AMA Senior Software Engineer

​Software Engineering AMA

​I’ve shipped production systems for 10 years at SportsBet, Flight Centre, Domino’s, Bunnings, Xero, and TechnologyOne - including Flutter mobile apps serving millions, React/Angular frontends, .NET/Node.js/Go/Python backends, AWS/Azure platforms, Kubernetes, event-driven microservices, and full CI/CD pipelines.

​Format
First 10 minutes: icebreakers in breakout rooms to meet others. Remainder: interactive session answering the top voted questions on Slido — submit anonymously, upvote, and join the back-and-forth discussion.

​When you join, you’ll receive the Slido link. I’ll start with the top 10 most upvoted questions.

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​AI in Software Engineering

• ​How AI coding tools (Cursor, Copilot, etc.) are changing daily workflows
• ​Skills that will matter most over the next 5–10 years
• ​Building AI-powered applications and integrating LLMs effectively
• ​Will AI replace or augment software engineers?

​Industry & Career

• ​Is software engineering still a strong career in Australia?
• ​University vs bootcamp vs self-taught outcomes and first-job success rates
• ​Realistic salaries, promotion timelines, and career progression
• ​Landing your first role and building a competitive portfolio
• ​Technical interview preparation and what companies actually test

​Day-to-Day Life

• ​What a typical week looks like at large Australian tech/product companies
• ​Working with designers, product managers, and stakeholders
• ​Code reviews, Agile ceremonies, and engineering culture realities
• ​Debugging production incidents and on-call responsibilities

​Technical Questions

• ​Flutter vs React Native tradeoffs in production
• ​React vs Angular architecture and scaling patterns with TypeScript
• ​Backend choices: .NET, Go, Node.js, Python — when to use each
• ​REST vs GraphQL, SQL vs NoSQL, monoliths vs microservices
• ​AWS/Azure, Docker/Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, and observability
• ​Testing strategies: unit, integration, end-to-end with Playwright/Cypress