⚡ #1: The first of many

Creativity can be expressed in many ways. And writing is one of them. So here we go!

Author

Beatriz Cunha
October 27, 2024

Welcome to the London Tech Bear ✨: A monthly newsletter with the best London can offer for those who work with tech - industry guests, upcoming tech events, and some London fun tips. Brought to you by Beatriz, techie based in London.

In This Tech Bear:

  • Work & life balance from a Senior Software Engineer at Monzo POV

  • The best karaoke in London

  • 5 hot tech events happening in November

  • The quest for the best pumpkin spice latte

  • How to overcome social anxiety in meetups

Read time: 5-7 minutes.

This Month’s Guest

Guilherme Holz is a Senior Android Software Engineer at Monzo. He’s not only very talented at what he does, but he’s also one of the funniest people I know in London. If you spend 10 minutes with him, you’ll think he has lived 3 lives instead of 1, leaving you questioning “What have I done with my life?”.

He’s originally from Brazil and he’s been a software engineer for a little over 20 years now. He started as a frontend engineer before it was even called frontend (he was the html guy). With time he moved to doing Flash, which he really loved, but unfortunately Steve Jobs killed his profession with a single email. So he switched to doing Android and he’s been doing that ever since (except for a couple of years on Facebook where he was a fullstack developer).

Here we’ll get to know a bit more about this character and what’s the best karaoke in London in his humble opinion (and he knows what he’s talking about).

Find Guilherme on Twitter or Linkedin

Guilherme on working life 🤓

What's one thing you wish you knew before starting your tech career?

I think the main thing I wish I knew before starting was how to pace myself. In the beginning people tend to be very impatient and it's all about speed and trying to do as much as humanly possible. That often leads to things like frustration and burnout. It's important to understand your limits and balance your time by working smarter. Investing time in the beginning of a project to understand exactly what you're doing can save you huge headaches up ahead.

What skills do you think everyone should be learning right now?

As much as it pains me to say this - due to all the hype and misinformation about it -, there's no denying that AI is the main thing you need to keep an eye on at the moment. If used correctly it's an extremely powerful tool that can save you countless hours of repetitive and boring work.

For veterans in the industry, understanding what AI is and especially what it is not will help them make the right decisions in future projects.

For people starting in tech right now investing in machine learning (the life and blood behind AI) is probably a good bet.

Guilherme on getting the most out of London 💂‍♀️

What’s your favourite hidden gem in London?

As a Karaoke fan, I will have to go with The Karaoke Hole. What can I say about it? It is a Drag Show and a Stage Karaoke Party at the same time. Guaranteed fun, cool environment and nice drinks. It's my go-to place when I need to cheer up a bit.

What's the best way to spend a rainy day in London?

Sincerely? Under the covers watching some cool British TV show (I highly recommend Brassic or Ghosts), but if staying in is not your cup of tea, museums are a great option. My favourites are the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. They're close to each other and if you have kids there's some good entertainment for them.

Guilherme on self & wellbeing 🧘‍♂️

Name three life skills you wish you were taught in school.

Finances, Emotional intelligence and Empathy. I think if we taught those at school we would be living in a much better world.

How do you prioritise your mental health?

Make time for yourself. Not feeling well? Take a sick day. Need to recharge? Take some PTO. Rough day? Leave a bit early. Don't try powering through stuff, self sacrifice is never rewarded properly. You need to respect your body, mind and emotions.

Guilherme’s recommendations:

Tell us your favourite…

…anime?
Haikyu

…Youtube channel?
Half as interesting

…game?
I'm obsessed with this game from 2016 called Titanfall 2. It's without question the best multiplayer first person shooter ever made and I'll fight anyone on that. Unfortunately it had a terrible launch window at the time so a lot of people missed it, but if you like the genre and you haven't tried it, go download it now. The game is usually heavily discounted on all platforms and I think it’s even included on the Xbox Game Pass if I'm not mistaken. After that, you can join us in begging over and over for Respawn to make a sequence.

Hot November Events & Meetups

  • When: 6th/Nov

  • Organised by: Female Product Lead and Found by Few

  • Price: Free (🆓)

  • About: This is a panel discussion focused on leadership development specifically tailored for female product leads. Whether you're an experienced product manager woman looking to advance your career or a newcomer in the field, this workshop will help you grow and excel as a female product leader in the tech industry. They are also doing an online one a few weeks later, in case you miss it.

  • Speakers: Pippa Topp, Product Consultant & Coach EQ Product Group, Jane Austin, SVP Design ContentSquare, Keira Poland, Head of Product Tails, Millie Zah, Head of Product Dazn, Alistair Preacher, CPO Granyt, Corinna Lamberti, CPO GetChip.

  • When: 6th/Nov

  • Organised by: Turing X SYSTM

  • Price: £598.80 (💸💸💸)

  • About: A curated gathering of experts for founders and growth leaders, with big speaker names.

  • Speakers: April Dunford, author of Obviously Awesome, Sean Ellis - The OG Growth Hacker, Joanna Wiebe - Copyhackers.com, world's expert on direct-response copywriting, Alex Depledge, MBE - Serial entrepreneur who founded and sold Hassle.com and currently runs Resi, Hannah Parvaz - Founder, Aperture, 4X head of growth, award-winning mobile growth expert, Andrew Davies - Serial entrepreneur, growth expert and current CMO @ Paddle, Matt Lerner - SYSTM founder, bestselling author, ex-PayPal, ex 500 Startups VC.

  • When: 11th-15th/Nov

  • Organised by: Tech Circus

  • Price: from 410 (💸💸💸)

  • About: Learn from the world's leading experts to discover how they are transforming product design and unlock your creativity. Product Design Week is a massive event with lots of tracks for UX Designers.

  • When: 20th/Nov

  • Organised by: Women in Product UK and CPO Track

  • Price: £15 (💸)

  • About: Hear from top executives who have built & scaled new ventures in highly complex and regulated sectors like Banking & Financial Services, Oil & Gas, Broadcast Media, Healthcare, Education, and more. WIP UK has loads of events every month, you can check them out on their Events Page.

  • Speakers: Dan Cohen, VP of Product @BP Pulse, Kate Thunnissen, CMO @NatWest Boxed, ​CJ Daniel-Nield, Co-Founder @Planes.

  • When: 21st/Nov

  • Organised by: John Griffin at Product Unleashed

  • Price: Free (🆓)

  • About: Product Unleashed is on a mission to empower product people to come together with peers and power-up. On their November event, they will be covering The Growth Equation: 7 Essential Steps to Finding Product-Market Fit and also how to Delight by Design and stand out by crafting emotional connections that resonate with customers, with key insights from the rebrand process at Wise.

  • Speakers: Andy Budd, Design Leader, Speaker, Advisor and Coach + Venture Partner @ Seedcamp and Caio Orio, Design Lead at Wise.

Hot Resources

London Lifestyle & Fun

❤️‍🩹 Poetry for a heartbreak? This pharmacy in London got you covered.

🍂 Not too sweet, the right amount of spices. My favourite pumpkin spice latte so far is the one from Blank Street Coffee (not sponsored).

image of a cup of pumpkin spice latte in front of a canva which says "pumpkin spice up your life"

X Drama

tweet screenshot about social anxiety at events

See you on the next one!

Beatriz 👋

P.S. If you got this far, THANK YOU. I created a personal goal to send at least 1 email per month, for the next 6 months, so I can understand if this topic is interesting to other people besides myself. So if you have a few minutes available now, I’d love to know your opinion about today’s edition if you reply to this survey form. Thank you so much! 😎