Level-up Engineering Apex Lab

Peter Anderton, Founder of Internal Alignment, shares actionable tips to become a better leader by creating alignment, fighting your own ego, improving your listening skills and appreciating the differences within your team.
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In this interview we're covering:
Strategies for leadersCreating true diversity comes down to truly appreciating differences  Presenting constructive criticismMore tips for leadersCommon mistakes
Excerpt from the interview:
"A lot of people talk about leadership as if there’s a magic tool that’ll make everything fall into place. Here’s a secret: it doesn’t exist. In fact, looking for another tool or another technique to solve all of our management problems just creates even more confusion for teams. 
We need to stop looking for the secret tool and realize that leadership is about mindset. It isn’t a hat you put on when you come into work; it’s the way you think. Until leaders fully grasp this rule, attentive listening might remain a challenge. Leaders will probably think they’re great listeners, but their teams would say otherwise."

Level-up your software engineer career development through other professionals’ stories: meet Max Rudman, CEO of Prodly, who went from IC to CEO over the years and has even founded a startup of his own. He shares interesting details about his career development and gives valuable advice to people interested in a similar path.
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In this interview we're covering:
Max’s career development Skills for software engineering career developmentChoosing between different opportunities Is being CEO for everyone?Advice for aspiring managersAdvice for aspiring foundersChallenges of CEOsLegacy aims
Excerpt from the interview:
"Both in entrepreneurship and product management, you have to say no to a lot more things than you say yes to. How to decide between a yes and a no boils down to what you’re focusing on: what kind of customers you’re serving or what problems you’re trying to solve. Based on this, you can differentiate between opportunities and see what would make your solution stand out in the market. At the beginning of the founding journey, your resources are usually very limited, so you’ll have to be very picky about what you say yes to."

Interview with Varun Mohan, CEO & Co-Founder of Exafunction and Codeium. He gives valuable insights on the considerations of AI deployment in the enterprise and shares his own thoughts and predictions on what the future holds for these models.
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In this interview we're covering:
Considerations of AI deploymentBenefits of deploying AI in the enterpriseConcerns regarding AI deploymentTypical mistakes when deploying AI
Excerpt from the interview:
"When I think about the last 40 years, there hasn’t been a sparsity of software in the world; there are just more and more software companies providing more and more value. Every ten years, we’re having larger IPOs, and more companies are building systems that can automate different parts of enterprises. There’s more software that can be consumed and generated across companies, but that doesn’t reduce the need for employees. It’ll just increase the value businesses can provide. 
Perhaps in the future, AI systems are going to understand more and more company-wide context over time, which is a big gap in their knowledge currently. When they’re able to piece together more information from your systems, your documents in the cloud and your other products, they’ll aid humans to be even more productive and perhaps even enable stronger cross-functional collaboration."

Interview with Dan Lines, CPO and Co-Founder of LinearB. He talks about the importance of representing engineering teams and gives valuable advice on how to start communicating your team’s impact.
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In this interview we're covering:
The importance of communicating your engineering team’s impact Tips to get started on representing your engineersCommunication channels to useTypical mistakesStorytime: Founding LinearB to track KPIs
Excerpt from the interview:
"We’re in the golden era of engineering leadership. I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to be VP of Engineering or a manager or director. The reason is, a lot of companies are product-focused, and software is the key to their success - when you’re an engineering leader in that environment, the business is relying on your expertise a lot.
There’s a stereotype that executives tell engineering teams what they want, and they just build it without any desire to be at board meetings and have a say in business-level goals. That’s not the case anymore.
It’s becoming more and more expected from engineering leaders to be actively involved in business discussions, as they drive one of the most impactful and expensive departments of the company. Being part of these conversations also helps tech leaders allocate their engineering resources more effectively."

Interview with Joey Wilhelm, Security Engineer at Pinwheel. He talks about the benefits of open source software and gives great advice for companies who want to join the open source community.
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In this interview we're covering:
Getting to know open sourceBenefits of open source softwareOpen source vs. proprietary software from a security perspectiveCommon mistakes of releasing open source software Storytime: Becoming an open source advocateOpen source at Pinwheel
Excerpt from the interview:
"There’s a common misconception about contributing to open source projects. A lot of people will say that it’s just altruism; you’re expected to work on projects for free. However, that’s not entirely true. 
By being active in the open source community, you’re building a public portfolio - even if you don’t work for prestigious companies like Google or Microsoft, you can contribute to their products, which improves your software engineer resume. As you build more, you’ll build an impressive library of contributions, which will help you stand out from the crowd in any job application. "

Interview with Yaron Perlman, author of the book DevStreams: Scaling Software Delivery. Naturally. He talks about the main ideas of DevStreams - a new paradigm for scaling software delivery.
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In this interview we're covering:
Defining DevStreamsMain ideas of the book DevStreamsDevStream’s impactWhat type of companies benefit most from DevStreamsImplementing DevStreams Common objections regarding DevStreams
Excerpt from the interview:
"After publishing the book, some VPs told me they liked the concept, but didn’t find it realistic to have streams where everyone does everything proficiently. My answer is, how do you know? Have you tried it?
When you start experimenting with the paradigm, you'll see that it’s not that far-fetched. Especially with today’s technological advancements in AI, it’s easier to pick up new skills than it was a year ago. We have so many tools available to make our work more effective, and our technology landscape is changing rapidly that it really merits a new paradigm. "