IT Career Energizer

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is an internationally recognized author, speaker, blogger and sometimes teacher and consultant.  He has been working with the web since late 1993 and is recognized as an expert on the subjects of HTML, CSS and web standards.   He is currently a technical lead at non-profit organization Rebecca’s Gift and is also co-founder of An Event Apart, a web design conference for UX and front-end experts.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Eric Meyer. He has worked in the IT industry for more than 25 years. Today, he is a teacher, designer and consultant who is a recognized HTML, CSS and web standards expert. He also has a working understanding of XML, XSLT, JavaScript, and related technologies. Eric is also the technical lead for the non-profit organization Rebecca’s Gift and the co-founder of An Event Apart, an interactive conference targeted at designers, developers and front-end experts. He is also the author of several CSS books and the founder of the css-discuss mailing list, as well as a conference speaker. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.14) – The very first thing I wanted to ask you about really was the non-profit organization Rebecca's gifs. Could you maybe give us some background about that organization and your involvement? Eric explains that his daughter, Rebecca, died from brain cancer, at the age of 6. One of the things that helped him, his wife, and his surviving children to recover was to go on a special trip together. A few months after Rebecca’s death they took a trip that the kids had kind of planned. It helped them a great deal. So, his wife decided to set up Rebecca’s Gift to help other families to do something similar. They help families, who have lost a child, to take their other children on a trip. It provides them with a chance to get away from everything and reconnect with each other. Eric is the chief technical officer for the organization. His wife takes the lead and Eric looks after the website and the technical side of things. (2.23) - Where can people find out about it? The website is http://rebeccasgift.org/. Eric goes on to explain that, currently, they are US-based. But, people can still go to the website, read about the organization and make a submission. (3.07) - So in terms of your other activities, An Event Apart is something else you're very much involved in. Could you maybe give us a bit of an insight into that? Around the turn of the millennium, he and Jeffrey Zaltzman were attending and speaking at a lot of conferences. Unfortunately, the content was not that great. It did not really speak to people like Eric and Jeffrey. They were designers as well as developers who were not interested in simply slamming out websites. Instead, they wanted to create sites that were user-friendly, forward compatible and accessible. None of the conference speakers shared information that was truly relevant to the way they worked and what they produced. So, they decided to remedy that situation. Eric and Jeffrey put together a one day show and took it around a few US cities. People liked it but often said that they wished it was for more than one day. Over time, they have been able to respond to that request and turn the An Event Apart into a 3-day interactive conference. The show is designed to enable developers to explore and for designers to find out more about development. Plus, of course, for those who already do both. They cover the entire spectrum, including UX and information architecture. It is not just about the cool stuff. The essentials like CSS Grid and Flexbox are also covered. (5.26) – How many cities do you expect to be arranging events for, this year? Eric says that by the end of the year they will have done the show in 6 cities. At the time of recording, the Seattle event was behind the team and the Boston event was next on the agenda. With Washington DC, Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco still to take place before the end of the year. (6.18) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Eric explains that there really are no gatekeepers. There is nobody in IT that can make or break your career. Nobody has the power to shut you out of web development. The only person that can stop you is yourself. (7.37) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Eric worked on the Y2K switch over. For a joke, he and another colleague decided to make the university webpage look like it was created in the 1900s when the clock struck midnight. They put together a page using typography from the era and included the message “as you can see the server thinks it is 1900.” They thought it would be fun, but they did not tell anyone what they were planning to do. The page went live, the press got hold of the story and all hell broke loose. This did not go down well with the administration. Eric’s boss was told to fire him. Worse his boss’ manager was told to fire him, as well. Fortunately, neither of those things happened. However, Eric still feels bad about inadvertently putting his boss’ job at risk. (10.00) – What was your best career moment? Eric went to Case Western Reserve University. While he was there two of his professors asked him to put two encyclopedias they had written online. It was a big project, which is really proud of managing. Now, anyone who is interested in the history of Cleveland, Ohio can access a huge body of material and do so for free. (12.40) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? Eric is really excited about the way CSS Cascading Style Sheets is changing things and the rate at which it is growing. That is what is exciting him about the sector of the IT industry he works in. Looking at things more generally, the fact that people involved in the IT industry are starting to have a conversation about ethics is good to see. Mike Monterio has just published a book about design ethics in which he takes a strong stand. We need to think about the impact doing X can have, outside of the purpose we have built it for. Developers need to ask themselves how what they are creating can be abused. (15.25) – Do you think this will result in new roles within the IT industry? Eric hopes that one day we will see appointing a chief ethical officer becoming the norm. Dumping a load of data into a recursive neural network and hoping nothing goes wrong may be OK in a closed environment, as a way of exploring the possibilities. But, it is not OK to deploy that stuff to the public. You need something in place to make you pause, think about what could go wrong and decide if you should still proceed. (16.44) – What drew you to a career in IT? For Eric, initially, it was the fact that he could make good money. He had been using computers since he was 7, so getting into the IT industry was a natural progression. (17.31) – What is the best career advice you have ever received?  