How does a philosophy geek whose life aspirations were to study it at the highest level, and then become a philosophy professor make an abrupt career change? Simple - have a life-altering experience that makes you question EVERYTHING. Learn more about Diana Todea's unlikely journey from philosopher to techie, starting out in a tech call centre, and making her way to Developer Experience Engineer at Victoria Metrics.
Key takeaways:
About our guest:
Diana is a Developer Experience Engineer at VictoriaMetrics. She has worked as a Senior Site Reliability Engineer focused on Observability. She is an active member of the OpenTelemetry CNCF open source project, co-organizer of Cloud Native Days Romania, co-lead of neurodiversity working group (part of CNCF initiative merge-forward) and supports underrepresented groups in tech.
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ADRIANA:
Hey everyone, welcome to Geeking Out, the podcast, in which we dive into the career journeys of some of the amazing humans in tech and geek out on topics like software development, DevOps, observability, reliability, and everything in between. I'm your host, Adriana Villela, coming to you from Toronto, Canada.
ADRIANA:
And geeking out with me today, I have Diana Todea. Welcome, Diana.
DIANA:
Hi Adriana. How are you?
ADRIANA:
Lovely. How are you?
DIANA:
Yeah. Excellent. Here in Valencia, Spain.
ADRIANA:
Awesome, awesome. Now, is it warm? We're recording this in January. It's frickin cold here in Toronto. It's like it's zero, but it feels like a cold zero. How about in Valencia?
DIANA:
Well, it's not that bad, but, it's like around 12 degrees, maybe. But it feels a lot colder because of humidity.
ADRIANA:
Oh, yeah. That... That'll get you. That'll get you. I miss the 12 degrees. I think we had a 12 degree day last week on Friday. I’m like, yay, I can wear running shoes instead of boots. So it was glorious. Well, cool. We are going to get started with our icebreaker questions. Are you ready?
DIANA:
Yes.
ADRIANA:
Okay, first of all, are you left handed or right handed?
DIANA:
Right handed.
ADRIANA:
All right. Do you prefer iPhone or Android?
DIANA:
Android.
ADRIANA:
Do you prefer Mac, Linux, or Windows?
DIANA:
Mac.
ADRIANA:
All right. Do you have a favorite programing language?
DIANA:
No, not really, but, I've been, programing in Python, although I can switch to something else if, you know, I find it easier, more convenient.
ADRIANA:
Cool. I'm a huge fan of Python myself, so. Yay, yay, Team Python. Awesome. Do you prefer dev or ops?
DIANA:
Dev. Dev, for sure. Yeah.
ADRIANA:
All right. Do you prefer JSON or YAML?
DIANA:
Oh. Those are really hard questions. Yeah. We like. Okay. Neither. But.
ADRIANA:
Fair, fair. If you had to choose the one that you hate less.
DIANA:
Yeah. I don’t know.... maybe YAML?
ADRIANA:
Fair enough. Fair enough. Next question. Do you prefer spaces or tabs?
DIANA:
Spaces.
ADRIANA:
All right. And do you prefer to consume content through video or text?
DIANA:
Both.
ADRIANA:
And then finally, what is your superpower?
DIANA:
My superpower, I don't... maybe I, I think, being a polyglot. So I speak, like, five languages, but, I really know very well only four. So I'll just say five to impress more people. But I forgot the fifth one. So I think that will be my superpower.
ADRIANA:
What are what are the five languages?
DIANA:
Right. So, Romanian, my native language. English, French, Spanish. And I used to know German.
ADRIANA:
Ooh. Very cool. That's amazing. I'm always so impressed by people who not only know multiple languages, but can communicate effectively in multiple languages, like mad skills. And do you, do you like, when when you, create content? Have you created, content in different languages?
DIANA:
Yeah. So, this is something that's, Yeah, definitely. So I've been reading or writing in, in Spanish, and Romanian. So I'm, I, the, created last year, brand new community, actually, for OpenTelemetry, for the translations in Romanian. And this year, I'm actually going to produce a lot more content in, in Spanish and hopefully French as well. So yeah, that's so many dimensions.
ADRIANA:
That is very cool. I, I definitely want to get back to the OpenTelemetry work that you do. Because I think it's it's really cool. But first, I love to talk, to my guests about, like, their tech origin stories. Did you always have an affinity towards tech from an early age, or did that come later in life for you?
