Hello again, friends 👋

It's February and we've stopped saying Happy New Year, but as this is our first newsletter for 2023 I will say welcome back.

There's a cautious vibe out there in the market, and for good reason. To see a silver lining, in many ways nature is healing and it's not as bad for engineers as you think. interviewing.io has a good write up about the recent layoffs and how they've impacted engineers. The data is US centric and in our view, Australia is a little sheltered in comparison.

To brighter news - we're excited about many of our favourite in-person events coming up, like RubyConf next week. Will we see you there? 

Finally, we sent out invitations to our 11th birthday party! It's happening Thursday 9th March. If you didn't receive an invite, reply and we'll fix that up. 

✌️

Coming up

ROROSyd: Tuesday Feb 14 (Hybrid)
With RubyConf also on that week, there should be a buzz in the air. 

SydJS: Wednesday Feb 15(?)
After a glorious return in January, we can assure you that the vibe is great as ever. Waiting to see if February is locked in, but if so we highly recommend you snag an RSVP.

Sydney Technology Leaders, Thursday Feb 16 
We're sponsoring and this month's meetup is Data: what can it do for you? 

Sydney CocoaHeads: Thursday Feb 16
A wonderful long running iOS meetup, hosted by our friends at Bilue.

AWS Summit Sydney: Tuesday Apr 04
April might feel far away, but our good friend Kris Howard says spots are filling up fast.

Friends

Let us introduce you to Jo Montanari:

Introduce yourself
Hi, I’m Jo and I’m the CTO for modo which is a mindful productivity app to help people stay present and focus on what matters most. I have gone back and forth between coding and managing, and this is my third time swinging back across the engineer / manager pendulum. I also love quilting and sewing (aka buying way too much pretty fabric!) which I started doing during COVID.

What do you do for work?
We are a team of 4 at modo, all came together last year in August and went full-time in October. I’m now back on the tools, building the app on Google Firebase and React. I’m also looking forward to learning more about ReactNative soon! We are looking for beta users who are feeling overwhelmed and juggling a lot in their life. If you’re interested in what we do and would be willing to give our app a go and provide feedback, we’d love to hear from you! You can also join our waitlist if you would like to hear when we go live.

Any podcast you are currently listening to, or a book you are reading?
I’m not really a podcast person but I do enjoy reading fiction. I’m reading a funny book at the moment called The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. My mum read it when she visited recently, and she enjoyed it so much, I wanted to try it!

What do you do outside work?
Lots of sewing! But I also enjoy eating out and trying new restaurants. At the moment my top two Melbourne restaurants are Coda and Laura at Point Leo Estate on the Mornington Peninsula.

What is your favourite tool or resource, and why?
Right now I’m really enjoying the Epic React course by Kent C Dodds. I’m doing it with a friend, which makes it even better. Even if you know React, you can still pick up some great tips. Frontend Masters has also been invaluable.

Toughest work moment?
I’ve had a few tough moments when I got feedback that surprised me because how I thought of myself didn’t match up with how others thought of me. It was tough in the moment and could take a while to process.

Most rewarding work moment?
It’s been very rewarding being back on the tools and building a product that I’m truly passionate about. I’m a creator at heart and seeing people using what I’ve built is very satisfying.

Your one sentence work-related advice
When I was thinking about whether to join modo, my future-CEO said “follow your energy”. Find the thing that energises you and do more of it, it will make you more motivated and happier in what you do. That advice really stuck with me.

Your one-sentence hiring-related advice
Hire the people with the right leadership and people skills, and don’t underestimate the value of people who are able to be the glue. You can teach them your tech, but it’s harder to teach people skills.

Feature Job

Full-stack Ruby on Rails Developer
Be part of a small, collaborative team that use React and Ember on the front end, and Ruby on Rails on the backend to build products that have a positive impact on the environment.

For more opportunities head to our website or sign up for our job alerts.

Reads & listens

Debbie spent some time during the holiday break reading Barbara Kingsolver Demon Copperhead.

Fiona was busy reading up on Viola Davis's memoir.

JP recommends A Slight Change of Plans podcast. 

Steve's partner Jess subtly recommended Darria Long's TED talk about how to triage your busy life.

Before we go

We've gone and done it. Actual ducks in a row.