#274 Aleksandra Sikora is a serial language learner and open source maintainer

Ever wondered how a software developer's journey unfolds? Well, today, we have a story that is sure to inspire. Join us as we explore the life of Aleksandra Sikora, a software engineer based in Wrocław, who shares her journey from learning to code in primary school to becoming a full-stack developer. A poignant chapter of her journey delves into the power of patience, the art of listening, and the invaluable skill of delegation when leading a team. She also recalls an article about a young girl learning HTML, which ignited her passion for computer science.

It wasn't all smooth sailing for Aleksandra. Her university years were filled with a spectrum of programming languages, some of which presented quite a challenge. Even confronting the complexities of Prolog and Algorithms and Data Structures, her resilience saw her through. Reflecting on these experiences, she discusses how her background and exposure to different functional languages played a crucial role in shaping her career choices.

We've all had those moments of self-doubt and feelings of not quite belonging. Aleksandra openly discusses her early career encounters with impostor syndrome and how she navigated those stormy seas. Her story takes us through her transition from programming to management, sharing the lessons learned and obstacles faced. Learn from her experiences, gain from her insights, and join us in this episode that promises to be an illuminating guide for anyone in a similar position. From coding to managing teams, Aleksandra's journey will inspire and motivate you.

Transcript

Aleksandra Sikora: 0:00

I would say to take it easy, to not overthink it, because I was overthinking it, I was very stressed, I didn't want to make any mistakes, so I was super stressed about it and that ended up with me making those mistakes. So I would say take it easy, take it slow, take time to adjust and don't be afraid to ask people for help, to ask maybe other tech leads or managers to help you figure out how to handle certain situations. Not be afraid to delegate tasks and just listen to people a lot. Listen, listen, listen, because everything that you need to know about feedback preferences, work preferences, you're going to find there when you listen to people very, very carefully.

Tim Bourguignon: 0:53

Hello and welcome to Developers Journey, the podcast bringing you the making of stories of successful software developers to help you on your upcoming journey. I'm your host, tim Bourguignon. On this episode, I receive Alexandra Sikora. Alexandra is a software engineer based in Vrotswaf. She has worked as a full stack developer with many languages, such as Elixir, golang, python and TypeScript. She was previously a tech lead for the Hasura console and a lead mentor of Blitzjs. She's now focused on open source and bootstrapping her own small projects. Oh, and drinking insane amounts of oatmeal cappuccino. I've heard I'm more an espresso person, but yeah, we'll go along. Alexandra, welcome to DevJourney.

Aleksandra Sikora: 1:56

Hi, hi, welcome everyone. I'm super glad to be here on your podcast. I'm super excited to like share my story.

Tim Bourguignon: 2:05

And we're very excited as well. But before we come to your story, I want to thank the terrific listeners who support the show. Every month you are keeping the DevTourney lights up. If you would like to join this fine crew and help me spend more time on finding phenomenal guests than editing audio tracks, please go to our website devjourneyinfo and click on the support me on Patreon button.

Tim Bourguignon: 2:32

Even the smallest contributions are giant steps toward a sustainable DevTourney journey. Thank you, and now back to today's guest. As you know, the show exists to help the listeners understand what your story looked like and imagine how to shape their own future. So, as is customary on the show, let's go back to your beginnings. Where would you place the start of your DevTourney?

Aleksandra Sikora: 2:55

Well, I was thinking about it before the show and I think that the very, very beginning of my Dev story is when I was in primary school, so when I was like around 11, I would say I saw this article in a magazine. It was like a magazine for kids, maybe even like only for girls, but basically there was an article about a girl who was like 13 and she just learned HTML and I was like, oh, maybe that's something that I should learn too and I will be like younger. I was like very competitive kid and I was also this kid that jumps from one hobby to another and like when I have a hobby, I go like all in. So I started learning HTML. But I also I think my parents were like limiting my usage of the computer. So I would like write notes on the piece of paper and I would try to construct some simple website on the piece of paper and then when I can use my computer, or actually my parents' computer, I would like type it there and like test it out. So that was like the very, very beginning. I didn't go far with that knowledge. I kind of you know, jump. I probably jumped to another hobby after that after maybe like few weeks or a month or two, and I forgot about programming and you know, anything like that related for a few years.

