Software Developers Journey

#199 Carl Franklin is looking beyond what he can do

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Carl first told us about his father's role in introducing him to computers. He then spoke about how he used projects to learn new things and beca...

#198 Laura González slowly YOLOed her way to success

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Laura took us on a wild ride, made of starting and dropping, taking unexpected turns to follow creative endeavors, and finally reaching a great destin...

#197 Holden Karau wanted to change something in the world

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Holden's tech story started at a very early age, and her tech-savviness grew very quickly. She told us how her parents and childhood neighbors he...

#196 Aran Khanna wanted a shorter feedback loop

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Aran started talking about Biotech and how he discovered that the slow feedback loop of biology didn't suit his needs. We then brushed over his c...

#195 Dagna Bieda wanted to create the future

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dagna decided to study robotics to change the future. She told us how she hated programming at first until it clicked when she worked with a fantastic...

#194 Ségolène Alquier wanted to learn that coding magic

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ségolène's story started in law school and with internships which left her puzzled about her career choice. She then studied for an MBA and fin...

#193 Nicolas Carlo enabler of human connections

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nicolas started tweaking HTML pages on PHP-BB forums when he was in high school, but even though he liked coding, that didn't propel him toward a...

#192 Julianna Lamb is running headfirst into challenges

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Julianna started by telling us about her love for maths and figure skating. She spoke about the hard choice she had to pursue sports toward a professi...

#191 Carly Richmond from individual contributor to MAMAger and back

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Carly took us from her CS and software engineering studies to her internships and later career at an investment bank. We spoke about moving internally...

#190 Laurie Barth learns and teaches with use-cases instead of jargon

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Laurie first took us through the many times where she should have realized that she was meant to be a developer but didn't. We spoke about her ch...

#189 Rich Haines went from screenplays to technical writing

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rich's computer story started early in his childhood with an Amstrad computer. But it took him 30 years, 2 or 3 different careers in screenwritin...

#188 Luce Carter was saved by software development

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Luce took us back to her childhood when she discovered computers but also realized she didn't fit into the mold. She told us the story of her bei...

#187 Michael Levan learned to detect when he is not learning anymore

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Michael took us back in his gaming past, tweaking his machine to get the most of it. This led him to enroll in a trade school, leading to IT support a...

#186 Suze Shardlow from marketing and the police to simply creating

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Suze took us from her first love for programming on a BBC-Micro, to her career in Marketing. She explained how she worked for the Police and managed c...

#185 Scott Spence from VBA Analyst to webdev

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Scott took us from his job as a bank clerk to learning VBA. He told us how he became a VBA analyst, solved problems on giant spreadsheets, and at some...

#184 Sydney Lai web3 code-switching sociologist

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sydney first told us about her early love for building websites on Geocities and how she didn't pursue a career in tech but instead went into soc...

#183 Karl Hughes from mechanical engineering to self taught dev, technical writer and CEO

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Karl took us from his passion for architecture and mechanics to his first freelancing project in college. We talked about how he learned how to create...

It's the end of season 4 as we know it!

28 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This year was even crazier than 2020, time for a review!CreditsCover Campfire Rounds by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.Your host is Tim...

#182 Tom Cools and how he fell in love with Jaba

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After briefly speaking about his early eSports amateur career, Tom took us on a teaching journey. We talked about how he beat his fear of public speak...

#181 Madison Kanna from college dropout to successful self-taught UI-Engineer

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Madison took us from her dropping college and learning about development to the BookClub she is running. We talked about learning on your own, figurin...

#180 April Speight in her own lane from design to advocacy

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

April took us on a rollercoaster. We talked about how she learned Python in the open, made videos about her learning, and landed a children's boo...

#179 Adrian Colyer went from developer to living under constant jet lag and back

30 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Adrian took us back to his first line of code on a ZX-Spectrum. We then brushed over his computer science studies and landed at IBM. We talked about h...

