One does not simply walk into a management position - what I learned during my journey from dev to CTO

In this session, I’ll talk about five factors that played a continuous role on my journey from being a backend developer to becoming a CTO: Decision making, stepping out of my comfort zone, being an introvert, being a woman and the people around me – and how to navigate them.

I‘ve had many different roles in my career, such as Drupal developer, Scrum master, Technical PM, Solution Architect, Team Lead, and much in between, until I got to where I am now. Along the way, there were some struggles, like finding my talents & interests, making decisions like giving up coding, fighting imposter syndrome and standing up for what I wanted after I figured out what it was. There were times when I got in my own way, and times when others did. And there was a lot of support from former and current bosses and teammates, all of whom helped me navigate this journey.

I want to share some of my lessons learned, and I think they can be relevant to managers as well as developers and people in similar positions: For managers, to help them understand the important role they can play in the development of the people in their teams. And for people who want to take the next step in their career, to help them decide which path to take and what the next steps might be for them.