Aleksandra Sikora: 4:24

And when I was in high school I began like I picked up some interest in like Arduino and some hardware stuff. I had a friend who was in like advanced computer science class in high school and they had like a bunch of stuff like that and I was like helping him we're working on his assignment assignments together because it was like very, very fun for me. So I remember I also participated in a few Arduino workshops but, as you can imagine, I was like 18 or something or 17. And it was high school and people weren't necessarily nice about like me doing those kind of things Like. I remember I was like laughed at by like boys in my class because they were like oh you and programming, like you and tech stuff. It was very, very mean and like of course it was discouraging and I didn't go with it.

Aleksandra Sikora: 5:33

Or like I kind of forgot about Arduino and I stopped doing this for a bit and I only picked up programming again when I was thinking about university, like where to study after high school. Well, I was considering like a bunch of options. But I figured that computer science is like so broad that I can go into so many different directions, like maybe I would be a web developer, maybe I would like go back to the hardware stuff, maybe I would be like more like a project manager in like IT company. So like, from all the different things that they consider to study, computer science seemed to me as the broadest, as the thing that would give me like the biggest number of possibilities. So yeah, so that was my story before university, before like officially being on the computer science path in my life.

Tim Bourguignon: 6:48

That is awesome. But before we get there, I want to highlight a couple of things. This is, to me at least, is amazing that you stumble onto an article really talking about the experience of a girl doing programming at such a young age. That is so forming and a role model almost to have really early on. That's really cool.

Aleksandra Sikora: 7:11

Yeah, yeah, that's true, because you know it's not a typical story that you think of that like you'd find in a magazine for girls. So, yeah, that was. That was very motivating. That was also something that you know, otherwise how would they be exposed to programming, like if I didn't find this article? So I'm really glad I had this magazine. Maybe my parents bought it for me, so I'm really glad for that. If they ever listen to it, then thank you.

Tim Bourguignon: 7:45

And it's such an interesting not a parallel, but divide with your experience. Afterward you said you were loved, that and people were mean to you, which is the exact opposite of just having been exposed early on to this, this success story, and then experiencing first hand the opposite of that in high school. Wow, it sends shivers down my spine.

Aleksandra Sikora: 8:12

Yeah, yeah, I have really, really bad memories from high school and from, like, those particular experiences. Yeah, but you know I overcame this, so that's good.

Tim Bourguignon: 8:25

You went at it anyway. And last thing, I was here to say I'm so jealous that you had Arduino at that phase of your life. I'm a bit older, I'm not going to take myself too much, but there was no Arduino around any time soon when I was growing up and hardware was just unreachable. It was just something you couldn't do and I remember soldering and doing mechanical stuff, but not electronics, and I'm so jealous I wonder what I would have done as a pre-teenager without you and other around.

Aleksandra Sikora: 8:57

So good for you that you put your hand in there early on. That was fun. Yeah, I also remember researching different workshops about Arduino and traveling to different cities in Poland for weekend workshops so cool. So, yeah, yeah, I've been doing those kind of things Awesome.

Tim Bourguignon: 9:19

So you took this future into your own hands, not really knowing what kind of computer science you would be enrolling into, but with the knowledge. This is for me, this is what I want to do. So how did you choose from there where you want to go and what to do?

Aleksandra Sikora: 9:34

Oh well, it was a tough choice. So when I started computer science I kind of had this dream that I would be a machine learning developer and I would work probably in medicine doing like machine learning stuff. But then I, when I took the machine learning course on, like at the university, I figured that I'm not particularly interested and I didn't like it that much. So that wasn't really for me and the whole university like my studies. There was a bunch of theory and not much practice. And there was theory that was very, very difficult and I almost dropped out like a few times. It was so hard at some points, for example, like during the first year, like I only knew a bit of HTML from when I was 11 and a bit of Arduino, but not that much. And during the first year we had an assignment to write a compiler in Prolog.

