Episodes
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Natasha Vinnik is a Senior Engineering Lead for Gmail Client Foundations at Google. With over 20 years in engineering, Natasha has also led engineering teams at Box and Yahoo! She holds three patents in cloud-based technology.
In this episode, we discuss:
Natasha’s journey from an immigrant who couldn’t afford university to an engineering leader with a master’s degree
Staying technical as a manager and keeping up with technology trends
How starting a family changed how she approaches work
Inheriting teams vs building teams from scratch
How she manages complex projects
The value of being curious, trying new things
Mentorship vs sponsorship
Additional Resources:
“Unlocking Us” Podcast from Brené Brown
“The Awesome Human Podcast” from Nataly Kogan
Where to find Natasha Vinnik:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nvinnik/
Where to find Heidi Williams:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiwilliams1/
Website: https://www.joinwest.org/
Where to find Karen Ko:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenko26/
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Pinar Ozlen is an Engineering Manager at Airbnb based in Paris, France. Before Airbnb, she served as an Engineering Manager at Whatsapp, and worked on Google Maps and Search as an engineer with Google.
In this episode, we discuss:
How she gained visibility in large organizations Her transition from "What am I building" to "Who am I working with" Defining a leadership style that's complementary to your personality Tips for overcoming imposter syndrome The importance of setting boundaries and saying "No"Where to find Pinar Ozlen:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pinar-ozlen-25980a95/Where to find Heidi Williams:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiwilliams1/ Website: https://www.joinwest.org/Where to find Karen Ko:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenko26/ -
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Smita Ojha is the Senior Vice President of Engineering at Mindtickle, a market leader in enterprise sales software. Over the last two decades, Smita has led engineering teams at some of the largest tech companies - Microsoft, Meta, and Google.
In this episode, we discuss:
How to say yes to new opportunities outside of your comfort zone The importance of developing a diverse skillset to become a well-rounded leader Adopting a fearless approach by identifying the excitement in challenges The key differences between leading engineering at a large company vs. a startup Leveraging sponsorship from unexpected places: team members, peers, and leadership How to build psychological safety on teamsWhere to find Smita Ojha:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smitao/Where to find Heidi Williams:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiwilliams1/ Website: https://www.joinwest.org/Where to find Karen Ko:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenko26/ -
Tamar Bercovici is the VP of Engineering at Box where she leads the Core Platform team in scaling the foundational platform for the Box Content Cloud. In her 13 years at Box, she scaled the cloud content management and file-sharing service to handle millions of queries per second searching hundreds of billions of records. Named one of Forbes Top 50 Women in Tech 2018, Tamar also ranked #1 on Okta and Business Insider's Tech Up and Comers list 2019. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Technion Israel Institute of Technology and a technology patent for updating data in cloud computing systems.
In this episode we discuss:
The scope and responsibilities expected from a manager to a vice president
The pros & cons of having a long history at one company
How to create space for new voices on a team and influence team culture
The parallels between managing and parenting
Leading ambiguous, complex projects and managing risk
How to be ready for opportunities when they arise
Additional Resources:
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team By Patrick Lencioni
Where to find Tamar Bercovici:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamarbercovici/
Where to find Heidi Williams:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiwilliams1/ Website: https://www.joinwest.org/Where to find Karen Ko:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenko26/ -
A. J. Oxendine is the Tech Lead and Staff Software Engineer for the Home Feed product at Pinterest. She enjoys the creative process of building new things, figuring out how they work, and how she can make them better. This passion has led her to study music composition, art, graphic design. and now, software engineering.
In this episode, we discuss:
AJ's nontraditional path from design to engineering Thoughts on IC vs management Skills and mindset shifts from Senior to Staff Engineer Tips on gaining visibility for your work Expanding and refining your brand as your role evolves Thoughts on navigating diversity, intersectionality, and tech Maintaining mentoring relationshipsAdditional Resources:
Pinterest Apprenticeship ProgramsWhere to find A.J. Oxendine:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirahoxendine/
Where to find Karen Ko:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenko26/
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Joy Ebertz is a Principal Software Engineer, prolific blogger, avid ultrarunner, and an advocate for increasing the number of women and minorities in Computer Science. At Split, Joy establishes technical direction for their backend team. Prior to Split, she worked at Box. At both Split and Box, Joy lead efforts around splitting monoliths into microservices, revamping authentication and authorization frameworks, creating REST API standards, audit logging and more. In addition to designing software and writing code, Joy shares her learnings through her blog (which has 2.7k followers on Medium), and is often invited to speak at conferences such as LeadDev and WWCode. In her free time, she does a lot of traveling, reading, and running ridiculously long distances (mostly on trails).
In this episode, we discuss:
How different size companies played a factor in Joy's career journey The value of understanding your workstyle and motivations Why she left people management The power of written and spoken communication What most people get wrong about influencing others Networking tips for introvertsAdditional Resources:
There and Back Again: Why I Entered & Left Management - Presentation by Joy Ebertz Why It's So Hard to Become a Staff Engineer - Medium blog post by Joy EbertzWhere to find Joy Ebertz:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joyebertz/
Medium: https://jkebertz.medium.com/
Where to find Heidi Williams:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiwilliams1/
Website: https://www.joinwest.org/
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Welcome to the trailer episode of Engineer Your Career, brought to you by WEST, a learning community that empowers women technologists through mentorship. Through this podcast, we’ll explore the different paths leaders have taken to grow their tech leadership, develop their influence, and gain insights from top women leaders in the field. Hosted by Karen Ko and Heidi Williams.
