Karol Attekita on Building Software and Inspiring Future Engineers

Creativity and code have always gone hand in hand for Karol Attekita, now a senior iOS engineer at Backtrack. She started her career in graphic design before teaching herself to program, combining visual storytelling with a love for video games. Today, she brings that same blend of empathy and technical skill to her engineering work—and to a growing global audience.

On this episode of What the Code, Karol shares how she transitioned from Flash animations to mobile development, why she started creating content, and how her work at Riot Games through X-Team helped her live out her childhood dream.

Gaming Was the Gateway

Karol’s journey began like that of many technologists: A curiosity sparked by video games. “The first time I played a video game, I just thought, can I do this? How can I do this magic?” she says​. That curiosity led her to blend design and programming, eventually building her first game using ActionScript and Flash. The goal? To teach people not to feed monkeys.

“It was a really dumb game,” she says, “but after that, I just started being passionate about programming”​.

Coding for Impact

Karol sees engineering as more than just working with code. “You are basically solving problems for people, and you can improve their lives in some way,” she says​. That mindset drives her work, where she collaborates with engineers to improve player experiences across products that millions of people use.

“We are just the same team,” she says of working remotely through X-Team. “I feel part of what we are doing.”

Karol’s work is rooted in meaningful contribution. Her proudest moments come from small changes that make a big difference, whether it's automating tasks or optimizing user flows. This especially manifested in her work at Riot Games through X-Team. “The feeling that you're doing something really valuable, it's really good. It's an amazing experience,” she says. “You are always learning. You are working with amazing engineers.”

Creating Content to Inspire

Karol’s online presence started with one goal: helping her friends. “I was a freelancer a long time, and I wanted to share some tips about being a producer, like how you can find work, how you can have stability,” she explains​. 

Her first video, filmed with just a phone and no tripod, went viral. “It was a really horrible video,” she says, “but it was honest.”

Karol has built up hundreds of thousands of followers across YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram while continuing to create content that’s as helpful as it is personal. “I believe that we can change the world with the power of information,” she says​.

Her advice to aspiring technologists—especially women—is to look forward, not sideways. “I think the secret is not to think about what you see now. … Think about the future. You can be someone that will inspire other people.”

Transcript

Amit Sion:

Welcome to What the Code show, the English version. I'm so excited to have my counterpart here, Karolina, who does the What the Code, the Portuguese version, and the original What the Code host. Karolina, thank you for sharing the spotlight with me and letting me be part of your show.

Karol Attekita:

I'm so excited. Can we switch? I could be the host, and I interview you.

Amit Sion:

Oh, I think let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do sparring, one against the other.

Karol Attekita:

Yeah. But I'm so excited to be here. Thank you.

Amit Sion:

It's such a pleasure to connect with you, and I wish you were here in person. We're going to have the X-Summit soon, but I'm really appreciative of what you do, what you do for X-Team both with our clients and also to raise our brand. I want to go back to your origin story. How did you start? How did you get into the tech space? What inspired you to be a software engineer?

Karol Attekita:

When I was a child, I loved video games. This inspired me to start coding. I guess most of the people that start coding have that feeling about video games. The first time I played a video game, I just thought, "Can I do this? How can I do this magic? This is something amazing." And then this was my main dream, and I'm so happy to be working today on Riot Games because it's such an amazing company. 

Then when I graduated, I started looking for some programming courses and also books and tried to learn myself, because I was graduated in graphic design, and then I switched to programming. But my main dream is to mix both design and programming and make my own games, so I started learning code by myself, and also, I did some courses. And here I am on X-Team. I'm so excited.

Amit Sion:

Living the dream, right? You set a goal, and you achieved this. How many people can say that? That's amazing. I want to ask you a question, though. What was the first video game that you were playing that got you so excited?

Karol Attekita:

Mario. Mario, yeah.

Amit Sion:

Mario.

Karol Attekita:

Yeah. I started with Mario World, Super Nintendo. I'm really a big fan of Nintendo games. I have played most of the Zelda versions and Mario, as well. I'm really a fan.