#178 Aviv Ben-Yosef is a tech leader who went through a lifelong experience pressure cooker

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Aviv took us back to his childhood, discovering PCs and learning how to code on his own. We then talked about his time in the army, applying for and t...

#177 Zachary Powell is a freelancer who found out that working in an office is not a bad thing

16 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Zac took us from his discovery of development in high school, through his CS degree, to his work as a freelancer. We discussed freedom, the skills req...

#176 Sebastien Stormacq was a developer advocate before the term even existed

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sebastien took us back to his discovery of the C64 in the 80s and his passion for DJing on public radio. We then talked about his studies in Computer ...

#175 Christina Holland tried to avoid software development by going into biotech and animation

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Christina took us back to her early childhood when her parents tried to encourage embrace computer science. She told us about her deceptions failing t...

#174 Rotem Zifroni is the future founder of a social startup

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Rotem took us on a wild ride, which started in a leadership position in Unit 8200 of the Israel Defense Force. After five years, she loved her impact,...

#173 Susan Potter from distributed systems to functional verification

19 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Susan took us from her maths studies to discovering C++ and deciding on following a career in computer science. We talked about her discovery of verif...

#172 Steve Gordon is the world's most honest interviewee

12 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Steve took us back to primary school, where he discovered computers in form of a BBC Micro. We brushed over his early days, and how he slowly made his...

#171 Emma Bostian is a software engineer at Spotify and an asynchronous mentor

05 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Emma took us from her computer science studies and start at IBM all the way to her current role at Spotify. We spoke about privileges, struggling, rea...

#170 Kadi Kraman doesn't want to be anyone's boss

28 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kadi placed the start of her study in her discovery of C++ during her maths & psychology studies. We then talked about her first steps in the indu...

#169 Amarachi Amaechi went from accounting to writing about her developer career

21 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Amarachi took us from her accounting studies and her dislike for the field to her first lines of code. She explained how she learned her first coding ...

#168 Shannon Kendall quit acting to follow a new creative dream

14 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In a captivating exchange, Shannon Kendall takes us through her unique journey from an acting career to becoming a self-made software developer. Shann...

#167 Jenn Creighton went from paralegal to developing for Netflix

07 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jenn started by telling us about her discovery of web development when she was 14 years old, but also how she skipped it entirely and went to study la...

#166 Helen Scott found her itch in technical writing and content creation

31 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Helen's journey started with a "classical" computer science degree at the end of the 90s but took a sharp turn toward technical writing...

#165 Grace Jansen on bees and reactive systems

24 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Grace took us on her journey, from IBM to IBM, via her biology studies. We talked about loving computer science but choosing to follow a different pat...

#164 Sandra Ahlgrimm pushed the boundaries

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sandra took us from her first computer and attempts at circumventing her parent's restrictions, all the way to her current job as a developer adv...

#163 Layla Porter was led to coding by her horse riding and personal coaching business

10 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Layla took us on a wild ride, which started... on horseback. She told us the story of her first career as a horse-riding teacher and ...

#162 Mark Noonan from roadie to accessibility problem solver

03 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mark first told us how computers and programming entered his childhood and left him to study musicology instead. We then talked about how working with...

#161 Russ Miles is now a professional chaos monkeys tamer

27 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Delve into a captivating narrative that unravels the intricate journey of a seasoned tech pioneer. This conversation navigates the dynamic interplay b...

#160 Amir Sadoughi built his career on curiosity

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Amir took us way back into his first "decade," when he discovered computers, programming, and eventually Linux. We explored his curiosity an...

#159 Ryan Hamblin is an experiential learner

13 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ryan told us about his first love for exercise and the outdoors. Then he described how he rationally chose to embrace software development and almost ...

#158 Kara Luton went from ballet and public relations to developer

06 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kara took us from her ballet studies and first career in PR to her front-end development Bootcamp. We discussed learning styles and growing into a new...

#157 Shahid Iqbal from drug design to software development

29 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Shahid took us from his desire to create drugs all the way to his new developer job in New Zealand. We spoke about his Ph.D., changing careers, discov...

