Women Software Engineers in Boston Episode 1: Christina Wallin from Toast
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing my friend Christina Wallin, who is a Tech Lead and Senior Software Engineer at Toast. You can checkout the recording right here:
Toast is a restaurant point of sale and management system that helps restaurants improve operations, increase sales and create a better guest experience. You might have noticed your local coffee shop is running on Toast, and guess what, Christina is behind one of the core Toast engineering teams!
With a degree from Yale university in computer science and several years of experience as a systems engineer at one of the biggest database companies Teradata, Christina has had an amazing career.
In the interview, we talk about her journey of getting into technology, how she navigated the switch from being an individual contributor to a tech lead to building an all female team of engineers and how she approaches giving feedback both positive and negative.
Christina also recommended an awesome book called “Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders” by L. David Marquet. David Marquet explains how he used principles of effective leadership including intent based leadership to turn his ship into a workplace where people are healthier and happier, and everyone is a leader.
In addition to helping people through mentoring and building an awesome tool that restaurants rely on, Christina also volunteers for the Back Bay Mobile Soup Kitchen, that helps homeless communities in Back Bay and Cambridge giving out socks, sandwiches, and a friendly presence to folks we come across on the street.
Listen to the audio recording to find more about her and Toast!
*If you know of any awesome early career women+ in software in the Boston area, I would love to connect. Best way to contact me is @stylianipantela on twitter.