Aleksandra Sikora: 10:43

And I didn't know much. Yeah, it was like after a few months of it was like the second semester, and I looked at the assignment and I was like, okay, what is Prolog? Okay, this is the clarity of language. Okay, I can get through the basics. But then I was also like what is this assembly code? Like what are those different things that are written in the assignment? Like I have no idea what it is so. Well, I didn't do the assignment. I don't think I even started to be, honest, it was so difficult.

Aleksandra Sikora: 11:18

So I decided to focus on different classes that I had during this semester to, at least you know, excel at this. Then I retook this class next year and it was slightly simpler assignment, it was only interpreter and it was in Haskell. So, yeah, well, yeah, it was. I think during the whole university I was exposed to so many different languages that afterwards it was very easy for me to apply for a job where the position requires knowledge of a language, and I didn't know the language but I would still go for it. But anyway, going back to the university, so I did write the interpreter in Haskell.

Aleksandra Sikora: 12:12

I managed to pass this class and, like another thing, like another very difficult subject was algorithms and data structures. I think I failed it twice, like two years in a row, because it was so, so difficult. And well, I remember that I wasn't the only one, like some people, like they, would try for like five years in a row literally to pass this class. It was crazy. So, yeah, I kind of have this I don't know stereotypical background. Like you know, I studied computer science, but what was more unique about my studies was that it was like a lot of theory and a lot of functional programming, which also isn't common. When I talk to other people who studied at other universities and other places, then they were always surprised at how many different functional languages we used at the university. Yeah, so that was like the studies part of my life.

Tim Bourguignon: 13:34

Indeed unusual that many functional languages. Yeah, I haven't seen that broad of a spectrum of languages before, but I can relate with some part of it. I remember the algorithm and data structure class I had was on paper only. I came in the first day and said, well, we're not going to touch any computer for the next semester, it's going to be paper only. He said, well, there, and it started building stacks and building memory et cetera. It's on paper. That was fun. But yeah, that kind of sounded harsh. You put it as it was a lot of theory, and I'm completing the sentence in my mind saying, ok, and that was not the ideal setup for you. I'm alone. Yes, you are.

Aleksandra Sikora: 14:27

Well, I think it had trade-offs, Because when you have more practice then you're kind of maybe more ready to start working as a developer. Maybe you get exposed to more real-life problems that you would have at your job, but also so this is a downside. But on a pros, then, I learned so much during university. I learned so much of the basics unlike everything works under the hood and I'm really really grateful for this knowledge. I mean, I wasn't at the time I wanted to drop out 100%, but now that I think about it, I'm sometimes able to understand some concepts that I probably wouldn't be otherwise. And also this thing about being exposed to so many different languages. And it wasn't like one semester for a language, it was more like OK, so here's a new class, here's your assignment. It's in a language you never heard about. You have two weeks to complete the assignment.

Tim Bourguignon: 15:38

So that was the experience.

Aleksandra Sikora: 15:40

And that also explains my job-related choices. So my first job I started I had a bunch of odd jobs when I was studying. During the first year I was cleaning houses, I was working in an Apple's factory during holidays no-transcript and I was also something that was more related to IT. I was a robotics teacher for half a year. Yeah, I was teaching children like basics of programming and robotics.

Aleksandra Sikora: 16:18

That was very, very fun because that allowed me to still be like flexible with my working hours, have some money to like continue studying and to like live in a different city and also to still be able to attend all the classes because I could set my schedule however I wanted. So I got my first job as a programmer. I think it was like a fourth semester at university and I remember there was like Expo, it was maybe like a small conference, and there were like different companies saying that they are hiring and stuff. And I started talking with some people and they had like a form that you had to, you know, fill in order to kind of apply for the job and there was a question how well you know Alexia and I was like I don't know what was wrong with me back then, but I googled Alexia and two things that I read were that it was inspired by Ruby and the second thing was that it's a functional language.