DIANA:
Yeah. No, definitely. I wasn't like a geek in tech. I was a geek in foreign languages, and so a geek on the other side. Let's say how I say, like, literature. You know, like, not the math. Not the math subjects, basically. So, yeah, I mean, I went to, actually, since, primary school, I did the foreign language. So my first, foreign language I learned was French, when I was eight. Then I started with English, and a bit of German. So by the time I entered high school, I entered into in, bilingual, class. So. Yeah, at my high school. So I did, the I mean, I did all the high school in French and English, like, it was like, advanced kind of, studies of French and English. But, yeah, I, I never describe myself as being a geek in, in the sciences or the tech. That that came later, like, really late. So maybe that's my story. Unique story about that.
ADRIANA:
That's cool. So what did what did you study in university?
DIANA:
I studied philosophy, so I was super nerd of philosophy. I loved it so much. I discovered this one, in high school. So, because I don't... in high school, I, I like to read a lot. So I wasn't having, you know, the prototypical high school fun that I should have had, and I was spending my time with books or doing theater or whatever. And then at one point, I discovered in library like, philosophy, I was like, I like this stuff, you know? And, I was like, yeah, maybe I should apply at the university for philosophy. I was like, and everybody was like, what are you doing with philosophy? But it's not like a real career. Like, are you crazy? What are your parents going to say about that, you know? Like... I don't care. I mean, in my head it was like everything, like, you know, you should go with your passion. You should study that, then later, just figure it out. And actually, I did that. I studied and I, I applied for the philosophy faculty. I did the whole four years. I mean, back in my day it was like four years, and I really went, like, full crazy. So I remember that, I did the Master’s, then I did another Master’s. Then I applied for PhD. I went to France for the Erasmus. Actually, I had a year in, in France for the Erasmus scholarship. And then I applied for a PhD, scholarship. I got it, and I went to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
ADRIANA:
Cool.
DIANA:
So I was like, I was really determined to be, an academic, actually, like deep crazy, you know, and, my bachelor degree was on political philosophy, actually. On anarchist capitalism. And then, in France, I did a Master's thesis on, phenomenology and metaphysics in French. So I wrote that in French. And then when I came back to Romania, I applied for a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, for political philosophy again. And I was supposed to do like a full, degree of PhD, but in my second year of PhD, I got demoted, sort of like, I would say, downgraded by my, professors, which was like a real shock because your professor supervisor should have your back, not you know, downgrade you. But anyway, it was like a weird thing. But in the end, anyway, I was happy, afterwards that it happened like this. And I, instead of actually finishing the PhD degree I finished an end field thesis, which is like the next under it. And I published, I published my book, actually, I, I finished it successfully. And then I came back home to, to Romania because I had, like, a scholarship contract to come back home. And I didn't want to, actually, I didn't want to be a professor in my university because I, the professors, I, actually offered me a job there. I didn't want to, and, the next thing that was available on the market at that time in Rumania, was IT. I had zero skills about IT. But luckily for me, they were offering, the training on, on the job. So I was like, yeah, okay. I signed in, and that was like, my first, let's say, IT job, without knowing anything about technology.
ADRIANA:
Oh my God, that is such an interesting way to get into tech.
DIANA:
Yeah, that was mad crazy, because I, I come from a family of engineers. So my, my grandfather, my father, they all worked, in, I would say, as, as engineers at the railway. So they were like. They, they did like, like, really, how can I say, electronics. So actually, my grandfather was responsible of, a big project in Romania to to supervise the electrification of railways in Romania. But like, in his time. Yeah. So he was like a real dude doing engineering stuff. Then my father, did that as well. And then my brother studied also polytechnics. Then at that point I was like, no, man, I'm not doing that. Don’t get me started. I mean, I know maybe my brain could do it, but I definitely want to explore other venues. But, in the end, you know, I got pulled into tech because, that was like, a very good job, to be honest. So. I'm still doing this after 15, 16 years later. Yeah.
ADRIANA:
That is so cool. Now question for you because I feel like a philosophy, like all the work that you've done in philosophy, like the undergraduate, the graduate work, almost like, primes your brain for a job in tech, right? Doesn't part of philosophy involve like, classes in logic and stuff like that as well? Or.
DIANA:
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So there's also, in the university, they teach you two, classes, two different classes of logic. So one is like sort of like a basic one, and one is more advanced. So you cannot get rid of that. And actually that's freaking hard. I actually got... they failed me on the advanced logics because it was so hard. And we had like a crazy professor. But yeah, definitely. It's like, it's very math-like, you know, so, you learn like, all the thingies. And it was like really, really cool. And actually all the abstraction, all the, arguments that you need to write your theses and your papers are, let's say, very, very abstract. So, it's not like literature, basically. It's like. How do I say, the weird, sister in the family of, you know, non-technical one of the subjects is uh, closer to mathematics, as it can be, let's say.
