#TheTechHustle Podcast 🎙

Backstage with BobbyD Featuring Asia Taylor

• BobbyD, D'Hustle and Raymond...don't call him RayRay

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Discover the exhilarating tale of Asia Taylor, who journeyed from intern to an integral force on Twitter's compute team, navigating the colossal compute clusters that pulse at the core of this social media giant. Our conversation with Asia peels back the layers of tech's complex world, revealing the tenacity and ingenuity required to thrive. She sheds light on the crucial transition from the explorative days of internships to the high stakes of managing infrastructure where even a minor glitch can ripple through the Twittersphere.

Embark on a revelatory exploration of the software engineering spectrum, where we share our own shift from Python and Java to the streamlined elegance of Go, and how mentorship can be a beacon through the stress-laden mazes of tech roles. We delve into personal narratives that underscore the lifelong commitment to learning and the pivotal role of guidance in climbing the tech industry ladder, highlighting how mentorship not only enhances skillsets but also fortifies resolve, especially for those carving pathways from underrepresented backgrounds.

Wrapping up, we spotlight the transformative influence of community and mentorship in propelling both personal and professional growth within the tech realm. We pivot from discussing the tactile satisfaction of hands-on coding to the immense fulfillment of nurturing the next wave of tech talent. Our discourse is a treasure trove of wisdom for any aspiring tech enthusiast, complete with actionable career advice for new engineers and a heartfelt nod to Asia for sharing her journey. Stay tuned for more electrifying conversations that could be the catalyst in your very own tech success story.

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Speaker 1:

All right, welcome, welcome. Welcome everybody to Backstage with Bobby D. I got my guy D Hustle with me what's good player. What's going on? Yeah, bring that music down a little bit. I want to hear your voice, man. What's going on? My man, yeah, all day, all day. We got a special guest with us Special guest here. Special, special guest. It's somebody that I've had the pleasure of being at the keyboard together.

Speaker 2:

Big pleasure of being at the keyboard together. Uh, big shout outs to asia taylor. What's up, asia taylor, bring it to the stage. Hi everyone, I'm so happy to be here.

Speaker 1:

Big shout outs to asia taylor um and first of all, thank you so much for uh coming and hollering at the tech hustle this is the crew right here, thank you, this is my guy d hustle.

Speaker 1:

He's gonna be in the cut. You know he's gonna hold it down, um, and then, obviously, we're gonna be here chatting about our time working together at the keyboard at a, at a really cool social media company, I don't, and the way that I like to describe working at twitter is I like to tell people like yo, I used to work at this really cool social media company. I don't know if you know it right. Um, it's the one that used to be the little blue bird and then everybody's like oh, twitter, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So asia gets to hold that title too, or that badge on her shoulder, working at twitter for a good time. Um, but let's kick off. Just give us a quick introduction to yourself.

Speaker 2:

Tell us a little bit about yourself, hi everyone. My name is asia, um. I'm from new york. I moved to miami during um. I've been in the tech industry for about like five years now Five years Shout out to that. Five years, it's been a little minute, and I graduated from the University of Miami with my major in computer science and a minor in math.

Speaker 1:

Hold on, hold on. She said she went to the. U kid.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I'm going to give it a five. I'm going to give it a five Always, holding it down you, I give it a five, I give it a five Always holding it down.

Speaker 1:

You know we in South Florida we always represent and big shout-outs to your journey, five years.

Speaker 2:

Can you believe that, my gosh, I'm getting old, my gosh.

Speaker 1:

You should see my grades. You talk about getting old, but Asia and I actually ran into each other right at the beginning of your career. Right Is Twitter the first place you worked.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Twitter is the first place that I worked.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Did you intern there at all?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I interned there during 2018. That was my last, my junior year, my junior summer year, so yeah, that was my first experience like corporate experience in the tech industry. Before that I only did research internships. Ah, a big round of applause. Yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 1:

And the cool thing about that is is that, uh, your journey starting off as an intern and then eventually getting a full-time opportunity, um, really, in terms of like, just me sitting back watching your journey, I was like, oh, that's why you're so good at the keyboard, because you had a chance to really, you know, get that chance to learn, develop, uh, and then get a full-time opportunity.

Speaker 1:

Because the thing that I want to bring up is that Asia and I used to work on this really cool team called the compute team, and let me tell you how quickly about the compute team. So the way that I describe it to people is is like, if you've ever heard of AWS, gcp or like a cloud platform, the compute team basically build the foundational computing infrastructure for Twitter, because we didn't really run in AWS, and the cool thing about it is that Asia, starting off from an intern and I believe there was maybe even one team before you got to the compute team- and we'll definitely talk about that, but you got to work on one of the world's largest compute clusters that has ever been created, right.

Speaker 1:

How do you feel about that in terms of your experience?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think working on the compute team was just a great first starter experience, I think, before I even started working full-time and even when I was interning, I really didn't have a good understanding of how does this app run. So, really understanding, getting an understanding of the hardware, behind it the software, and having a platform which all engineers at Twitter needed to basically deploy their services.