When Eric asked Jeff how he could get to be a conference speaker, he said: “write a book”. Eric did. After that landing speaking gigs was easy. Even if you do not want to be a conference speaker, it is still a good idea to write about what you know. You do not have to write a book to do that. Running a blog is just as an effective way to put yourself out there and let people know what you are about. Eric has known people to be hired because someone liked a blog post they wrote. (18.20) - Conversely, what is the worst career advice you've ever received? One of his managers, at the university, told him to “stop playing with that silly web stuff.” Fortunately, everyone ignored him and carried on learning and working with HTML. (18.49) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Eric says he would go to code school or get a degree in computer science. But the biggest thing he would do differently is to focus on finding work that really interested him. So, he could stay engaged enough to dive deep, truly understand things and share what he was learning. When he finally started sharing what he knew, his career took off. Today, he would get involved in GitHub, Medium, and Stack Overflow far more quickly and deeply. (20.02) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Eric wants to become a better leader. He is also teaching himself more JavaScript, he wants to make sure he can understand the emerging JavaScript technologies. (20.42) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Being an effective communicator is Eric’s most important non-technical skill. He knows he is good at doing it in writing and he is working hard to become just as good face to face. For example, in training situations, when he can see from people’s faces that he has lost them a bit, he now doubles back and explains things differently. (21.26) - What do you do to keep your own IT career energized? Eric finds that rotating through a stable of things that need his attention keeps him engaged and motivated. If he starts feeling a bit burned out, he switches track for a while. Doing something different re-energizes him, enabling him to switch back and start moving forward again. (22.13) - What do you do in your spare time away from technology? Eric enjoys carpentry. He started out doing what they call rough carpentry. For example, he built a coop for his chickens. Now he has some experience, he is getting into finer woodworking.  (23.10) – Phil asks Eric to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. When deciding what tech to learn next, think about what you want to do with it, not what you want to do in it. Ask yourself what interests you. For example, would you like to make servers run faster? Or do you want to connect people? Asking yourself what differences you want to make to the world will naturally point you in the right direction. It will make it easy for you to identify what technologies you need to learn. That is how he and Jeff ended up putting together the An Event Apart conference. They saw an issue, wanted to solve it, so, went out and learned what they needed to know to run their own conferences. When deciding what tech you will learn next, you need to take a similar approach. Learning something with a purpose is always a far more effective and interesting way to learn. BEST MOMENTS: (6.33) ERIC– "There's nobody in IT who can make or break your career other than yourself," (14.35) ERIC– "When people create things, they need to ask themselves, how could this be abused?” (18.26) ERIC– "I know people who have never written a book, but have been hired by somebody because of a blog post they wrote" (21.46) ERIC– "Communication, which people call a soft skill, is one of the hardest to master. It takes practice." CONTACT ERIC: Twitter: https://twitter.com/meyerweb   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meyerweb   Website: https://meyerweb.com/   Rebecca's Gift: http://rebeccasgift.org/

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is currently a VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. He is a recognized industry expert on a variety of topics including digital transformation, social collaboration and online business models.  And in 2015 he was identified as one of the top 20 people most mentioned by IT leaders.