Ruby for All

On today’s episode of Ruby for All, Andrew and Julie kick things off with a nostalgic discussion about the beloved game, “Plants vs. Zombies.” Julie explains the game’s concept, setting the stage for a lively conversation that brings us into their gaming experiences and preferences, including cooperative versus competitive gaming. The conversation then transitions to topics relevant to the workplace, including teamwork and communication in a new project that Andrew introduces. They touch on the organizational structure at Podia, the project process, and roles within project teams. Code reviews within project teams are also explored, with insights into how they handle code reviews, expertise in specific code bases, and knowledge sharing strategies to mitigate the “bus factor.” Go ahead and download this episode now! 

[00:00:11] Andrew and Julie discuss the game “Plants vs. Zombies.” Julie explains the game’s concept and Andrew talks about Call of Duty Zombies. 

[00:01:56] Julie tells us she like cooperative games vs. competitive gaming.  Andrew explains different gaming genres, including strategy, shooting, and RPG. 

[00:03:20] They discuss playing Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Mario Kart.  

[00:04:54] Andrew introduces a new project and emphasizes the importance of teamwork and communication. 

[00:06:18] Andrew explains the organizational structure at Podia, the project process, and roles within project teams.

[00:09:22] Julie asks how many engineers there are at Podia and she inquiries about code reviews within project teams. 

[00:10:50] Andrew mentions expertise in specific code bases at Podia and how they track it, also, he discusses knowledge sharing to mitigate the “bus factor” within the team.

[00:12:36] Julie wonders if a team of two typically consists of a backend and a frontend person. Andrew explains that at Podia, they have full-stack engineers, but some specialize more in frontend or backend work based on their skills and preferences. 

[00:13:18] A question comes up if Andrew does a lot of pairing, and he explains that pairing frequency varies among team members and shares his preference for daily pairing. 

[00:15:55] Andrew shares his assumption that when someone sends a pull request, their code is expected to work, emphasizing that code review serves other purposes. 

[00:16:27] Andrew discusses the purpose of code reviews and how they should focus on more than just syntax. He clarifies that code review helps ensure the right approach and maintains codebase integrity.

[00:17:40] Julie mentions her habit of asking if a particular approach is correct during code reviews and discusses the importance of conventions and patterns. She also talks about her experience with cross-team pairing and how it helps identify edge cases and align with other teams’ practices. 

[00:18:56] Andrew discusses the challenges of code review when teams are large and points out the potential for one person to become the primary reviewer.

[00:20:43] Andrew suggests that small, specific pull requests with areas of interest can ease code review and mentions that Podia’s teams are smaller, and codebases are more unified. 

[00:22:23] Julie shares that her organization had 70 engineers and how cross-team pairing benefits knowledge sharing. She reflects on the learning experience when joining a new team and processes can vary, suggesting that individuals can introduce their preferred practices.

[00:24:15] Julie asks how Andrew discovers bugs in his code, and he explains Podia’s error monitoring and support team processes for bug triage. 

Panelists:

Andrew Mason

Julie J.

Sponsors:

Honeybadger

Links:

Andrew Mason Twitter

Andrew Mason Website

Julie J. Twitter

Julie J. Website

Plants vs. Zombies

• (00:11) - Discussion of "Plants vs. Zombies" and gaming preferences

In this episode of Ruby for All, we start with a conversation about Julie’s challenges in adjusting to a calendar migration, which leads to discussions about productivity tools, color-coding calendars, and the use of extensions like “Better Comments” for code organization.  Andrew and Julie explore the purpose and potential pitfalls of code comments, share insights into work projects, including a significant rewrite, and even touch on the history of CoffeeScript in the coding world.  Also, they discuss best practices for API response statuses, the effective use of tools like Postman and curl, and the role of practical experience in shaping a developer’s understanding of best practices. Hit download now to hear more! 

[00:00:10] Julie mentions having issues concentrating at work due to a migration from Google Workspaces to Microsoft, with calendar issues. Andrew asks about her calendar system and whether she color codes it.  