Aleksandra Sikora: 17:35

So in my head I was like, okay, I had some basics of Ruby at university. I also had like functional programming I did this interpreter in Haskell after all. So I was like, okay, my knowledge is four out of five.

Tim Bourguignon: 17:52

How would you know Java script? Well, I know Java and script. So, yeah, okay, this is this, this.

Aleksandra Sikora: 17:57

That was basically it. I mean, it was like I knew so little about it that, you know, I I was like, okay, I will be okay, I will be fine. I know Alexia and I got the job. How did you go? Yeah, yeah, I did get the job. I remember during the interview, one of the people that were interviewing me was really into Haskell and we talked about Haskell a lot. I think I made a good impression. So I I did get a job on the job. I learned that I'm not going to write Alexia, I was going to write Python.

Tim Bourguignon: 18:40

So Hence the question yeah, obviously yeah, I mean I was, I was a bit surprised.

Aleksandra Sikora: 18:47

I remember every time I was like taking a bus to, to, to, to go to work, I was reading the documentation of Python because you know, I didn't know much about Python and Django whatsoever. So, yeah, it was. It was quite tough. I had a huge impostor syndrome and I knew that I I very, very like not suited for the job, that I knew that my knowledge was limited. So that was, that was a very difficult, but I kept having this, this thought in my mind that it's going to be easier. Like at some point, you know, I will catch up, I will learn everything that I need for the job. And you know, I just have to stick like one more month and then another month and another month, and then you know, the whole, like my whole career is going to be easier. So that's that's, that's what I did. And I was also very determined because I wanted to like start working as a programmer as soon as possible. I also, you know, I I needed to like pay rent by groceries, you know, make a living. So I needed a job. So there was, there was a huge determination in me and I was very, very excited and I so speaking about like different paths in and like going into one direction or another.

Aleksandra Sikora: 20:17

I was working on backend in that company, but I was always kind of interested in front end, so I was trying to like I don't know, keep. I kept asking like the front end team if they need any help or, you know, maybe there's something I can do for them. And I also kept asking my tech lead if maybe there's there are like more JavaScript related tasks that I could pick up. And I slowly I I became like a full stack in that company. I was working across two different teams the backend and the front end one. So, yeah, that's required like a lot of being very subtle about it and like, hey, doing it help, hey, I could do this in JavaScript. But that also like allowed me to learn basics about like web development and like the front end part of web development. I remember we used Angular one at that company and I think also it was the first time I heard about TypeScript. So, yeah, that was fun Okay.

Tim Bourguignon: 21:36

If I can pick at something you said and you said at some point, it's going to be easier. Did it become easier?

Aleksandra Sikora: 21:45

Well, yes and no. I mean, oh yeah, that's a tough question. That's a really, really good question because I think I've always had this imposter syndrome at some level and I think I never get rid of it. Even if I'm, like you know, having some accomplishments and you know, like I speak at conferences or you know I do things that people then like tell me that they are grateful for, like so open source contributions, then I still feel this imposter syndrome that you know there's still so many things I have to learn. There are so many like aspects of programming that where I'm not good enough.

Aleksandra Sikora: 22:26

So, yeah, the answer to this question is it depends. It depends on the day or more. Like a period of my life, I think I gained a lot of confidence and some things like I don't know, like picking up projects that they want to work on, relationships with people, it became much, much easier. But there are also parts, like there are days when I feel like such huge imposter syndrome that I want to quit my job because I'm like, oh my God, I don't bring any value. So that's the honest part of this interview. That's something I'm working on Because the rest is honest.

Tim Bourguignon: 23:12

No, the company you started talking about this company saying well, you are making air quotes, fool yourself into being an Elixir expert or fool them? And did they show any sign of being disappointed at some point or showing you that you are not at the level they were expecting?

Aleksandra Sikora: 23:41

Well, they never showed disappointment about my Elixir skills, but I did have a few bad experiences in the very beginning when I think they showed disappointment, like in general, in my skills, and also I think they were very skeptical about me because I was this person who said during the interview that I'm interested in both backend and frontend and they wanted someone who's only interested in the backend. And I remember during my first day I had lunch and someone at the company from the team asked me a question and it was very, I know I felt really bad after that. It was something like so why did you decide to play with programming? Like if that wasn't a choice, like if that wasn't supposed to be my job. It's just something that I'm trying to do for a while and I felt like you know, it's not the best place for me.

