14. Shaping Your Software Engineering Career with Victoria Kirst

How do you shape a career you love? Why should you pursue software engineering especially if you don't want to sit behind a computer all day? Meet Victoria Kirst, an incoming software engineer at The Browser Company, former software engineer at Google for 8 years, former lecturer at Stanford, and most recently the Director of Platform and then VP of Engineering at a startup, Glitch. Victoria is passionate about software engineering and education, and in our conversation, she shares insights about her career journey to help others succeed in software engineering. In this episode, Victoria discusses what she loves about software engineering, what stops people from choosing software engineering, how to shape your career, choosing the right career, when to leave a job, how to define a startup, differences between working at a big company versus a startup, and the responsibilities of a VP of Engineering. We also talk about her new project that you can get involved in to stay on track with your learning goals: Everybody Study Club. Mentioned in This Episode: Code In Place Call for Teachers: codeinplace.stanford.edu/teach Ashley C. Ford Quote (Twitter): bit.ly/2OnJeOM "Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir" by Ashley C. Ford (preorder): amzn.to/2OmLaHg "What the Hell is a Startup Anyway" Techcrunch Article: tcrn.ch/3tkHJ2j "The Manager's Path" by Camille Fournier: bit.ly/2OxpRm9 Connect with Victoria: Twitter: @heyvrk LinkedIn: /victoriakirst Everybody Study Club: everybodystudy.club Follow Blossoming Technologist: Instagram: @blossoming_tech Twitter: @blossoming_tech LinkedIn: /blossoming-technologist