When I started working retail, I thought it’d just pay my bills till I figured out my “real” path. But somewhere between endless shifts, messy racks, and customers who showed up tired or hopeful, I began to see patterns—people, moods, stories. I learned how to read a room, calm tension, and turn frustration into trust. Now I manage a team, and the job feels different. Real. Retail taught me more about human nature and leadership than any classroom ever could. Funny how growth sneaks up on you.

What's the biggest chance you've seen in students over the years? For me, the biggest shift is attention and follow-through. I don't think students are "worse" in some simple old-man-yells-at-cloud way, but the stamina feels different now. I find myself building in more structure than I used to: shorter directions,more reminders of what finished work actually looks like. Curious what others are seeing. Is it motivation, phones, reading stamina, parent pressure, behavior, something else entirely?

Have you ever joined a role where language expectations shaped how you showed up at work? I am a native English speaker, yet I sometimes rely on basic sign language in tech environments to collaborate clearly with teammates who communicate differently. That experience has reminded me that accessibility and adaptability are real skills, not just nice to haves, especially in global teams. How often do hiring processes truly value communication flexibility alongside technical skills?

Just ran into one of the students at a coffee shop. I give him a hard time in class because he's never focusing, and tbh, I thought he was going to want to steer clear. But he actually looked so very happy and asked if he could join me at my table, and had a full-fledged conversation with me. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it felt, and how learned he is about art and history. Do you make the wrong assumptions about your students sometimes?

During a case interview, how is it viewed if a candidate struggled a bit understanding and structuring 1 math question, but they tried to offer ideas, were clear in what they were trying to understand, and eventually came to the correct math approach and solution? In addition, the candidate didn't struggle with other math questions, didn't make any mental math mistakes, and delivered good structured qualitative insights quickly. Thank you!

Laziest thing you seen a customer do? I was opening the other day and we have two entrances so I always open the man side first but I was waiting on my cashier to come up and my cleaning lady said it was a customer waiting on the other side. So I get there and I open the push doors first and she waiting for me to open one sliding door and then watched me walk in through the push door and waiting for me to open the other sliding door.

Got a new head of creative recently. Watching my boss, his partner and my partner all completely change their personalities to fit in with the new guy is insane. They’ve even changed how they dress. All three are terrible people in uniquely Machiavellian ways but watching them go full mask on for this new guy is truly remarkable. The lack of authenticity is astonishing. How do people live like this?

What’s the hardest concept you’ve had to learn in tech? For me, it wasn’t a coding language or framework—it was realizing that you can’t learn everything at once. Early in my career, I thought I could read code and instantly “get it.” But understanding complex systems means breaking things down and learning components first. Curious—what’s been your toughest learning curve? Drop it below 👇

To use an analogy many of us are familiar with… Practicing law at a firm as a person of color feels like being the guest at a cookout where your friend was invited, and you were just brought along. Your friend knows everyone, feels at home, and moves through the space with ease. But as their guest, you don’t know anyone, and the atmosphere can feel awkward, isolating, and even unwelcoming.

When I started coding, I used to think being a “good engineer” meant knowing every framework, every shortcut, and every algorithm by heart. Now, after a few years in the field, I’ve realized it’s more about how you approach problems than how much you know. I’m curious, what’s something you believed about software engineering at the start of your journey that turned out to be completely wrong?