Speaker 1:

it just gave me such a better understanding of just how everything works, yeah for sure and, like I said, it's so amazing to hear that you got that at the beginning of your journey, because I think there's a lot of engineers that sometimes you don't really know how all the pieces connect together right lot of engineers that sometime you don't really know how all the pieces connect together, right, it's like uh, do you really have an impact in terms of twitter's success?

Speaker 1:

our team, 100 percent. 100 because we worked on something that if, if it went down, um not did every engineer, like you said, noticed it, but the whole world noticed it which was always like uh, intimidating to me to manage and I know it could have been intimidating.

Speaker 2:

I was terrified, absolutely terrifying.

Speaker 1:

But we'll get through some exercises that we used to work through to help reduce that feeling. Actually and this is a plug there's a talk that I did about two. No, no, actually it's about six months ago. The title of the talk is called Unmasking Imposters by Debugging Doubt, and it's talking about one of those exercises that we used to run, called Red and Blue, which we'll talk more about. But before we get back into talking about the compute team, tell me what was the first team that you actually worked on at Twitter.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I first joined Twitter on the capacity planning team. I actually didn't intern on it. Joined Twitter on the capacity planning team. I actually didn't intern on it. I ended up re-interviewing to get on a different team because I met a manager during my internship. His name was Thad. Oh, big shout-outs to Thad, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Thad is, and I don't mean to cut your story off, but he was one of the only black engineering managers and I was so grateful that you had an opportunity to work with him. He has passed on an RIP, that that is, but that was one of the most biggest achievements in terms of just me on the sidelines seeing is that you worked on the team with the black engineering manager. Big shout outs to him yeah so tell me a little bit about what you did over there with capacity.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so my time on that team was very brief, honestly, but yeah, so I joined the team. I ended up being the only engineer in the team. I think that they had some I don't know what happened before I joined, so it was just me and Thad. A lot of the work that I did was around helping engineers understand what resources they need for the following quarter the following year. So, yeah, I think that was most of the work. I don't remember exactly what I was doing at the time. It was just so long ago.

Speaker 2:

But, that is the high-level summary of what the team was about.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure, and that's the thing about us engineers is we always have other stuff coming up, and then recalling these stories sometimes is like actually, actually I don't even remember what I did.

Speaker 2:

It's all a blur at that point you know even better than that.

Speaker 1:

Imagine if you've ever read some code before and then you're reading the code like yo who wrote this? And then you go look at the source and you'd be like, oh, it was actually me. But yeah, so the capacity planning team back in the days, uh, was actually one of those organizations that I actually had a chance to work on too, because I actually worked on fleet management, which was before I joined compute and fleet management and capacity management kind of basically doing you know the hard work to telling the hardware team and the supply team like, hey, we need more capacity, we need more computers or we need more of a specific hardware component, and that service that we provided in capacity management was driven by writing code and automating a lot of the tasks and or developing nice user interfaces and things like that. So definitely big shout-outs to you working on that team yeah, that's great and automating a lot of the tasks and or developing nice user interfaces and things like that.

Speaker 1:

So definitely big shout outs to you working on that team. Yeah, it was great. Did you do front end, back end stuff, or what did you mostly do?

Speaker 2:

It was a little bit of mix of both. From what I remember, it was, oh yeah, actually what I did. One of my first projects was creating some kind of dashboard which showed which teams were using what resources and kind of like projecting that out. Yeah and so. Yeah, it was a little bit of both front end and back.

Speaker 1:

So, with that said, you know, we have software engineers, we have developers, we got systems and system programmers. So what's your most proficient programming language?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so mostly I work in Go. I've been working in Go mostly since I was working at Twitter. So, yeah, that's what I'm doing now too at Microsoft.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, golang is really popping over there. Big shout-outs to Golang. I'm always excited to hear that companies are also using and adapting to the new trends of a programming language and one of the benefits I always see about Golang is it can be compiled, and it is compiled so that you can get you know faster execution versus like an interpreted language like Python. But definitely, how was that transition and learning go in terms of? I know that wasn't your first language you learned out of school, right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, when I was in school I mostly started out with Java, which was in the programming. 101 class is, I don't know, kind of difficult yeah but it gives you like a good um grasp on fundamentals. Then moved on to python because I realized it had so many built-in tools for yeah, for interviewing, where you can just do anything at like with like one line of code so it's so easy um go.

Speaker 2:

Uh, it was actually the learning curve, wasn't that bad? Um, just because it's just like very readable and very easy to catch on, which I appreciate. You don't have to manage memory yourself. And I remember doing this learn Go by testing tutorial that I did, that the whole team did that. We kind of learned Go all at the same time when we started adopting Kubernetes at Twitter. So it actually made the experience pretty smooth. So can't complain.

Speaker 1:

Yes, what's smooth so she's dropping some gems.