[00:01:41] Since colors are so important to Andrew on calendars, he mentions an extension called “Better Comments” for color-coding comments in code. 

[00:03:15] Andrew discusses the purpose of comments, warning about deviations from conventions, and code readability, and Julie and Andrew talk about the problems with excessive comments and the importance of keeping comments up to date. 

[00:07:08] Julie wonders if Andrew adds links to comments or writes detailed PR reviews for reference. 

[00:07:53] What’s up with Andrew? He mentions working on bug fixes and a recent launch at Podia, including a rewrite of their email system.

[00:08:51] Andrew explains Trix, which was previously written in CoffeeScript but may have been ported to TypeScript. He also briefly discusses the history of CoffeeScript, its decline in popularity, and why he didn’t like it when he was new to programming. 

[00:13:21] Julie asks about best practices for API response statuses, such as when to use “status ok” or “status created.” She also asks about the use of “Unprocessable Entity” as a status code and its meaning. Andrew talks about how Rails handles different response statuses and mentions that Rails implicitly handles certain errors.

[00:15:58] Julie and Andrew discuss the importance of choosing the correct HTTP status codes for API responses. 

[00:16:44] Julie asks about handling different types of bad requests and whether Rails catches them. Andrew explains how to undo scaffolded code using “rails d” and suggests looking at Rails scaffold defaults for best practices.

[00:18:50] Andrew explains what Postman is and describes it as an interface for sending API requests. He also talks about the VS extension code, Thunder Client. 

[00:20:26] Andrew explains the benefits of using curl and jq for API requests and JSON processing. 

[00:21:14] We hear an example of using curl and jq to retrieve specific data from a GitHub API endpoint. 

[00:22:15] Julie mentions using ChatGPT as a “rubber duck” to find answers to coding questions and appreciates how it exposes her to new concepts.  

[00:22:43] Andrew and Julie discuss the importance of focusing on a way to solve problems, especially for early career developers, rather than getting caught up in finding the “right” way. 

[00:24:26] Julie brings up Ruby for All Episode 46 that you should check out, where they discussed Single Tab Inheritance (STI).

Panelists:

Andrew Mason

Julie J.

Sponsor:

GoRails

Links:

Andrew Mason Twitter

Andrew Mason Website

Julie J. Twitter

Julie J. Website

Better Comments

Trix

Look up a Rails HTTP Status Code
Thunder Client

jq

Postman

curl

• (00:10) - Julie's concentration issues during a migration

Welcome back to a brand new season of Ruby for All! After a summer hiatus, Andrew and Julie are back and ready to catch up with each other and you! Julie kicks things off sharing her thrilling road trip up the West Coast, visits to national parks, and even some sandboarding in Oregon. Andrew shares his camping and hiking adventure to the Grand Canyon with his friend Drew Bragg, embarking on some challenging hikes, encounters with wildlife, a night of stargazing, and the importance of respecting park guidelines. Then, the conversation shifts gears with Andrew talking about launching a new email product at Podia during the summer, while Julie dives into her focus on research and architectural decisions in her work.  They discuss the challenges of making architecture decisions in software development, including the debate between Single Table Inheritance (STI) and Polymorphism, and they touch on their notetaking and knowledge retention practices. This is going to be an exciting new season, so go ahead and download this episode now!

[00:00:32] Julie talks about her three-week road trip up the West Coast, visiting national parks, and sandboarding in Oregon. 

[00:01:48] Julie’s favorite park is Mt. Rainier, she tells us about going into some fun caves, and Andrew and Julie discuss hiking boots vs. hiking shoes. 

[00:04:15] What did Andrew do this summer besides work? He shares his camping and hiking trip to the Grand Canyon with Drew Bragg. He talks about their camping gear and hiking experience at the Grand Canyon, and some of the challenges and safety aspects of hiking there. 

[00:12:20] Julie and Andrew tell us some encounters they had with wildlife and locking up their food to prevent animals from getting it to it. Andrew mentions seeing aggressive squirrels and the importance of not feeding them due to disease concerns. 

[00:14:47] Andrew shares stories about tourists in national parks disregarding warnings about interacting with wild animals, such as petting bison.

