The Unfiltered Engineer

Vishakha Motwani
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Everything out there feels AI-generated — the advice, the posts, the career tips, half the internet. This show is the opposite. The Unfiltered Engineer is honest conversations with experienced software engineers, for engineers trying to navigate this industry right now. Real people with real mileage — decades at big companies, leaps into startups, pivots into AI, climbs into leadership — talking about how this career actually works. Every episode asks what engineers are actually wondering: How did you get there? What did it cost? What's changed? What would you tell someone in the middle of it right now? No scripts. No rehearsed answers. No LinkedIn polish. Hosted by Vishakha — a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it herself. She started this show because the conversations she needed weren't happening anywhere public. So she's having them here.

  1. 3d ago

    Ep 12: Interviewing in 2026 (Senior and Staff) feat. Amruta Akut

    Amruta Akut started preparing for interviews in late May. By mid-July she had multiple offers. She says she practiced fewer than five system designs. One company quizzed her on 12th grade probability. Amruta is a software engineer with 15+ years of experience across Dassault Systèmes, Oracle, Roku, and Walmart, and she recently joined Zoox. I worked with her at Dassault. She went through this market in 2024 and again in 2026, and she tells me how different the two were. In this one: What has changed in interviews between 2024 and nowHow she prepared her behavioral stories, and why the most recent project isn’t always the right oneWhat interviewers ask once you say “I’d add a message queue”The rounds she didn’t see comingHow she used AI to prepareCold applications versus networking, and what she says mattered mostHow to answer the “how do you use AI?” questionAmruta’s recommendation: the Ryan Peterman show. If you have an interview coming up, this one’s for you. I’m Vish, a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it myself. I started this show because the conversations I needed weren’t happening anywhere public. Chapters 00:00 Meet Amruta Akut and her path to Zoox 02:26 Why she started searching and how quickly offers arrived 04:27 What AI changed in engineering interviews 06:31 Behavioral interviews and telling stronger project stories 10:47 Building a realistic preparation plan for frontend roles 17:04 How to handle coding problems under interview pressure 22:34 Why senior and staff interviews reward technical depth 28:04 Using AI for system design practice and interview prep 32:30 Unexpected interview rounds and level-specific expectations 37:34 AI-enabled interviews are still a mix 39:02 How to talk about your practical use of AI 43:21 Cold applications, networking, resume quality, and timing 48:03 Amruta’s final advice and recommended listening #softwareengineer #techcareers #interviewprep #jobsearch #engineeringcareers

  2. Oct 22

    Ep 11: Cloud Native Observability at Hyperscale feat. Monalisha Singh

    For ten minutes, Mona’s team couldn’t see what was happening in a whole region. The component that sends out the health data had gone down itself, because it couldn’t handle the scale. They called it blackout mode. Monalisha Singh is a Lead Engineer at NetApp with more than 11 years of experience building observability for hyperscale products in cloud native environments. She has a master’s in computer engineering from UMass Lowell and mentors the next generation of women in tech. In this one: Why observability gets treated as a checkbox, and what that costsThe price of data you didn’t need to collectWhat changes when your output stops being your own codeWhere AI goes wrong when it doesn’t have the contextIf you build or run anything in the cloud, this one’s for you. I’m Vish, a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it myself. I started this show because the conversations I needed weren’t happening anywhere public. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Mona Singh and episode overview 01:38 What is observability and why is it crucial from day one 03:19 Telemetry in POC versus full-scale production 04:26 Mona's role in observability and engineering 06:00 Key metrics in cloud native back end systems 07:41 Challenges of scaling in cloud native environments 10:05 Proactive monitoring and failure anticipation 11:30 Systems thinking and designing for failure modes 14:12 Feedback loops and continuous improvement in observability 23:33 Nightmares of hyperscale observability and lessons learned 33:40 AI's role in system monitoring and its limitations 36:38 Key takeaways: observability as a foundational practice #softwareengineer #techcareers #observability #cloudnative #devops #theunfilteredengineer

  3. Oct 19 ·  Bonus

    Bonus: Is a Conference Worth It? (LDX3 and WeAreDevelopers)