Speaker 1:

Give her a little bit of like, yeah, learning go, uh, like you said, being that it's like a phonic language, um, and I, I'm one of those pythoners. I love python because it is such a phonic language and you, like you said, there's so many libraries, but transitioning from python to go was, uh, just as easy to adapt because it's readable, just like you said, um, but then you get so many great values around the, the latency compiling, and then, obviously, as it's becoming more popular, you start to get more libraries and stuff like that. So, big shout outs to your journey and I'm hoping she's inspiring y'all to to really develop these skills. That's what's up. So, uh, one of the things that I wanted to chat up with you about, and just in general about your journey at Twitter and some of the major projects that you've had and also I would say that there was some point that I actually kind of mentored you on a few really high-level projects is talking about this program that we had called Red and Blue. Do you remember Red and Blue?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, red and Blue. I loved collaborating on that project. I think it was a great opportunity. First of all, bobby has been running this Red and Blue exercise for years, before I even came to compute, and it was basically this exercise that helped get our engineers ready to be on call. And on call is honestly one of the most stressful and overwhelming things that you'll have to do in your journey as an engineer, in my opinion, especially when you're just starting out. So you have to know how to take care of our systems when things go down. Sometimes you might not even know the answer, so it's important you know where to look for the right resources and also how to loop in the right people to help you, because it's a team effort at the end of the day. So, yeah, this red and blue exercise was great because it helps prepare our engineers, and working with Bobby on this was just a great chance for me to just Thank you.

Speaker 1:

thank you, Give me a round of applause. Let's go, Bobby I mean, you know we can pay you to say that right now. Yo stop worrying about my sponsors, leave me alone. The hustle.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I was just so happy that Bobby, you know, passed down this knowledge that uh, me and our other teammates can run this exercise in the future. So, yeah, yeah, it was great.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, big shout outs to, to the agent. And let me tell you, asia was one of those that wasn't afraid of the exercise but was afraid of it. We was in a meeting room and it was like yo, we're going to run this exercise. It was like I was like you'll be all right, I promise you you will. And, like she said, it was really just one of those opportunities for us to give all new engineers, especially to the compute team, the feeling of what it feels like when the fire alarm turns on and the lights turn off. Right, it's like how and what do you do? And, more specifically, like Asia said, who do you contact? Because it wasn't you by yourself managing this world's largest you know, massive compute cluster. It was a team of some really bright minds and engineers and, being on call, you were the first line of support. I was actually reflecting in a book. That big shout outs to the book D-Hus. You want to give me some? I'm throwing plugs in there.

Speaker 1:

I feel, alright to throw plugs too. So I have a book that I'm working on. It's called Breaking Barriers my Journey to the Top in Tech, and there's a chapter in the book that's called the World Knows Me, but Y'all Don't Know Me Yet now. The reason why I label it that way is because our team compute whenever our system went down.

Speaker 1:

The world knows about it, but a lot of people don't know that engineers like you and me people of color, people that are underrepresented and definitely have had challenges of getting into these opportunities were the same engineers that worked and fixed and brought that system back up and big shout-outs to the whole squad at Compute. But what made us so effective during those times was running through exercises like this. So this exercise is one of those that are in my staple of support that I give to my mentees and talking about ways for you to become comfortable with being on call, but also ways that you can develop that resilience and also reduce the anxiety, because whenever that damn pager duty goes off, oh my gosh oh my gosh, it's like one of the craziest sounds that it drives me crazy, and it's like as soon as you start to have these experiences and or exercises under your belt, then that pager duty doesn't become like almost a heart attack.

Speaker 1:

It's like all right, put my boots on, let me go get in my laptop, get connected and see what's going on. So, um, definitely, big shout outs to you too, because, um, before I left twitter, I wanted to make sure I made an impact, not just in in your career journey, but also a few other mentees that I had was like uh, the last time I ran this exercise, I actually had asia and another engineer has become like the leaders of I ran this exercise, I actually had Asia and another engineer become like the leaders of the exercise. So I can kind of like pass it on to you all. And we did an awesome job to showcase the value around it, and I don't know if I've ever got a chance to tell you this face-to-face, but I was so proud of you both.

Speaker 1:

Like seriously like. It was like an eye-opener in terms of just the contributions that I've made, but also seeing your growth and where you were at in your journey.

Speaker 2:

That's fire, that's fire.

Speaker 1:

I'm always dropping but, truly like, I am so appreciative to watch you go from interns on one team to eventually compute and supporting compute to a point where it's like I know Asia's ready for her next promotion. I know Asia can go and kill this project right, or hey, she should be working on that and ultimately just on the sideline.

Speaker 2:

Because she's got that gem baby For sure. Right, stop playing.

Speaker 1:

On the sideline. I was, like you know, making sure the coach knew who was the best player in my book. But yeah, I just definitely want to give you your roses on that behalf, because that was one of my highlights of me when I was leaving was like yo age is good.

Speaker 2:

I know she gots it from here, yeah, and I also want to say that what you did was just a telltale sign of what a great mentor looks like and what a great senior engineer looks like. As you grow in your roles in tech, you realize that the work that you do is not just about how many PRs can you push or how much code can you contribute. It's also how can you help the other engineers in your team grow. So, yeah, definitely want to Shout out.

Speaker 1:

I'm getting a round of applause. Thank you Got to get a round of applause. Yeah, and let me tell you I've been off the keyboard for a while, so it's so great to hear this feedback that you have, and very much appreciative of Trulium. So what team were you guys in? Was it red or blue? So I'll give you a little bit more. So the red team was meant to be the team that breaks everything right.