ADRIANA:
That's really cool. Now, you know, I, I wanted to, ask you because you mentioned, like, when you were, working towards your PhD in, in Edinburgh and you got downgraded and you said that ended up being, a good thing for you. And I, you know, I think it's it's worth calling that out because I think there are so many times in life where, like, crappy things happen and it's like. And at the end of the day, it's like it ends up being disguised as a good thing. You just don't realize it at the time. I'm not saying that applies to everything, but it is kind of nice to see that sometimes that happens. So how did that end up? How did that end up turning from like, this crappy thing to a good thing in your life?
DIANA:
Yeah. No, totally. I, I think that was, I mean, at the time, I was really so mad and so infuriated because I was, like, really, really passionate about what I was doing. I had all my life planned out. Everything. You know, I was like, really... And, you know, on on being, in philosophy. And then I got so disappointed about everything, you know? So it kind of like for me was like a cold shower, basically of reality, because up to that point, I was like 26 or 27. Everything went perfectly in my life. So no. How, like her, those no problems, everything was went this well, you know it is it can get. So that was like the real, like, life lesson, you know, that was that was a point of my exam when I actually understood that life is not supposed to be like in the movies, you know, so that there was a catch just right there. And I was like, I took it well, but also hard. So I kind of, like, swallowed up all my pride, like all the rage I had. Like, I was literally about to kick my professor’s head off. Like that moment.
ADRIANA:
I can imagine. I can imagine.
DIANA:
I was like, it was like a pure rage inside me. Because also it was a frustration obviously built after years of, you know, sacrifice and learning and everything. And it was like, what am I supposed to do now? You know, it's like also or the thing that people are not prepared or like, let's say like, young generations are not prepared for failure, right? So do you take, for example, like, young young people that are so determined to do something or they're like overachievers or they're like always pushing themselves, I'm going to do this and that. And then the first failure, you're going to see them drop really low, you know? They're not accustomed. They don't know how to deal with failure. And this is I think, the point when you say, you know, like you saying in the movies, you either rise or you got to just, be down, you know, and in that point, I think it was like, luckily for me was, like a struggle, but I could also manage it in the same time. So I, I took it, seriously. But I said, look, I'm going to go ahead, do my work. Just shut up, Diana. Maybe maybe there's some reasoning there in the universe that this is happening. And I did my work, and I think that was the point where I understood. Man, doesn't doesn't matter. You have to honor yourself. You have to finish it. You have to struggle, go through it. And just like, focus on, the future. And afterwards, I like I, like you said, I didn't know if that was a good thing or not. But several years later, maybe five or something like this, I was like, this is beginning to shape in a direction which I like. Right? So when the moment that was not... I was already starting in tech, I was like, really at the beginning of everything to, to learn. I had so much to learn. But slowly and slowly I, I kind of like, as soon as I got out of that beginner bubble I understood, no, this is actually like, a good job. I could pick out my projects, I could go to other countries. You know, I'm not like one of these, like, boring jobs, office jobs where I'm get stuck there, like, all my life. And after ten years or, I don't know, I actually met a few years ago, maybe five years ago, one of my, colleagues that was at the PhD at the same time with me, and I got scared because I was happy. I was looking young-ish, and that person wasn't. That person was sad. Was like, looking older, you know, that man was supposed to look. And he was, like, constantly struggling with, finding the next job. I was like, man, I'm so happy that this didn't work out for me in the way it should have. So yeah, ever since I think, the universe planned it great for me.
ADRIANA:
I, I love that you emphasize, you know, the importance of failing, because you're so absolutely right on that. I think, I think not only are kids not prepared to fail these days, I also think, like, high achievers have this, like, very high expectation on themselves as well. Like, I, I grew up as a, you know, an overachiever in, in high school and university. And I remember the first time I failed a quiz in university and, I’m like, how dare this happened to me? How could this happen? Like, you almost feel entitled. It's like, no, no, I'm a high achiever, I work hard, I'm smart, I deserve this grade. But then for me, it was a huge wake up call because, I realized for that quiz, I actually I slacked off and and so then it kind of forced me it was like a wake up call of like, oh, you you got to actually, like, pay attention. And I was dating this guy at the time who was like.
DIANA:
You know one of those
ADRIANA:
annoyingly smart people who, like, don't even have to go to class and they know what's going on? And, so he was skipping class. I'm like, I'm smart too. I can skip class, too. And I realized I am not that kind of “smart”. I am a “have to attend class to to know what's going on”, kind of smart. And so that that was that was a wake up call for me. Yeah. But like failure takes on so many forms. And, and like, we learn so much more from from it.
