Beyond Coding

Patrick Akil
  • 5.0 (2)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

For software engineers ready to level up. Learn from CTOs, principal engineers, and tech leaders about the skills beyond coding: from technical mastery to product thinking and career growth

  1. Promotions, Salary & Leadership: I Answer Your Toughest Tech Career Questions

    3D AGO

    Promotions, Salary & Leadership: I Answer Your Toughest Tech Career Questions

    You asked, I answered. In this Q&A episode, I tackle the toughest career questions you submitted: from getting promoted when the process feels political, to negotiating salary, to leading projects as an IC. In this episode, we cover: * Holding peers accountable when you're not their manager * Navigating promotions when the process is political or unclear * Increasing your salary with strategic job offers * Building real authority and getting noticed by leadership * Staying relevant in the age of AI without burning out This is for software engineers who want practical strategies to level up their careers, increase their earning potential, and make real impact without the fluff. Join me at React Advanced and Tech Lead Conf in London: https://ti.to/gitnation/react-advanced-london-2025/discount/CODING20 Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:19 - Holding Peers Accountable When Managers Won't Help 00:03:58 - The Surprising Truth About Code "Quality" 00:05:43 - Scaling Accountability Across Large Teams 00:07:50 - When Climbing the Career Ladder Feels Political 00:12:37 - How to Stay Relevant in Tech Without Burning Out 00:14:49 - The Key to Learning Without Feeling Overwhelmed 00:15:18 - The Real Difference for Engineers Working Globally 00:17:44 - What to Do When You Get a Better Job Offer 00:20:51 - Finding Motivation Beyond a Higher Salary 00:21:41 - How to Build Real Credibility and Authority 00:25:31 - The Advice I'd Give My Junior Developer Self 00:29:05 - The Art of Effective Delegation 00:31:47 - Why Delegation Is Really an Act of Trust 00:32:21 - Team Player vs. Individual Star: A False Choice? 00:34:43 - The #1 Personal Development Skill for Engineers 00:37:11 - The Hidden Dangers of Relying on AI Tools 00:40:08 - Is Volunteering at Tech Conferences Worth It? 00:42:50 - My Personal Struggle with Embracing Change 00:45:32 - The Career "Regret" I Don't Actually Regret 00:46:45 - How to Stay Productive While Dealing with Grief 00:49:08 - My Process for Finding Great Podcast Guests 00:50:48 - The Secret to Making Guests Feel Comfortable 00:52:06 - How Podcasting Transformed My Communication Skills 00:53:35 - Handling Guarded or Difficult Podcast Guests 00:56:11 - Final Thoughts & How to Support the Channel Got questions for the next Q&A? Drop them in the comments 👇 #SoftwareEngineering #CareerGrowth #TechLeadership

    57 min
  2. What Separates Good Engineers from Great Ones

    OCT 22

    What Separates Good Engineers from Great Ones

    What's the real difference between a good software engineer and a truly great one? It’s more than just coding skill. It's a specific mindset, a disciplined approach to technology, and a deep understanding of core principles. This is the roadmap to leveling up your career. In this conversation with Sander Mak, Director of Technology at Picnic, we discuss the methods they use to train world-class engineers. You will learn: The "under the hood" knowledge that truly matters. Why great engineers often choose "boring," proven technology. The critical transition from being a coder to a product-focused engineer. The most common pitfall that holds good developers back. If you're a software developer looking to move beyond "good enough" and achieve greatness in your craft, this is the episode for you. Connect with Sander: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandermak Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:30 - Building Picnic's Tech Academy for New Engineers 00:04:37 - The Key Mindset of a Successful Junior Engineer 00:08:01 - A Look Inside the Engineering Training Curriculum 00:12:19 - The Common Pitfall of Copying Without Understanding 00:14:10 - How Deep "Under the Hood" Knowledge Should Go 00:17:41 - Why Great Engineers Value "Boring" Technology 00:21:44 - Improving Developer Experience and Team Productivity 00:30:02 - The Transition from Coder to Product Engineer 00:34:18 - Key Advice for Self-Taught Developers 00:35:41 - Using AI for Learning vs. for Code Generation #SoftwareEngineering #DeveloperCareer #Coding