Speaker 1:

It's more senior engineers and our role is to break this test cluster and then the blue team's role is to make sure that they can bring it up fast enough and or figure out things that potentially could have caused the system to go down. So I'm assuming when you guys break it in the red, the blue has no idea of how they broke fat and it's their job to figure out how to.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, yes, sign me up that's what's up.

Speaker 1:

D hustle. I appreciate you breaking it down like that because that value system around creating that red and blue exercise number one, the red team also had to be proficient because imagine if we broke it too much right yeah, they'd be like oh shit, we're stuck versus uh, tuning and tweaking a few things.

Speaker 1:

And also, what we really did was take incidents that we had in the past and recreate those same incidents. And then the blue team oh my gosh, it went from being terrified of the system to, after that exercise, everybody's chilling, everybody's good Like oh, now we know, and that was always the value system around running that exercise. What category were you filled in?

Speaker 2:

I was in the red team too. I also got to destroy.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that was great no doubt, and that's like, if you think about just Asia's journey to go from being a blue team member to a red team on our team.

Speaker 2:

That was a big accomplishment gems, that's love right there, big gems right and plug here.

Speaker 1:

Check out my book, because it's definitely going to cover more about red and blue and number two.

Speaker 2:

I've done a talk called and plug here check out my book because it's definitely going to cover more about red and blue.

Speaker 1:

Check out his book. And number two, I've done a talk called Unmasking Impostors by Debugging about talking about red and blue exercise, so check your boy out on YouTube. Get that connected, awesome, awesome. Now Asia. The other thing that we always have and this always happens to me whenever I talk to people about working at Twitter, and this always happens to me whenever I talk to people about working at Twitter is the first thing they say oh, were you there when Elon Musk was chopping trees and clipping birds?

Speaker 1:

and stuff like that and I just wanted to make sure everybody's clear. I wasn't sure if you got caught up in the layoffs and how that worked out, but tell us a little bit about that phase of Twitter that you went through.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Man, I don't even know how to describe it. Look at that.

Speaker 2:

She's like uh, acapella, yeah so, to be honest, it was an interesting time. Um, I know it was a scary time for a lot of people. Um, I don't personally think I was that scared just because, first of all, I don't have a family that depends on me right now, so thank the Lord. But also I did feel confident because I had been preparing for something like this always.

Speaker 1:

Keeping our ears to the streets. That's what's up.

Speaker 2:

So I've had mentors in the past recommend I think you might have even recommended to even just interview at least once a year, just to make sure you have your skills up, even if you don't take the offer, to see what's out there. So you're not afraid of it. Because everyone knows interviewing for software engineering roles is so stressful. Yeah, it takes like three months of preparation for lead coding, even if for skills that you might not even use in the job.

Speaker 1:

So it's very stressful.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, just that fact that I was already interviewing before that made me less nervous and confident that I could get another job if I had to, but it was very much a wake-up call as far as what I should be looking for in my next role. So the layoffs, from what I saw, were pretty random. A lot of just really impactful and great engineers on my team got cut. I stayed and I was a sweet two. I'm not really sure how they made the decision probably based on budgets, but there's no point of trying to rationalize it because who knows.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, it just made me really more aware of how I should be navigating my future roles, what I should be working on, make sure that what I do work on is impactful, I prioritize my, my projects properly, and then also that whatever skills that I'm learning in that job will be relevant, and I have kind of like a suitcase of knowledge that makes sense. As I transition to role after role, instead of just hopping around in different positions that just don't really correspond to each other, I think that I noticed that people that were starting to specialize were able to get roles faster, rather than generalists that maybe had a couple of years of experience in something that in different, a bunch of different things. So those are some things that I've noticed, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Shout out to Asia making it happen. Oh man, Asia just dropped a few gems and let me tell y'all, there's something called a rewind button on all of these things.

Speaker 2:

Right, Just make sure you rewind and listen to what Asia's dropping.

Speaker 1:

No seriously, the mindset is so inspiring that you caught this early, because you are right, keeping those knives sharp and, yes, interviewing always interviewing will make you unafraid of interviewing, especially when you need to go get it. And I tell you, just hearing your journey at that point is so inspiring because, even knowing that that situation was happening and going to happen, I knew that you were going to be good and definitely I was on the sideline waiting for the LinkedIn post to see what was going on, and definitely so, so grateful that you've had a chance to, you know, level up into the next role. One thing that I did want to bring up before we talk about your next role, because there's always life after Twitter and we definitely want to shout you out on that next role, because there's always life after Twitter.

Speaker 1:

We definitely want to shout you out on that Working at Twitter. We also had a chance to be a part of an ERG, an employee resource group called Blackbirds, and for me, it was one of those most impactful groups that really just helped me in my journey of becoming Bobby D in this field and also being a black person that works in tech in this field and also being a black person that works in tech. But I want to hear your journey and ultimately, like, how did it influence you being a part of that group Not just Blackbirds, but we also had Beats black engineers at Twitter.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, to be honest, I've actually. Before I joined Twitter, I never really thought much about how being a minority in tech would affect me. Luckily, I have not had any experiences where I felt like discriminated against or being treated differently on my team. I do think that one way it really did impact me is just where I see myself and how I envision myself when you think about your career progression. I think usually people can not usually, but sometimes people can say, oh, I want to be a manager, I see myself being a staff engineer, I see myself so-and-so.

