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Data & Dev with Jon and Mel

Data & Dev with Jon and Mel

By Data & Dev with Jon and Mel

Two friends from elementary school kick off this tech podcast (because we need another one), aimed primarily at career changers seeking to level up quickly in the field of tech, but in the midst of the responsibilities of adult life.

Jon is an academic turned start-up guy with Data Science expertise.

Melissa is a mid-life career changer, pursuing a second career as a Software Engineer first via a Bootcamp and currently as a CS Master's student at UPenn.

Headed your way:

Tech concepts explained so a 10-year-old can understand and lots of lame analogies.

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Currently playing episode

S2E3: Tim Chung - Getting into Data Scientist

Data & Dev with Jon and MelSep 06, 2022

00:00
01:23:19
S3:E1 - Chats on Technology 1
Mar 12, 202453:33
Season 3 Teaser

Season 3 Teaser

What to expect from Season 3 of Data and Dev!

Mar 12, 202401:29
S2E15: Role-specific Advice - A Compilation
Jul 04, 202317:03
S2E14: Advice for starting out - A Compilation
Jun 27, 202319:05
S2E13: Worst Work Mistake - A Compilation
Jun 20, 202311:12
S2E12: How to Handle Interview Nerves - A Compilation
Jun 13, 202323:16
S2E11: BONUS EPISODE: Daniel Vassallo -- Tech Success at Amazon Leads to Pursuit of Small Bets
Jan 03, 202301:23:08
S2E10: Career Path to Principal Architect - A Convo with Kexin Xie of Salesforce
Dec 23, 202201:25:41
S2E9: Mystery Guests -- Mel and Jon

S2E9: Mystery Guests -- Mel and Jon

Get to know your podcast hosts.  After interviewing a dozen or so amazing technologists, Jon and I figured it might be good to interview each other!  We flip the script, and ask each other questions about how we got into tech.  Hands down, being the interviewer is far easier than being the interviewee.

Tune in for:

Jon
College and getting into ML
Microsoft, Krux, and Salesforce
Leading ML at Spectrum Labs
Closing Questions for Jon

Mel
From Wharton to MCIT
Flexibility in contracting in industry
Finding your own path and pace
Closing questions

Nov 29, 202201:16:49
S2E8: Nikhil Maddirala - Product Manager at Meta

S2E8: Nikhil Maddirala - Product Manager at Meta

Nikhil pursued a career in Product Management through the route of an MBA.  In this conversation we talk about whether an MBA is required for a PM career, traits that make for a good PM, and more.  Listen in to hear:

Life at Adobe
Role of Product Manager
Squashing Bugs vs New Features
PM/Eng org structure
Decision making
Traits for a PM
Is an MBA required?
Interview advice
Product Manager vs. Project Manager
What does a PM career path look like?

Connect with Nikhil via LinkedIn

--------------------------

Notes from Nikhil on Compensation:

"Couple of notes on the compensation figures. Firstly, the numbers on  levels.fyi are heavily skewed towards SF Bay Area where salaries are  much higher than the rest of the USA. Secondly, these numbers refer to  total compensation, which includes both fixed compensation (i.e. base  salary) and variable compensation (i.e. bonus and equity). With each  increasing level of seniority, variable compensation accounts for a  larger percentage of total compensation. At my level at Meta variable  comp is roughly 40% of my total comp, at the manager level it is roughly  60%, and at the director level and above variable comp is 80%+ of total  comp. Variable compensation varies significantly based on individual  performance, the company's performance, and overall stock market  performance. For example, in the first half of 2022 Meta's stock value  dropped by over 50%, leading to a significant decrease in employee  compensation across the board."

Nov 15, 202201:39:06
S2E7: Rocco Basalmo: A Career in Game and Web Design
Nov 01, 202201:18:14
S2E6: Brenda Moss: US Air Force Veteran, Stay at Home Mom, Now Microsoft Software Engineer
Oct 21, 202201:16:12
S2E5: Interviewing Insights from a Tech Recruiter - A Chat with Trish Do

S2E5: Interviewing Insights from a Tech Recruiter - A Chat with Trish Do

We chat with Gatsby recruiter, Trish Do, and gain some insider info on the tech recruiting process.

You can connect with Trish on LinkedIn


Show Highlights:

  • Transition from education to tech recruiting
  • Potential pitfalls in the initial screen
  • What is the recruiter looking for in that initial screening?
  • The importance of knowing your personal values and goals in evaluating potential companies and roles
  • Advice to excel in the technical screen
  • Mistakes made after receiving an offer
  • Handling the “what salary are you looking for?” question
  • What question should you always ask in the initial phone screen?
  • Red flags to look out for 


If you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review or share with a friend!

