Anna Sulkina, an Airbnb Senior Director of Engineering, shares her journey in the tech industry. She was inspired by her brother and the early days of computing in Ukraine, leading her to study programming. After immigrating to America, she faced language barriers, which were initially more challenging than programming itself. Her career progressed from hardware diagnostics to front-end and eventually to infrastructure, with increasing leadership responsibilities. She worked at Twitter during significant events, learning the importance of designing for inevitable failure in complex systems. Anna also spearheaded the adoption of GraphQL at Twitter, leading to increased productivity. She joined Airbnb because she loved the product and saw an opportunity to improve developer experience. At Airbnb, she focuses on building reliable platforms for engineers, fostering a strong culture. She highlights the company's balance of established systems and innovative problem-solving, along with the ability to work remotely. Finally, Anna draws parallels between her career, long-distance trail running, strategy and teamwork.