DIANA:
Yeah. True. And I think this is so important, I think, for me definitely at that time was something like a very. And it hurt for quite a long time because I'm this kind of person that, you know, you know, introverts have this like unique feature that they keep on, like something that happened billions of years ago and that they, you still think about it. And they, you know, they have like this great memory. They have everything, you know, like they remember like, who cares? Like in the grand scheme of the universe, nobody cares. Like literally nobody. And also it was like, for me was like, I let it go slowly and slowly because other things happen in life that, you know, piled on, too, so I was like, this is not important. So you're going to get other like lessons, important life lessons, and you're going to understand that you need to be modest and you need to be. How can I say, put down in a way like, you know, life needs to, like, properly set you in your corner because otherwise you will not understand other important lessons. You know, like, I think I'm, I'm happy that I got that wake up call then, because it could have been a lot worse later. So. Yeah.
ADRIANA:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's the the most perfect way of, of putting that. Now, I wanted to go back to like, your first tech job. So what was your first tech job?
DIANA:
Oh, yeah. I'm so embarrassed to say this. Like, it was one of the, privileged persons to be, I would say the call center person right?
ADRIANA:
Oh, my goodness, that that builds resilience.
DIANA:
Oh, yeah. So imagine, you know, you are like a totally introvert who hates speaking on the phone. And then you're put to speak with total random persons on the phone. Obviously about tech stuff. So we had like technical, trainings. I was lucky that actually Romania, has like, a very I want to say solid IT, IT like a technology, industry, so it’s one of, like the top, top ones. We have very, very good, tech people there. So the normal call center, you got like a very strong, technical training. So I learned, actually, I was on, some, telecommunication company, and I was learning networking. I learned my very basic networking about routers, switches, everything. So everything was like, pretty cool. And, like, I learned really fast. But, yeah, I had to do my years of call center, man. I've been there. I did. So. I mean, yeah, I did quite a lot of years of that, actually.
ADRIANA:
Oh how many years did you do the call center thing?
DIANA:
The call center, per se, was maybe three years or something like this.
ADRIANA:
Oh, damn.
DIANA:
But then I got promoted, in a way, to tech support. But tech support is just, you know, glorified kind of call center. I mean, if you ask me, if you give me headphones and I have to talk with somebody that I don't want to talk about, and I have to support something technical that's for me is just like, tomato, tomato is the same thing.
ADRIANA:
Well, that's that's really cool, though, because, you know, like, I, I'm totally the same as you. I, I hate getting on the phone and talking to people. And when I was a kid, I, I would be like, half an hour planning out a phone call for, like, a five minute phone call. And just, like, just like, so much anxiety just to get on the phone with a person that I didn't even know. And, and so to be able to push through that, you know, that deep discomfort, I think is such a testament, to like, your resilience. I think being able to do things that make us uncomfortable and push through that, I think. Is, is is huge.
ADRIANA:
What did you what would you say is like your, your biggest lesson learned from your call center years?
DIANA:
Yeah. No, definitely. I think that besides the resilience that builds patience. Right. And builds that modesty I was talking about, you know, like adding layers and layers of not, I wouldn't say, not caring, but layers and layers of, understanding how to deal with people, how to calm down your emotions, like your raw emotions. Because, oh, boy, I was zero. So I didn't know how to control my emotions. Like, you know, I was like, I was just pure me, you know? And I learned how to, like, breathe, you know, take a moment to filter things in your head, speak to people. And, it was, like, really hard at the beginning. But it made me into an adult. To be honest, I wasn't that an adult at that point. I didn't know how to communicate properly. I'm not a super great communicator right now, even. You know, if you take an, I want to say, an extrovert and prepare me, that was like, I'm bad at this, you know? But still, I did a lot of work and I did it consciously. So I was aware of what I was doing. And I think this is why, it's more difficult when you're seeing yourself, you know, put into a specific context or a role that you were like for you, you know, it's hard work. You know, it's like, oh, man, I was like, I literally although it was like a silly job for me. It's like, oh man, I'm going into the coal mine. I'm doing this. This is heavy, man. This is like really like it. I was like, my parents like, what are you talking about, man? This is like a silly job. Like, literally. I was like, yeah, but it's so painful. You don't have to speak with all these people. And for me, they have built patience, the patience to build resilience. It is like, you know, like a normal adult-ish, kind of behavior and also made me a better communicator and listener. And for me, like, it gave me, a new perspective of understanding people. Right. So I was very kind of snappy, judging people, you know. Oh, he, she, whatever, is dumb. They don't know this or that. But then I like, with them, it was like, this is not about that, you know? I mean, people don't read... They don't they don't have time to read the stupid manual about how to, I don’t know, connect the phone or whatever. And cameras, like, and all these people need help. In the end, the whole point was, a humbling exercise of helping people, you know, and, I think, I think it really build me up, during the those years.
