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From Learning to Code in Lebanon to Leading at GitHub: Chatting with Faten Healy

Welcome back to Startup Life: Unscripted! Today, we are super excited to introduce Faten Healy, an inspiring leader currently serving as the Solutions Engineering Manager at GitHub, a global tech giant known for its innovative and collaborative platform for developers.

Faten's fascinating career trajectory has led her through diverse tech roles, from her early days writing Turbo Pascal and C in a Lebanese university, to a Solutions Engineering management role at GitHub. With over four years under her belt at GitHub, Faten has been instrumental in the company's expansion and impressive growth in the APAC region.

Join us as we dive into this captivating conversation with Faten about her extraordinary journey from Lebanon to the heart of the global tech scene. If you're curious about the behind-the-scenes operations of a renowned tech company like GitHub, or you're an aspiring tech professional hungry for insights from a seasoned expert, this is an interview you won't want to miss!

Key interview takeaways:

🌍 Faten's tech trek: From coding in Lebanon to spearheading the APAC Corporate Solutions Engineering Team at GitHub, Faten’s career journey is proof that tech know-how combined with the right attitude can take you places. Her story is a masterclass in how to pivot, adapt, and keep learning.

📚 Making the switch: Her leap from the tech trenches to a client-facing role had its challenges, but it's clear it was a game-changer for her. And the secret sauce? A sprinkling of new skills, a dollop of empathy, and a whole lot of understanding what the client really needs.

👩‍💻 The joy of leading: Faten isn't just about getting the job done. She's about making sure her team is thriving while they're at it. She's taken team management to new heights, nurturing individual growth, cheering on successes, and fostering a culture of collaboration.

🔭 Eyes on the future: For Faten, GitHub isn't just on the cutting edge - it's defining it. She talks up GitHub's AI-driven approach to cybersecurity and champions a developer-first mindset. The key takeaway? Embed security into the process from day one.

🚀 Career nuggets from Faten: For those of you eyeing a career path like Faten's, her advice is worth its weight in gold. Seize opportunities, treasure unique experiences, and don't forget - a great job is not just about the paycheck or the title. It's about loving what you do, striking a balance, and keeping that learning curve steep.

Hey Faten, thanks for joining us today! Your career has spanned across an interesting variety of tech roles. Can you tell us about your journey, and how your previous experiences have led you to your current role at GitHub?

My story might not be unique, but it’s certainly been an interesting journey. I studied Telecommunications and programming engineering and also earned my master’s degree in Telecom Engineering back in 2005.

The world was a bit different back then – Turbo Pascal and C were our go-to languages, and we'd use pen and paper to do our programming tests, jotting down lines of code and working through the logic step by step. I’m not that old (or maybe I am), but it was a different time, and at the Lebanese university where I studied, we didn't have widespread computer access for everyone.

As someone who studied overseas, it was hard to get a job in Lebanon. My first job was in Australia working with my older brother. I started my career as a developer, specialising in mobile development.

I then found myself shifting gears into a support role where I was involved in building the company’s support system and doing support at the same time. I then got offered a solutions consultancy role where I was focused on testing tools training and workshop sessions for QA teams. And for the last 4 years, I’ve been collaborating with APAC sales teams as a Solutions Engineer.

I recently stepped into my first management role. I'm now leading the APAC Corporate Solutions engineering team at GitHub. It's been an exciting six months, managing an amazing team and taking on bigger responsibilities.

Looking back at my career journey, you'll notice one thing that remains constant: the software development life cycle (SDLC) has been the beating heart of it all. From my early days as a developer, to building support systems, providing consultancy, conducting training sessions, and even working closely with the sales team, software has been the driving force behind everything I do.

As a Solutions Engineering Manager at GitHub, you're at the forefront of a platform that is a home for developers worldwide. Could you describe a typical day for you? What does managing solutions engineers look like in this context?

As a Solutions Engineering Manager at GitHub, my role is dynamic and each day brings its own unique set of challenges and rewards.

A significant part of my role is focused on people management. I believe that the success of any team is closely tied to the individual growth and satisfaction of its members. For that reason, I invest considerable time in one-to-one sessions, providing mentorship, and career development discussions with my team.

Creating a motivating environment is another key aspect of my role. To ensure this, I make a conscious effort to celebrate individual and team successes, and encourage an atmosphere of collaborative problem-solving. Motivation often flourishes when individuals see the direct impact of their work.

