This is a special SEEK Bytes drop – outside the regular Season 3 line-up – because the recent Axios NPM hack is too important to ignore. In this episode of SEEK Bytes the crew sit down with Eldar Marcussen from SEEK’s offensive security team to unpack what actually happened, why supply-chain attacks are so scary, and what you should do today to reduce your risk.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• What a supply-chain attack really is – how a single malicious dependency in a trusted package like Axios can silently run on thousands of machines, and why closed-source software isn’t magically safer.

• What to do if you think you’ve been hit – practical first moves for companies and individuals: rotating keys, rebuilding or containerising machines, reviewing logs, and knowing when to call in your security team.

• How to raise the bar for attackers – simple habits like pinning and ageing dependencies, using tools like Docker and alternative package managers, relying on built-in protection like Windows Defender, and staying alert to sketchy extensions and “too good to be true” downloads.

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SEEK Bytes is back for Season 3 on 22 April, and we’re turning things up a notch with a major focus on AI of course. This season dives into the real world of working in tech today – from AI reshaping how we build and secure systems, to the culture, careers and decisions that make or break modern engineering teams.

Whether you’re a seasoned developer, just starting out in IT, or simply curious about how technology is changing work, Season 3 brings you sharp, honest conversations straight from the engineers, designers and security experts living it every day.

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Thinking about moving from hands-on coding to people leadership – or just wanting more control over your engineering career? In this episode of SEEK Bytes, we sit down with Gladys Lim, an Engineering Manager based in Kuala Lumpar who leads squads in SEEK’s monetisation & insights domain, building products that keep hirers coming back

This episode's special guest: Gladys Lim (SEEK Engineering Manager - based in Kuala Lumpur)

Gladys shares her journey from barcode integrations and games dev to full-stack engineer and, eventually, EM – including what surprised her about loving people leadership, how she navigated a jarring feedback-loop shift, and why management is a different career path, not just a promotion. She gets real about imposter syndrome, being a woman in tech across APAC, hiring for diverse teams, and using empathy, vulnerability and structure to make mentoring actually work.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• What it really means to shift from IC to EM – from instant code feedback to months-long people outcomes, delegating without micromanaging, and redefining success as enabling the team, not being the strongest coder.

• How to navigate imposter syndrome and bias – using facts to reframe negative self-talk, turning comparison into learning, and creating inclusive rituals so quieter and under-represented voices are actually heard.

• How to take charge of your career and mentorship – clarifying your motivations, choosing between IC and leadership paths, saying “no” when the fit or timing is wrong, and designing mentoring relationships that serve your specific growth goals.

If you’re a software engineer, data/IT professional, team lead or aspiring manager wondering whether people leadership is for you – or how to better support the EMs you work with – this episode is packed with honest stories, practical tactics and career advice you can apply today.

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Heard of “clean architecture” but not sure what it looks like in real code? In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Seamus, Will and Adam Kreidels (Head of Engineering, Monetisation & Insights at SEEK) are back for Part 2 of their deep dive – unpacking entities, use cases, gateways, the dependency rule and the famous “onion” diagram in a way any IT pro can apply.

This episode's special guest: Adam Kreitals (SEEK Head of Engineering, Monetisation & Insights)

In this episode, we explore:

• Why “start with the database” slows you down – and how leading with business rules and use cases speeds up delivery.

• How entities, use cases and gateways work together – using price, order and discount examples from SEEK to show clean seams between domain and tech.

• How clean architecture reduces the cost of change – what good separation of concerns looks like in code, and how to spot when frameworks and APIs are leaking into your core domain.

If you’re a software engineer, tech lead, architect, SRE, platform engineer or IT manager who wants code that survives framework swaps, org changes and new requirements – and you liked Part 1 – this Part 2 episode gives you the concrete concepts, terminology and mental models to put clean architecture into practice.

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Ever wondered what a technical product manager actually does – and why every modern tech org seems to want one? In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Will is joined by Leon Belobrov and Alex Stewart-James to unpack how SEEK builds platform products that power everything from candidate apps to internal tooling – and what it means to be a PM for APIs instead of UIs.

This episode's special guests: Leon Belobrov (SEEK Principal Product Manager, Platform) and Alex Stewart-James (SEEK Snr Technical Product Manager)

They break down what makes TPMs a bit of a “unicorn role” – blending deep product thinking with enough technical context to serve engineers as their primary customers – and why internal platforms, APIs and deployment pipelines are becoming just as important as customer-facing apps.