    Bonus: Is a Conference Worth It? (LDX3 and WeAreDevelopers) A stranger at a bus stop asked me if three days at a conference would be worth taking time off work. I was on my way to one. So here’s a short bonus episode on the two conferences I attended, LDX3 in New York and WeAreDevelopers in San Jose, so you can decide for yourself. In this one: How I got in: I hosted sessions at LDX3 (my own talk wasn’t accepted), and I volunteered at WeAreDevelopers after Kate, from episode 2, told me about itThe logistics: tickets, travel, where to stay, and how to save moneyWhich conference’s app made it easy to set up meetings, and which one made it hardWhat each day felt like: two stages versus eight to ten, lines for food, and workshops that only run two hoursWhy I’d pick one good conversation over a talk I can watch laterWhen the expo hall is worth your timeWhat I noticed sitting through the talks: I’m more caught up than I feltThe books I picked up from authors signing at LDX3: The Software Engineer’s Guidebook by Gergely Orosz and The Manager’s Path by Camille FournierGot a question about either conference? Leave it in the comments or send me a DM. I’m Vish, a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it myself. I started this show because the conversations I needed weren’t happening anywhere public. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and purpose of the episode 02:04 How Vishakha found and chose her conferences 04:06 Using conference apps for scheduling and meetings 06:07 Food arrangements and logistics at conferences 07:08 Volunteering and its impact on conference experience 08:01 Challenges of multiple stages and sessions 09:12 Balancing talks, networking, and energy levels 10:06 Accessing recorded talks and content after the conference 11:19 Industry insights and personal takeaways 12:34 Final thoughts and encouragement to attend conferences #softwareengineer #techcareers #LDX3 #WeAreDevelopers #techconferences

  4. Oct 15

    Ep 10: Permission to Be New (Reflection)

    I said I’d trust myself more. A weak promise, honestly. Then I went to a conference talk on loop engineering and inference engineering. I understood the terms. I walked out feeling more behind than when I walked in. This is my second solo reflection. Every fifth episode I listen back, and this time I start by checking what I promised after episode 5. I did most of it. One I’m still working on, and I say which. Then Sumit, Kshitij, Joy, and Raj: what I’m changing because of each, and where I’d push back. In this one: The job search metric I dropped because it was stressing me outThe thing I measure on this podcast now. Why I stopped dumping my thoughts into AI to write my postsThe system design mistake I keep making: I assumed every requirement was fixed, and it was a wish listWhy “think about how it breaks” is a system design skill tooWhy I stopped trying to keep up with everythingWhat I’m reading, what I’m watching, and how I switch offI’m Vish, a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it myself. I started this show because the conversations I needed weren’t happening anywhere public. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to personal reflections and episode goals 01:51 Trusting myself more through interview experiences 03:58 Shifting impact measurement to podcast views 06:03 Writing thoughts without AI to build confidence 07:50 Questions to ask in system design interviews 10:01 The value of visual sketch noting in interviews 12:08 Understanding system failure and design for robustness 13:52 Building trust and understanding customer needs 16:01 Managing learning and staying current without overwhelm 17:47 The importance of being a beginner and enjoying the process 19:52 Personal growth, reading Bhagavad Gita, and relaxation tips #softwareengineer #techcareers #reflection #engineeringcareers #careergrowth #theunfilteredengineer