    38 min
  3. From 6 Engineers to 2: Why Product and Engineering Are Merging

    OCT 15

    From 6 Engineers to 2: Why Product and Engineering Are Merging

    What if the standard 6-person software team is now obsolete? AI tooling isn't just a productivity booster; it's fundamentally blurring the lines between product and engineering, enabling smaller, more powerful teams to achieve what once took an entire department. We're joined by Kate Ivanova, a Product Manager with years of experience building AI products at Big Tech companies, to discuss this tectonic shift. She explains why the traditional handoff between disciplines is breaking down and what the new, merged "product-engineer" role looks like. In this episode, we cover: - Why AI enables smaller teams to have a massive impact - The merging roles of Product, Engineering, and Design - What skills make you one of the indispensable "2 engineers" - How to structure and manage a hyper-efficient, AI-native team This is a must-watch for founders building lean companies, and for engineers and PMs who want to understand their evolving role in the age of AI. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:57 - Are Agile Processes Obsolete in the Age of AI? 00:02:46 - Why Product Managers Are Redefining Team Processes 00:04:35 - The Mindset You Need for AI Product Development 00:07:54 - How AI Is Forcing Product and Engineering Closer Together 00:11:26 - Using AI as Your Personal Feedback Co-Pilot 00:15:23 - The Critical Mistake to Avoid When Using AI for Product 00:20:45 - The Ideal AI Product Team Composition of the Future 00:26:10 - The New Expectations for Software Engineers in the AI Era 00:32:05 - A Better Way to Manage Tech Debt and Developer Happiness 00:34:46 - What Truly Makes Developers Happy at Work 00:37:43 - Co-Creating a Vision That Actually Motivates Your Team 00:40:59 - How to Receive Tough Feedback as a Growth Opportunity 00:45:37 - The Painful Decision to Kill a Failing Project 00:48:44 - The Most Important Skill for the AI Era

    49 min
  4. How Hackathons Make You a Better Software Engineer

    OCT 8

    How Hackathons Make You a Better Software Engineer

    What if you could turn a weekend project into a core product feature at a major tech company? We sit down with Behrouz Pooladrak, a software engineer and hackathon legend at Booking.com, to uncover how these intense competitions can fast-track your skills, career, and impact. He shares the mindset and strategies that took his ideas from a one-day build to a real-world product used by millions. In this episode, we cover: How to treat your hackathon project like a mini-startup to guarantee success. The surprising skills you gain from short-term projects that your daily job can't teach you. How companies like Booking.com use hackathons to innovate and train new talent. Why personal projects are the secret weapon for career growth. This episode is for any software engineer looking to distinguish themselves, learn new technologies rapidly, and make a real impact in the tech industry. Timestamps: 00:00:49 - The Mindset of a Prolific Builder00:02:42 - How AI Helps You Build an MVP in One Day00:06:26 - Why This Engineer is a Hackathon "Living Legend"00:07:41 - From Hackathon Idea to Real AI Product00:11:42 - The Secret to Winning: Treat it Like a Startup00:17:22 - How Booking.com Onboards Juniors with a 4-Week Hackathon00:20:25 - Why We Still Need Junior Engineers in the Age of AI00:26:57 - The #1 Struggle Teams Face in Hackathons00:31:04 - The Real Reason to Join a Hackathon (It’s Not the Prize)00:35:46 - How to Start and Finish Your Personal Projects00:40:12 - The Feedback Loop Between Your Job and Hobby Projects #SoftwareEngineering #Hackathon #CareerGrowth