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Dion Hinchliffe is Phil’s guest on today’s show. He is an internationally recognized thought leader, enterprise architect and IT specialist. Dion is also a keynote speaker and the co-author of the best-selling books, Web 2.0 Architectures and Social Business by Design. He is currently a VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.07) – Please tell us about the things you have been up to, particularly recently. Dion explains that he has always worked on large IT projects. For example, he worked as a lead architect for the Missile Defense Agency on their advance battle manager program. At the time, it was one of the biggest IT projects in the world. As a young man, he was chief architect for Rowe Price. Dion recommends that everyone try to work on a government IT project. He explains that dealing with the red tape, bureaucracy, long lists or requirements and politics really hones your skills. It is challenging, but by the end of it you are far better able to realize change and lead. More recently, Dion has been working with the CIO audience. His main focus is on helping them to apply technology strategically to modernize and transform their businesses. He develops digital strategies, ensures they work and guides firms through the implementation of them. Dion speaks and writes extensively about this and runs CIO workshops. Importantly, he follows up with the people who are implementing his strategies to see how things went. Using their feedback he is able to understand how well each strategy works and tweak them if necessary. (4.21) – Please tell us more about your speaking, blogging and writing. Dion explains that he sees himself as a storyteller who is working to fill a gap in the industry. He likes to go into detail and share in a way that ensures people can actually take action with what they learn from him. These days, people in the industry are more willing to share what they are doing. But, in a way, they are still quite secretive. Their case studies tend to be high level. People end up hydroplaning over the top of subjects they don’t really explain how they got something hard done. So, Dion has tried to break that habit. He writes long-form, detailed pieces that include diagrams to help people to fully understand what he is sharing. (5.29) presumably you get great feedback from doing that. Dion says that is the case. People especially appreciate his use of diagrams. It is something few people do. But, Dion discovered early on that the best way to sell an idea, especially an expensive one, is to use a visual. Somehow showing them a picture makes it real for them. (6.46) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? In IT your bedside manner really matters. You need to be able to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and communicate with them in a way that improves their understanding. It is important to remember that this is probably the first time they have been through a technology roll-out. Or, if they have done it before, it was a long time ago. So, the whole thing is completely new and alien to them. They are relying on you to show them the way. It is up to you to help them to understand the process, manage their expectations and make them feel comfortable. Looking at the situation through their eyes will really help you to do this effectively. You will be able to help them to see how their department will run once the technology is in place. When you become more empathetic your relationship with your customers improves drastically. They find it easier to trust you. So, it is far easier for you to convince them of the direction they should take. (8.42) - Is there anything in particular that you do to enable yourself to be in their shoes, as it were? Dion tries to think about the experiences they have gone through with IT departments. Doing this gives him an insight into what the customer is expecting. (9.15) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Dion used to run a boutique consulting firm. They specialized in performance optimization. Often, that means turning failed IT projects around. The first time they let one of their senior people to start an engagement. Unfortunately, the client called them and said they did not think things were going to work out. They did not feel they were a good fit. So, Dion had to let that person go. Basically, because they were no longer a good fit, which meant there was no work for them. It was very difficult for Dion to do this. (11.01) – What was your best career moment? While working on a large government project, Dion and his colleagues came up with a way to apply Agile working principles to a large distributed team. They found a way to do the stand-ups, the user stories and put together fast feedback loops. A way to ship code every week and show customers what they were doing despite the team being huge, fragmented and distributed. Getting there was tough. They had a lot of hard knocks. But, eventually, they were able to greatly speed up the pace at which the project moved forward. They still moved slower than most other agile teams, but it was a massive improvement on what had been happening before. Today, this way of working is common, but it was not back then, so successfully leading the way was exciting and a great achievement. (13.04) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that technology budgets are growing is exciting. It will enable companies to move forward at a much faster rate. This extra cash is opening up all sorts of possibilities for exciting, life-changing projects. So, working in IT is certainly not going to be boring. There is no longer any need for IT professionals to spend their life working as drones, in some back office. Unless, of course, that is what they want to do. Today, the IT team is likely to be involved in every aspect of the business. To touch every department and be an important and integral part of every team. If you are a cross-disciplinary technology specialist, now is a very exciting time to be working.    (14.21) - So why do you think that change from a predominantly maintenance function into more of a change delivery function has taken place? This is mainly because the statistics show that those firms that do not digitize will simply disappear. Firms have no choice but to change and they need IT professionals who can deliver that change. (15.04) – What drew you to a career in IT? As an 11-year-old Dion realized that with a computer you can create your own world with its own rules. He found that exciting, so just kept on learning and ended up following his passion and working in IT. (15.39) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? That advice to try new things and push yourself out of your comfort zone is the best advice Dion was given. We all have a tendency to gravitate towards the technologies and platforms that we know. Those times when you try something that is completely unrelated are when you learn the most. It also really broadens your worldview. So, deliberately go out there and try something different. Getting into this habit has turned Dion into a novelty seeker and fueled a lot of his writing. (16.57) - Conversely, what is the worst career advice you've ever received? That advice came from his father. He had been around in the 50s. At that time, there ended up being a glut of engineers and was worried that the same thing would happen with tech professionals. As a result, he questioned whether it was wise for Dion to work in the industry. Fortunately, Dion did not see things in the same way as his father. He felt that the possibilities for tech were endless, which meant there would always be work for IT professionals. So far, he has turned out to be right. The tech industry has negative unemployment and will have for the foreseeable future. (17.41) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Dion says that he would probably learn more about business. He focused too much on the technology and not enough on how it would be used. If he had done so at an earlier stage, he feels his career would have progressed even faster. (18/17) – What career objectives are you currently focusing on? Dion says that he wants to write more. It is a hard task and finding the time to write can be difficult, but it is really rewarding. His aim is to publish three or four more notable books. Books that really unpack everything that he has learned in his career to date. One of them will definitely be about digital transformation. (18.54) – What’s the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? For Dion that has almost certainly been his people skills. Most IT folks are not great with people, but the direction Dion’s career took forced him to develop good people skills. These days, being able to talk to customers is essential for most IT-related jobs. (19.50) - What do you do to keep your own IT career energized? Being excited about new things creates momentum. It keeps you moving forward. (20.51) - What do you do in your spare time away from technology? Dion has 4-year-old twins, who keep him busy. He really enjoys spending time with them. When they are older, he is hoping to get back into rock climbing.  (21.32) – Phil asks Dion to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. In the past, people learned a technology and kept much of that knowledge to themselves. They set themselves up as the gatekeeper of that technology, so people would have to come to them for information. It was a way of creating and holding onto power. Today, setting your information free and sharing what you know is the way forward. When you do that, you get your knowledge working for you 24 hours a day. Even more people realize that you are the go-to person for that technology. They are able to understand how it works and how they can use it. That means that even more people look to you for understanding. Importantly, over time, others absorb your knowledge, explore the tech and become experts. They start to share the load. Sharing your knowledge gets you known and shows you in a favorable light. BEST MOMENTS: (2.05) DION – "I recommend anyone go through some government IT projects. You will learn so much." (4.20) DION – "Speed is really the biggest issue that IT departments and technical teams are having to cope with, right now." (7.03) DION – "It's absolutely critical to be able to put yourself in your customer's place." (13.03) DION – "People going into IT today are not going to be stuck as drones in the back office. Unless they want to be." (21.37) DION – "Learn to set your knowledge free and benefit from doing so." CONTACT DION: Twitter: https://twitter.com/dhinchcliffe   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhinchcliffe   Website: https://dionhinchcliffe.com

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is a Principal Program Manager for Mobile Developer Tools at Microsoft.  He has been a .NET developer since 2005 working in a wide range of industries including game development, printer software and web services. Before becoming a Principal Program Manager he was a professional mobile developer and has been crafting apps since 2011. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: James Montemagno is Phil’s guest on today’s show. He is currently a Principle Program Manager for Microsoft’s Mobile Developer Tools division. James started his career working as a gaming developer. But, he has also worked on printer software and web services. For several years he was a Xamarin developer evangelist and is still involved in supporting those using the platform. He is also a .NET developer. James is well known for running numerous podcasts and being a prolific conference speaker. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.20) – I want to start by talking to you about the fact that you are a prolific podcaster. Can you please start by telling us about that? James explains that quite early in his IT career he developed a passion for public speaking. He used to build home theatre PCs, which were also ideal for podcasting. So, he gave it a try. His experiment went really well and he realized that a podcast was a great way to have a long conversation with a friend. To make sure there is some structure to each podcast he calls his guest up about 30 minutes before the broadcast is due to start. They chat things through then go live for a further 30 minutes. Over the years, he has started a bunch of different podcasts, including Merge Conflict. He also does a podcast with his friend Michael out of New York called Nintendo Dispatch. There is also the Xamarin podcast and he frequently does them for Microsoft too. (2.59) – How did your interest in podcasting come about? In the beginning, it was just a technical challenge. Podcasts did not really exist, at that point in time. There was no Zencastr, no Audible, nor any podcast friendly equipment. So, he set about finding a way to make a podcast and share it. Once he figured out how to do it, he