ADRIANA:
That's great. And, and I'm sure like, all that, sort of, all these skills, have, have made you the, the DevRel that you are now. And so after like your, your, because like now you work in the cloud native space. How did you make that transition from like call center focusing on like, networking equipment, into the cloud native space and doing what you do now was as a as a developer advocate?
DIANA:
Yeah. I mean, it's been quite a long journey, to be honest. I mean, some people spend years at the same job. I spent months, so for me was like imperious to move on. And to, experience different projects, different whatever environments. So, I mean, I don't, I said that to other people. It's like you don’t have to do that like I did, but, I wanted to for me, I wanted to experiment. I was a fast learner. I said, I don’t want to lose time. I already did seven years of philosophy. I'm not going to spend seven years in a call center job. The same job just to be, I don’t know, manager, one day. So I, I knew that I didn't want to do that. So I burnt really fast through projects, through companies, through roles. And if I'm going to show you my CV. Yes, I have like maybe around 20 jobs or something like that. I'm proud of that. So I'm proud of the, you know, the fact that, that that I burned through that and I, I was curious, you know, and that came slowly, to be honest. So I, like, I went through a lot of, like, you know, a few years of call centre, then technical support, then graduating to, like, a level two of technical support. I moved to Spain. And then I, my last tech, tech support job, was actually in 2019. And then I made it afterwards into SRE. So, site reliability engineering, into observability, which I really liked. I wasn't, you know, fully aware of what that is, but I knew that I really, really like it. And, cloud native came much later. So it came later in the sense that, although I knew what was like open source, I played around with a few things, to actually work in cloud native, started in 2024-ish, you know, so back with, OpenTelemetry, when I started to hear about OpenTelemetry, actually, from you and other DevRels, you know, promoting OpenTelemetry, talking about OpenTelemetry. So it came actually just like two, two years ago, more or less.
ADRIANA:
And how how was like, your first SRE role? Like, had the, the, the work that you had been doing. So if I understand correctly, like you went from the call center world to, to like, an SRE role? Is that correct?
DIANA:
So, call center was just like, a few years in. Then I, started with, tech support. So doing like tech support for other, tech companies. Different tech companies, and I discovered the cloud. So I was at some point, working with cloud, actually with Amazon, Azure, etcetera, but doing tech support. And then I discovered the world of observability, because observability was used, obviously, you know, with a lot of cloud providers. I started using Grafana Kibana. Well, you know, the whole Elastic Stack, different other uh, bits and pieces. And then I was lucky, actually, to, to apply for an observability SRE role in Spain. And this is how I got the job. So, yeah, I did my years of tech support as well.
ADRIANA:
Oh, cool. So the tech support primed you because then you got like your, your cloud native experience, like with, with the various different cloud providers. And then, and then, it was like almost like a, I guess a relatively seamless transition.
DIANA:
Yes, it was like a few years of, you know, pain and suffering. Because I was... You have to speak with people that you don't know and you just have to... That is not really like, effortless or anything. You know, if you don't enjoy, then it's painful.
ADRIANA:
How was it to work as an SRE? Like were, were the hours like, long, was, because, I like, some people I know, like, I at one point I managed a team, and we’re like, setting up an on-call schedule. And one of the guys on my team, he had, I think, just gotten too many, like, so much on-call work. So like, so much PTSD from that, that he's like, I can't I just can't like only under like, special circumstances. How how was that for you? Like, the on-call stuff? Was it, was it jarring? Was it like, AHHHHH, or were you like, okay with it?
DIANA:
Yeah. So, well, luckily or unluckily for me, I already did my, the on-call stuff when I was, in tech support. And actually the whole call center prepares you for that because I also worked nights, weekends. So, you know, tech support prepares you for for everything. So basically, SRE has some parts of tech support or like, support itself because you are supporting your infrastructure. It's just not for external customers. It’s for internal customers. So it's for your own infrastructure. But, most SREs that I know. So it's like, 90%, they come from tech support. Because they have this, you know, built up basically, experience, of how to, to support, different bits and pieces of infrastructure. You know, they have been sysadmins or whatever. So they really have to have a thick back, you know. So I already did my years of, of on-calls, of, you know, all the nights, weekends, whatever. I wasn't yet burned out, but definitely I saw lots of colleagues of mine being burned out and suffering a lot from it. For me was a actually a nice experience, as an SRE, because I, it wasn't that painful. So we had a large company, observability company, and our SRE team was quite large. So we rotate among, our teams. And I think my, my on-call was once every three months, which was really nice, in the sense that, you know, we do a one week of, of on-call every three months. That's, that's you know, posh.