Aleksandra Sikora: 24:51

I didn't feel like I fit in for a really long time. So I had a few experiences like that. When I would, someone would make me feel that I don't fit in, with some questions or some statements that weren't particularly nice, and that was the hard part. So that was one of the things that I kept thinking about. Like it's gonna be easier later on Once I get more expertise, once I become a better developer, my tech skills will be better than I. Won't have these kind of situations any longer and, yeah, that's one thing that actually is better now and it was. I don't think I ever felt like I don't fit in after that job.

Tim Bourguignon: 25:49

And that is good. Yeah, yeah, I guess, at some point those early problems disappear, but you get new ones. So the Impulse and Syndrome is still here. But if you reflect enough and look at the past. Okay, at least I'm not having the same problem as I was. And maybe a more comfortable place. On this end, it's more discomfort than something else but, that's maybe a discomfort you can better cope with.

Tim Bourguignon: 26:15

Being responsible for stuff and not knowing what to do is different, different sack of problems than making being made fun of or that people make you feel you don't belong. That's really a different scope.

Aleksandra Sikora: 26:33

Yeah. It's painful to hear from me as well, but yeah, I mean, it's very painful to reflect on that. I don't think about it very often. Sorry about that no it's fine, but it's also, like you know, it makes me grateful for the people I have right now in my life and the company I work at.

Tim Bourguignon: 26:54

So, yeah, so at which point did you decide okay, now it's time to move on and see something else?

Aleksandra Sikora: 27:03

I think I had a contract for half of a year, for like six months, and, yeah, I decided to leave after those six months and I was still studying. It was going well, apart from the data structures class, but it was going well. And I was looking through like job offers and I found one which was called Super Go Developer. And I didn't know what is a Super Developer. Now I know that it means like it's above senior apparently, but back then I was like, oh my god, someone possibly made a joke.

Tim Bourguignon: 27:46

Like the rock star developer. Yeah, yeah, yeah something like that.

Aleksandra Sikora: 27:50

So well, I also obviously I didn't know Golang and I, but I applied because I really liked the company I, they were based in Stockholm and they had an office in Roswap. So that was like perfect for me and I really like a lot of things about the company. I like the branding. It was a small team, everything was, you know, perfect. So I decided to apply. I got an assignment to write I think it was a rest service in Golang and I did that. I used documentation a lot. I learned some Golang before starting the job and, yeah, I got the job.

Aleksandra Sikora: 28:38

I was working kind of part-time because I was still studying. I think I was working like three days per week. But, yeah, I had a really, really good experience there. Like people were so encouraging. I still had like huge imposter syndrome because, you know, I realized that I applied for a job to write in a language that I'm not familiar with and I applied for being a super developer why I should have applied for like a junior, junior, junior developer. So yeah, so that was fun. Yes, huge imposter syndrome, but I had like tons of support from people at this company and I really liked it there. That was the time when I started writing a blog, a technical blog, and yeah I mean everything was going really really well. I once took a sabbatical for four months to be done with university, to like actually pass all the classes and finish that part of my life. I did and yeah, that was. I have, like you know, after my first job, with like not so good experiences. Then that was really much better.

Tim Bourguignon: 30:07

Sounds like it I'm interested in. Why did you start writing on a blog at that point?

Aleksandra Sikora: 30:14

Well, firstly, I wanted to like teach myself things, so I was mostly writing about stuff I was doing at university, like I would write about some data structures and I also. There was one person at that company who had a blog and it was like very, very high quality, and I think I got inspired by that person. His name is Pavel Svomka. I think it was like a big influence on me and my career and like there were still like tough moments, like the impostor syndrome, and it was tough because I was working and studying and I wanted to give up so many times. And I think if it wasn't for him like him like motivating me and encouraging then I would have given up at that point.

