From engineering to advocacy

Mark Heckler: Initially, I was doing full-time engineering work and then presenting on the side. I was occasionally taking a few days here and there to travel to present at events and conferences. I think many people realized that I had this public-facing level of activities that I was doing. I was out there enough that they felt I was either doing this full-time or maybe should be.

"I was offered a full-time gig doing, essentially, what I was already doing in my spare time."

—Mark Heckler

A good friend of mine reached out and said, "I know you're doing this anyway, so how would you like to make this your official role?" That sounded pretty great, so I interviewed and I was offered a full-time gig doing, essentially, what I was already doing in my spare time.

Geertjan Wielenga: Did you study software engineering or something completely different?

Mark Heckler: Actually, I studied...