[00:16:34] Andrew talks about his work on launching a new email product at Podia during the summer and Julie mentions her current focus on research and architectural decisions on her work, regarding handling access lists between repositories.

[00:18:00] We hear about some challenges Andrew’s been having with architecture decisions, specifically mentioning the debate between Single Table Inheritance (STI) and Polymorphism and how changing requirements can lead to revisiting architectural decisions. 

[00:19:19] Andrew explains Single Table Inheritance (STI) and Polymorphism and how these concepts relate to their architectural decisions. 

[00:21:18] He highlights the complexity of making architectural decisions and the need to adapt to changing requirements, acknowledging that there is often no one-size-fits-all solution.

[00:23:20] Julie asks about the effort required to backtrack and change architectural decisions when they realize they’ve made the wrong choice. 

[00:24:36] Julie explains the concept of backfilling data, which involves filling in missing or incomplete data. She mentions her existing data app for meetings and notes but expresses the need to redesign it for better organization, and Andrew gives her advice. 

[00:26:02] Julie discusses the challenge of retaining and retrieving knowledge for future reference, and Andrew shares his note-taking workflow using Obsidian and how he organizes his notes hierarchically. 

[00:28:05] Julie mentions her habit of keeping detailed PR notes for her work. 

Panelists:

Andrew Mason

Julie J.

Sponsors:

Honeybadger

Links:

Andrew Mason Twitter

Andrew Mason Website

Julie J. Twitter

Julie J. Website

Obsidian

Sandboarding

Welcome to Ruby for All Season 2! This was the last episode we recorded before the break that we wanted to share.

Today’s episode of Ruby for All is mix of personal experiences, tech discussions, and the ever-evolving world of artificial intelligence. Andrew and Julie dive deep into their utilization of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence tool that assists with tasks such as writing performance reviews and explaining code functions, and they envision a future where the integration of AI into workflows becomes a standard.  Andrew, a long-time AI enthusiast, brings up the topic of OpenAI’s Whisper, and the exciting possibility of creating AI-driven podcast episodes. They share their experiments with AI personas and how giving a ‘character’ to the AI can improve its output. Andrew and Julie also have a conversation sharing their different uses of ChatGPT. Join us as we continue exploring the fascinating world of Ruby and AI. Hit download to hear more! 

[00:01:18] Julie and Andrew discuss their uses of ChatGPT. Julie uses it for writing performance reviews, while Andrew is a heavy user of the tool and its API.

[00:04:00] Andrew mentions the Whisper from OpenAI and the possibility of using it to recreate podcasts episodes purely from AI, using the hosts’ past audio data. 

[00:05:37] Andrew asks Julie about her experience with Copilot, he tells us what it does, and he finds it most helpful for writing tests. 

[00:09:23] We hear about the use of “brushes” in Copilot labs, a GitHub project. Brushes can explain code, translate it into other languages, generate tests, and more. He also tells us about how he uses Warp.

[00:11:19] Julie and Andrew agree that ChatGPT and Copilot are useful for learning and improving code, especially for those early in their careers. However, the AI can sometimes provide inaccurate information. 

[00:14:42] Andrew thinks using the AI to teach oneself how to code could be effective but cautions against relying solely on copy-pasting generated code. 

[00:16:07] Julie wonders if ChatGPT or AI is going to replace tech jobs, and Andrew doesn’t believe it will.  He does mention new professions like “prompt engineering” have emerged with the arrival of AI, with high earning standards.  

[00:17:58] We hear the difference between few-shot prompting and one-shot prompting in ChatGPT. Julie has experimented with asking ChatGPT to act a knowledgeable senior software engineer, and Andrew mentions the new “browsing mode” in GPT-4.

[00:22:19] Andrew uses the AI for making chapter notes for the podcast, saving him a lot of time.

[00:24:10] Julie uses AI to help her understand complex concepts like Redux, Sagas, and React. Andrew tells us about an app he uses called Writers Brew, which has a feature to convert summaries into bullet points, and Reader from Readwise, to analyze and summarize articles, generate flashcards, and thought-provoking questions.