Speaker 2:

I realized for myself that I never really thought that far. So and I think a big part of it was just, first of all, just not seeing. First of all, in my current company even I don't really see that many women or any women that are above senior plus or any black women at all barely that are senior plus engineers. So I think that kind of affects how you feel about yourself and what you think that you can do and what you envision for yourself. So, being a part of BEAT Black Engineers at Twitter and then also Blackbirds it was a really great community and I met some of the most inspiring mentors. Meryl was one person. I'll never forget that really took me under her wing.

Speaker 2:

Shout out to.

Speaker 1:

Meryl. I gave her a nickname Little Bit.

Speaker 2:

No, she was so amazing, really helped me navigate difficult conversations with my manager, understand how my career progression should go, and I remember one thing that she taught me was to show up with confidence and really advocate for yourself. So it was really a blessing meeting her. Chris Coco was another.

Speaker 1:

Big shout-out to my dude, chris Coco. What up player. I'm going to go see Chris Coco too. Oh really, he's going to be on the show for sure.

Speaker 2:

No, he was really such a huge impact. He was also, I think I don't know if he was a senior staff or a senior staff engineer.

Speaker 1:

In my book he was a principal distinguished engineer, for sure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he was amazing, very inspiring. And then just other engineers that showed you that we're all in this space because we're talented, we're gifted, we're very smart, we worked hard especially not that we're anything super special or anything, we all worked hard. And shows you that anyone can do it, and I just love the diversity as far as interests, um, and that we can all just come together and just connect. So it's just been, it's just been great. Yeah, what a journey. Oh my gosh, she. What a journey.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, she brought up some names and just brought me back because these engineers, like you said, was in an environment where we were working at a very high level, right, and you had to put respect on their names off, rip right, especially not even knowing their story. But seeing where they're at right now just ultimately was like oh yeah, we're killing it. We know, we have it, we can do it. We just need more people that look like us, right, and definitely the challenges that we have in organizations when we don't see enough people that look like us. And Twitter was one of those places that a lot of people don't know and I don't take credit for it all, but I definitely have had a chance to really influence that so that engineers like you when you came up, you actually had other examples to look up to and definitely want to encourage everyone not to only you know, ensure that you're catching those bags, but also bringing your community along and impacting your community, because those ERGs, employee resource groups, blackbirds and Black Engineers at Twitter really became a home for a lot of us and us feeling like we are amongst something outside of our immediate team. So big shout-outs to all the organizers of Beats, blackbirds and, yeah, you boys on the street. So y'all better pull up to the tech hustle, because I want to hear y'all voices too. All right Asia.

Speaker 1:

But the next thing I want to talk about is life after Twitter. So I left Twitter in 2022. I was off the can, I was off the, I was done. I was like yo, I wrapped up a cool project. I don't know if you've seen some of my emails that I sent out Very artistic, meme-focused emails about when I left Twitter and also like just one of the big projects that I worked on. But tell me what life has been after Twitter and your Elon Musk run-in.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, life after Twitter has honestly been great. I feel like it's a new wind in my career. To be honest, working during the pandemic especially that being the start of my year and and things being remote, and then also being on a team where I think, after a while, there was a lot of confusion as far as direction of that team. To be quite honest with you, um, I think changing roles really gave me, um, new direction and really an understanding that I am in control of my fate as far as when it comes to my career, for sure.

Speaker 1:

so, yeah, I'm at Microsoft now oh, hold on hold on, hold on hold on. What did she say I?

Speaker 2:

gotta hear it again. Yeah, I didn't hear it. Yeah, I got you de-hustled.

Speaker 1:

Oh, go ahead. Clear, clear, the mic say that again. Yes, microsoft big shout out to Asia.

Speaker 2:

I love it yeah, which has been cool, and it's awesome because my twin brother he also works there.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it's a family affair, baby. That's what I'm talking about Big.

Speaker 2:

Shout out to him His name again. His name is Aaron what?

Speaker 1:

up Aaron, Aaron, what up? Love that guy.

Speaker 2:

Is he also here in South Florida? No, he's in Atlanta. Now he's going to move to North Carolina.

Speaker 1:

But hey, he's at Microsoft holding it down. That's what's up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's been great. I think that I've learned a lot of the things that I learned about Twitter, like how to lead a project, how to communicate effectively with my peers has really helped me. One thing that I also learned at Twitter was obviously as we've been talking about through this this whole conversation is just the importance of mentorship.

Speaker 1:

I think, that Twitter.

Speaker 2:

When you're a new grad at least they really make sure to designate a specific mentor for you and kind of hold your hand with it. And then you realize when changing companies it's not like that, especially like when you're you're not a new grad anymore. So you really have to take it upon yourself to kind of like, if there's some engineer on your team that you admire their work ethic like or something that You're not a new grad anymore. So you really have to take it upon yourself to kind of like, if there's some engineer on your team that you admire their work ethic like or something that about them that you want to learn from.

