Ep 5- What working at Huggingface is like for non-technical folks building opensource solutions

A chat with People ops evangelist Emily Witko
In this episode Emily discusses their role at AI startup darling, Hugging Face, and what working in a deeply technical field looks like for someone with a "non-technical" background.
With a background in customer-facing roles, Emily discusses the journey of career transitions to AI and opensource.
Guest Links-
https://huggingface.co/chat/assistants
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilywitko/
https://hf.co/chat/assistant/65c116edf1df938c33a1b944
(un)Supervised Learning links
https://www.linkedin.com/company/unsupervisedlearning
ko-fi.com/unsupervisedlearning
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unsupervised-learning/id1728592020
www.unsupervisedlearning.co
[email protected]
Sponsored by Jan https://jan.ai/
Timeline
00:00 Introduction and Initial Struggles
00:25 Discussing Roles and Responsibilities
01:08 Career Background and Transition to Tech
03:04 The Journey to Understanding Technical Conversations
03:24 Discovering Hugging Face and Joining the Team
06:42 The Culture and Diversity at Hugging Face
07:48 The Hiring Process and Job Description at Hugging Face
08:39 The Role of Openness and Experimentation in Open Source
10:25 The Importance of Flexibility and Confidence in Open Source
15:34 The Journey to Hugging Face and the Importance of Psychological Safety
22:51 The Growth and Impact of Hugging Face
23:05 The Challenges and Rewards of Working in AI
26:54 The Importance of Knowledge Sharing and Communication
32:45 The Role of AI in Pay Equity and Inclusivity
41:43 Conclusion: The Future of AI and Hugging Face