  5. Oct 8

    Ep 9: Think How It Breaks feat. Rajakumaran Gowthaman

    A developer asks how to make it work. QA asks how it breaks. Rajakumaran Gowthaman has spent his career on the second question, from QA and test automation at Cisco and Avaya to Principal Engineer in Cloud Security at Palo Alto Networks. In episode nine, I sit down with Rajakumaran Gowthaman, a Principal Engineer in Cloud Security at Palo Alto Networks. He spent nearly five years there moving from Senior QA Engineer to Principal, after building his foundation in QA and test automation at Cisco and Avaya. Raj and I did an internship together out of Northeastern, and this was his first podcast. We talk about what QA taught him that a straight developer path wouldn't have, and how that thinking shows up in cloud security today: A developer asks how to make it work. QA asks how it breaks. Why that split mattersWhy he widened his scope past test cases, to architecture, deployment, and what a release does to the customerWhat it's like to test a SaaS product in a setup where a failure could be anywhere, across microservices, distributed systems, and Kubernetes podsWhat a Principal Engineer in cloud security worries about day to day: is the infrastructure ready for what we're about to roll outHow AI changed his work, from builds that took weeks now taking days to predictive failure analysis, and the trap of assuming the AI must be rightWhy he thinks jobs are evolving, not disappearingHis one ask of developers: bring QA in at the design phase, not after development is doneHis advice for anyone second-guessing themselves: don't self doubtRaj's recommendations: he follows AI creators on Instagram to stay current, including @the.datascience.gal (https://www.instagram.com/the.datascience.gal) and @vaibhavsisinty (https://www.instagram.com/vaibhavsisinty), plus @vee_daily19 for job search content (https://www.instagram.com/vee_daily19). To learn and experiment with different models, he suggests Hugging Face's LLM course: https://huggingface.co/learn/llm-course/en/chapter1/1 He also listens to audiobooks and podcasts on tech, spirituality, and mental strength. If you've ever shipped something and found out later how it broke, this one's for you. I'm Vish, a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it myself. I started this show because the conversations I needed weren't happening anywhere public. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Raj and his career journey 01:40 Transition from QA to principal engineer in cloud security 04:14 Systems thinking in testing and security 06:38 Testing in complex cloud environments 09:22 Impact of AI and automation on QA 12:11 Failure analysis and predictive tools 15:50 Understanding testing harnesses 19:24 QA as a vital career path 25:19 Day-to-day security concerns in cloud infrastructure 29:56 Measuring success in deployment 34:33 Iterative testing and automation in stages 37:26 Evolution of QA from manual to AI-driven 40:23 Collaboration between development and QA 41:19 Key takeaways from the discussion #softwareengineer #techcareers #qa #cloudsecurity #engineeringcareers

  6. Oct 1

    Ep 8: Sketch Before You Code feat. Joy (Johanna Mesa Ramos)

    In episode eight, I sit down with Joy, a senior software engineer, tech lead, digital artist, lifter, and professional anime binger. She finds joy in figuring out how complex things work, whether that's software, anatomy, or building a physique. We talk about visual thinking as a skill, not as art, as a technical tool. Why drawing a problem out, even a messy scribble, surfaces gaps that talking through it never doesThe rubber duck technique, but visual, and why a drawing gives people something to literally point at instead of relying on memoryThe real test for whether you actually understand your own solution, can you explain it to someone non-technicalWhy there's no one correct way to think or problem solve, and what happens when you try to force your process onto someone wired differentlyHow to build visual thinking as a skill, even if it's never come naturally to youJoy's recommendations: Huberman Lab, Modern Wisdom, and Diary of a CEO, plus a serious anime habit, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen. If you've ever wished you could explain a technical decision more clearly, to your team or to yourself, this one's for you. I'm Vish, a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it myself. I started this show because the conversations I needed weren't happening anywhere public. #softwareengineer #techcareers #visualthinking #engineeringcareers #communication Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Joy and Visual Thinking 03:51 Using Sketching to Clarify Technical Problems 04:47 Vishakha shares how visual cues opened her mind 05:56 The Rubber Duck Technique for Fresh Perspectives 07:52 Drawing as a Problem-Solving Tool 08:20 The concept of supplements versus complete information 10:02 Communicating Visually in Remote Work 12:00 Tools and Simplicity in Visual Thinking 12:09 Using doodling and visual tools to enhance conversations 14:01 Training Yourself in Visual Thinking Skills 15:46 Relaxing the atmosphere in meetings to improve communication 15:58 Explaining Technical Concepts to Non-Technical People 18:06 Abstracting Technical Details for Different Audiences 20:05 The Importance of Clear Communication 20:33 Joy discusses visualization techniques in bodybuilding 22:06 Techniques to Confirm Understanding 23:48 Using Visuals to Organize and Clarify Ideas 25:34 The mind-to-muscle connection and internal visualization 26:01 Integrating Visual Thinking into Daily Problem Solving 28:00 Different Thinking Styles Among Engineers 29:58 Embracing Flexibility in Problem-Solving Approaches 30:05 Verbal cues for effective exercise and muscle engagement 32:01 Getting Started with Visual Thinking as a Beginner 34:01 The Role of Informal Sketching in Daily Life 35:00 The role of mental cues and visualization in injury prevention 35:58 The Power of Visuals as a Supplement, Not a Substitute 39:53 Joy's favorite educational podcasts and YouTube channels 45:31 The impact of visualization on learning complex movements 49:58 Joy's personal routines for decompression and relaxation