realized that he really enjoyed the podcasting process and things snowballed from there. (4.22) Do you enjoy conference speaking too? James explains that giving conference talks was a natural progression from his podcasting. The fact he became a developer advocate helped too. Public speaking became a regular part of his work life, so he quickly became good at and really comfortable with public speaking. A conference stage is a perfect platform for demonstrating what your tech can do for all kinds of people. Public speaking has enabled him to reach the world and tell them about the mobile development tools Microsoft has to offer. He also did a road show with another podcaster, visiting 10 or 15 cities together in an RV. Every other day, he delivered the same material and became very comfortable with public presentations. In the end, it did not matter if he was presenting to 10 or 10,000 people, he felt comfortable doing it. (5.59) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Two things are important. Firstly, try to do something that you love. Secondly, don’t try to change the world, early in your career. There really is no need to reinvent the wheel. At the start of his career, James was tasked with developing an app. He was asked to do everything, including designing it to coding it and doing the UX and UI work. At the time, he had only ever done coding. So, instead of reinventing everything he found out was already available and used as much of it as possible. For example, he checked out the design and UX of a few of the most popular Google, Microsoft and Apple apps and used the same approach. James points out that you need to also keep an eye on what is new and roll those evolving paradigms into the design of your application. (9.06) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Early in his career, he moved from Phoenix to Seattle to work for a startup. He worked really hard for about 7 months on their DVR management app. At times he was putting in 70 or 80 hours a week. So, when it was released he felt a great sense of relief. His boss told him not to read the reviews. He ignored that advice and was utterly crushed. Not all of the reviews were bad, but James was actually quite vulnerable at the time. He had just moved, was living in a tiny apartment, sleep-deprived and stressed out by the process of developing the app. As a result, reading some of the bad things that were said in the reviews tipped him over into a deep depression. Thankfully, his manager and friends were there for him and were able to help. Now, he does not read the reviews. (11.26) – What was your best career moment? James’ career highlight actually had nothing to do with his day job. During last year’s Seattle gift camp he did a mobile application workshop. James was aware that a lot of the non-profits in the city would be able to use mobile apps to solve some of their issues. So, he asked them what they needed. They came back with some great ideas. He enjoyed sitting down with a bunch of different people who were totally new to mobile development and showing them how to build the apps the non-profits needed. James was able to teach about 100 developers a new skill and solve a lot of problems for some of the city’s non-profits. They built an app for the Queensland Food Bank so that restaurants and food companies could tell them what they had available. In just 6 months they were able to collect 8 tons of food. For James having such a significant impact on people’s lives is his greatest achievement, to date. It was made even better by the fact that not everyone in the room was a developer. There were other professionals, for example, graphic designers, who also played a part in delivering the app and training. (14.52) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The way in which the industry is transforming and the lines between roles are becoming blurred is exciting. People are now able to get involved in everything if they want to do so. As a mobile developer, he is particularly excited by the sheer power of the new generation of smartphones. This combined with cloud computing is transformative. Foldable phones are also an interesting development. What is happening with augmented and mixed reality is also exciting. It enables us to craft truly new experiences. (17.24) – What drew you to a career in IT? James loves math. When he realized he could be a developer instead of an accountant he was so excited. He liked video games, so he started there. But, later he moved to desktop then mobile development. (18.30) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? James credits his college instructor Phil Miller for all of his success. He taught him C++, but more importantly, he told him to “never stop learning.” How you do it is up to you. But, for James actually doing is the best way to learn. He is always asking himself “what else can I learn?” If the company he is working for has a training budget, he takes advantage of it. Both parties benefit when you do that. He also attends as many conferences as possible. (20.04) – What is the worst career advice you have ever received? That advice came from his teachers. They just kept on telling him that there were only certain career paths he could follow. Fortunately, he recognized that this advice was flawed and went on to explore other ways he could use his skills to earn a living. James learned, early on, to challenge what others tell you. (20.17) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? If he could go back in time and offer himself advice when he had just graduated, he would say – “take more risks earlier and if you don’t love your job, leave”. For example, he spent 4 years working on printer software. He did actually enjoy it, but he should have moved on sooner. If he had been more of a risk taker he would have done so. When you see an opportunity, don’t be afraid to take it. (21.31) – As well as career objectives, what are you currently focusing on? He is helping his partner and planning their wedding. At a career level, James is focusing