#156 Clare Sudbery surfing on her own imposter syndrome

22 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Clare took us on a wild ride in and out of software engineering. She told us all about her vulnerabilities, doubts, and questionings and her needs, de...

#155 Sandra Parsick from QA-Engineer to Java-Champion

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sandra took us from her selling newspapers to pay for her first computer, to her becoming a freelancer. We talked about her studies in Germany. We bru...

#154 Anand Safi is setting people up for success

08 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Anand took us from his love for math and puzzles to his management career. First, we brushed over how he discovered that our industry has more roles t...

#153 Clifford Agius is a developer flying a Boeing 787 for fun

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cliff took us from his apprenticeship at Ford to his love for Xamarin and IoT. But on the way, he told us about his love for flying. First, he told us...

#152 Shawn Wang from the "fine I'll do it myself" team

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Shawn took us along on his transition from his very well-paid trading job to his career as a developer. We talked about re-using your skills, boot cam...

#151 Chris Coyier from ceramics to CSS-Tricks and CodePen

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Chris took us from playing on his first C64 to his bachelor of arts in ceramics and back to web development. We talked about the different positions h...

#150 Ryan Bergman loves terrible code

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 programm...

#149 Leticia Portella started with MATHLABianesque Python

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 m...

#148 Bryan Beecham cares about people

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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. W...

#147 Caitlyn Greffly rationalized her way into development

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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...

#146 Miguel Piedrafita is a 19 years old indie maker

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

#145 Darko Meszaros the utilitarian developer

06 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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...

#144 How to not find a problem? Format experiment: "Tales of DevJourney"

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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...

#143 Bert Jan Schrijver took his career into his own hands

23 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 e...

#142 Lior Bar Yosef is a network analyst in a world of puzzles

16 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 CyberMD...

#141 Freya Holmér a level-designer turned game-developer

09 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Game...

#140 Matt Biilmann discovered the JAMStack

02 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 slow...

#139 Mark Rendle is a programmer turned comedian turned programmer

23 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 tee...

#138 Kristy-Leigh Minehan almost burned seeking a crypto highscore

16 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

#137 Nadia Zhuk from 0 to crossing the Rubycon

09 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

#136 Dotan Nahum on building your own toolbox

02 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dotan first spoke about scarcity and satisfying his hungry curiosity. We then brushed over his hacking past and how he learned his way through compute...

#135 Emily Robinson making sense of data science for us

26 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 (finall...

#134 Amiti Uttarwar is a hands-on Bitcoin-core tinkerer

19 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 i...

#133 Dennis Traub failed his way to success

12 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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, lear...

#132 Evangelina Ferreira challenges you to take every opportunity

05 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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...

How to end the 3rd season of DevJourney?

29 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This year was crazy, time for a review.CreditsMusic Aye by Yung Kartz is licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.Your host is Timothée (Tim) Bourguignon, more about...

#131 Wesley Faulkner is a native developer advocate

22 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 he...

#130 Natalia Tepluhina a DBA turned Vue.js-expert at Gitlab

15 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

#129 Jackie Luo is interested in the impact of tech on society

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jackie took us from her first magazine and philosophy major to the realization that a software engineering background could help her realize her dream...

#128 Paula Gearon was searching for machines that can think

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 t...

#127 Emmanuel Bernard fell into open-source

24 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We talked about Emmanuel's start building an Amazon Concurrent at the French FNAC Company. We spoke about making architectural decisions, experie...

#126 Ev Haus: animator, programmer, manager

17 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ev took us from his CGI-animator studies and job, through the forks on his journey. First to become a programmer. Then pivot with his company, away fr...

#125 Alice Goldfuss is digging deeper

10 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Alice took us on a long slide: first from office assistance to tech support. Then from tech support to server management at NewRelic. Then from server...