Amit Sion:

I am in awe of Zelda. I get lost. The world is so big, and I just walk and walk, and then I'm playing for hours, and then it says you've completed 1%. And I go, "What? I've done so much." I just can't believe how huge those games are, which is just amazing. What was the first thing that you built? What was the first thing that you developed?

Karol Attekita:

The first thing I built was a game when I was still in the university on my graphic design course. One teacher just said, "OK, you can do anything you want, but it needs to be interactive. It can be anything you want." I just thought, "OK, I want to make a game." But I didn't know how to code, so I bought a book about ActionScript 3.0, and I started learning it, because I was familiar doing animations in Flash, the Macromedia Flash, that program of Adobe.

Amit Sion:

Ah.

Karol Attekita:

Yeah, that's so nostalgic.

Amit Sion:

I love it. I was so sad when Flash disappeared. I used to love building programs in Flash.

Karol Attekita:

I knew that you can do animations and you can add some kind of logic there, so I started learning ActionScript 3 to add some logic to my animations and maybe build something. I created a game about monkeys and you can't—the main goal is that you should avoid giving food to monkeys because it's not good for them. The goal is like you need to take the food off and avoid the monkeys to eat your food. It was like a really dumb game, but after that, I just starting being passionate about programming and studying more, doing a lot of things, and this was my beginning.

Amit Sion:

That's so cool. I'll admit something here. This is not my first program, but when I was at university, I met this girl that I had a crush on. I met her at a party, and I actually built her a Flash program as a way to woo her and convince her to go out with me. It didn't work. I think she just thought, "Who's this nerd?" That was the end of it, but I tried. I tried to use my Flash for good. I was so sad when Flash disappeared, because it allowed you to create things so easily. You could come up with an idea and sketch it out and create animation and interaction, and suddenly this thing existed. It was a shame that Apple killed it off because it was quite amazing in that way.

Karol Attekita:

You could do web games and mobile apps. It was amazing.

Amit Sion:

When you were at university, what was it like to be a female in tech there? Was that common? Was there a lot of women in tech, or was that something that was a difference in demographic?

Karol Attekita:

I guess since I graduated in graphic design, I didn't have the chance to have the experience about doing a technology course and seeing what it's like to be a woman in this place. But I know that we don't have a lot of women doing this type of course, and this is something that makes people give up sometimes. Yeah, I didn't have that feeling because I learned coding by myself, but I know that a lot of women have this feeling, as well. Today, as a woman creating content, I have the responsibility to be someone to inspire other people.

Amit Sion:

It's such an important part to be a role model for them. I know for X-Team, we get very excited when we get to hire more female X-Team engineers. Personally, I have twin daughters who just finished high school, and all the way through, I try to entice them to go, "Hey, maybe try programming." They had just zero interest. It wasn't something that they were inspired by, whereas they saw some of their male friends who were very into it. They still, even today, which I find surprising in 2024, that young females see it as, "Oh, that's something more the boys are doing. That's not for us." One of them is very much into art and design-like stuff, the other one is into science. But it wasn't something that, I guess, they're seeing as much of other female engineers, like software engineers, that is something that they're vying for in that way.

Karol Attekita:

I think seeing someone in this place as a software engineer that you can be inspired by their journey is something really important for us, for the community to have more women learning programming, more women in the market.

Amit Sion:

What do you enjoy about software engineering? What is the thing that drives you and gives you the fuel to keep doing it?

Karol Attekita:

I think software engineering is some kind of magical, something like that, because you create something that could really impact the world. Talking about the games, you can create something that gives a really mindful experience to someone. I remember when I was a child playing video games with my sister, and that was a really incredible time. I wanted to create this kind of experience to people, not just games, but when you create a product, when you code, you are basically solving problems to people, and you can improve their lives in some way. I think this is something that really inspired me to work as a software engineer.