ADRIANA:
That does sound very posh for. For an on-call schedule.
DIANA:
Exactly. That, that was privileged. And again, that came after years of technical support. The on-call in the technical support that it did. You know, its, its toll on me. You know, it had its toll on me. So yeah.
ADRIANA:
Isn't it wild that like, all the stuff that you had been doing from the beginning of your tech career, even your philosophy career, I guess, to a certain extent, like, prepared you for that moment, as an SRE, to be able to handle that. Like, I feel like it made you. It sounds like it made you very, like, mentally resilient.
DIANA:
Oh, yeah. And I think, I think everything builds up because anyway, unconsciously or not, you're going to end up in, in the place where you, you're actually supposed to be at, and, yeah, it built, to be honest, it built up patience in me and also like, the sort of calmness, and I'm happy that I didn't burn out. Because that would be, like, really, really bad, actually. I really, don’t recommend that, and once you’re burned out, especially if it's later on in your life, it's very hard to recover from that and find your path and, you know, find your energy, yourself. And. Yeah, it's hard. And for me, I realized, actually, when I was an SRE, in my last year or so, I went to my first conference. Tech conference. I gave a talk, and I really loved it. I was like, dude, there's this thing called Dev Rel. Like developer advocates. And they have they, like, spend their time giving talks all day long, like, what is this?
ADRIANA:
It’s a job!
DIANA:
I have to do this. So this is how I discovered DevRel, to be honest.
ADRIANA:
That's so cool. What was your first conference?
DIANA:
That was in, actually, it's so it's Site Reliability Engineering conference in London, in UK. SREDay. That was really nice. And there, there were quite a lot of female speakers as well, and I really liked that. I was like, oh, it's not only dudes, so, you know, I could definitely find this working out, you know. So yeah. And like, I got super curious. After I came back from the conference, I started like, preparing CFPs, and sending CPFs to lots of conferences. And for me, like, the next year, so the following year, besides my normal full time job as an SRE, I spoke to 15 events, which is a lot, and I was like, if I could do that while I'm working as an SRE, why can’t I just like, be a DevRel, you know, or developer advocate and just do this full time?
ADRIANA:
So that, that led you to, to search for DevRel opportunities, basically.
DIANA:
Yeah.
ADRIANA:
That's amazing. And you've been, and your job at Victoria Metrics is your like first official DevRel position, right?
DIANA:
So yeah, this is my first official DevRel position in Observability. I had a very brief one that didn't work out because, I don't, in the end, it wasn't, it was not me. It was like an official, developer advocate. But, on another company that wasn't observability and also was focused more on partnerships rather than full, DevRel, or developer advocacy. So I said, like, I, I was happy, actually, to join Victoria Metrics because it's an observability company. I get to do what I really like, and it's open source and it's, you know, I can fully go in with, with the cloud native stuff I've been doing in the last year. And, it's it's totally neat.
ADRIANA:
That's awesome. And you've been kicking ass. Let me tell you, I, I see you all over the place on LinkedIn, like all the stuff that you're doing. I think it's incredible. I think, like, it's such a role model. Like, you're such a role model to to other women. Not just for all the work that you're doing, but also, like, you are a mom.
DIANA:
Yes, I have two small kids: three year old and a five year old. So I'm a mom of toddlers. And, yeah, I mean, it's it's hard to find a balance between, you know, being a mom, working full time, traveling. It’s. Yeah. It’s taking its toll, but I like what I'm doing,
ADRIANA:
I totally get it. It's, I find motherhood is one of those things where, like, you basically have two jobs. And sometimes you suck at both. Sometimes you excel at one and suck at the other. There's just like, no, no way to win. And we just we just try to get through it as best as we can, and that's all we can hope for.
DIANA:
Yeah, totally. I mean, I, I don't think and, maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think in the mom job you ever get kudos from somebody. Actually, you know, give you congratulations on that job. I mean, your kid probably will say from time to time,. hey, I love you. Or, you know, they hug you, they kiss you, but nobody's going to hand you, like, a statue or something. They go, yeah, well done, mom. Here you go. Have some fun, or whatever.
ADRIANA:
That is so, so true. I, I, I totally agree with you. It it is a thankless job and it's like, it's such an important job and to be like, a role model for our kids as well, to show them, like, I think it's so important for moms of small children, whether you have boys or girls, to show them, like, yeah, my mom is kicking ass and working and doing the thing and so that they know, like, I, I grew up with a, with a mom who is a stay at home mom, and she always told me, you know, the best thing you can do for yourself is to be independent. So she always encouraged my sister and me to, like, make sure that no matter what, we had jobs, that if shit ever hit the fan, you know, we still had the means of financially supporting ourselves because you never know what what life can throw at you. And that's always, that's always stuck with me.