[00:26:11] Andrew goes through some recent questions he’s asked ChatGPT recently including explaining complex code functions, creating CSS selectors, and creating titles for code snippets. 

[00:27:38] Julie shares a shortcut she uses that Andrew wasn’t aware of, she asks ChatGPT to explain code an follows up with clarifying questions, and she uses it to develop SMART goals for advancing at work.

[00:28:31] Andrew notes that ChatGPT is from OpenAI and utilizes the GPT-4 or GPT-3.5. language models, there’s also Google Bard, and other language models such as, Hugging Face and AI Playground that you can explore. 

Panelists:

Andrew Mason

Julie J.

Sponsors:

Avo Admin for Rails

Honeybadger

Links:

Andrew Mason Twitter

Andrew Mason Website

Julie J. Twitter

Julie J. Website

Ruby for All Twitter

Warp

Few-Shot Prompting

OpenAI Whisper

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot Labs

Simulated annealing

Writers Brew 

Reader 

Bard

Hugging Face

AI Playground

• (01:18) - Julie and Andrew's uses of ChatGPT

Hey Everyone! Ruby for All is taking a summer vacation since it's been hard to juggle vacations, school being out, and other responsibilities we have going on right now. We will be back at the end of summer and can't wait to talk to you all again soon!

This week the tables are turned on Ruby for All because this is a crossover episode with the Rubber Duck Dev Show with Chris and Creston, where Julie was a guest recently talking about leveling up for Juniors. Today, they explore Julie’s growth as a junior developer, her experiences mentoring others, and the impact of podcasting on her career. They also touch on community building, the value of live shows, effective learning strategies, and the importance of feedback in mentoring relationships. Hit download to hear more! 

[00:00:34] Julie’s talks about her week which consisted of adding Apple SSO at work.

[00:01:44] We hear Julie’s background story from being a pharmacist to learning programming and enjoying problem-solving in development. 

[00:03:00] Julie’s been doing Ruby for All, has attended some conferences, and has done some talks, and she tells us how she’s progressed in her career and if development has been everything she was hoping for in a career.

[00:05:26] We hear where Julie’s at in her career now, what she’s interested in pursuing, and highlights how rewarding it feels being a mentor.  

[00:06:59] Chris and Julie discuss the satisfaction of helping others learn and how Ruby for All and speaking at conferences has contributed to her career growth. Although she still feels nervous in from front of a microphone and doing public speaking, she loves the support she receives form collaborators.      

[00:10:17] Chris talks about things he appreciates from a senior perspective, when it comes to junior devs. 

[00:11:45] Julie affirms that doing a podcast has positively impacted her career by allowing her to ask questions, learn from experts, and gain different perspectives.

[00:13:52] Chris asks Julie what senior developers can do to help junior developers learn and progress their careers, and Julie suggests that seniors should avoid using language that discourages juniors from asking questions and shares the benefits of seniors asking recap or quiz questions to solidify knowledge. 

[00:17:18] Chris and Julie discuss the benefits of pairing as a toll for accelerating learning and improving code quality. 

[00:19:16] Julie highlights using her manager to help her figure out where her gaps are and what it takes to go to the next level, the value of setting clear goals and using smart goals to stay focused and make progress in her career. 

[00:23:58] Julie talks about her interest in community building and the importance of networking opportunities for early career developers. 

[00:24:57] If you want to reach out to Julie, she tells us where you can do that. 

[00:25:44] Chris expresses his interest in encouraging more live shows in the developer community and offers assistance to those interested. Julie and Chris discuss the resistance to live broadcasting in the developer community and potential reasons such as fear of failure and low attendance. 

[00:28:07] What is the best way to learn Ruby? Creston throws in his two cents and shares some advice. Chris suggests a good book, Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby, as a fun and effective resource if you’re new to programming, but Ruby in particular. 

[00:30:42] Julie reflects on the importance of understanding how individuals learn and adapting mentoring approaches accordingly, mentioning the significance of feedback preferences. 