Speaker 2:

You have to take it upon yourself to set up those one-on-ones, set up those meetings and really form that relationship. So I definitely learned that from Twitter that I took into this job. But yeah, I think that just since moving roles, my confidence has grown a lot as an engineer and it's kind of like sparked my interest back in this space.

Speaker 1:

She said I walk straight up. Now People look up at me. No, it's great, it's really great.

Speaker 2:

I think that I used to think that being a great engineer meant that you had to be like a genius or like there's some kind of like innate skill that you're born with that. But, mind you, that might be true for a lot of people that are just like you know. There's these engineers which are super smart, catch on really quickly, which is very true, um, but a lot of it is just how you spend your time and be smart about how you spend your time, what you do in your free time. That might help learn, help you learn faster, um, and how you work with your teammates to get the most out of what you're doing that day. I'm just saying organized. So I've definitely taken these skills to a new job.

Speaker 1:

So much jam over here.

Speaker 2:

I don't even know how to Dehustle.

Speaker 1:

Like I hope we brought an empty check.

Speaker 2:

We're going to have to write something for Asia.

Speaker 1:

Yo, I really do appreciate that insight and congratulations of getting to Microsoft Congratulations For sure. I remember when I saw them on LinkedIn and I'm over there like when is she going to get away, when is she going to go? And Microsoft.

Speaker 1:

I was like wow, and I was only just grateful for your experience that you had and then what you were going to bring to this new environment and this new culture environment and this new culture and everything that you said. I'm so happy that you've gotten to this point in your career, because now it's like you've you've gained all that value that we poured into your cup, and I know you're going to be pouring into others cups, so um big shout outs to you absolutely wow.

Speaker 1:

Well, where we at in time uh d hustle, are we about 30 minutes? Oh, look at that, we still got some more time. People give him a round of applause. We don't want to cut it off. Yeah, asia has the opportunity to ask me some questions. So, being that backstage with bobby d is pulling up with his old peeps at twitter and places that I've used to work, I want to give, uh, my guests an opportunity to ask me a question, if there are any um, and definitely want to, just to throw the mic your way to see what's good, what's up, asia?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I've been following you on LinkedIn. I know that before you left Twitter, we talked about how you had a calling to just meet with people in the community, share your experiences, be on stage, talk about what your work did, talk about your journey, and I see you doing that and I love that for you. I just want to know, I guess, what has been the most rewarding part about this work so far that you've been doing and starting your own thing, especially with your family involved asia?

Speaker 1:

thank you for that question. Uh, yeah, low-key asia's young, young, young royalty for me. You know she's over here asking me some royalty type questions and, yes, you and I had, uh had, conversations, especially when I was about to part ways. First of all, I was just trying to make sure that you were good. I let you know. Hey, I'm about to step out.

Speaker 1:

So I kind of gave you the game plan and I'm so happy that you're one of the people that I gave the game plan and you've already seen some of the work put into place because, yes, I've done so much and I've been screaming from the mountaintops because I am on this, calling this mission to really impact our community directly, and that's why I had to step away from the keyboard in the sense of I couldn't be that type of level of engineer because it just requires so much focus.

Speaker 1:

Right, and stepping away from the keyboard, really seeing where our community is at, only gave me more reasons why, like, oh shit, I should definitely be doing this because I know how much I can impact our community. So, one of the things that's been so valuable yes, I've spoken on stages around the world. I've spoken at different colleges, universities and stuff like that. But the thing that's so like rewarding to me is when I run into a mentee, talk to people just like you, or getting to see people's journey after three to five years or after they've had a chance to talk to me and see direct impact in their lives. That right there is foundational for me. It's pouring into my cup and I don't do it for no other reasons. Obviously, I want these bags.

Speaker 2:

D-hustle says you got to be on the hustle, right Got to be on the hustle.

Speaker 1:

But for me me what pays me is actually seeing you all be as successful as you are, because I wish I had somebody like me when I first started in the industry. And I'm only giving you these shoulders to stand up on and and it's not like you're not using them to your full potential, but you're giving back to me by being you and being successful and pursuing your career. So, if anything, um, I've been so grateful for the opportunity to be a mentor, to be a coach, to be someone that is influencing the tech industry, but the ultimate result is seeing what that does to people's lives, because that's the thing that really just hits me to my core.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, for sure, Shout out.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much. You so much for that question. It's always great to hear, you know, uh, some insights from other people.

Speaker 2:

Um, and you have another question line, yeah, I was wondering actually that's another one what's up? What's up? I have maybe like two or three more questions but um you know also just planning for this year. What do you guys have planned that you're looking forward to?

Speaker 1:

yeah. So, uh, thank you for that plug, because I'm about to drop a few things. So the tech hustle, uh, big shout outs to the whole crew d house is holding it down. I'm here, raymond, don't call him ray. Ray's at the crib holding it down, but the crew itself. We've actually established an online community. Um, it's on a platform that's called school skol. You can definitely check us out, and what we're doing is we're creating a space for people that are number one looking to get into tech, but also, if you're already at in-tech, join the community. Now, there's going to be a separate section for people that are in-tech, because that's the community that I really want to service. So what I'm really closing the void in is not getting people into tech, like a lot of other organizations are. I'm trying to support engineers like you that are in tech that may not have peer groups, people to look up to and or recreating what we created with beats.

