Luca Sartoni: How I made a career in the Tech industry writing horrible code
Just one week left to Codemotion Milan 2015!
There will be a lot of interesting talks: for the motivational sessions we are really excited to have Luca Sartoni with his talk “How I made a career in the Tech industry writing horrible code”.
Luca is a media professional with more than a decade of technical and marketing background. Thanks to his extensive experience in different business environments, from SMEs to large corporate projects, Luca helps companies scale up their business adopting data driven strategies. He does not believe in Santa Claus, magical spells and everything that is not backed up by facts. He is a Growthketeer at Automattic. In addition to his consulting background, he’s a well-renowned blogger (http://lucasartoni.com/) and a speaker in the online communications industry.
Hi Luca, can you give us a quick introduction to your talk?
It’s a lifetime story on how it was possible for a mediocre programmer like me to build a skillset that allowed to contribute actively to top class projects.
What are the main challenges in managing a distributed company like Automattic?
Automattic has a very peculiar way to manage resources. Having 400 people all over the world require a high dose of self-accountability and self-management. Our team leads have the role of keeping things together, more than traditional management roles and all of us, given the flat hierarchy take care of making things happen. The main challenges reside in making sure everybody is on the same page and obstacles are quickly removed from the path.
Any tips to ppl interested in working for a distributed company?
Distributed work offers flexibility, freedom, and personal development. However, it’s not for everybody. It requires self-management skills, work ethics, and the ability of communicating timely and precisely.
If you could improve one thing in tech conferences, what would it be?
Less Tech in tech conferences and more cross contamination from other industries. We always listen to the same stuff over and over again while there would be so much to learn from other industries.
Is there any book you would suggest related to what you do?
Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun
What worries you the most in the IT industry?
The disconnection that the IT industry has from other industries. We tend to forget real people’s issues.
Totally random: What’s your current music album/song on repeat?
The current song is Return of the Mack by Mark Morrison as part of the playlist “Master of None, Season1”, the latest TV Series with Aziz Ansari on Netflix. Best TV Comedy of the season and the soundtrack is so great.
Thanks a lot Luca for the insights, see you next Friday!