Panelists:

Julie J.

Chris Booth

Creston Jamison

Sponsors:

GoRails

Honeybadger

Links:

Andrew Mason Twitter

Andrew Mason Website

Julie J. Twitter

Julie J. Website

Ruby for All Twitter

Rubber Duck Dev Show 

Rubber Duck Dev Show Twitter

Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

This week the tables are turned on Ruby for All, as our friend of the show, Drew Bragg, interviews Julie J. This was originally on Code and the Coding Coders Who Code it Podcast. If you haven’t checked it out, please go smash the subscribe button. Today, Drew asks Julie J his 3 questions: What are you working on? What's blocking you? What's something cool you want to share? What are Julie’s answers? Guess you’ll have to listen to find out. Hint, they talk about her cool side project, Ruby for All, Rails upgrades, and some of the confusion that still exists around assets in Rails. Hit download now to find out more! 

[00:01:21] Julie tells us she’s working on a work-related project and a side project. At work, she’s been struggling to keep track of her tasks and notes so she decided to build an app called, Today app, which is a Rails/ERB views app that consolidates all her tasks, questions, standup notes, meeting details on one page, and a note section for previous discussions.

[00:07:19] She started working on this project for a couple of months and has found Chat GPT helpful for quick syntax references and learning new concepts. She also uses it to quiz herself and simplify complex explanations.

[00:13:00] What does Julie work with right now at work? She primarily works with Rails but has a desire to focus more on front-end development to enhance her skills in both areas, and she’s been doing some React Typescript and React Native.

[00:14:07] Julie tells us Codecademy is set up with a mix of front-end, full stack, and back-end. 

[00:14:41] Drew explains in his current work, they primarily use ERB templates and some Stimulus for their JavaScript sprinkles. His new project is transitioning to using Turbo and Hotwire for interactivity and reactivity. 

[00:15:56] Drew’s been heavily involved in upgrading their Rails version at his job, starting from v4.1 and currently on v6.1.  He’s gained experience and learned through trial and error during these upgrades. 

[00:18:44] Julie expresses her interest in participating in Rails upgrades at her job, as her team is currently on Rails v6.0 and Ruby v2.7. Drew gained experience and learned through trial and error during these upgrades. 

[00:22:21] We hear Drew’s approach of limiting his to-do list to three tasks, and Julie mentions how she further limits hers to just one task in her Today app. They discuss the value of limiting tasks and the mental health benefits it may provide. 

[00:24:29] What kind of blockers does Julie run into? She shares how she used ChatGPT to overcome JavaScript related issues in her Today app and get unstuck. She mentions struggling with integrating JavaScript and explains how she received guidance from ChatGPT. 

[00:28:00] Drew discusses the confusion and complexity surrounding asset management in Rails, particularly with JavaScript. Also, it can be overwhelming for junior or early career developers trying to learn Rails since there are three different ways to manage assets.

[00:32:25] RubyConf in San Diego is coming up and Julie and Drew will be attending. 

[00:34:20] What is something cool Julie’s discovered? She tells us she spent two months learning about OAuth and OpenID connect. She also mentions using ngrok to solve the issue of testing Apple SSO locally by redirecting the local host to a ngrok URL. 

[00:36:41] Drew explains that ngrok is commonly used to tunnel local development environments and allows testing over HTTPS.  

[00:37:34] Julie and Drew briefly discuss the deprecated gem, Paperclip, which was used for file uploads before Active Storage became the preferred open in Rails.

Panelists:

Julie J.

Drew Bragg

Sponsors:

Honeybadger

Avo Admin for Rails

Links:

Andrew Mason Twitter

Andrew Mason Website

Julie J. Twitter

Julie J. Website

Drew Bragg Twitter

Code and the Coding Coders who Code it Podcast with Drew Bragg
Code and the Coding Coders who Code it- Episode 17: Joe Masilotti 

ngrok

Active Storage

Ruby Conferences

RubyConf 2023 (San Diego) 

On this episode of Ruby for All, Andrew attended RailsConf 2023 and talks about his experience at it, how he focused on socializing with friends and co-workers, and attended fewer talks than before. There were some great talks he heard and keynotes he really enjoyed, especially Aaron Patterson, who proposed the idea of Rails shipping its own LSP for Ruby and Rails. Also, a highlight was that this conference had a greater focus on early career developers, offering headshots and resume reviews, which was super cool.   Next year’s conference will be in Detroit, and RubyConf 2023 is coming up in November in San Diego, so Julie and Andrew are both excited to attend this one and Andrew will have stickers in case you missed out. Hit download to hear more cool stuff!  