You’ll hear how SEEK uses jobs-to-be-done research with engineers, metrics like time-to-10th PR, and platform reliability/security KPIs to prioritise what gets built – and what gets cut.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• The real difference between a “regular” PM and a TPM – including why serving engineers, focusing on APIs and reusable capabilities, and obsessing over platform reliability changes how you think about product.

• How SEEK discovers what engineers actually need – from interviewing 25+ engineers across the business to mapping their pain points into jobs-to-be-done and opportunity scores, instead of just building what the loudest voice wants.

• Practical advice if you want to move into TPM or work better with platforms – including dogfooding, avoiding over-engineering, and remembering that “you are not your customer” even when you’re an engineer building for engineers.

If you’re a software engineer, platform/DevOps engineer, BA, product manager or IT leader curious about platform teams, internal products and where technical PMs fit into modern tech orgs, this episode gives you a front-row view into how SEEK does it – and how you might shape a similar path.

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What happens when a 15-year-old hacker quietly discovers a single bug that touches over half of the Fortune 500, chains it into a Slack takeover, and walks away with $50K in bug bounties – only for the original vendor to refuse to pay? In this episode of SEEK Bytes, we break down Daniel’s Zendesk exploit, the ethics of disclosure, and what “white hat” really means in practice.

We unpack how a “basic” support inbox ([email protected]), misconfigured SSO and email spoofing turned into a way to join internal tickets, steal Slack access and read sensitive conversations – all via a third-party tool many enterprises barely think about. We also dig into how bug bounty programs work, why Zendesk’s scope call sparked controversy, and how SEEK runs security exercises to stay ahead of attackers.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How the exploit actually worked end-to-end – from Zendesk ticket IDs and CC’ing yourself onto “internal” threads, to chaining Apple/Google OAuth and Slack login for access to private workspaces.

• Why the bug bounty outcome was so controversial – how email-spoofing being “out of scope” left Daniel unpaid by Zendesk, and what this means for incentivising white-hat behaviour vs pushing hackers towards greyer choices.

• Practical security takeaways for engineers – the real risk of “weakest link” third-party tools, why internal channels are goldmines for social engineers, and how separation of concerns and well-designed bounties can protect both your systems and your customers.

Whether you’re in software engineering, security, cloud, support, architecture or IT leadership, this episode is a gripping case study in modern attack chains, bug bounty programs and why “it’s just email” or “it’s just a ticketing tool” is never the whole story.

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What if your next big career move in tech wasn’t into management or staff engineering – but into technical product management? In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Will continues the conversation with Leon Belobrov and Alex Stewart-James in Part 2 of our deep dive into technical PMs, platform teams and how engineers can shape the roadmap (and their careers).

This episode's special guests: Leon Belobrov (SEEK Principal Product Manager, Platform) and Alex Stewart-James (SEEK Snr Technical Product Manager)

They share how interviewing dozens of SEEK engineers surfaced honest feedback, surprisingly clear asks, and a long list of “we just built it ourselves” tools that should really be platform products – plus why removing features and legacy tools can be just as valuable as shipping new ones. You’ll also hear what it takes to move from senior engineer or BA into a TPM role, and why this space is still early enough to shape if you jump in now.

In this episode, we explore:

• How engineers can influence the technical roadmap – from being a “demanding customer” to joining product discussions, speaking the language of metrics, and tying tech work to business outcomes.

• When to invest in platform teams (and how to get buy-in) – spotting the point where every squad is solving the same non-differentiating problems, and making the case for centralising capabilities like security and infra.

• How to grow into a technical product manager – mapping your existing skills, building a portfolio of real communication and customer-empathy stories, and becoming a true platform evangelist who can win funding and adoption

If you’re a software engineer, SRE, BA, platform/DevOps engineer, product manager or IT leader curious about owning internal platforms, shaping developer experience or shifting into technical product roles, this Part 2 conversation is packed with practical advice, career angles and real-world stories you can apply right now.

If you’re a software engineer, SRE, BA, platform/DevOps engineer, product manager or IT leader curious about owning internal platforms, shaping developer experience or shifting into technical product roles, this Part 2 conversation is packed with practical advice, career angles and real-world stories you can apply right now.

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Ever wondered what a technical product manager actually does – and why every modern tech org seems to want one? In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Will is joined by Leon Belobrov and Alex Stewart-James to unpack how SEEK builds platform products that power everything from candidate apps to internal tooling – and what it means to be a PM for APIs instead of UIs.

This episode's special guests: Leon Belobrov (SEEK Principal Product Manager, Platform) and Alex Stewart-James (SEEK Snr Technical Product Manager)

In this episode, we explore:

• What platform engineering and technical PMs actually are – internal platforms as products for engineers, boosting delivery velocity and reducing cognitive load across infra, CI/CD, observability and security, plus why platform PMs are a “unicorn” blend of product skills and deep technical understanding.