DIANA:
Yeah. No, actually I, I, I, I agree with this 100%. I mean, my mom was, has worked all her life, but she had the same philosophy. And she told me exactly the same thing. And my mom, I always look at my mom as a role model in terms of career because she had, like, she she worked all her, career from, like, the, the entry level up to the highest level until she, she retired. I was like, mom, you know, you did this. You know, you're not like some fancy person that had money or, you know, fancy college degrees, but you did it, through very hard work. Yes. There were times when, you know, family was, you know, you you cannot be, like, fully excelling at your work and at the family. So, but, I mean, moms have such great, how can I say, hard times in general. When they get home, the least thing they want, they want to hear or expect is you're doing a shitty job. Being a mom. You spent your day working. Don't do that to your partner. Right? So don't say that ever. So I think we're very much neglected and misunderstood because of, you know, history and whatever society and culture. And now whenever you see a, you know, like a strong woman or a hardworking mom in tech, like, you, you're supposed to suck at being a mom, you know? And, yeah, I have very big sensitivity on this topic, you know, because, yeah, we cannot excel at many things, yeah. But we are trying, and we have to be tolerant as much as we can with each other. Male or female. Yeah.
ADRIANA:
Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree with you. And I want to do a little plug also, because Diana was part of, a live stream that I had, and it's, Working Moms in Tech panel for Geeking Out. And I'll provide the link in the show notes. But we discussed, like, you know what what it's like being a working mom in tech. We discussed various aspects of that. And I think having these conversations and bringing them up over and over and over again is super important, because I think it's important for like other women to see people who look like them. It's so encouraging. Like for me, when I joined Cloud Native, before I joined Cloud Native, I was kind of in in a predominantly man's world, and I don't know what it is about cloud native, but I found more of my people. Like that's where I started working with more women, interestingly enough. Like women tech, specifically. And I'm like, oh my God, this is like so cool to have peers, actual peers who are women in, in tech, which for me was like mind blowing. And to have that and to have people to look up to and to meet other women and to collaborate with other women on talks and, you know, we've submitted some talks together. Fingers crossed that they get accepted. But yeah, it's it's incredibly empowering to to have that.
DIANA:
Yeah. Not for sure. And I think like we talk actually quite... We should talk more about this subject because it's, it's not the whole about... the thing about, you know, male, you know, men versus women or that. No, it's just, when it's... explain more of the discourse behind that. You know, because men have been such a backbone of society for a long time, and and, it's like, not talked about enough. And all the hardships that you have, you know, yeah, supporting your family, all the things that, you know, builds patience and resilience and all the things that you don't say out loud and actually makes you, very good worker, a very resilient worker and, worker that shows off, does a job, shuts up about recognition and, and, you know, delivers. That's it. You know, and moms excel at that. You know, it's not about, you know, talking about yourself all day long. It's just doing the work and that's it. Done.
ADRIANA:
Yeah, silently supporting society. The hidden figures, right? Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree with you. I wanted to, before we wrap up, touch on two things, because you're, you're one of the organizers of cloud native days Romania. So I want to give you an opportunity to give a plug for that, and tell folks about it.
DIANA:
Yes. Totally. Yeah. Cloud Native Days Romania happens on the 18th and 19th of May this year. It's happening in Bucharest. So that's the capital of Romania. We're going to have excellent food. Nice location. That's like, one of the coolest hotels in in Bucharest. In the center. And definitely. It's going to be my second time there. We have a very good vibe, very good people. So, yeah, also around 400 attendees, we expect around 400 attendees. So that's not small at all. So definitely check it out.
ADRIANA:
And, this is the... The previous iteration of the conference was a KCD Romania, right?
DIANA:
Correct. Yeah. We we were a KCD, and that was really cool. That was before I became an organizer. And since last year, will you switch to Cloud Native Days format. I think many, many events switched to the Cloud Native Days format, and right now I think we're going to roll with this for the time being.
ADRIANA:
Cool. That's awesome. Yeah. So, hope, hope folks have a chance to, to attend this awesome conference I submitted, a few talks, so fingers crossed. Amazing, amazing. Yeah. And I'll include, links in the show notes for, of the socials for, for, cloud native days for media so people can, can follow. I know you guys are on Instagram for sure. I'm assuming LinkedIn as well?
DIANA:
Yeah, we are like only LinkedIn and Instagram, I think.