Amit Sion:

I like what you're saying there about the element of problem-solving. I remember when I was in first year university and we had a work experience course. I was working in this office and this guy, one of the managers, would show me this end-of-month thing that he had to do. He had to move financial data from this system to that system to collate it to create a report and do all this. He showed me this thing. He spends a day every single month and I go, "Oh, OK, that's really interesting." I went and thought about it, went to home, and then I came back to him a week later and I said to him, "I've built something." I built the software tool for him to be able to push a button and for it to just happen. Just the look on his face of what I've been able to do to save him a day, a month of his life of menial tasks, and just to automate, that was so rewarding. I think that it's great to be able to create games, and so many of us that start in development want to do and build games, but I think also this opportunity to solve a problem, to make something function simpler is just as exciting. Wouldn't you agree?

Karol Attekita:

Yeah, exactly. It's amazing what you can do with technology. You can make a lot of things easy. Also for me, I try to automate a lot of my process as I can because we have a lot of tools today. It's good because you have the power in your hands when you know programming.

Amit Sion:

And can I ask you, how many years have you been in X-Team now?

Karol Attekita:

Almost three years.

Amit Sion:

Wonderful.

Karol Attekita:

Almost three years.

Amit Sion:

And the whole time at Riot Games?

Karol Attekita:

No, I started on an internal project, and then I went to Riot Games.

Amit Sion:

What's it like being in X-Team or in Riot Games? What's that experience like, for people out there who would be so curious on that?

Karol Attekita:

It's like a dream come true, because games was the main reason why I started learning programming. And then here I am, working in one of the bigger companies that create games. This is amazing. Also, you see how many people play Riot Games' games. It's really amazing. You do something that will impact a lot of players and improve their experience. The feeling that you're doing something really valuable, it's really good. It's an amazing experience. You are always learning. You are working with amazing engineers. Yeah, it's pretty good.

Amit Sion:

It's interesting. Some people who aren't gamers might think that playing games is a waste of time, that you're doing something lazy rather than contributing and all that. I saw a conversation with Elon Musk about the importance that he has in playing games. This is the wealthiest, super-successful individual, and he's a big gamer. He finds it as an opportunity to be completely at peace, because when he's doing other things, his mind's always racing and all that. But when he's playing a game, the intensity that he has to give to it in order to be able to concentrate, to be successful, to be able to not get shot or something like that, he has to give all of himself. For that reason, it allows him to actually be able to switch off completely his mind to all the other things that are functioning in Tesla or in SpaceX and all that, and makes him better at the job afterwards because he's been able to take that break. Isn't that fascinating how gaming can contribute in that way?

Karol Attekita:

And also, if you think that you can mix games with education, and it's really powerful for you to learn anything you want.

Amit Sion:

I've seen gaming just support so many different points of life, like people who are with learning disabilities using it. I've seen it for people who are in aged care facilities. My mother-in-law was in an aged care facility and they brought the Nintendo Wii Fit. Do you remember that, like with the tennis? They loved it. It gave them a chance to people who can't get up and go to a bowling alley to play bowling there. I think that's an ability for us to play. That's part of humanity. Really good games are able to spark that within people. I think it's a very worthy thing to contribute to, and I think it's so great that you see the value in what you're helping to achieve. I was actually at Riot Games early this year at their offices. Have you had a chance to visit there?

Karol Attekita:

No, I want to, but I never had a chance.

Amit Sion:

It's so cool. They've got this office in L.A. and Santa Monica. You walk in there, and they've got all these arcades for people to play and take a break. They've even got a room set up with all the old game systems, all the Sega Master Systems, and all the different Nintendos and Ataris and all that connected to all televisions so people can go and play all that. I'm sure it inspires them in building new games, as well. It's a space that gives you that innovation. But for yourself, that you're not at the Riot Games office, how do you find connecting with Rioters and working remote under the X-Team engagement?

Karol Attekita:

Actually, I visited the Sao Paulo office, and it was an amazing experience, because it's really cool to see all the studios and everything they have there. But I think besides that, Riot has a strong culture. We have time to play together, and this is amazing. You have a meeting on your agenda just to play games, and everyone likes games there. I think games is something that you see everywhere when you are working in Riot. Even if you're not in the office, it's something that you really breathe as a Rioter so it helps you to get connected.

