance of finding purpose in the work we do.
Thanks so much for the perspective, Michael! Great chat!
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You can find Michael at:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-greenspan-devmanager/
- His viral post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michael-greenspan-devmanager_becoming-engineering-manager-used-to-be-a-activity-7325155624181235712-GVFM
- Book a coaching discovery call: www.thecompleteengineer.com/bookings/discoverycall
- Newsletter: https://open.substack.com/pub/thecompleteengineer
Mentions from the episode:
- www.thecompleteengineer.com
- www.tasktogether.org
"Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose."
— Viktor Frankl
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What does it take to be a Tech Lead in software engineering? I sat down with Anemari Fiser to discuss!
We dug into:
- What is a tech lead?
- How to move into the role?
- How do soft skills fit into the picture?
Thanks so much for the perspective, Anemari!
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You can find Anemari at:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anemari-fiser/
- O’Reilly book - Leveling Up as a Tech Lead: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/leveling-up-as/9781098177508
- Soft Skills for Tech Leads Course: https://learning.oreilly.com/course/soft-skills-for/0642572043995/
- Level up as a Tech Lead Newsletter: https://anemarifiser.substack.com
- Career Coaching 1-1: https://anemarifiser.substack.com/p/1-1-coaching
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He's BACK!
I felt very fortunate to have Alex Lau, author of Keep Calm and Code On, back on the channel for an interview... But with a twist!
We did a bit more of a grab-bag style where we jumped between some different topics AND I was on the receiving end of the interview for some of them!
Thanks so much for your time, Alex! Always a great conversation.
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You can find Alex at:
- Website: https://keepcalmandcodeon.com/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/mralexlau/
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Sometimes our original plans don't work out -- but what a masterpiece when our different paths come together for something awesome!
I was happy to sit down with Amer Tadayon and discuss his journey leading up to the creation of Lucihub.
One of the most important parts of this story I found was that not every path we pick will be perfect -- and that's 100% okay. What matters is that we keep adjusting and moving forward.
For Amer, all roads led to Lucihub! Thanks for the awesome chat!
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You can find Amer at:
- Website: https://lucihub.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amertadayon/
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