The Unfiltered Engineer

Vishakha Motwani

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.

Episodes

  1. 6d ago

    Ep 1: Can AI Take This? feat. Eduardo Aparicio Cardenes

    Not advice. Not a script. Just engineers talking honestly about how this career goes. In episode one, I sit down with Eduardo Aparicio Cardenes — the first person I asked to be on this show, and someone who's been mentoring me through my own job search. He's spent 18+ years in frontend development, currently shaping frontend architecture across the Transactions Tribe at Super, where the platform handles €300M+ in monthly deposits. He's also founder of DreamMakerFactory, co-founder of InnerVirtuoso, and one of ADPList's top 10 frontend mentors among 30,000+. We talk about how the software engineer's role has changed — and what it's becoming: - The two skills that haven't changed in two decades - What AI actually did to code review workload - Who's accountable when AI writes the code - Technical debt in the AI era - What's replacing the ticket-taker role - What interviews measure vs. what the job actually is - How the next generation of engineers will learn - Eduardo's book recommendations for engineers Eduardo's recommendations: Never Split the Difference (Chris Voss) · The Staff Engineer's Path · The Elegant Puzzle · The 80/20 Principle Newsletter & podcast: thisweekinreact.com & Dan Neciu's podcast 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 #AI #frontend #engineeringcareers

About

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.