    42 min
  5. AI Startup CEO Reveals What Really Kills AI Projects

    OCT 1

    AI Startup CEO Reveals What Really Kills AI Projects

    What if the biggest obstacles to AI innovation aren't what you think? Deeploy CEO Maarten Stolk shares his controversial but effective strategies for building successful AI products and ecosystems, challenging the common wisdom around bottom-up initiatives and regulation. In this episode, we cover: Why bottom-up initiatives fail without strong top-down vision. The surprising benefits of the EU's AI Act for innovation. How to build a thriving AI ecosystem from the ground up. The single most important metric for AI observability. This conversation is for tech leaders, founders, and engineers who want to move beyond AI experiments and build real-world, production-ready systems. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:45 - Why Maarten Started a Dutch AI Hub 00:02:15 - The "Flywheel" Effect Crucial for AI Success 00:04:42 - The Hard Truth: Why the Netherlands is Lagging in AI 00:07:52 - A Controversial Take: The EU AI Act is Actually Good for Everyone 00:11:26 - The Real Bottleneck to Innovation Isn't Regulation 00:14:25 - From POC to Production: Why Top-Down Vision is Non-Negotiable 00:17:13 - A Wake-Up Call for Inexperienced Leadership Teams 00:20:30 - How Winning Companies Use AI to Dominate Their Market 00:23:44 - The Right Way to Learn From Your Competitors 00:27:30 - Maarten Outsourced Core Development to an AI Company 00:31:59 - The #1 Metric You Must Track for AI Observability 00:36:03 - Open-Source vs. Closed-Source: Which AI Model Will Win? 00:40:23 - The Inevitable Crisis That Will Force Innovation 00:42:19 - The Power of Having a Long-Term Personal Vision #AIStrategy #TechLeadership #Innovation

    44 min
  6. The Graph Problem Most Developers Don't Know They Have

    SEP 25

    The Graph Problem Most Developers Don't Know They Have

    As a developer, you're trained to think in rows and tables. But what if that's the exact reason you're missing the most powerful connections in your data? There's a fundamental "Graph Problem" hiding in plain sight in almost every application, and once you see it, you'll wonder how you ever missed it. In this episode, we reveal this "obvious" secret and show you how to leverage it to build smarter, more accurate, and context-aware AI. In this episode/video, we cover: ​The "Graph Problem" explained: Why you have more graph problems than you think.​Why basic RAG isn't enough, and how Graph RAG provides the context your AI is missing.​How to uncover the hidden relationships in your unstructured data and build a knowledge graph.​Real-world examples (from Amazon to your own notes) that reveal the graph structure all around you.​The #1 reason knowledge graph projects fail and how to avoid it.This conversation is for any developer who feels their projects are hitting a wall. If you're ready for the "aha!" moment that will change how you look at data forever, this episode is for you. Timestamps:00:00:00 - Intro00:00:39 - From Unstructured Data to a Knowledge Graph00:02:00 - The Experiment: What Happens When You Break a Knowledge Graph?00:05:41 - What Are Ontologies in the Graph World?00:07:35 - The Graph Problem You Didn't Know You Had00:09:09 - Why Graphs Are So Good for GenAI Context00:10:10 - The Best Way to Create Vector Embeddings for Graphs00:12:50 - Using Graphs to Solve Extreme Corporate Complexity00:17:14 - Real-World Problems That Are Actually Graph Problems00:19:31 - How to Find The Right Expert in Your Company00:23:33 - The Rise of Federated RAG Agents00:25:31 - The #1 Reason Knowledge Graph Projects Fail00:29:37 - A Standard Query Language for Graphs (GQL)00:32:53 - Why Teams Are Moving From RAG to Graph RAG00:34:34 - Should Your Company Build Its Own AI Assistant?00:38:28 - The "Fear of Missing Out" Driving Bad AI Projects00:40:21 - The Dangers of Chaotic vs. Laser-Focused Company Priorities00:44:05 - Why Gantt Charts Don't Work for Software00:47:08 - How Top Engineers Actually Learn New Technologies Guests on this podcast express their own views and do not represent their employers. #GraphDatabase #KnowledgeGraph #SoftwareArchitecture

    55 min
  7. How Deepfakes are Evolving (And What You NEED to Know)

    SEP 17

    How Deepfakes are Evolving (And What You NEED to Know)