[00:02:16] Andrew kicks things off telling us about RailsConf and seeing his crew.

[00:04:25] Andrew mentions he attended fewer talks than before and focuses on the social aspect of meeting his friends and expresses his interest in learning more about asset management in Rails. 

[00:05:58] Julie asks Andrew about Sprockets, and he explains. 

[00:07:54] He talks about the sponsor exhibit hall at RailsConf, and talking to people from Crunchy Data, a Postgres service, and the RubyMine people from Jet Brains, which he wants to start using again. He mentions the RubyMine IDE and its features. 

[00:11:48] Andrew highlights Eileen Uchitelle and Aaron Patterson’s keynotes, with Aaron Patterson proposing the idea of Rails shipping its own Language Server Protocol (LSP) for Ruby and Rails.

[00:13:38] Andrew also enjoyed attending talks by his co-worker Vincent and Drew Bragg, which was a ton of fun.

[00:15:16] Did Andrew go to any cool events? He hung out with some people for dinner, but was having major social anxiety, which caused him to stick by his friend Jason.

[00:19:12] This year’s RailsConf had more focus on early career developers, and he spent more time with them.  Also, Andrew met a lot of people who listen to the podcast. 

[00:23:26] Julie liked that the conference was focused on early career devs and wishes there was a regional conference that was geared solely to early career devs. 

[00:24:11] Next year RailsConf is in Detroit, and Andrew and Julie are looking forward to going to RubyConf 2023 in San Diego which will be Nov 13-15.

[00:24:54] Yes, Andrew did pass out stickers at the conference, and many people asked for more. He also thanks all the sponsors that made it a success. 

Panelists:

Andrew Mason

Julie J.

Sponsors:

Honeybadger

GoRails

Links:

Andrew Mason Twitter

Andrew Mason Website

Julie J. Twitter

Julie J. Website

Sprockets Rails
Shopify-Ruby LSP Rails

Crunchy Data

Jet Brains-RubyMine

Ruby Conferences 

• (02:16) - RailsConf highlights and socializing with friends

On this episode of Ruby for All, Andrew and Julie are excited to have as their guest, Megan Brown, who’s a Product Manager, UX Researcher, and Julie’s mentee.  In today’s conversations, we’ll cover various topics related to coding and career advice.  Megan tells us what UX research is, how UX Researchers and engineers have a lot in common, and she talks about the importance of user research in product development.  Also, since Megan is now in school for computer science, she shares her journey and how it started when she was working at Microsoft. There’s a conversation on the importance of learning different programming languages, and some career advice for someone interested in mobile and web development. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:01:26] Megan gives us a brief introduction of herself, and she tells us how psychology helps with UX design, and how she met Julie, who ended up being her mentor.  

[00:03:09] We hear how Megan’s journey happened for her from being a project manager to UX researcher. 

[00:04:38] Megan explains what UX research is, the difference between UX and UI designers, and the value in having dedicated professionals in both areas.

[00:07:02] Find out how you it might be useful for you to learn more about UX research, as Megan suggests that engineers can benefit from learning how to conduct their own research and she outlines some steps for conducting usability studies. 

[00:11:46] Julie is realizing the value of user research in her work and how it can avoid wasting time on unnecessary features or cluttering pages with links that users may not use. 

[00:14:18] We hear what Megan would say to the engineer who knows what the users want, doesn’t need UX, and is in the early stages of this.

[00:15:33] Megan is learning to code, so she shares her journey and how it started. 