Aleksandra Sikora: 31:06

Probably, or maybe not, I don't know, but I know for sure that he was a huge positive influence on me. And so I got inspired by his blog and I was like, okay, maybe I can do something like that too. And I started writing not that much, I would like write maybe once per month, but still, I once wrote an article about Black Red Trees, the data structure, red Black Trees. Okay, you see, I don't even remember.

Tim Bourguignon: 31:38

Yeah, that's not good. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Black Red Trees Okay, see, they are like colored and you have to balance them by the color. Something like that.

Aleksandra Sikora: 31:49

So I wrote this article when I was first doing the data structure class and then I referenced my own article when I was like retaking this class, when I was like really learning, because that was still I think that was a really good resource on that data structure. Did the?

Tim Bourguignon: 32:08

teacher pick up on that? Did you wrote your own references? Yeah, yeah, what did they say?

Aleksandra Sikora: 32:17

Sorry, sorry, can you repeat?

Tim Bourguignon: 32:18

Did the teacher pick up that you referenced something you had written yourself?

Aleksandra Sikora: 32:23

No, I don't think so. No, no, no.

Tim Bourguignon: 32:25

Damn, I would have made a friend story.

Aleksandra Sikora: 32:27

Yeah, yeah, so, yeah. So that was that was my second job, but after I graduated I finished university. I'm okay, so that's also. There's one important thing that happened during the university I took one class. That was it wasn't a mandatory one, it was like an extra one. It was introduction to like real life work related things. I think it was about the Git.

Aleksandra Sikora: 33:01

It was some introduction to open source, about like working with people. It was like basically like all the basics you need to know to be able to, like you know, be okay at your job. And there were some assignments, and there was one to make a contribution to open source. And I totally didn't have time to do this and I remember I promised my teacher that I would do this in the future. So I kept remembering that and I kept thinking about it and I also was like, after my second job, I was really interested in like develop developer tooling.

Aleksandra Sikora: 33:46

I really wanted to make things that you know other developers can use and things that could be like my friend could say, oh, I'm using this library or I'm using this product at work, and and I was also leading towards the open source words. So this is how I found Hasura, because it has it had like everything from like I, from what I wanted. It was an open source project, it was databases and I really really liked databases. It was a tool for developers to build other projects. So I was, yeah, I was very, very excited about about working there and, yeah, I think there I applied for a front end position. So, yeah, it was I applied for, for, for position when the language was actually familiar to me and not a new language. Again, no, no, no.

Tim Bourguignon: 34:52

Did you go back to this to this teacher and tell them about your experience in open source since then?

Aleksandra Sikora: 34:58

No, but I think I have to. Maybe I will message him on LinkedIn.

Tim Bourguignon: 35:05

You can send them the spot cast and say, hey, you should listen to this.

Aleksandra Sikora: 35:09

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is about you. Just thanks to you.

Tim Bourguignon: 35:14

So how did that go at Hasura? I think you stayed for about two years.

Aleksandra Sikora: 35:19

Yeah, yeah, I stayed for two years.

Aleksandra Sikora: 35:20

So I started as a front end developer.

Aleksandra Sikora: 35:23

I was working on Hasura console like this, this, this part of Hasura where you can configure everything related to the product and after a while which is I don't remember, but maybe like three months I or four months I became a tech lead for that team and, yeah, and I had my own team. It was very small in the beginning, I think it was only like two people, and then it was growing and growing and growing. I think at the end it was seven people in my team and you know, like, the more people there were, the less programming I was able to do, because, you know, like having calls with people, like all the project management stuff, coordinating with other teams that was a lot of things to do and, well, like, over time, I became more like manager and less programmer, which was which was also good for my career, I think, because I got to experience, like both words. I got to experience how it is to like manage people, how it is to manage projects, and I think that was there was like a huge value in that experience?

Tim Bourguignon: 36:38

Did you see yourself doing this for a longer time or did you actively search, going back with air quotes at some point?