  7. Sep 24

    Ep 7: Ask Why, Not Just What feat. Kshitij Saxena

    In episode six, I sit down with Kshitij Saxena, a Senior Product Engineer at epilot in Munich. Before that, he spent nearly four years at NewStore, growing from Software Engineer to Software Engineer II, building systems like an asynchronous message delivery pipeline and a historical order import system on AWS. We talk about the difference between shipping a feature and actually knowing if it worked, and why the best engineers refuse to just take orders: Why a product engineer isn't good at accepting solutions, even when they're handed one, and digs into the why insteadOutput versus outcome, and the exact moment a phone number field taught him the differenceWhy he doesn't just ask why, he asks why now, and what that's taught him about timing and prioritizationWhen AI got good enough to trust running overnight, and when it still makes expensive mistakesWhy almost nothing is a failure if you stop, acknowledge it, and actually reflectKshitij's recommendations: The Vegetarian by Han Kang, and the Huberman Lab podcast. If you've ever shipped something and never checked whether it actually mattered, this one's for you. I'm Vish, a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it myself. I started this show because the conversations I needed weren't happening anywhere public. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Kshitij Saxena and his background 01:19 What is product engineering and how does it differ from traditional software engineering? 02:13 The importance of asking 'why' before building a feature 03:52 Focusing on outcomes rather than just outputs 06:22 Deciding when enough information has been gathered to proceed 08:22 Distinguishing between output and outcome in feature development 09:47 Thinking in problems, not just solutions 11:26 Balancing user feedback, data, and experimentation 14:36 Using metrics to guide product iterations 16:18 The role of experimentation and learning from failure 18:30 Leveraging AI agents and prompt engineering in product work 24:44 From idea to shipped feature: the lifecycle and challenges 28:53 Prioritization, impact, and timing in product development 32:48 Dealing with uncertainty and learning from mistakes 38:26 The importance of asking 'why now' in feature development 42:16 Key takeaways: impact over output and continuous learning #softwareengineer #techcareers #productengineering #engineeringcareers #AI

  8. Sep 17

    Ep 6: Influence without Authority feat. Sumit Mudliar

    In episode six, I sit down with Sumit Mudliar, who leads Customer Success at iceDQ, a role built entirely on influence rather than authority. Before that, he spent years as a software engineer, moving from engineer to his current leadership role. We talk about what influence without authority actually means, and how to get people on board when you can't just tell them what to do: What influence actually means, when I hear the word I still picture Instagram influencers before anything elseWhy listening, not solutions, is the real strategy, meeting people halfway before you tell them what you wantThe moment he got pulled into a room at Morgan Stanley he wasn't technically supposed to be in, and what it taught himWhy avoiding speaking isn't always weakness, sometimes it's giving someone else room to thinkHis book recommendationsIf you've ever had to get buy-in from someone who doesn't report to you, this one's for you. I'm Vish, a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it myself. I started this show because the conversations I needed weren't happening anywhere public. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to influence without authority 02:05 What influence without authority really means in practice 04:06 Sumit's journey from engineer to customer success 05:56 Listening and understanding before proposing solutions 08:08 Building trust through research and expertise 09:59 The importance of empathetic listening and story behind problems 11:58 Prioritizing stakeholder needs and managing expectations 13:54 Influencing without authority in technical decisions 15:52 The role of proof of concept and visual demonstrations 17:51 Aligning solutions with organizational vision and future state 20:01 Changing perspectives: from possessiveness to openness 22:05 Learning from humility and embracing change 24:03 Effective communication with internal teams and stakeholders 26:09 The significance of understanding and addressing priorities 28:03 Handling pushback and resistance in influence 29:53 The importance of continuous research and preparation 32:00 Common mistakes in influence without power 33:48 Leveraging stakeholder priorities for better influence 36:00 Key takeaways: openness, listening, and humility 38:05 Personal habits for disconnecting and recharging #softwareengineer #techcareers #leadership #influence #engineeringcareers

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Everything out there feels AI-generated — the advice, the posts, the career tips, half the internet. This show is the opposite. The Unfiltered Engineer is honest conversations with experienced software engineers, for engineers trying to navigate this industry right now. Real people with real mileage — decades at big companies, leaps into startups, pivots into AI, climbs into leadership — talking about how this career actually works. Every episode asks what engineers are actually wondering: How did you get there? What did it cost? What's changed? What would you tell someone in the middle of it right now? No scripts. No rehearsed answers. No LinkedIn polish. Hosted by Vishakha — a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it herself. She started this show because the conversations she needed weren't happening anywhere public. So she's having them here.

Information

  • Creator
    Vishakha Motwani
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Vishakha Motwani
  • Show Website
    The Unfiltered Engineer