    It takes just three seconds for AI to steal your voice and impersonate you in a way no one can detect. How can you protect yourself, your family, and your finances when seeing and hearing is no longer believing? In this episode, deepfake expert Parya Lotfi reveals the shocking reality of AI-driven scams, from fraudulent bank transfers to fake kidnapping calls. We uncover how criminals operate and what you can do to spot the lies before it's too late. In this episode/video, we cover: - How criminals use 3-second voice clones for scams - The shocking story of a North Korean deepfake spy - Why facial and voice ID are no longer secure - How to use AI to detect other AI fakes This video is for anyone who wants to understand the real-world dangers of deepfake technology and learn actionable steps to protect themselves in our new "fake reality." Connect with Parya: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paryalotfi Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:35 - The Scary Reality of AI-Generated Videos 00:02:32 - The Dangerous Side of Facial & Voice Biometrics 00:03:45 - The Disturbing Reality of Voice Cloning Scams 00:06:46 - How to Use AI to Catch AI-Generated Fakes 00:10:11 - Solving AI's "Black Box" Problem with Explainability 00:12:10 - The Different Types of Deepfakes Criminals Use 00:14:15 - How Deepfakes Are Used to Launder Millions From Banks 00:18:18 - Inside the Darknet's "Deepfake-as-a-Service" Business 00:22:32 - Why Banning Deepfake Technology Is Impossible 00:24:58 - How Deepfakes Are Being Weaponized in Global Conflicts 00:27:30 - Red Teaming: How to Think Like a Deepfake Criminal 00:29:09 - The North Korean Spy Who Used a Deepfake to Get a Job 00:31:54 - The Ultimate Goal: A Deepfake Detector for Everyone 00:37:23 - The Future That Scares Me: AGI and Self-Aware Robots 00:44:33 - The Journey of Building a Deepfake Detection Company 00:47:42 - The Surprising Reason Deepfake Detection Is So Hard 00:54:44 - Who Is Responsible When You Get Scammed by a Deepfake? 00:58:25 - The Rise of AI Influencers and Their Tragic Consequences #Deepfake #Cybersecurity #ArtificialIntelligence

    1h 3m
  8. From Pixels to Tokens: UX Is Not Enough Anymore

    SEP 10

    From Pixels to Tokens: UX Is Not Enough Anymore

    What does it take to build AI features at the scale of Microsoft Copilot? Senior Product Manager Stéphanie Visser reveals the massive shifts in product development, from focusing on pixels to tokens and embracing a culture of rapid, data-driven experimentation. Learn how the roles of PMs, engineers, and scientists are evolving and what it takes to succeed. In this episode, we cover: The shift from UX-focused products to output-quality-focused AI.How to run experiments and decide when an AI feature is ready to ship.The changing roles and expectations for PMs, engineers, and data scientists.Building trust and a strong product culture in a distributed AI team. This episode is a must-watch for product managers, engineers, and tech leaders looking to adapt their processes for the age of AI and accelerate their delivery cycles. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - How Microsoft Builds AI Features 00:00:49 - The #1 Thing That Changed for Product Managers 01:28 - From Pixels to Tokens: The AI Product Shift 02:58 - Why AI Is All About Output Quality, Not UX 04:46 - When Is an AI Feature "Good Enough" to Ship? 06:45 - The "Non-Embarrassment Bar" for Releasing AI 09:07 - Why Old User Feedback Methods Don't Work for AI 12:28 - The New Expectations for Software Engineers in AI 15:33 - When to Involve Engineers in the Product Process 17:43 - How Microsoft Structures Its AI Product Teams 20:40 - Why 3-Month Planning Is Obsolete in the AI Era 22:42 - How to Remove Bias From Your Product Decisions 25:36 - Balancing Data vs. User Intuition in AI 27:44 - The Biggest Bottleneck in AI Experimentation 31:12 - How to Define the Right Metrics for Your AI Product 33:39 - Building Trust and Culture in a Remote Team 37:47 - The Most Underrated Skill for Product Managers 40:57 - How to Cultivate a Strong Product Culture 44:32 - The AI Tools a Microsoft PM Actually Uses 46:29 - How to Manage the Expanding Scope of the PM Role Connect with Stéphanie Visser: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanievisser Connect with Patrick Akil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-akil https://twitter.com/PatrickAkil_ Sponsors: Xebia - https://xebia.com #ProductManagement #AI #Microsoft

    48 min
See All (223)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

For software engineers ready to level up. Learn from CTOs, principal engineers, and tech leaders about the skills beyond coding: from technical mastery to product thinking and career growth

Information

  • Creator
    Patrick Akil
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2025
  • Episodes
    223
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Patrick Akil
  • Show Website
    Beyond Coding

You Might Also Like