Oct 04, 202201:26:07
S2E4: Vic Vijayakumar - Looking at the arc of a Software Engineering career

S2E4: Vic Vijayakumar - Looking at the arc of a Software Engineering career

This was a great conversation with Vic Vijayakumar. We covered MANY topics, including:

  • Importance of hobbies outside of work
  • Job titles across companies
  • What “good” onboarding looks like for a Junior Engineer
  • How Vic got into programming
  • Computer Engineering vs. Computer Science as a major
  • Gaining an intuition about code
  • Looking at Software engineering less as “the tech industry” and more about using technology to help enable people to do the things they want to do
  • Helping researchers communicate about their work
  • Picking a language that is most appropriate for the job at hand
  • How to get up to speed in a new language
  • Skills gained in the early years of a career
  • How learning on the side can help one’s career
  • Compensation over Vic’s career
  • Manager vs. IC role
  • Founding Engineer role
  • Handling interview nerves
  • Talking in interviews
  • Work mistake - causing email spam
  • Importance of networking through meetups, or even Reddit
  • Ways to test whether software engineering is for you

You can find Vic on his own webpage as well as on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Take a listen to Vic's podcast here.

We talked about finding salary data at Levels.fyi

And "trying out" programming, which you can do at Codecademy.

Sep 11, 202201:47:04
S2E3: Tim Chung - Getting into Data Scientist
Sep 06, 202201:23:19
S2E2: English Professor to Sr. Frontend Engineer. A conversation with Emily Morgan
Aug 23, 202201:49:20
S2E1: Geological Engineer to Software Developer: A Conversation with Mat Fournier
Aug 09, 202201:44:39
Welcome to Season 2

Welcome to Season 2

We're back for Season 2. Here is what's coming...

Jun 07, 202201:33
S1:E8 - Season Recap

S1:E8 - Season Recap

We covered quite a bit in Season 1.  For some "Go Deeper" resource suggestions for each topic, check the notes below.

Episode 1: How email travels

  1. Differences between POP3 and IMAP - GeeksforGeeks
  2. SMTP or IMAP: What’s the Difference? Bonus: What is POP3?

Episode 2: OSI model. Internet

  1. Network Engineer Specialization: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/computer-communications
    1. The first course is relevant here: https://www.coursera.org/learn/fundamentals-network-communications?specialization=computer-communications
    2. GeeksforGeeks article: Layers of OSI Model - GeeksforGeeks
    3. Cloudflare: What is the OSI Model? | Cloudflare
  2. Youtube Series: Network Fundamentals by Network Direction channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNwEVYkx2Kk&list=PLDQaRcbiSnqF5U8ffMgZzS7fq1rHUI3Q8
  3. Computer Networking book

Episode 3 & 4;  Interview with Marwan Fayed (Cloudflare)

  1. Marwan Fayed Twitter
  2. Marwan research
  3. Marwan Cloudflare blog
  4. Computerphile TLS video
  5. Wikipedia has a good write up
  6. Cloudflare write up

Episode 5: TCP/IP

  1. Cloudflare - article
  2. FreeCodeCamp - article
  3. Coursera specialization
  4. Book: TCP/IP Illustrated

Episodes 6 & 7: Interview with Aaron Blum and Raphael Poss (Cockroach Labs)

  1. Cockroach Labs University
  2. Aaron
  3. Raphael
  4. NoStarchPress: has many great books
Dec 07, 202114:00
S1:E7 - Interview with Aaron and Raphael at Cockroach Labs - Part 2

S1:E7 - Interview with Aaron and Raphael at Cockroach Labs - Part 2

Show Notes

Security is about tradeoffs

Security is a business decision

Product and Security persons need to understand each other. The correct solution depends on understanding how a user is interacting with your platform

New risks in cloud databases

Traffic to databases is now over the internet

Users care about confidentiality and predictability

New role: database programmers now need to build security controls.

Reliability concerns are security concerns

Any potential malfunction is a security concern

Support engineers: new dimensions. How much access do they need to provide the needed support vs. how much access is a customer comfortable providing to receive that support

Entryways into security route

* If not already working in security domain: find anything security adjacent

* exploit exercises

Step out of your comfort zone

Software engineers are not coming with a security background.  The way to bridge this gap is from an analysis mentality. 

Ask ‘what if…’

Program defensively. Expect errors and program to handle those errors

Records of truth vs. support systems. Technologies that are used on their own vs support other technologies

Location of data concerns

Sharding

Location agnostic: Serverless

Raphael on how to develop, find and create opportunities to a security path



Learn more about our guests.

Cockroach Labs: 

Aaron Blum:

Previous interview: Database Security Capabilities of CockroachDB

LinkedIn

Raphael Poss

LinkedIn 

Writings

Personal webpage


Capture the flag:

CTF 101

AT&T Capture the flag


Books

No Starch Press

Nov 23, 202133:19
S1:E6 - Interview with Aaron and Raphael at Cockroach Labs
Nov 09, 202132:50
S1:E5 - TCP and IP Make the Internet Go 'Round

S1:E5 - TCP and IP Make the Internet Go 'Round

Jon and Mel talk about what TCP and IP are. How they work. And why they are important.


Show notes:

Intro

Traffic rules and Internet rules

Terms du jour: 3-way handshake, encapsulation, in order delivery, reliability, flow control

What does TCP stand for and what is its job?

