Software Development Superstream: Becoming a Senior Software Engineer

Sam Newman: Introduction (5 minutes) - 8:00am PT | 11:00am ET | 3:00pm UTC/GMT

• Sam Newman welcomes you to the Software Development Superstream.

Meri Williams: Ask the Expert (50 minutes) - 8:05am PT | 11:05am ET | 3:05pm UTC/GMT

• Join us for a special conversation with tech leader and CTO Meri Williams. Meri will discuss the skills that will help you move to a position of leadership within your own organization. Along the way, she’ll recount some of the challenges she’s faced during her career and shed light on the things that worked well (and those that didn’t).
• Meri Williams is an experienced CTO and leader of technology organizations. As a CTO coach and tech advisor/NED with microconsultancy ChromeRose, she helps others level up as technical leaders and managers of organizations. She’s led teams ranging in size from 30 to 300, in organizations including Procter & Gamble, the Government Digital Service, MOO, Monzo, and Healx, among others. A published author and international speaker, she’s the chair of the Lead Developer conference and a tech advisor for Kindred Capital. She’s also a trustee at Stonewall, the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ rights charity, and together with her wife runs microcharity One Goes Up to help young women and enby folks pursue STEM education and careers.
• Break (10 minutes)

Russ Miles: Thinking Like a Mentor—From Contributor and Collaborator to Amplifier! (50 minutes) - 9:05 am PT | 12:05pm ET | 4:05pm UTC/GMT

• Can you recall someone who had a positive impact on your career? Someone who guided you to the next level, perhaps when you didn't know another level existed? Whether they were sharing their experiences, giving hints and tips, or just lending an ear in a time of difficulty, they helped you when you needed it most. They didn’t just contribute and collaborate—they seemed to amplify the contributions of those around them too. In other words, they were a mentor, and in this session you’ll learn how to be one too. Join Russ Miles to explore the skills, practices, and habits that will help you listen, support, and guide members of your team as they thrive and flourish in their careers. You’ll learn how to avoid common pitfalls in mentorship and how to be a great mentee yourself as you discover how to successfully develop the one-of-a-kind working relationships that will be gratefully and fondly remembered long after the mentor, and the mentee, have moved on.
• Russ Miles is on a mission, as an author, speaker, engineering manager, psychologist, and counselor (person-centered modality), to help people thrive in one of the harshest, and potentially impactful, working environments: software system engineering. Through his books, mentorship, talks, courses, and daily work, Russ tries to help the people responsible for building and running some of today's most critical software-based systems develop their own personal resilience, empathy, EQ, and grit to flourish at work and in their lives.
• Break (10 minutes)

Kristen Spencer: Addressing Skills Gaps for Engineers (50 minutes) - 10:05am PT | 1:05pm ET | 5:05pm UTC/GMT

• There’s no lack of beginner-friendly courses and books to help early career software engineers address skills gaps. And folks new to the field are also often more motivated to spend time and energy on learning, as the delta between what they know and what they need to know is large. But as you grow in seniority, skill gaps become harder to spot and can’t be so easily filled with online courses or books. Your learning needs are more complex and are often domain-specific, while application to real-world use cases becomes harder and harder to distill into short exercises. So how do you get the experience, skills, and opportunities that you need to reach that senior level? Join Kristen Spencer to find out.
• Kristen Spencer (she/her/hers) is a senior engineering manager at League, a digital health platform shaping the future of healthcare. She leads engineering teams that turn health data into accessible and actionable insights. Kristen considers her core values to be optimism, authenticity, and fun—and has a reputation for building teams that reflect those qualities. Previously, Kristen led frontend engineering at a top digital consultancy and taught web development at Juno College. She resides in Toronto, Canada, with her partner and two kids.
• Break (5 minutes)

Nathaniel T. Schutta and Whitney Lee: Succeeding with Software Projects (50 minutes) - 11:00am PT | 2:00pm ET | 6:00pm UTC/GMT

• Despite our best efforts, not all software projects end with champagne and cake. While some blame a bad technology choice, more often than not, the issues boil down to people problems. Traditional computer science education focuses on algorithms and languages while largely ignoring the human aspect of software and the sociology of organizations. Fear not, friends! There are patterns and approaches that can help you win trust quickly, create allies, set expectations, and effectively communicate during the ups and downs of project life. Join Nathaniel T. Schutta and Whitney Lee to explore the challenges of building and maintaining software using examples from within and beyond the software industry—and get the tools that will help you chart a path not just to a successful launch but to a team that speaks highly of the journey.
• Nathaniel T. Schutta is a software architect focused on cloud computing and building usable applications. A proponent of polyglot programming, Nate has written multiple books and appeared in various videos; he’s also a seasoned speaker who regularly presents at conferences worldwide, No Fluff Just Stuff symposia, meetups, universities, and user groups. In addition to his day job, Nate is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches students to embrace (and evaluate) technical change. Driven to rid the world of bad presentations, Nate coauthored Presentation Patterns with Neal Ford and Matthew McCullough. He also recently published Thinking Architecturally, available as a free download from VMware.
• Whitney Lee traveled the scenic route but is absolutely chuffed to have found her way to Kubernetes and cloud technologies. She began her career as a fine artist before owning her own photography business for over a decade. Then, after a yearlong tour playing keys and singing harmonies in the band Mutual Benefit, Whitney went back to school to learn full stack web development. Shortly after graduation, Whitney was employed by IBM as a cloud developer, using none of the skills she had just learned at school. However, she quickly developed an insatiable appetite for all things cloud as well as a passion for teaching others as she acquired knowledge herself. She’s made many lightboard videos for IBM Cloud, from topics ranging from creating a Pod in Kubernetes to event-driven architecture to cloud native API solutions. At VMware Whitney’s contagious excitement drives her to continue to explore, collaborate, teach, and play!

Sam Newman: Closing Remarks (5 minutes) - 11:50am PT | 2:50pm ET | 6:50pm UTC/GMT

• Sam Newman closes out today’s event.

Upcoming Superstream events:

• Open Source Software Superstream: Open Source Essentials for Enterprise - May 4, 2022