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Anna Billstrom

Sr. Engineering Manager | Coaching, Mobile Architecture, API integrations

Anna Billstrom is an experienced software engineer and engineering manager based in San Francisco, California. She has a diverse background in mobile and web development, with expertise in various programming languages and technologies.12

Professional Experience

Anna Billstrom currently works as a Software Engineer at UserVoice in San Francisco.1 Her previous experience includes roles at:

  • Pickaxe Mobile
  • Momentus

Education

Anna graduated from Reed College in 1994.1

Technical Skills

Anna is proficient in several programming languages and frameworks, including:

  • Ruby on Rails
  • jQuery
  • HTML
  • JavaScript

Current Focus

As of recent information, Anna is involved in mobile app development and has been working on implementing mobile app CI (Continuous Integration) pipelines for multiple contributors. Her work involves using tools such as GitHub, CircleCI, Fastlane, and Crashlytics for observability.2

Leadership Experience

Anna has experience as an Engineering Manager, where she has overseen teams of up to nine engineers, managing both client and server teams. This demonstrates her ability to lead technical projects and teams in addition to her hands-on development skills.

Industry Insights

Anna has shared her thoughts on challenges in mobile development, particularly regarding release pipelines and innovation in the field. She has discussed issues related to the complexities of launching new features in mobile applications3, indicating her deep understanding of the mobile development landscape.

Highlights

Aug 27 · linkedin

Every once in a while, Trader Joe's knocks it out of the park. Here, Carolina Gold BBQ chips. I took this photo to prove to my son there really wasn't any. And, I love it when Trader Joe's customers speak like this.

But, is it too specific?

In hiring, sometimes we pin our hopes on unrealistic expectations:

👋🏽 "An intern who performs as an L3" 👋🏽 "IC Security engineer that can lead and create the department" 👋🏽 "Greenfield full stack engineer that can mentor, learn new languages, support legacy partnerships"

Oh, and all of those were for lower than market in a high cost of living city.

I'm all for being specific in what you want and interviewing and hiring for that. Still, certain job roles are standard. How much are you deviating from the market's standard? Is this deviation costing you more than you know?

👋🏽 loss of valuable training time 👋🏽 slowing down time to market for new features 👋🏽 gobbling up the time of senior engineers with interviews 👋🏽 fatiguing the HR/Recruiting team

Aug 15 · linkedin

One of the best things you can do in your hiring process, for all companies small and large, is to hone in on your core values for engineers, and interview for those values.

I had an interesting conversation with an engineering leader yesterday who was growing the company from its successful startup phase. They required 1-1/2 hour coding interview to get in the door. Some companies require suites of interviews (9+) or months-long working (paid) gigs.

Extensive interviews communicate to me that someone in the hiring chain does not trust their gut. I have grown a team at multiple companies, and each time, prided myself on never making a mistake hiring- each hire stayed and were pretty much exactly what I wanted. It wasn't magic.

I used this methodology: get a short list of values. I'm not talking company values (though those are nice) I'm talking about engineering values and needs:

👋🏽 Do you need Full Stack self-starters to get a startup started? (Hire core leadership, good with obstacles, fuzzy requirements, architecture skills) 👋🏽 Are you finally ready to expand, and need mid-level, and junior, engineers? (Hire for curiosity, learning, and interpersonal/pairing skills) 👋🏽 Are you starting up and need some core senior engineers with amazing mentorship for a growing team? (hire for mentoring, interpersonal, multi-tasking, teaching skills)

Then, add to it: 👋🏽 What it takes to be a successful engineer at this company. Yes, reverse-engineer it. Imagine someone takes the job and works here, and succeeds. What qualities do they have?

When the engineering leadership identifies their core values, they can easily interview against them. We're talking a few interviews, quick decisions, and great fits.

The benefit is that this is also a great way to get to diversity.

Instead of hiring "people like us" who have a "culture fit" you are hiring curious, hard-working, and action-oriented engineers (for example).

#diversity #dei #corevalues #hiring

Related Questions

What projects has Anna Billstrom worked on at UserVoice?
How did Anna Billstrom transition from Pickaxe Mobile to Momentus?
What are some of the challenges Anna Billstrom has faced in mobile app development?
What skills does Anna Billstrom specialize in?
How did Anna Billstrom's education at Reed College influence her career?
Anna Billstrom
Anna Billstrom, photo 1
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Location

San Francisco, California, United States