The New Engineer: Skills, Mindset & the Gap Nobody Talks About

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Hello All-Stackers,

Last edition we were debating the future of the tools, now we're talking about the future of the people using them. A panel on what the new era of engineering actually looks like: for students, for hiring managers, for engineers who've been around long enough to spot the patterns.
Same spirit. New question.

This time around, our meetup happens again in a new location and is hosted by our partner for this edition, West University of Timişoara.

As part of the conversation, we have people who are living this from very different angles:

• ​Cosmin Bonchiș — Dean, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, West University of Timișoara; Associate professor, researcher. His research interests include theory of information, optimization algorithms, combinatorics, game theory, and data compression, contributing to both national and international research projects. As a faculty member, he teaches courses such as programming languages (C, Python), data structures, and information theory.

• ​Vlad Gălățanu — 1st year AI Student, West University of Timișoara; He brings the perspective of someone who is figuring out what the industry actually demands, while getting involved in his studies.

• ​Ionuț Blidaru — AI & LLM Engineer @ Victory Square Partners; Grew up between two languages, two cultures, and two entirely different corners of software engineering. Fell into AI and infrastructure simultaneously at UVT and found it interesting rather than overwhelming. At VSP he builds LLM pipelines, wires up RAG systems, keeps Kubernetes clusters healthy, and debugs things that should absolutely not have broken. He also runs a home cluster on Talos for fun. His take going into this panel: being a generalist isn't a gap in your CV. It's just a different kind of specialist.

• ​Cristian Cazan — Engineering Manager @ Victory Square Partners; Over 20 years in software engineering across big companies and also entrepreneurship. He's sat on both sides of the table — as an engineer being evaluated and as the person doing the evaluating. He builds teams, assesses people, navigates stakeholders, and still has to deliver results. He knows what it takes to get hired. And what makes someone forgettable.

No prepared speeches. Just an honest conversation from people living this from very different seats.

Agenda 18:00 – 18:30 | Doors open & welcome
18:30 – 19:30 | Panel + audience Q&A
19:30 – 21:00 | Hangout & networking

Devs, designers, tech leads, students, and curious minds of all stacks are welcome. Come for the conversation, stay for the community.
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