ADRIANA:
And then final thing I wanted to ask you about, and I think you talked about it a little bit in the beginning, which was, your involvement in, in OpenTelemetry, and you’re, you’re, you're involved in the, like the, the Romanian translation of the OpenTelemetry docs. And, you know, huge shout out to that, because initially, like when Opentelemetry first came out in 2019, the docs were only in English. And in the last few years we've been able to add more and more languages. And it's incredible that you were able to start a group, that contributes, to Romanian translation. When... how how did that go about? Like, to decide, hey, you know, we want to have this available in Romanian. So, how do you talk to the right people for that?
DIANA:
Yeah. So, OpenTelemetry, like, came to me like, when I was an SRE, like I said, I was seeing a lot of pushing the observability world, and, after a few POCs and this and that in my own company, like, I want to contribute directly to the project. Right. So I want to, like, really help, and, like the easiest, like more, more accessible way to do it was through documentation. So I saw that, I'm, I'm based in Spain. I speak Spanish, that the Spanish community was active. They were looking for, Spanish, contributors. So this is how I got in. I got to know the community a lot better. I started contributing, actually, to the Spanish content. And I started to give talks more about OpenTelemetry, getting to know the, the community. I slowly you know, and getting to know the maintainers, etc.. And then, after a few months of contributing to the Spanish documentation, I said, look, but I'm a Romanian native, I speak Romanian. How about I help out and I open this community even more and and we start with the Romanian translations. And actually the, the, the maintainers were really, were really nice. They explained to me like, the whole process. Also the fact that we have to, organize between ourselves, get more contributors. I got some people excited about this. So what we're having right now, our monthly meetups, we got our first contributor to the pages besides me. So that's nice. They already translated a couple of pages. I’m like, YAY! That's good. And I think it's a very good entry point for new contributors. For new contributors, actually, to start contributing to cloud native. I mean, documentation is probably the best. It doesn't have to be like, a software contribution or code contribution. You can contribute through documentation. And actually, it's funny stuff like, the people in my, in my, Romanian, let's say team or community, they're actually software engineers wanting to do documentation work, which is like, not something you see everyday. Exactly. Like, okay, that's weird. But anyway, it's fun, because for them, probably it's it's actually something that they want to do. So it's it's exciting, you know, and yeah, we are doing this on, on our free time. Right. So because you can have individual contributors like in your own free time, but you can also have, you know, through your company when you're actually supporting your company's work in cloud native. I think that's a very important distinction. I contributed as, an individual contributor and all the people that I'm working with at the moment are same. We are individual contributors, and I really appreciate the fact that they're giving their free time for, to do this. And yeah, I think it's, it's important because it popularized it a lot, not only the project, but the fact that, the documentation itself, the technical concepts can have a different flavor in a different foreign language, you know. And, anyway, Romanian, Romanian is spoken only Romania. So I'm happy to put that little cross there for you, for my country.
ADRIANA:
That's amazing. And I you know, it speaks to, like, making OpenTelemetry accessible because, you know, you know, those of us who are English speakers, we take it for granted that we speak and understand English well enough to work effectively in it. But that's not the case for everyone. And then by not having documentation in other languages, you're potentially excluding some brilliant people who could make such amazing contributions or excluding them even from just using, using OpenTelemetry. So I, I, kudos to, to you and the work that you're doing around that.
DIANA:
Thank you very much. Yep.
ADRIANA:
Well, awesome. This has been such a great conversation with you. And we are coming up on time. But before we wrap up, I wanted to ask if you have any parting words of wisdom or hot takes that you wanted to share with our audience.
DIANA:
Sure. I would say, like, I mean, you know, my, my, my journey through tech right now seems like, you know, very creative or very weird, but I think that it doesn't. You don't have to get, hung up on details. You have to do. I mean, I would say to do whatever you like, and just be very ambitious from the beginning. Right. So if you really want to do something, don't, procrastinate. Right? Don't don't just say, I'm going to do it later. Just do it now, because time really goes fast And you're never going to do that thing that you said you're going to do later. And leave some space for surprises. Right? For yourself as well. And, you know, for for your, well-being, you know, because you can get so excited about a lot of projects and they could give you so much, joy and happiness. And you never know. So, yeah, be nice to you and be nice with other people.
ADRIANA:
I love that so much. Well, thank you so much, Diana, for geeking out with me today. And y'all, don't forget to subscribe and be sure to check the show notes for additional resources and to connect with us and our guests on social media. Until next time.
DIANA:
Peace out and geek out.
ADRIANA:
Geeking Out is hosted and produced by me, Adriana Villela. I also compose and perform the theme music on my trusty clarinet. Geeking Out is also produced by my daughter, Hannah Maxwell, who, incidentally, designed all the cool graphics. Be sure to follow us on all the socials by going to bio.site/geekingout.