Amit Sion:

That's wonderful. I know that, with speaking with the Riot engineers and team managers and all that, they have this strong principle of treating everyone as if they're in one team. There's not like, "Oh, well, the Riot engineers are here, and the X-Team contractors are over there." Everyone's there together to contribute to the one solution. I find that the X-Team clients who work in that way get the most value from their engineers, because if you tell them, "I'm going to not treat you as some external contractor, but as someone internal," I think you're just as invested into the goal. How do you find that as an engineer working?

Karol Attekita:

We have that feeling that we are just the same team, like we are working together to reach a goal together, and we are a team. I don't see a difference between Rioters and X-Teamers. Also, they really love X-Teamers because we are engaging, we have ownership, and we are always trying to contribute. It's really good when you are in a place that you feel that your work is valuable to that place. I just feel that in Riot. I feel part of the process. I feel part of what we are doing in delivering to players.

Amit Sion:

Something that they've also said to me, they really appreciate In the X-Team engineers, one of the managers said to me, "There's something special about X-Team engineers. I don't quite get it because we sometimes use contractors from other companies. When you meet someone, you can tell if they're an X-Teamer versus coming from someone else." That was such a lovely compliment that they saw that our recruitment, our evaluation process of the people that we let in to X-Team and then let in to the specific clients are so deeply vetted, both to be an X-Teamer but then also to be suited to that specific client. Because you've been there now almost three years in working with, now, different X-Teamers that have come on to Riot, how do you see that process?

Karol Attekita:

I see that X-Teamers always try to contribute, even on onboarding. They start trying to do something, start trying to improve documentation. At the day one, they try to contribute, and this is amazing. I think X-Teamers have a unique energy. They're always excited to do things, and this is really good. I really can't identify who is an X-Teamer and who is not because we are always trying to do our best, and we are always trying to reach the next level. I think this phrase is really true about X-Team: reaching for the next level always.

Amit Sion:

Karolina, what's it like to be an X-Teamer? What's it like to be part of this community?

Karol Attekita:

It's amazing. X-Team is really interesting, because you have a strong culture, and you have also remote work. I think this is one of the challenges of companies having remote work. We have here a really great experience. You feel part of the community. You can interact with other people, you can join the Outpost, you can join Summit, and everything else. You feel as you are part of something and not just working for a client. The experience is amazing. The events, all the initiatives that we have here, makes you feel that you are part of a unique team, and this is really good.

Amit Sion:

Have you had the chance to attend an outpost?

Karol Attekita:

Yeah, I went to the Floripa Outpost.

Amit Sion:

And do you have any plan for next year?

Karol Attekita:

I was trying to go to Fernando de Noronha, but I don't know if I would be able to. But I was also interested in Japan and other countries, as well. I would try to. I really recommend to everyone who joins X-Team to at least go to one Outpost, because there, you will see how is the X-Team culture, and how is the X-Teamers like in person. It's amazing.

Amit Sion:

I really find that it changes when you go to an Outpost. I went to the one last year and the one in 2019, which was in Poland. It was beautiful. We get all these technology with Zoom and Google Meet and Slack and all these things that allow us to connect remotely, but it's something different when you get to meet someone in person, and then you work differently with them afterwards. Yeah, I think that's why I'm so excited for tomorrow, where we're going to get over 150 X-Teamers coming here for our X-Summit. It's just going to be magic to have that buzz.

Karol Attekita:

And it's really—

Amit Sion:

We're sorry to miss you there, that you won’t join us this time.

Karol Attekita:

Yeah, it's really interesting, how you think the experience on Summits. It's really unique, like the games and everything. I want to be able to go to one summit. Next year, I promise I'll be there.

Amit Sion:

I'll see you there. You're not just a amazing software engineer, X-Team, Riot. You're also quite a social media influencer. You've got a lot of following. How did all that begin?