Special Episode - US Election Day 2020

03 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

I asked myself for a long time if I should bring an interview today, or if I should let it be, and decided for the latter.  Today is a historic day f...

#124 Edidiong Asikpo put herself out there

27 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Edidiong first told us about her bumpy start, how computer science was only her "third option". She explained how an internship changed her ...

#123 Patrick Leblanc didn't want to ruin his passion

20 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Patrick first told us the rollercoaster-story of his studies, and how he fought against coding for almost 10 years. He then took us on his agency ride...

#122 Ines Montani brought linguistic and computers together

13 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We talked about how computers increased Ines's creativity as a teen. We talked about Ines's disappointment at German university studies. We ...

#121 Kathryn Erickson on leadership and asking for help

06 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We talked about helping, being helped, asking for help, and having people you can rely on. We talked about research and startups. We discussed network...

#120 Sumana Harihareswara is an open-source fairy

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Sumana first told us about her parents and how they influenced her life in many ways. We discussed computer science and social sciences, luck, and how...

#119 Virginia Harrison is following her gaming dream

22 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Gini told us about how their discovery of webpages and flash animations lead to them creating their first games. We then discussed why they didn'...

#118 Erik Rasmussen connects the dots of his career

15 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Erik took us through his first steps with 5" floppy disks and code lines. We talked about the usefulness of CS degrees, his first jobs, side proj...

#117 Roopak Venkatakrishnan's career algorithm

08 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We talked about his first steps with computers and his first hackathon in high-school. We talked about his internship at @Google, his job at @twitter,...

#116 Scott Tolinski from allrounder to allrounder

01 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Scott took us from his music background, all the way to his video-course business, leaving little details aside. We spoke about his learning phases. W...

#115 Aimee Knight applied the discipline of figure-skating to DevOps and architecture

25 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Aimee first told us about her past as a figure skater. She then explained how her marrying into the military forced us to change careers and learn how...

#114 Jamon Holmgren made his own independent way

18 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jamon first told us about his first experience with the C64 command prompt, and then with a 286, and finally a 486 computer. He told us how a math tea...

#113 Brendan O'Leary from healthcare to Gitlab

11 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We first talked about theater lights, and how this was Brendan's first programming task. We then discussed business, healthcare, and loving the &...

#112 Dan Moore from sci-fi to devrel

04 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Dan first told us about his (almost) passionate love for MailMerge. We then talked about his studies and how he took every detour he could until final...

#111 Sam Julien from financial adviser to developer advocate

28 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We talked about liberal arts and being a self-taught programmer. We discussed second careers, mentoring and being mentored. We spoke about technical w...

#110 Jerome Hardaway is the definition of willpower

21 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jerome first took us through his first years after military, learning SQL and getting into tech. We then discussed the non-profit organization VetsWho...

#109 Coraline Ada Ehmke lives up to her values

14 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Coraline first told us about how she nearly didn't work into tech. We then discussed her values, ethic in our industry and how she deliberately s...

#108 Cassidy Williams loves developer experience

07 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cassidy first told us about how she came to web development in high school, discovered it could be a job and ended up studying computer sciences. We t...

#107 Josh Long found his place in the world as a developer advocate with the Spring team

30 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Josh first told us about his love for coding, how he worked from startup to startup, learning a lot, but not having fun. And then he told us how his p...

#106 Kyle Shevlin from pastor to programmer

23 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Kyle first told us about his past as a musician and a pastor, and how he came to web development. We then discussed changing careers, learning, mentor...

#105 Sara Vieira is opinionated per design

16 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Sara first told us how she came to learn to code to prove her dad wrong. We then discussed her internships, fast paced environments, shame, learning n...

#104 Jason Lengstorf successfully bet on himself for his career

09 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jason first took us to his past as the lead singer of a band. There he did the marketing for the band on the side. That was his introduction to web-de...

#103 Carolyn Stransky learning her way from journalist to developer and back

02 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn took us to the start of her career, as a journalist searching for a job in a foreign country. She told us how she found her first job writing ...