Speaker 1:

Like it's like, hey, this is your home to talk about tech and there are people that look just like you, so that ultimately, we're feeding and actually pouring into your cup, even if we're not at the same company, but you're part of the same community.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So that's like one of the main driving factors around our online community is like hey, if you're in tech and you look around, you don't see nobody that looks like you. Come and highlight the tech hustle, Cause we got a lot of people and we can get you in peer groups so that you can develop.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's so great. I was actually just looking for a group. Well, working remote is very lonely sometimes, I have to say. And I was just looking for, just like an opportunity to just network with people that maybe are in Miami, that work in tech, that are also remote, so something like that maybe sounds good. It sounds a little bit along the lines of what you're talking about Asia's already signed up. Asia got free subscription to our premium services, so she's good signed up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, asia got free subscription to our premium services, so she's good to go. She's gonna help, we're gonna help you find that community, for sure, right and if you're on school. Hit her up, she's there, yeah, yeah awesome.

Speaker 2:

And then I guess my other questions are just around kind of reflecting. So are do you ever find think about going back to uh, being an individual like engineer anymore? Are you retired from that lifestyle?

Speaker 1:

some deep questions here.

Speaker 2:

I don't, I don't know, dd hustle you want so, uh, am I?

Speaker 1:

you know the truth, asia? I miss it, though I do miss it, um, because working at that high level of engineering um was so fulfilling for for me, because a lot of people don't know what we really built right, we talk about running one of the world's largest compute clusters. When it goes down, everybody knows it in the world, but nobody really knows the joy that you get in being able to administer things like that. One of the stats that I like to tell people is we manage hundreds of thousands of computers around the world running in one of our clusters, 500,000 containers Like where do you hear that? At right, you only hear it at these hyperscale, large, you know FANG-type companies. And if that's where I left right, like if I'm going back, that's where I got to go back to right. So I'm always intrigued about the technology, intrigued about what contributions I made, and it's not in my cards right now because I'm on this community journey, but hell yeah, I'm getting back at the keyboard.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I didn't know that. I didn't know that you had plans for thinking about that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I got to get back at it and really just increase my impact, right. So my main thoughts are is like as I'm building and growing these communities, I'm going to give you the real hustle. As I'm building and growing these communities, I'm gonna give you the real hustle. As I'm building these communities and actually getting people to develop skills amongst them, especially on our premium side, the house remember that's only for people that are really already in tech right is creating a company very similar to what we did on the compute team. So imagine if a black owned AWS company owned by Bobby D D Hustle's- holding it down right.

Speaker 1:

And what we're doing is building a very simplified interface so that you can schedule workloads anywhere in the world. So I'm giving you under the table. What we're doing is I will be at the keyboard pursuing that billion-dollar company soon.

Speaker 2:

Wow, I love that.

Speaker 1:

And definitely taking the community with me. So one of the mantras that I have for the community is that by being a part of this community, you're going to help influence and develop a billion dollar company yeah which is building a compute platform similar to what we did at twitter simplified interface, running work workloads anywhere in the world yeah, that's so cool so yeah, asia's getting it all out of me look at this.

Speaker 2:

yeah, I love hearing how you talk about your work and because it's so obvious the passion that you have and that this was the right choice, this whole field, going into this field was the right choice for you. So it's so great hearing the pride that you talk about your work with. So that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much, Asia. Any other questions you got?

Speaker 2:

I think one last.

Speaker 1:

We need two last questions. No, no, no, no, the time is yours.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, one question I would say. So I'm at year five. I guess that's kind of a little fresh compared to a lot of people of working. Is there anything that along your long career, that you would go back and change how you did things differently, or how you went about certain things that you would do differently?

Speaker 1:

That's a great question, great question. So one thing that I would would go back and change is mindset wise. One thing that I always felt is that my work spoke for itself. Nobody even knew, right, that we took care of so much stuff because it was just taken care of. Do right, uh, that we took care of so much stuff because it was just taken care of. But the one thing that I didn't do enough of is celebrate it, talk about it and tell people about it. Um, and unfortunately, I got caught up into this track where, uh, my peers were getting promoted over me and I was doing way more work than them, right? And or, uh, there were some situations people were getting credit for things that I did and they're getting promoted and nobody's looking my way.

Speaker 1:

Some situations people were getting credit for things that I did and they're getting promoted and nobody's looking my way is one thing that I would really stand on that our peer group does very well, which is talk about their accomplishment and publicize it to the whole world, including, you know, the teams blog posts and just publicizing it more, because I do feel like there's a lot of things that you and I've worked on that the world would never know about. But if we publicized it more and or teams that we worked with would know that individually, bobby's the contributor of this oh, I didn't know that Rather than this other individual that spoke about it is I would have played that game a little bit better.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And it's not like, hey, being humbled and being like, oh, you don't need to say it.