Karol Attekita:

OK, I started creating content because I wanted to help my friends. I was a freelancer for a long time, and I wanted to share some tips about being a freelancer, like how you can find work, how you can have stability, and that was the beginning. After sharing my first tips, I saw that I could impact more people and also I could talk about technology. Also, as a woman in this place, I could inspire other people, so I started to create content about technology, content about career, and I expanded my social network, not just creating content to YouTube but also Instagram and LinkedIn. Here I am today, I have almost 300,000 followers on YouTube, and this is amazing. It's really good to see that you're helping people. This is my main focus, helping people.

Amit Sion:

It comes from such a good place that your origin of why you're doing it is to support and also to inspire other women to get into tech rather than, some people just want to do these things in order to get famous, in order to get noticed, in order to get likes. You're doing it. Your reward is the support that you provide to a community, which I think that's inspiring in itself. Did it grow with one particular video that went viral, or was it a progressive thing? How was the journey? Because I'm sure a lot of people are interested to be where you are to follow a similar path.

Karol Attekita:

I think I was very lucky because my first video just went viral.

Amit Sion:

Straight away, wow.

Karol Attekita:

Just right away. I was sharing how to find work in a freelancer platform, and I shared all my tips. I remember that I recorded the video with my phone, and I didn't have even something to place my phone. It was a really horrible video, but it was really nice because it was an honest content and the idea was really to help people. I think that when you share something that has truth and connect with other people, this is like the desire to have something that will go viral, and people will share because it helps their lives.

Amit Sion:

Yeah, it's funny. People are trying to reverse-engineer how to make viral content based on other viral content, but there's so much content on the web. There's so much information out there that, if you are repeating something that someone else says, it doesn't have the same effect. Whereas when you're giving something that's very authentic, that's original idea that people actually gain value from, that's the stuff that works. That's what your first video was, and that's where it's going. Have you kept that consistent theme with what you're producing?

Karol Attekita:

I guess it's about sharing your point of view. This is really valuable. Not just repeating something, but sharing your experience. I think this is what people want to see in the internet.

Amit Sion:

How has it changed your life, having this segment of being someone who is followed by so many people?

Karol Attekita:

Being in the internet is something good and bad at the same time, because you help a lot of people, you inspire a lot of people, and this is really good. But you also have the side of haters, and you need to filter some feedbacks. I mean, you need to have the open mind to always improve your work and trying to get better, because some feedbacks are really important, but you need to filter some things because it can be toxic sometimes.

But the overall experience about being an influencer or a content creator is really good, because it's really nice to see the impact of something that you share and change someone's life. I remember that I shared a lot of tips about interviewing, like how to be successful in interviews. I remember to get a comment and feedback that someone just saw the video, applied to an interview, and he passed it. It was amazing. OK, I contributed to his life, and it's really good to have that feeling, “OK, I changed the life of someone. I improved the life of someone.”

Amit Sion:

I'm really curious in your opinion on this thing of the negative comments. I got to say I don't get it, because for many years being on the internet, I would look at something, and I wouldn't even give it a like, and then progressively I learned, no, you should be encouraging. So I started giving likes. I don't think I've ever put a thumbs down on anything. And then now on LinkedIn, when I see colleagues and clients and all that post something, I try to make a point of coming up with an encouraging comment. I can't imagine a world where I would spend my time writing a negative comment for something. I think either I'm encouraged by it, or it's not for me, but there's so many people out there that do negative comments. Why? Do you understand? What is the mentality of why do people do things like that?

Karol Attekita:

Yeah. I don't understand as well, because I wouldn't do something like that, spend energy just writing something, but maybe it's because it's easy to do this in the internet. You don't have to put your face there and, "OK, I can say anything." But it's just like a small group of people that do that. If you think about the overall of my public that go and see the video, it's just about 1%. But you need to be aware that you have 1% of haters, and you need to filter these kind of comments, not be thinking about this on your day.