• Technical PM vs “regular” PM – shared foundations (customer value, business outcomes, strategy alignment, success metrics) and key differences when your “UI” is APIs, pipelines and DevDocs rather than screens – including jobs-to-be-done research with engineers and metrics like uptime, security posture and time-to-10th PR.

• Designing platforms engineers actually want to use – jobs-to-be-done studies across SEEK, turning 25+ “jobs” into prioritised opportunity scores, tackling notorious pain points like scattered documentation and fragmented health monitoring, and avoiding traps like over-building for a single vocal team or assuming “I’m an engineer, so I know what they need”.

• DevOps, cognitive load and minimum viable platforms – how platform thinking evolved alongside DevOps, shifting security and observability “left” without dumping everything on product teams, and finding the balance between sensible defaults, transparency and not turning platform teams into bottlenecks.

• Careers and skills for aspiring technical PMs – why you don’t need to be the strongest coder in the room, how to lean on engineering partners while bringing customer/strategy thinking, and the unique advantage of having your “customers” (engineers) sitting right next to you for fast feedback and constant dogfooding.

If you’re a software engineer, SRE, platform/DevOps engineer, BA, product manager or IT leader curious about platform teams, internal products and where technical PMs fit into modern tech orgs, this episode gives you a front-row view into how SEEK does it – and how you might shape a similar path.

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AI-generated voices, fake bosses on Zoom, SIM-swapped phones and a casino shut down from a single service-desk call – this is what modern cybercrime really looks like. In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Elliott Millar, Will and security influencer Kelsey Lundgren return for Part 2 to dig into the latest social-engineering threats, AI-powered scams and why shame keeps attacks hidden.

This episode's special guest: Kelsy Luengen (SEEK Security Influencer)

Kelsey unpacks why hackers hack, how shame and under-reporting keep crime in the dark, and the terrifying rise of AI-driven social engineering – from MGM’s casino shutdown to employment and romance scams, deepfake Zoom CEOs, voice-cloned “your child’s in trouble” calls, and malicious “ChatGPT” apps that are really just malware with great branding.

She also shares how SEEK builds a no-blame security culture, why she’d rather you over-report “weird” emails, and how to talk about scams with colleagues, customers and your own family without making anyone feel stupid.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How modern scams really work – and why smart people still fall for them – including the psychology of shame, under-reported romance and job scams, and how a single phone call socially engineered a casino into chaos.

• How AI is super-charging attackers – from flawless phishing copy and personalised recon to deepfake voices and faces, malicious “AI” downloads and even tricking chatbots into generating attack templates under the guise of “training”.

• Practical ways to protect yourself, your team and your family – why app-based 2FA beats SMS, what SIM swapping is, how to sanity-check QR codes and “AI tools”, using family codewords, and how leaders can build a culture where people report near-misses instead of hiding them.

If you’re in software, data, support, security, product or IT leadership, this Part 2 episode will sharpen how you think about human-layer risk, AI-driven threats and the culture you need so people actually report problems before they become incidents.

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Think your biggest security risks are zero-days and fancy exploits? In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Elliott, Will and criminologist-turned-security-influencer Kelsy Luengen unpack why humans – not tech – are still the easiest way into your systems, and how SEEK is using crime theory, data and even Dungeons & Dragons-style games to fight back.

This episode's special guest: Kelsy Luengen (SEEK Security Influencer)

Kelsey explains the full phishing family – email, SMS, QR “quishing”, phone scams, spear-phishing and whaling – and walks through how she turns SEEK engineers into “hackers” using Dungeons & Dragons-style games, escape rooms and level-five difficulty phishing simulations to make training fun, not finger-waggy.

She also shares why a report-phishing button alone doesn’t change behaviour, what actually moves the needle, and how engineers can partner with security early so features don’t become social-engineering goldmines later on.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How modern phishing really works (and why tech people still fall for it) – from fear-based emails and boss-impersonation to targeted attacks built from LinkedIn posts, podcasts and public data.

• Why “awareness” isn’t enough – the limits of simple nudges and buttons, and how SEEK uses behaviour-changing experiences, metrics and relationships to build a lasting security culture.

• What engineers can do today to level up security – thinking “crime prevention” in your designs, knowing when to call in security, and how a strong partnership lets you ship faster and safer.

If you’re in software engineering, data, product, support, SRE, security or IT leadership, this episode will change how you think about security culture – and give you ideas for making secure behaviour stick in your team without boring slide decks and tick-box training.

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