Aleksandra Sikora: 36:47

Yeah, I was thinking about going back because, also, you know, that was new for me. I never I was never exposed to like being a manager and I didn't know how to do things. Like I remember on I was taught on like on Friday that I will be a tech lead and I was like so freaked out because there were so many things like how to deal with people, how to be a manager. I remember I spent the whole week and like watching different YouTube recordings like from this lead deaf conference and like reading books about being a tech lead. Like there was one book talking with tech leads.

Aleksandra Sikora: 37:28

It was really good. So, yeah, I didn't. I didn't really know if I'm going to be okay, if I'm going to do things right, and I think I made all the mistakes. So you know, every article or every like you know resource about how to be a tech lead talks about some common mistakes that tech leads do, and I made all of them, like we all did.

Aleksandra Sikora: 37:52

Yes, and I think I learned a lot from that experience. I also learned that it's very, very difficult to manage so like so many different things at once and there were. You know, there are some parts of that job that were easier, some parts that were harder. Like I think that the hardest one was like giving feedback to people, because I think that's something that gets easier with experience, like the more feedback you you gave in your life, then the easier it gets, because you kind of get used to like what to say what people expect and you also learn different styles of feedback that people prefer, because everybody prefers a different feedback.

Aleksandra Sikora: 38:37

But, for example, like managing a project, like you know, creating a roadmap and Thinking like who should work on what to meet all the deadlines. That's also really exciting for me and I think, like me being kind of a perfectionist, it was a good thing there and I really, really, really enjoyed that. But for this whole time to answer your question for this whole time I had this thought in my head that I will probably be back to like hands-on programming after a while.

Tim Bourguignon: 39:12

Mm-hmm and and all the while you were already on blitzjs Coding the whole time. So if you were doing management for the day job, then we're coding in your nighttime.

Aleksandra Sikora: 39:22

No, no, actually I started blitzjs after Hasura.

Tim Bourguignon: 39:25

Oh, okay.

Aleksandra Sikora: 39:28

No, no, I think I helped Brandon, the creator of blitzjs, a few times with some typescorp related questions, but I wasn't involved in the development yet.

Tim Bourguignon: 39:39

Okay, and blitzjs was then a full-time Employment or with a side-guide. Yes, yes, yes, so okay.

Aleksandra Sikora: 39:46

Yeah. So basically I Think after just two years at Hasura, brandon reached out to me I like asking if I would like to be the sleep maintainer of blitzjs full-time, and that was kind of a dream job like it was a good project, it was a framework that people actually loved and used in production and it was open source. Obviously it would be a full-time job. So you know I would still have like stability and everything. So yeah, I said yes like right away. I didn't think much about it, to be honest. Yeah.

Tim Bourguignon: 40:26

So how is it To work on a project, on an open source project, full-time, versus being in a company doing open source without difference?

Aleksandra Sikora: 40:36

Well, it was different because, you know, at Hasura I had like this huge team that maybe not huge, but you know like huge company.

Aleksandra Sikora: 40:43

Like there were people involved and there were a bunch of them and at least I was working on on on this project on my own, like. Like Brandon was also involved, but he was mostly focused on on his company fight control and you know I was. It was different because it was more lonely, but also it was like that the responsibility might have been bigger. I don't know, I would say, because you know I was the one that was responsible for like everything at once like the back fixing new features, replying to like Discord questions, handling all the like things related to GitHub and your PRs and your issues, discussions and and so on. So, yeah, that was that was much different. But I also thought that they had like a huge influence on something. So that was that was definitely nice.

Aleksandra Sikora: 41:49

Yeah, and like the oh and the community around Blitz, they would like people were lovely, like there was no, like literally there were situations when someone would be like Not super kind. I'm not even talking about being mean, I'm talking about not being kind, super kind and yeah, I think that was that was a really good environment. So I really I really enjoyed that, yeah sounds like it.

Tim Bourguignon: 42:18

Actually, I realized I went at it with full cliches of saying, okay, open source, something you do at night, and no, it's a thank you for correcting that path. Yeah, with when I, with when I on the clock and what took you then to to the guild?