on building the best community around .NET development and Xamarin for mobile developers. (22.34) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Phil responds by saying that is being a good listener and speaker. It is important to allow others to speak, something a lot of people forget to do. His communications skills have defiantly helped him to grow his career faster. (23.50) - What do you do to keep your own IT career energized? James loves tinkering with the little gadgets that come out. Currently, he is fascinated by what some of his friends are doing with Arduino and Raspberry Pi. (24.43) - What do you do in your spare time away from technology? James and his partner Heather love to travel. They enjoy getting to spend time together experiencing different cultures. When he is at home, he loves to cycle. He is also a big coffee fan. So much so that he roasts and grinds his own beans. (26.37) – Phil asks James to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. This is the same advice he was given – “take risks early in your career.” He also believes that it is important to stand up for what you believe in and the things you feel passionate about. James has also been careful to do things outside of his team. At Microsoft, he has nurtured a relationship with the marketing, development and several other teams. Even if you work at a small company, you can learn a lot from the other teams. BEST MOMENTS: (6.28) JAMES – "You do not need to reinvent everything. It's okay to take what has been done and re-craft that really well." (13.47) JAMES – "Get active in the community to have a really positive impact" (21.01) JAMES – "When you see an opportunity out there, don't feel like you shouldn't take that leap." (26.48) JAMES – "Stand up for what you believe in and what you're passionate about." (27.37) JAMES – “Even at a small company you can learn from the other teams." CONTACT JAMES: Twitter: https://twitter.com/JamesMontemagno LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmontemagno/ Website: https://montemagno.com/

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is a functional programming advocate.  He has worked in the IT industry for more than 15 years in a variety of roles including software support, development lead, project management and systems analysis. He is the co-founder of the Knoxville Functional Programmers group and is currently a senior consultant for Result Stack. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is a functional programming advocate called Reid Evans. He started his IT career 15 years ago, working mainly in software support. Since then he has moved on and worked as a development lead, a project manager and systems analyst. Today is a senior consultant for ResultStack. In 2017, he co-founded Functional Knox Inc. and is currently the president. The group supports a network of functional programmers by organizing meetups and via an annual conference. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.07) – So firstly, I wanted to pick up with you could you perhaps tell us a little bit about the Knoxville functional programmers group and what your involvement was with setting it up? Reid explains they have been operating as a hangout for 3 or 4 years. But, in 2018, they hosted their first conference, which was a great success. The 2019 conference was even bigger and even more successful with speakers traveling in from all over the US. (2.02) – Is this an annual event and why did you decide to set it up? Reid responds by explaining that both himself and the co-founder of the group Cameron Presley had been speaking at conferences for a while. They enjoyed doing it but found that they had to keep things fairly rudimentary to deal with the fact the audience had mixed skills. Both of them felt it would be beneficial to deliver talks that went a bit beyond the basics. So, they decided to address that gap and start their own group and conference. They wanted a place where people could come together and discuss things that were slightly outside of the mainstream. (2.54) Presumably, the focus is very much on functional programming? Yes, that is very much the case, but FuctionalKnox events are very diverse. For example, this year’s conference covered Haskell, Purescript, C#, Javascript, Typescript and much more besides, across 12 sessions. (3.38) – So, are you planning future events? Reid says yes, for sure. There is a lot of demand for this kind of conference. So, they will be arranging more. But, these events are not just for speakers with decades of experience. This year, 2 of the speakers had only just completed boot camp. It is clearly a form of education that works because they had a similar level of knowledge as someone who had been programming for years would have. Something Reid finds very encouraging. Becoming a programmer is now far more attainable. New people have not had to learn how to follow the traditional object-oriented way of working. Instead, they have gone straight into functional programming and been able to learn quickly because they have not had to unlearn other ways of working. (6.00) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Reid’s advice is not to let people put you into a singular box. You need to expand your horizons and learn more than one thing. If you do not, you stagnate and it is really easy for someone to replace you with another programmer who has more or less the same skill set as you. If you can move a JIRA ticket across the board, don’t stop there. Learn some design and UX patterns too. He also points out that becoming a good communicator is a good way to progress your career. It is something that sets you apart. (7.06) – Is this something you have done yourself? Reid explains that his path into development was an unusual one. For a while, he was technically a vice president of a small software support company. In that role, he started to do a bit of software writing. When he started programming, he was shocked to find that he was expected to simply take the ticket and move it across the