Confluent Developer ft. Tim Berglund, Adi Polak & Viktor Gamov

Matthias J. Sax, a senior software engineer at Confluent and stream processing expert, shares his intriguing career journey from an electrician trainee at BMW to a key figure in Kafka Streams. He discusses the technical challenges in API design and backward compatibility while building Kafka Streams as a library tailored for microservices. Matthias also dives into his PhD work on stream processing, the inspiration from Java Streams, and lessons learned from deprecations. Lastly, he offers valuable advice on deepening expertise in the field.

Listen: https://confluent.buzzsprout.com | In this episode, Tim Berglund talks to his guest, Rachel Pedreschi (DeltaStream), about her career in pre-sales engineering. Her first job: rectory office assistant at her local parish. Her challenge/theme: working at early-stage startups to bridge sales, marketing, and engineering to reach product-market fit.Check out Tim and Rachel's previous podcast, Keyboard and Quill: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLihIrF0tCXdeJxpAJgbOsY48B9lD_w24v&si=5NjdA-Rss9Rsmyy1SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo 🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes. 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

Listen: https://confluent.buzzsprout.com | Today, Adi Polak talks to her guest, Peter Bell (gather.dev), about his career in software engineering leadership, CTO community building, and AI-driven development. Peter’s first job: electronics lab technician at their school (alongside shifts at Tesco). His challenge/theme: working at scale with AI adoption and change management.Check out gather.dev: https://www.gather.dev/SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo 🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes. 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

Viktor Gamov chats with Robin Moffat, a seasoned data engineer and Confluent DevRel expert in Apache Kafka. They explore Robin's journey from paperboy to tech influencer, highlighting his early days in computing and community contributions. Robin discusses critical Kafka topics including listener behaviors, configuring advertised listeners, and challenges with Oracle materialized views. He also shares insights on tackling complex engineering problems with a methodical approach and the nuances of Kafka Connect converters. A must-listen for tech enthusiasts!

Today, Tim Berglund talks to Neha Pawar (StarTree) about her career in real-time analytics and open source database engineering. Her first job: a year-long internship at NVIDIA. Her challenge: leading the technical effort to add native Parquet support into Apache Pinot.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo 🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes. 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

In this episode, Tim talks to Brian Sletten (Bosatsu Consulting) about his career in software development. His first job: working at a small communications company that built network matrix switch interfaces. His challenge/theme: overhauling credit card storage and security at a major hospitality company.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo 🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes. 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

Viktor Gamov, a Developer Advocate and streaming-systems expert, shares his fascinating journey from apple picking to tech innovation. He discusses key challenges, like designing in-memory data grid solutions with Hazelcast and implementing ultra-low-latency systems for financial trading. Viktor emphasizes the importance of curiosity and a non-judgmental approach in a rapidly changing landscape. He also highlights the significance of event-driven architectures and shares valuable career insights centered around mastery, purpose, and autonomy.

Tim Berglund, a prominent figure in streaming data and developer relations, shares his fascinating journey from a Burger King broiler steamer to the tech world. He recounts his early passion for coding, discusses a challenging firmware project, and his transition to web development. Tim sheds light on building unique data tools for passive components and his growth in engineering management. He reflects on the evolution of technology, the rise of open source, and the importance of embracing one's career journey amid feelings of imposter syndrome.

Adi Polak, a developer relations leader at Confluent, shares her fascinating journey from dog walker to building large-scale analytics at Akamai. She discusses the challenges of optimizing real-time threat detection and how collaboration shaped her career. Learn about the key innovations in analytics for identifying DDoS attacks and the importance of empathy and trust in engineering success. Adi emphasizes the significance of long-term investments in developing robust analytics platforms.

Weekly episodes launching Sept. 22! | Hi, I'm Tim Berglund. It's been about four years since I've been podcasting at Confluent, and "Streaming Audio" has been on hiatus for a little more than two, but I've got great news: we are back! We're back with a new name, a new format, and new hosts. Welcome to the Confluent Developer Podcast, where we talk to software developers of all stripes about some of the most interesting problems they've solved in their career. I'll be joined by my co-hosts, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov. And hey, you know, we're all basically Kafka people, so of course, we're going to gravitate towards experts in data streaming and the technologies relevant in that space. But you know what? We're not limited to that. Really, we want to talk to developers of all kinds about the toughest problems they've solved and how that process changed them and changed the environment around them. So join us. We're launching September 22 with weekly episodes on the Confluent Developer YouTube channel or wherever it is you get your podcasts. We'll see you soon.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo 🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes. 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.