Interviewer

Hey Ruth, welcome to the Code Biruh Podcast!
Thank you so much for being willing to join us and share your experiences from your career.

Interviewee

Thank you for the warm welcome! I'm also grateful for the opportunity to share my experience here.

Interviewer

Great Let’s start from the beginning.Could you please introduce yourself your name, career, and the university you attended?

Interviewee

I am Ruth Abiti Getaneh, a full-stack engineer at a local company, and graduated from Debre
Berhan University with a bachelor’s degree of software engineering

Interviewer

Good ma next question is:I'd love to hear about your programming journey, from the moment you wrote your first line of code to where you stand now in your career.

Interviewee

I started programming in the first semester of freshman, and the first line was “ #include iostream “, and ever since I have known programming is my go to, I had a chance to choose
from medicine and programming but since I am more of a maths person, went with
programming and chose software engineering, so after that the first summer after I joined software engineering was to get an internship, so the internship at first was unpaid and I was willing to be a part of it because I believed it was a learning opportunity, but after they saw my potential it later turned to a paid internship and later on to a full time employment and here Iwant you to keep in mind that if you put in the time, you will reap what you sow

Interviewer

Great ma next question is:
Do you have a team working with you? If so, what challenges do you face when collaborating
with a team?

Interviewee

Currently I am working solo on projects, but here we have a dynamic team which I worked with
in deploying a system on the IIS Server, and so far I didn’t face any challenges

Interviewer

Good,ma next question
What strategies or methods do you use when forming a team?

Interviewee

I would say, when forming a team one should consider the different potential of a team, lets say
you have a team of two where both of them are efficient in backend development and have little
knowledge about frontend, then the frontend of your system will suffer, so your team should be
dynamic and proficient in different areas

Interviewer

Alright ma next question is:
Could you tell us about the team you’re currently working with and your role within it?

Interviewee

The team we have here is 1 team lead , 1 frontend developer and 1 backend developer, and
one full stack developer, and I work as a full stack developer

Interviewer

Good,next question
What are your perspectives on AI? Some people argue that using AI diminishes one’s capacity or ability and doesn’t count as real writing.Additionally, what percentage of your work involves AI?

Interviewee

I see AI as a tool, not a replacement. I use it to accelerate my workflow, whether it’s debugging,
brainstorming solutions, or learning a new framework. It doesn’t take away from your ability; if anything, it enhances it when used wisely. I'd say around 30–40% of my work involves AI in some way, especially when experimenting, generating boilerplate, or learning faster.

Interviewer

Well,ma next question is:
How do you use or collaborate with AI? How do junior developers learn new languages or frameworks? For instance, I believe it shouldn't take 4 or 5 months to learn a new framework or library; I support using AI effectively to speed up the learning process. What advice do you have on this topic?

Interviewee

I often use AI to quickly grasp the basics of a new library or debug faster. For junior devs, AI can be like amentor-on-demand. But to truly learn, you need to build real things. Don’t spend 4–5 months stuck on tutorials, build something small, and learn as you go. That’s how I picked up Flutter, and .NET efficiently.

Interviewer

Alright ma next question:
What is your perspective on soft skills? As we know, technical issues today aren't as challenging as they once were so what do you think about the role of soft skills, and what
would you advise others to focus on?

Interviewee

Soft skills are underrated but crucial. Communication, time management, and empathy are what separate great developers from good ones, especially in team settings. Now that technical challenges are more manageable (thanks to open-source, frameworks, and AI), the ability to work well with others and think clearly matters even more.

Interviewer

Good ma next question is:
Can you tell us about your first paid job or project? How did you get it, and what was the experience like?

Interviewee

My first paid gig came through an internship.I also found the opportunities through networking
and showcasing my work. The experience was both validating and eye-opening, it showed me
how different real-world expectations are compared to school projects.

Interviewer

Good,next question is:What advice do you have for freshman students regarding which department to join and other considerations?