What does IP stand for and what is its job?

Lego masterpieces to send data over internet

Furniture Manufacturer analogy

How does 3-way handshake work?

How does TCP ensures reliable and  in-order delivery

IP - what it does and how it does it?

IP utilizes encapsulation

Routing tables

Road trips and Internet routing

TCP/IP have survived since the beginning of the internet



Oct 26, 202134:54
S1:E4 Interview with Marwan Fayed (Part 2)

S1:E4 Interview with Marwan Fayed (Part 2)

Tune in for the second half of our interview with Marwan! You won't be disappointed.


Show notes:

The resilience of TCP/IP - how have they survived this long?

The evolving of TCP/IP

About the IP layer

* addressing

* routing and forwarding

* but no guarantee

UDP - “best effort"

TCP layer

* reliability / guaranteed delivery

* flow control

* congestion control

TCP fairness

TCP & congestion control in streaming video

About Marwan

Professional mistake: looking for shortcuts

Advice to someone just starting in tech

Oct 11, 202143:22
S1:E3 - Marwan Fayed Interview (Part 1)

S1:E3 - Marwan Fayed Interview (Part 1)

Our first interview of the season. 

The accomplished and ever so humble, Marwan Fayed, joins us today.

Find him at St. Andrews or at Cloudflare.

Timstamps:

0:00 - Intro

1:56 - Interview; Marwan Introduction

2:16 - Role at Cloudflare

4:25 - Community Broadband ISP

5:56 - Industry vs. Academia

7:08 - Day to Day at current role

8:56 - What does an industry lab look like?

10:45 - Security and Privacy research prioritized at Cloudflare

11:31 - What is TLS 1.3

14:26 - Research at Cloudflare

15:09 - Oblivious DNS over HTTPS (ODOH)

17:56 - More on privacy

21:51 - Where does a research idea come from

23:41 - Humility matters in research

25:37 - 2 guiding principles of research

26:11 - Marwan’s lightbulb moment

30:31 - Overlap between reserach and business

31:21 - Community Broadband ISP

33:56 - “No one gets fired for hiring IBM”

36:21 - Backhaul internet

41:06 - Biggest challenges were people, not technology

43:25 - Goodbye

Sep 28, 202143:47
S1:E2 - The Internet Is Like a Swimming Pool

S1:E2 - The Internet Is Like a Swimming Pool

Jon and Mel dive into the question of the day: "When I open the weather app on my phone, how do today's weather get my screen, and where did it come from?

Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro

0:18 - Question of the day

1:48 - Defining the endpoints? Client and Server

2:43 - Mental picture for information traveling across internet: Skateboard ramp.  Swimming pool

5:00 - Defining some terms: client and server

5:36 - Defining request and response 

6:28 - Everything is binary

7:53 - Application Layer

8:55 - Physical layer 

10:33 - Defining a 'session’

11:00 - Transport layer. TCP

12:00 - Network layer. IP.

12:44 - Each layer is distinct and independent

14:05 - What type of requests can I make?

16:55 - Looking at the POST and GET requests

18:00 - Packets

20:45 - TCP & IP roles 

21:40 - Each device has its own IP address 

22:40 - Review of the path of a request from client to server

23:40 - Short hops along the path

25:30 - More about packets and network layers

26:30 - Encapsulation

29:00 - Terms for the data at different network layers

29:45 - Real-time routing

31:20 - Internet travel is like note passing in class


Sep 13, 202137:26
S1:E1: How does email travel?

S1:E1: How does email travel?

Question for the day: "When I send an email, how does that email get from my email to yours?”


Timestamps

0:00 - Intro

0:35 - Post office analogy

2:20 - Post office to email connection

3:10 - Computer 'client' and ‘server’

4:05 - Addressing an email

9:00 - Email messages get broken up into packets

13:35 - DNS: Turning an email address into an IP address

16:00 - DNS servers; the phone book of the internet

20:30 - SMTP server; local post office.  Email journey is email server to email server.

25:45 - Role of MTA

29:30 - Gateways: "highway” part of the information super highway.

31:10 - How SMTP deals with lost information 

33:20 - There is no umpire for the internet

34:38 - Recap and preview for Episode 2


Terms you will hear and learn include:

Router, gateway, MTA, IP addresses, DNS, Client and Server, Packets


Aug 30, 202137:52
Welcome to Data & Dev with Jon and Mel

Welcome to Data & Dev with Jon and Mel

Two friends from elementary school kick off this tech podcast (because we need another one), aimed primarily at career changers seeking to level up quickly in the field of tech, but in the midst of the responsibilities of adult life.  


Jon is an academic turned start-up guy with Data Science expertise.


Melissa is a mid-life career changer, pursuing a second career as a Software Engineer first via a Bootcamp and currently as a CS Master's student at UPenn.


Headed your way:


Tech concepts explained so a 10-year-old can understand and lots of lame analogies.


Learn from analogy and learn from experts.


We pair the theoretical with the practical as we have about how these topics are thought about in industry.


I can't wait!



Aug 04, 202105:51