How being a DJ prepared me to become a staff engineer
I started DJ’ing when I was 16, playing at smaller parties and getting bigger and bigger gigs until I was about 24. At the time, it just sounded very cool, and I was passionate about music. Looking back, I learned a lot to help prepare me for my move to staff engineer.
At the beginning of January 2022, I started as the first staff engineer at Forto. Many people came to me saying, “Congrats on your promotion 🎉, but what will you actually do as staff engineer?”. The question also came to my mind when the opportunity presented itself. ‘What does a staff engineer do, and how did I get here?’. This article will take you over my journey from being a DJ to becoming a staff engineer.
Early years
As a child, I grew up around the world. I was born in Leicester, UK, lived in Sweden, Belgium, the USA, and Mexico until my 12 years. I have my father’s job to thank for that! Traveling is one of my biggest passions; seeing new cultures, tasting excellent food, and learning about the world have impacted who I am today. It makes you a social person, adapting quickly to your surroundings.
Unlike some engineers, I do not have a computer science background. Hell, I hadn’t even written a single line of code until after my studies. I started working as a DJ in a house/techno club called Decadance in Ghent, Belgium. This was a great experience where I learned quite a lot. At the time, I didn’t understand the actual benefit. It was great fun going out almost every night and making money with something I loved doing. It was only after a few years that the skill I had gained, like the ability to talk well, plan things and coordinate between multiple people, came into good use when I started leading people. Having to juggle numerous things while staying focused on the end goal (to get as many people to have a good time on the dance floor, of course) brought me a lot of value in engineering.
The conventional university structure was not something that worked for me. I had no motivation to learn or study raw materials like books, which has thankfully changed. I ended up studying film editing at RITCS Brussels while I kept my DJ career at night. After my studies, I worked as DIT on set and assistant editor for two feature films (Iron Sky 2, A Quiet Passion).
During this time, I started to get into this terrific thing, called Python, to organize my editing files. Being a lazy editor, I didn’t have time to do things manually. Python gave me the possibility to automate my work, which was fascinating. It still amazes me how it turned my motivation around, making me want to learn more about coding. Since then, my life has been so much easier, and the possibilities have been endless.
Early Engineering
Realizing that DJ’ing was not the most sustainable career choice for the rest of my life, I packed my bags and moved to Amsterdam.
Knowing that I wanted to work closer to the tech industry and not in the film industry, I started writing my CV despite having no idea how to get a job. One evening, late at night, I found an incredible opportunity. There was a company that PAID you to do a bootcamp in software engineering, and they would even get you a job!
It was a seven-week bootcamp, where I was focused on MEAN Stack. 5 weeks in, interviews with different companies began where I gave a demo of an online multiplayer game with web sockets. This attracted an Amsterdam-based company, Poort80, who had such a requirement, landing me my first real job.
At Poort80, I learned how to code, and I quickly transitioned from front-end to full-stack. One of my first projects was set with a group of very experienced freelancers that went out drinking every Thursday; that was where I learned the most. They had remarkable stories about software and the business as a whole (thanks guys, it meant a lot to me!).
I got my first project as a lead developer here and got to think about other things than software. It gave me insights on communicating with product managers, stakeholders, and other engineers. It helped me understand that software is only the start, but there is much work around actual coding.
Professional Engineer
I had enough of Amsterdam! It was fun at times, but I wanted to move on. My Girlfriend and I decided that we wanted to move out of Amsterdam. Maybe I could get a job at a more prominent company to learn new coding skills or technologies. By that time, I had worked mainly in Dotnet Core and found a career as a mid-level developer at Oetker Digital. I came into a truly international environment, working with multiple teams and having my first experiences with cloud development.
With the mix of all these nationalities, the experience was different. It was my first time working with a dedicated product manager. My team-lead back then (which I still work with at Forto!) asked me to work for Durstexpress as he would become the head of engineering. I was happy to accept the role of software engineer there. A great opportunity came along when he trusted me to lead the logistics team. I started alone in the team, but it quickly grew to eight engineers!
The following two years were again a learning journey! Struggling with legacy code, building up patterns and architecture on how to transition into a more modern cloud approach while still hiring as many engineers as possible, navigating the company, and trying my best to keep my head above water.
Engineering Management
The company I was working with as tech lead was merged with a competitor. It was precisely the right time to move to my next challenge. I had two years of experience as a tech lead, and I was confident I would be a good engineer manager; little did I know that this would be totally different! I applied to a couple of places and went with Forto as they also worked in the logistics area, but this time on a global scale. I applied as senior engineering, intending to get a team lead position. Luckily that worked out, and I started directly as a team lead, transitioning into engineering manager (as the team lead role was being phased out at Forto).
I was in for a big surprise. I expected to do the same amount of coding but have a team to look after. It turns out that managing people is time-consuming! I was now actually responsible for the growth and development of these people, which is kind of scary. For the first three months, there was a steep learning curve, but I managed to set up all the ceremonies and one-on-ones, transitioning the team from kanban to a more scrum-oriented structure.
Now that everything was set up and the team could manage itself, it was time to do some coding! Right? Right?! No… It just doesn’t work that way. I spent most of my time in meetings figuring out what the team needed to do and making sure they grew in their role and within the company. I still managed to pack every non-meeting hour with intense coding sessions, and I found out I really could not miss it.
The engineering manager role was truly valuable in my journey. The dynamic you build up with the team members is priceless.
Staff engineer
About six months in, having a happy team and working well within the company, the senior principal engineer Zeke approached me. He asked if I didn’t want to transition into the staff engineering role. I had already given it some thought, but why would I go back to being an IC? It would be strange, wouldn’t it? My manager sent me an excellent article which got me thinking, what’s the best that could happen? What’s the worst that could happen? As a staff engineer, you are still in a leadership position, and you don’t need to manage people directly. I get to code more than I do now and still work with the teams, mainly on a technical level!
The journey I described above happened over roughly six years, from the first line of code to getting the “staff engineer” title, but that does not mean I have not worked towards this for only six years. To become a staff engineer, you need more than coding skills. Working as a DJ, organizing parties, and collaborating, I learned the importance of planning and juggling multiple topics. As film editor, I learned how important it is to listen, give feedback, and be critical about my work. Moving around the world has taught me to appreciate everyone around me, no matter the culture.
I feel that the staff engineer role is not only coding; it’s about searching for impact and uniting teams within the company to drive more significant topics that they can not tackle alone.
I rely on the people around me to get the work done, and if no one is available, I can do it myself! I try to write as much as possible to get fast feedback from my peers or the other developers within the company. Without the buy-in of the people around me, It wouldn’t be possible to do my job.