Speaker 1:

No, you need to be shouting it from the mountaintop, because you get passed up on so many times that when I left Twitter, I left Twitter as a staff engineer, but in my books I was close to principal engineer, senior staff, principal engineers, and it's because I got caught up. I missed the promotion loops, because I just didn't have my voice loud enough. So that would be something that I would encourage. Anybody, especially as you're working and being five, six, seven years, is always working towards moving to that next level, but also making sure that you're getting credit for all the great stuff that you're doing, because somebody else will step into that lane and or get promoted over you. So that would be something that I would change in my journey.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's actually great advice. I think I got that same advice from another mentor too. They actually told me they were like oh, a white man will come in the first day of working there and say, oh, how can I get promoted? What should I do? Like blah, blah, blah and talk about that. Meanwhile, someone else, a woman or something like that, or someone with a more quiet personality, humble personality, will just not say anything and hope their work speaks for himself and you'll see where they end up. So, yeah, learning how to advocate for yourself is like so important, so I really appreciate that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I got you, I got you. I got you Cause it's like when I stumble, I'm like it's all right that I stumbled, cause I ain't gonna let you stumble. So that's why I'm dropping these gems and hopefully everybody catches these.

Speaker 2:

Uh feedback that I'm giving, for sure my last question is so I know that you had kind of like a non-conventional, uh, career path and right now a lot of new grads are very stressed, or just people that are just entering their career are very stressed about, um, whether they'll have an opportunity to get a job. They're very discouraged about applications. What was the biggest piece of advice that you'd offer someone that's in this position, that's getting discouraged?

Speaker 1:

Great, great question because we have been going through a lot of layoffs and it's crazy how many great engineers are the ones that are getting their tickets and or their line item on a spreadsheet crossed through Is number one realizing that you are a line item on a spreadsheet.

Speaker 1:

No matter how much you think the company needs you. They can find somebody else at a cheaper rate and or they can just cut the project that you're working on. But number two is definitely just being mindful of the roller coaster that we're on in our industry. So I started way back in 2002, and that's right after the dot-com bubble and we were kind of on this trek heading back up right. But there was a roller coaster that we went through and that roller coaster, being either companies you know bankrupting and or massive layoffs, is number one. Just be prepared for it.

Speaker 1:

Like you mentioned earlier, one of the best gems that, if y'all don't know, there's a rewind button, click rewind so you can hear Asia talk about this is keeping your knife sharp and always be interviewing so that you're prepared for the next opportunity. Because you are right, this is a roller coaster and there are going to be some ups and downs. Now, people that are getting into the industry, this is going to be the most difficult time for you, because these doors aren't as open as they used to be, but they're still open. You just got to try harder and or put yourself in the right position. The thing that I would mention to a lot of mentees is that sometimes there's such a high level of companies that you want to work at I only want to work at Google, facebook, amazon, microsoft, like this is the only place that I work or I'm not working at all in tech Is during this climate.

Speaker 1:

You need to be okay with dialing that back down to like, hey, I'm going to work at a startup or I'm going to be working on a side project, I'm going to be contributing to an open source thing, or I'm going to be working on a side project, I'm going to be contributing to an open source thing. You're going to be continuing to contribute to something so that you can develop the real world experience outside of theory. And that's always my biggest advice to my mentees, especially if they're coming out of college getting into this industry is number one, it's all right. Google, facebook and them. They're going to be here in the next three, four years.

Speaker 1:

Maybe that's when the roller coaster is back on the incline right and then you apply for that. But that position, that right there at the startup that just started, yo don't, don't, don't, not walk by a door and not walk through it. You know what I'm saying Is work towards getting those opportunities and developing skills. Developing skills because then, when it's time for those companies because, like I said, we're on a roller coaster to increase hiring You're right there in the front line, not only with out of college in terms of a degree, but now you have work experience, which is key.

Speaker 1:

So that would be my main advice for everybody that is experienced this downward slope and the roller coaster we're on is just know that it's going to come back up. Keep at it, keep pushing and if you do have an opportunity to take something a little bit less because it's not that big thing companies walk through that door and I guarantee you three to five years. They're going to be begging for you to work for them. Yeah, that's what's up? That's some gems just in case nobody knew, because it's like I'm writing it down well, asia.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for coming through. Thank you. This is great this is a great conversation and hopefully you feel real safe and comfortable in our studio setup.

Speaker 2:

We over here in.

Speaker 1:

WeWork in Wynwood hanging out in Miami. This is our first stop in our tech tour that we're doing. We are doing a nationwide tour going to 10 cities, pulling up a lot of friends and colleagues of mine and talking about our journey in tech. And guess what? This is our first stop and talking about our journey in tech.

Speaker 2:

And guess what? This is our first stop. Oh great, I'm honored. Cue up the music for us, real?

Speaker 1:

quick D-Hustle so we can close it out. Oh my gosh. Well, I want to say thank you all so much for tuning in to our second special guest here on Backstage with Bobby D. I promise you you're going to love all the remaining guests I have. And remember there's a rewind button because Asia was dropping some gems. Yeah, yeah, cue that sound Whenever you hear that sound. That's what the section you need to go through, right Again, asia, thank you so much for pulling up hanging out with us. D-hustle always holding it down my guy.

Speaker 1:

And again, keep tuning in, because I got some more guests pulling up. How I let you boy is Bobby D.