Amit Sion:

I guess it's in the same way that my parents always taught me to pick up trash rather than to throw things on the ground. There's people that do it, and there's people that graffiti. The concept that I've always held, and what I try to teach my children, is make sure that your space in this world, your day, you've contributed to it rather than taken it away. The world is a better place for the things that you've contributed to it rather than taken away. I think if people can have that mindset, then it doesn't have negative comments. You can have encouraging things. You can have DMs to people to say, "Hey, I'd recommend you do this rather than that." That's the part I understand, but do you go read all the comments that people put through on your posts?

Karol Attekita:

I try to, because I try to establish a relationship with my followers. I want they to feel that they're part of my friends, so to be really near to them. I try also to help as I can, but it's really hard because it's a lot of videos, a lot of comments. I can't answer everyone, but I try, because I feel that it's really important to them. When I answer a comment, they think, "Oh, you answered me. This is amazing." It's really nice to see that. OK, I want you to know that I care about you as well, because you gave me something that is really important, like your attention. The attention of someone is really important, so I want to attribute that to you, as well.

Amit Sion:

What would be your advice to a young woman coming in, let's say coming into the tech space, seeing you as an X-Teamer, working at Riot, as being a content creator? What would your advice be for them to go in a similar sort of journey?

Karol Attekita:

I think the secret is not to think about what you see now, because if you look at the market now, you will see that we have just a few women in the market, like 20% or less. But think about the future. You can be someone that will inspire other people just as I did when I started. When I started 30 years ago, it was less than 20%, but I didn't give up, and I started my journey, and now I'm inspiring other women. I feel that you don't need to care about the percentage of women that you have right now. Just think about the future, and you can make the difference.

Amit Sion:

Let me ask you this. What inspires you for the future? What are the goals that you're striving for?

Karol Attekita:

I want to continue contributing to the community, because I just have that grateful feeling that I need to contribute everything that I achieved in my career. I wanted to keep creating content and sharing knowledge, sharing information. I really believe that we can change the world with the power of information, so I want to be that person who is part of this, changing people’s life with information. This is what makes me start the day feeling good. This is something that really moves me every day.

Amit Sion:

It sounds like it's a goal that is ever-going, right? It's evolving, and you'll be constantly hitting towards it, but is there a thing of, "Oh, once I get to this, I get this many followers or I get this deal or something," is there something like that as well? Or is it something that you're just going to continue to head towards?

Karol Attekita:

I just want to continue, but I also want to have a more solid contribution to the community. I create content, but I believe that I can create more things. Maybe I can create a course, or maybe I can create a library or something like that or contribute to the open-source community. I feel that I can do more than I do today. I know that I do what I can, I share what I know, but I feel that I can do more and be someone important to the community, not just because, "OK, you have followers, but you did a strong contribution to the community at all, like talking about technology."

Amit Sion:

Karolina, what are the challenges that you see to achieving that future, to continue to grow and expand your reach that you're trying to do, to educate and to share with more people?

Karol Attekita:

I think I need to be more focused on what I'm doing. And also have a plan and write the steps that I want to do, because sometimes I just feel that I randomly do things and share things, but I don't have a plan. "OK, let's do this and let's do this. Let's record a course, let's do this, or let's create this project and publish this project." I think that I should have an action plan, so it would be clear for me the path that I need to reach the goal that I want. Currently, I don't do that, so I just feel like I'm missing time because I do things randomly, but this is what I can do now. I need to improve this.

Amit Sion:

I'm really interested in that, because I've seen you're quite prolific. You create a lot of content. Do you not plan this out to go, "Oh, here are the next 10 posts that I'm going to do for this day, for this day." Do you just like, "Oh, I come up with something," turn on the camera and start recording? How do you currently produce the content that you do?

Karol Attekita:

I do some research. I know that trending topics are something that is relevant to the community to record content, but I don't have a big picture about how it's going to be my ear. I think this is important. "OK, let's focus, not just recording videos about technologies and things like that, but, OK, can Karol record something, a bigger project, like a series of videos or a course for the community? Or can Karol create a project from scratch to teach people about how to do this?" I wanted to have a main goal, a long-term goal that I can write on the paper, the steps, things like that. Because I plan the content but it's not something really, "OK, I really have a plan. I have boards and everything like that." I just go with the flow. I feel that I need to be more organized in this perspective.