[00:16:43] Julie tells us about the first course she’s competed so far and has found that starting with Python has been more fun than starting with Java due to its ease of use.

[00:17:56] There’s a discussion on the importance of learning different programming languages to understand object-oriented programming and to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of different languages. 

[00:21:53] Andrew, Julie and Megan have a conversation about career advice for someone who’s interested in both mobile and web development, and they talk about the growing trend of mobile development and the potential for making a living as a solo developer in mobile development. 

[00:26:02] Even though Andrew and Julie are not mobile developers, they offer some great tips for becoming a mobile developer, such as building projects, getting internships, or apprenticeships. 

[00:28:09] Megan tells us what she enjoyed about working in Python, Julie gives some encouraging words for Megan, her mentee, and Andrew mentions the importance of understanding one’s code. 

[00:31:54]  Find out where you can follow Megan online. 

Panelists:

Andrew Mason

Julie J.

Guest:

Megan Brown

Sponsors:

Avo Admin for Rails

Honeybadger

Links:

Andrew Mason Twitter

Andrew Mason Website

Julie J. Twitter

Julie J. Website

Megan Brown LinkedIn

Megan Brown GitHub

Progressive web app

• (01:26) - Introduction and psychology's role in UX design

On this episode of Ruby for All, Andrew and Julie have a conversation about being a senior software engineer and mentoring.  Since Andrew is a senior software engineer, he talks about the differences between his current and earlier roles, and what experience you need to become a senior developer.  Andrew has so much passion for mentoring, so we’ll find out how he’s found a lot of fulfillment, validation, and purpose in mentoring, and what important qualities are needed to be a mentor.  We’ll also hear a success story of a Junior Developer that he mentored that eventually got a job as a Ruby developer, and some advice for mid-level engineers who are looking to level up. Hit download to hear more cool stuff!  

[00:02:02] Andrew tells us what a typical day looks like for him as a senior software engineer at Podia, and the differences between his current role and his earlier roles.

[00:04:59] Does Andrew consider himself a tech lead?

[00:05:22] We hear about some challenging aspects of Andrew’s role, and he talks about the people component, the planning, and there’s a lot more thinking involved. Also, he tells us he’s a natural leader, but it’s a burden, but if you want to progress to the next step, you have to do it. 

[00:08:01] Andrew discusses the challenges of balancing technical work and interacting with people since he’s struggling with this right now.  

[00:09:14] The topic of mentorship is brought up as Andrew elaborates how he’s found a lot of fulfillment, validation, and purpose in mentoring. He was assigned a mentor when he was first starting out, and he still meets with this person every week.  

[00:11:52] There are some important qualities needed to be a mentor such as patience, understanding, and the ability to listen and guide someone to find their own solutions. Julie tells us about some of her favorite mentors and how they helped her. 

[00:14:09] Andrew tells us about an interesting part about mentoring and being a mentee, and then Julie and Andrew discuss that mentoring is about more than just technical skills, and involves communication, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. 

[00:17:50] What does Andrew find more rewarding about being a mentor? How about finding something that makes you feel like what you’re doing is important, and gives you purpose and value. 

[00:18:48] If you’re thinking about becoming a mentor but don’t know where to start, Andrew advises to just start, and stop worrying about whether you’re going to be a perfect mentor. You don’t have to have all the answers! 

[00:21:38] Andrew shares his story of successfully mentoring a junior developer who eventually got a job as a Ruby developer. 

[00:22:44] To become a senior developer, Andrew advises gaining experience in architecture, problem-solving, and communication, and being a leader and a team player. He also explains how he learned about architecture.  

[00:25:32] Andrew suggests working at different companies can provide exposure to a variety of experiences and opportunities for growth. 

[00:28:37] We end with Andrew advising mid-level engineers to ask their managers what they can do to level up, and if that option is not available, look for other opportunities elsewhere. 

Panelists:

Andrew Mason

Julie J.

Sponsors:

Honeybadger

GoRails

Links:

Andrew Mason Twitter

Andrew Mason Website

Julie J. Twitter

Julie J. Website

• (02:02) - Typical day for a senior software engineer