Build With Maya

If something feels obvious to you but not to your team, it’s probably not a communication problem.In this episode of Build With Maya, I talk about why alignment is harder than it looks. It is not because people don't communicate well, but because they’re working with different context.We’ll get into:Why explaining something clearly doesn’t always create agreementHow different experiences lead to different conclusionsWhat actually changes as you grow from trying to convince to making context visibleIf you’ve ever walked out of a discussion thinking "why can't we align on things", this episode is for you.Follow Build With Maya if you’re interested in how engineers actually think and work through real problems.

Learning more won't get you to senior , thinking differently will.As engineers move from junior to mid-level, mid-level to senior, there’s often this pressure to learn more tools, frameworks, especially now with how fast AI is evolving. As if that's the way to level up, or stay relevant.But "learning more" can quietly become a trap.In this episode, I talk about what actually changes as you grow as an engineer, and why seniority is less about expanding your skill set, and more about shifting your perspective. It's about learning when not to build something.We’ll get into why choosing the right problems matters more than solving them perfectly, and why growth at this stage has less to do with tools, but more on decision-making.If you’ve ever felt stuck trying to move from mid-level to senior, this episode is for you.

A lot of the work that actually makes systems succeed… never shows up in a ticket.In this episode, I talk about the kind of engineering work that isn’t assigned, tracked, or measured, but quietly becomes your responsibility over time.Things like noticing risks early, asking questions no one asked, or connecting gaps across teams.This is usually where the shift to seniority starts. Not by doing more tasks, but by seeing more of the system.If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing work that “doesn’t count” on paper, this episode is for you.

"Just because you’re shipping code at 2x the speed doesn’t mean you’re solving the problem 2x as fast."In this episode of Build with Maya, we’re breaking down what every AI tool like GitHub Copilot or Cursor changes how mid-level/senior engineers work, not easier but harder. And how we’re moving from an era of "Authoring" to an era of "Auditing." AI removes the friction of writing code, but it increases the burden of deciding what should actually exist.If you’ve ever accepted an AI suggestion and then second-guessed it later, this episode will probably feel familiar.

You know the 'right' way to do it. Your team knows the 'right' way to do it. So why is your codebase still a mess?In this episode, I talk about why things like “just refactor” or “just add tests” often don’t work in real teams. Not because the advice is wrong, but because it ignores context such as deadlines, ownership, and other constraints.If you’ve ever felt like you know the “right” thing to do but can’t actually do it, this episode is for you.

Output is visible. Responsibility usually isn’t. In this episode, I talk about the shift many senior or staff engineers experience as their work becomes less about tickets and more about ownership, and why that change often comes with hidden cognitive and emotional costs.

Engineering isn’t just about code, tools, or best practices. It’s about decisions, tradeoffs, and ownership. In this first episode, I share how I think about engineering today — why output isn’t the same as impact, why context matters, and how experience changes what you optimize for.

In this episode, I'm honored to welcome our first guest, Santosh Yadav, staff engineer at Celonis and Angular GDE. Together we dive into Santosh’s journey through the tech world—from early dev days to stepping into management, and ultimately finding his groove as a Staff Engineer. We talk about what that transition really felt like, why and how he chose to return to the IC (individual contributor) path, and how he balances career growth with life outside of work. Honest insights, hard-earned lessons, and a few laughs along the way.Resources:Staff Engineer's Path by Tanya Reilly - https://www.amazon.com/Staff-Engineers-Path-Individual-Contributors/dp/1098118731---Follow Santosh on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/santoshyadavdev/Twitter: https://x.com/santoshyadavdevBlog: https://santoshyadav.devYoutube Channel: @ThisisTechTalks---Subscribe to my channel  @mayashavin  Follow me on:Twitter: https://x.com/MayaShavinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayashavinBlog: https://mayashavin.com---

So here we go, my podcast's first episode is finally here! It's a short episode as the kickoff for Build With Maya, recorded in Google Paris where I had a great chance to attend Build With AI Summit and learn about cool features of Gemma and Gemini. In this episode, we will speak briefly about my channel and my speaking experiences, such as how to start being a tech speaker.Learn more about Google for Developers