Amit Sion:

So setting a primary message that you're trying to convey, is made of several steps, and then producing the content that way. Is that what you're?

Karol Attekita:

Yeah, exactly. Because I feel like talking about content creators, I feel like the creators that have a large community need to do that. They need to plan their work because it's not just a hobby, it's not just something that I do as a side project, but it's something really important to their lives. It's just their career. I feel that I need to give the importance of creating content just as my current work need to be something that, “OK, I need to have some time to plan the next step and the next step so I can be more.” … I think that doing this will allow me to reach what I'm trying to my goals faster or something like that. Or maybe not just wasting time, like just experimenting things. I feel like I need to be more mindful about what I want to do with my social networks and my projects, as well.

Amit Sion:

But don't you think that when you experiment and do something different, an idea that, oh, sparks something with you that might not be part of an overall big plan, that's where innovation can come through as well. I'm sure that there's something that you posted that you weren't quite sure of, and that particular one got a lot of engagement. Has that happened to you?

Karol Attekita:

Yeah, it happens sometimes. But I think when you experiment something, you need to have time to understand what happened in that particular content that you shared. "OK, I did something different, but why this is different? Why it reached a new audience?" That time to see it and understand and analyze the data, it's something that I'm also missing. It's not just experimenting, but you need to experiment, and you need to understand and learn something about your experiments. I feel that this is really important, and this is something that you do when this is not just a hobby, this is just something that it's part of your work, so yeah.

Amit Sion:

To learn from a particular post, why did this particular one that you experimented in, why did that work? And to understand, is this something that you should be doing more of because it's gotten that engagement? I feel that you've got this mindset that you've—I think this is beautiful—you feel like you've got a responsibility. Now that you've got hundreds of thousands of followers, there's a responsibility in the content that you create, because there's a lot of people watching, and you want to make sure that you're delivering to them something that is a value of their time because you know how many people will connect with it. Is that how you see it?

Karol Attekita:

Yeah, exactly. Everything that I share today, I need to study a lot. I need to be careful about everything I share because I usually reach thousands of people. It's really important to understand what I'm sharing. Also this part of caring about, "OK, I just did this post, and it went viral or something like that." I want to understand what's happening. This situation where you see it and you analyze, it's also something that it's important to show people that you are not just trying to be famous or something like that. You really care about the things that you do. … Yeah, I just feel that we need to be careful. I don't feel like I'm a public person, but I reach a lot of audience and everything I share, I need to be careful about this. I need to be mindful about the importance of my visibility. This is why I think that I need to have a bigger plan.

Amit Sion:

Well, I think what you're saying is that the importance of being authentic, the importance that what you're producing, because your viewers know that if something's coming from a real space. I know from speaking to my daughters and their friends, they trust a lot more things that they see from content creators on TikTok than something that they might see that's heavily overproduced by something that's on network television, because they know that there's more at play there, there's more vetting and curation. This is about just someone likes something and they just, from their heart, said, "Hey, everyone, this thing's amazing. Go check it out." And then they go, "Well, that's where the reality is." They can tell the difference of who's just producing it for the engagement and who's actually just being genuine and wanting to share and put something out there that will benefit others. 

Finally, can I ask you as an engineer, like you say, the content creation is not just a side hobby. It is really part of your identity. How do you manage that? How do you have that work-life balance to ensure that you don't burn out whilst doing all these things in your life?

Karol Attekita:

This is really challenging for me, because three years ago, something like that, I didn't organize it, my workspace, my workflow, to do this in the right way. I almost had a burnout, something like that, because it's really easy. Let's just suppose that you code eight hours a day, and then you need to create content, and then you need to read comments, and then you read bad comments. It's really challenging, but what I do now is I try to have an agenda. This is important. I have hours. OK, I start my day at 8, and I start coding, and then I have an interval where I will answer to some comments, and then I record videos just one day of the week. I try to record videos just one day of the week. I try to write all the scripts and everything that I need to.