Continuous Learning and professional growth are deeply embedded in our team's culture. Amidst the busy work schedule, I always strive to carve out some time for personal learning. At GitHub we invest in an L&D budget for each Hubber and we encourage Hubbers to block focus time in their calendar for personal development. I'm a firm believer in leading by example, so by demonstrating this practice, I aim to inspire my team to do the same.

No day is the same as another. One day, I might be focused on hiring, interviewing, meeting with customers, having one-on-one sessions with my team members, engaging with my peers from other regions, collaborating with stakeholders, and meeting with the sales leader, among other things. On another day, I might be attending or speaking at an event, or taking a course, or upskilling and so on.

At the end of the day, my role at GitHub is about fostering a motivated, skilled, and satisfied team that thrives in its role.

GitHub is a well-known platform among developers, being a complete AI-powered developer platform. How do you contribute to maintaining and enhancing its reputation as a secure platform to build, scale, and deliver software?

GitHub started as a version control system and evolved to become a complete software development platform powered by AI. It is used and trusted by over 100 million developers – including 1M+ here in Australia – from open source maintainers, consumers to enterprise users.

The latest product that we launched, GitHub Copilot – the world’s first at-scale AI developer tool – is a total game changer. GitHub Copilot improves developer productivity and happiness, reducing disruptions, improving flow and increases the amount of time a developer spends doing satisfying work. In our research, developers are writing code 55% faster and almost 90% of developers said they completed tasks faster with GitHub Copilot. This helps them stay in the flow, focus on more satisfying work, and conserve mental energy.

We also launched an AI-based vulnerability prevention system that blocks insecure coding patterns in real-time to make GitHub Copilot suggestions more secure. Our model targets the most common vulnerable coding patterns, including hardcoded credentials, SQL injections, and path injections.

Innovation and security go hand-in-hand. We always act as the customer’s trusted advisor and suggest they follow the best practices when it comes to user security as well as enterprise security and Identity and Access Management (IAM). We also believe that businesses can fast track innovation by taking a developer-first approach to security, essentially “shifting left” to put security at the heart of the development process from the beginning. This can be achieved with GitHub Advanced Security, our embedded DevSecOps solution.

Global startup job opportunities:

• 🖥️ Online Media Manager (Search & Social)

• 📈 Sales Development Representative

• 🚀 Business Development Manager

• 🎯 Business Development Manager

• 💰 Accountant

• 💡 Chief of Staff

• 🎨 Brand Marketing Manager

• 🛠️ Senior Tech Engineer

• 💻 Fullstack Developer (C#, WPF, ASP.Net, SQL, Azure)

You've traversed the tech world from software engineering to sales engineering and now solutions engineering manager. What have been some key lessons you've learned along the way?

When moving from one role to another, I have been bringing, and building on, the authentic knowledge, skills and experience that I built over my career. This has given me diverse perspectives, which is definitely a strength I bring to the team.

Even if the move is vertical or horizontal in your career, you will never be starting from scratch. You've got a solid foundation of experience from your previous role, and that's something you can build upon.

Given your rich experience, what has been the most challenging aspect of your career transition from software engineering to a more client-facing role?

The transition from software engineering to a more client-facing role required a shift in mindset. I also had to acquire new skills, and adapt to a different set of challenges.

Continuous learning is important. I took some short courses to help with my presentation and communication skills.

In client-facing roles, building and maintaining relationships with clients is crucial. This involves active listening, empathy, and understanding the client's perspective and needs. Coming from a technical background, the customer will always consider you their trusted technical advisor in comparison to your counterpart seller.

With dedication, continuous learning, and experience, I was able to overcome these challenges and succeed in customer-facing roles.

Lastly, for someone looking to follow a similar career path as yours, what advice would you give them? What skills or experiences would you recommend they focus on?

My advice to anyone, whether you’re a fresh graduate or in the middle of your career or even sitting at the top: when the perfect opportunity presents itself, at the right time, you have to seize it with both hands.

Everyone's journey is unique and no two paths are the same. Each journey brings something fresh and valuable to the table. We all have our own perspectives and experiences that can contribute to our personal growth and the success of our endeavours.

When looking into your next career move, the two most important factors used to be the job title and the salary. But these days and especially in a post Covid world there are many important factors in addition to the job title and salary, such as work life balance, flexibility, and work satisfaction.

It is always important to find a job that you genuinely enjoy doing.

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And that's a wrap! We hope you've enjoyed this edition as much as we loved putting it together. Stay curious, keep learning, and above all, enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is Startup Life. Catch you in the next one! 👋 Not subscribed yet? Do it here and don't miss out! Subscribe Now.