Aleksandra Sikora: 42:31

Yeah, so then Then after I think one year at Blitzjs, there were some internal changes in the company and I basically I had this decision to make, like whether I want to stay or whether I want to like move on and, you know, find a new exciting projects to work on. And I was, I was thinking A lot about it and I decided to take a risk. I decided, I decided that I added a lot for bitjs, so maybe it's time for me to like explore new areas of the development world. So I decided to leave Blitzjs and I didn't have a plan B. I didn't have anything. I didn't have a plan B. I didn't have anything line up when I did that.

Aleksandra Sikora: 43:23

So I Remember I I thought about, like what are the companies I want to work at? So I applied to a few. But also around the same time, yuri from the guild reached out to me and we started talking about like some collaboration. And I Think I was still like I, I I wanted to take it like slow, I wanted to like really think about it. So it took me I think four months until I said yes to the guild. But I I thought it through and from all the choices I had, I think that was the best one and I'm really glad I made that choice. I'm also really glad that I took that risk with leaving Blitz, because I knew that there will be something like even more exciting for me waiting. So, yeah, this is how I ended up.

Tim Bourguignon: 44:24

And you have a big smile while you're talking about it, even though it might have been a bit tricky to handle at that time. Yeah, both your feet. That yes.

Tim Bourguignon: 44:35

That's the part where I asked for advice, and I want to come back and poke at the. Yeah, I had the becoming a TL. He said you made all the mistakes that you could have made and you were warned about it, but you still made them. If you could warn yourself, or warn a new tail again, of the mistakes you made and will make and you could give them an advice, what would that be?

Aleksandra Sikora: 45:00

Well, I would say to take it easy, to like not overthink it, because I was overthinking it, I was like very stressed, like I didn't want to make any mistakes, so I was like super stressed about it and that ended up like with me being like making those mistakes. So I would say like take it easy, take it slow, like take time to adjust and Don't be afraid to ask people for like for help, to ask maybe other tech leads or managers to To help you figure out how to handle certain situations, situations. Not be afraid to delegate tasks and and you know, just listen to people a lot, listen, listen, listen, because, like everything that you need to know about, like feedback preferences, like work preferences, you're gonna find there when you listen to people like very, very carefully.

Tim Bourguignon: 46:00

You will indeed thank you so much for that. I don't know it's. It's been a fantastic story and it's already the end of a time box. Thank you so much for this glimpse into your life.

Aleksandra Sikora: 46:11

Thank you. Thank you for having me and thank you for like letting me show my story.

Tim Bourguignon: 46:16

It was my pleasure so, where we'd be your best place to find you online and Continuous this discussion with you.

Aleksandra Sikora: 46:22

Okay, so you can find me on Twitter, as Alexandra says, but it's Alexandra in Polish, so it's gonna be KS instead of X, and you can also check out my block. It's Alexandra, same Polish Alexandra dot codes.

Tim Bourguignon: 46:41

And I'll add links to the show in the show notes to both of those so you don't have to search, or, if you mess up with the KS, you'll find it. Anything else you want to plug in?

Aleksandra Sikora: 46:53

No, don't hesitate to send me a DM. I'm happy to answer all the current related questions or like follow up on anything that I said During this show fantastic and you heard her.

Tim Bourguignon: 47:05

Thank you so much again.

Aleksandra Sikora: 47:07

Thank you.

Tim Bourguignon: 47:08

And this has been another episode of the post journey. I will see each other next week. Bye, bye. Thanks a lot for tuning in. I hope you have enjoyed this week's episode. If you like the show, please share, rate and review. It helps more listeners discover those stories. You can find the links to all the platforms the show appears on on our website dev journey dot, info, slash, subscribe. Creating the show every week takes a lot of time, energy and, of course, money Would you please help me continue bringing out those inspiring stories every week by pledging a small monthly donation.

Tim Bourguignon: 47:48

You'll find our patreon link at dev journey info. Slash donate and, finally, don't hesitate to reach out and tell me how this week's story is shaping your future. You can find me on Twitter I'm at team of that, timo THEP or per email info at dev journey dot info. Don't you see?