When I start recording, I record like three or four videos in one day. This type of organization and having an agenda helped me with this work-life balance. And also having hobbies, doing exercise, remember about the things that make you feel like this is really important. OK, I love to draw. This is my hobby. I love to draw, and I love to play video games, and I try to do it, because it's just small pieces of things that you do in your day that save your day.

Amit Sion:

Even if you love your job or you love the content creation, if you pour all of yourself into it, then you could risk losing that. You could risk losing that love because it becomes a burden. That balance is so important for us so that you're looking forward to it. Personally, I look forward to working because I feel like I've been able to sort out that balance that I am excited for what I've got to. It's terrible to say this. I'm on holidays and I go, "Oh, I can't wait to get back to work," because some really exciting things I want to do, but maybe that's a good thing. You're supposed to be inspired. We're not forced to do what we do. We choose to do it. When you have that, then it's exciting to do something that you actually like.

Karol Attekita:

Also, you have to have time to be bad on something, because when you talk about work, you want to be good. I want to be a good software engineer, and I want to be a good content creator, but I don't need to be good at drawing. I can be really bad, but I will have fun. I think you need to have space on your week or on your day to be bad in something and just have fun.

Amit Sion:

I say to my wife that I want to have more time to play guitar because I want to get really good at it. She says to me, "Yeah, but you're not trying to perform today. You're not trying to compete with that. Just enjoy it." In reality, what I wish she'd say is, "Oh, but you are amazing." But anyway, I think I get what you're saying, and I get what she's saying. Karolina, finally, your handle, Attekita. Am I saying it correctly?

Karol Attekita:

Yeah, exactly.

Amit Sion:

Where did that come from?

Karol Attekita:

It's just like a nickname. I had this on my childhood. I don't know what means, but this is my nickname, and now it's part of my personal brand. Yeah.

Amit Sion:

That's so neat. Well, thank you for this. Thank you for being an amazing X-Team engineer, for all that you do with X-Team and for our great client, Riot Games, and also for all that you're doing to support people, to inspire others to be like you, to learn to code, to be a female in this industry. I know that we've got a lot of engineers who have come to want to apply and work at X-Team just by seeing your videos, by saying, "Oh, wow, look at this person and what she's doing. I want to be like her," which is just beautiful to be able to contribute that to the world. Finally, what's your handle? Where can people find you?

Karol Attekita:

OK, you can find me on YouTube, LinkedIn, and also Instagram. It's Attekita. You can find AttekitaDev, and also, in LinkedIn will be Karol Attekita. I'm everywhere. Just search for Attekita. You will see my content. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share a little bit about my journey. I think we talked about several important things here, and I hope that this conversation could inspire other people. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Amit Sion:

Thank you, Karolina. Thank you everyone for watching the What the Code English version. If you want to watch the Portuguese version, here is our host, where she's got a lot more experience at this than I do, but it's great to connect and see you on the other side and being interviewed and hearing your story.

Karol Attekita:

Let me just do a question, because, let me just be the host right now. Just tell me how is it to be—

Amit Sion:

I'm nervous.

Karol Attekita:

Yeah. How is it to be the CEO of X-Team? How is it to be in such an important place?

Amit Sion:

It is such an amazing honor to be part of this, to be at the head of this company that has such strong values. I'll tell you, I felt it that I desired this role when I was at the X-Summit last year, where I was there meeting with so many X-Teamers and connecting with them and hearing what this company has done for them and how it's supported their life journey. I thought, "This is a good way for me to live my life." I want to be able to contribute to that and to help this company grow, to find more organizations to be part of the X-Team clients so that we can get many more X-Teamers to have this great life. I was just delighted when I was appointed in this role. It really does feel like a dream come true to me in this job. I feel like I'm in my dream job.

Karol Attekita:

Amazing. We are really lucky to have you as a CEO, for sure. Thank you for all the joba you do.

Amit Sion:

Thank you. I appreciate you throwing that microphone back at me, and I think that's it. I think we're a wrap. Thank you. This has been a great show and a great conversation. I hope our viewers have enjoyed this.