Josh's diverse background and self-taught skills define his success as a staff engineer.
Incident management principles from other industries can be applied to improve tech incident response and efficiency.
Deep dives
Josh Caterland's Non-Traditional Path to Staff Engineering
Josh Caterland, a Staff Software Engineer at a print and mail company, shares his unconventional journey into software despite a lack of formal background, starting with a degree in French. Transitioning from customer support into QA testing, he gradually taught himself programming and progressed through various technical roles. His wide breadth of experience and self-taught skills define his success as a staff engineer.
The Value of Incident Management Experience
Josh's significant interest in incident management stems from his experience learning from experts with backgrounds in both IT and firefighting. He focuses on the structured approach to handle unexpected events, applying similar principles to incidents in the tech industry. By formalizing roles and responsibilities, incident management ensures a systematic response, allowing technical experts to focus on problem-solving.
Driving Initiatives and Reducing Manual Processes
Josh's role extends beyond technical tasks to include incident response and reducing operational toil through automation. He introduces incident management practices and streamlines manual processes within his organization. By driving initiatives like incident response improvements and reducing manual tasks, he enhances overall efficiency and reliability.
Influencing Through Authentic Connections and Knowledge Sharing
Josh emphasizes building personal relationships to influence peers and junior team members, fostering open communication and collaboration. He initiates channels like an engineering book club and shares technical insights to create a vibrant learning environment. Through pair programming and mentoring, Josh demonstrates the value of collaboration and knowledge sharing in fostering team growth and development.
Today’s guest is Josh Kaderlan, Staff Software Engineer at Lob, a direct mail and address verification API company that automates and simplifies direct mail and address verification, giving businesses greater flexibility, visibility, and accuracy of offline communications and data. There are so many different and non-traditional paths to becoming a staff engineer and, in today’s episode, you’ll hear a bit about Josh’s; starting in quality assurance, moving into development, and ultimately ending up where he is today, which he attributes to his wide breadth of knowledge and the valuable lessons he learned along the way. We discuss why Josh considers himself a generalist, the role that incident management plays in his work, and how he influences his peers by cultivating authentic relationships. Most important to Josh is how the work he does improves the experience of his colleagues and provides value to customers, and he shares some of his tips for staff engineers and organizations looking to have a similar impact. Tune in today to learn more and receive some practical advice and resources!