board. Adding anything or making suggestions to improve things was generally not welcome. Basically, his bosses did not want him asking questions. Now, he works as a consultant he gets to go in and actively ask questions. It is the only way to find out what the problems actually are. Reid believes that without knowing why you are doing something it is all easy to get cynical about anything you are developing. When you feel like that you do not do good work. (8.44) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. That happened when Reid joined a team that had already been working on a huge project, for 10 years. It was massive. Reid, along with everyone else, spent months in a little cubical blindly creating their bits of code. Finally, it was delivered to the customer. Unsurprisingly, it was a total disaster. Basically, they ended up delivering a system that offered the customer virtually nothing new. The old system did everything the new system did. Worse, the new system took much longer to carry out each process than the old one did. It was stuffed full of needless code. At some point, people had got it into their heads that they could not ask questions. As a result, the project had drifted badly off course. When it comes to software design, you need to be able to ask the right questions to make sure you build the right solution. (11.27) – What was your best career moment? Reid could not nail down a specific highlight. But, he explains that he finds working with and helping others to be incredibly fulfilling. It feels great to be able to get someone who has been stuck for ages, unstuck. It is these micro wins that keep Reid engaged and happy working in the industry. In those situations, you have much more control than when you are working on some huge project. You can see that you have made a positive difference. (13.08) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? Reid is very excited by the fact that functional programming opens up the opportunity for new developers to make a big impact at a very early stage in their careers. It is great to see enthusiastic new developers being inspired by the work they are doing. The fact that there are so many new languages emerging is also exciting. With so much choice, it is possible to quickly find a solution to practically any issue. Developers just need to be willing to let go and move on to something new, when the need arises. They should never let a single language define them. Fortunately, the more languages you learn the easier it becomes to learn the next one. Each new one you learn gets you thinking in a slightly different way. This makes you a much better programmer and improves your ability to find your way through any coding challenge. (15.53) – What first attracted you to a career in IT? Reid was at music school and working as a cook. But, he wanted to quit. When he told his dad this, he invited him to work for him answering the phones at his software firm. Reid agreed and discovered that he loved the IT world. (16.36) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? That is – “don't seek feedback from someone you wouldn't ask their advice? Reid wishes he had been told that early in his career. He feels he would have got a lot further if he had. (17.04) - Conversely, what is the worst career advice you've ever received? Someone once told Reid to follow the money and not worry about what type of work he was doing. The rationale was that there is plenty of time to enjoy yourself after work. In reality, that is terrible advice. It is all too easy to end up spending a significant percentage of your week doing something that makes you miserable. You need to find a job that pays enough, but, you also have to enjoy doing it. (18.31) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Reid would put himself through a boot camp. This despite the fact he has a bachelor’s degree. The environment in a good boot camp is great. You are surrounded by people striving to do the same as you. Plus, more importantly, the boot camp staff are highly motivated to help you to find a job. Following the boot camp route gets you out there really fast. The best way to learn anything is to do it rather than spend 4 years learning with relatively little doing. (19.29) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Reid says he loves helping people, so that is one of his focuses. His consulting work and FunctionalKnox role both feed into this objective. But, he is also moving into being a consultant for other consultants. He is having a great time doing that. (20.15) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you in your IT career? Reid jokes that is his superpower of asking dumb questions. Phil responds by saying there are no dumb questions, which Reid agrees with. Reid goes on to say that he has asked so many dumb questions in his life that he is no longer afraid of looking silly. As a consultant, one of his roles is asking questions. He has learned to preface them by saying – “this may be a dumb question, but...” He finds that this helps people to understand that he is asking questions to seek understanding, not as a way to quietly challenge them. (22.30) - What do you do to keep your own IT career energized? Attending conferences and speaking to other programmers both keep him energized. Talking about things you are passionate about always feels great regardless of the platform you do it from. (23.02) - What do you do in your spare time away from technology? Reid says that he spends a lot of time with his family and also enjoys running and cycling. He describes himself as a suboptimal triathlete. Physical exercise enables him to unburden his mind, so he can start each workday feeling good and able to look at things from a fresh perspective. Running is particularly good for this. On a tempo run, after about 20 minutes he is able to switch off to the point where all he is thinking about is putting one foot in front of another one.  (24.41) – Phil asks Reid to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Reid’s advice is to find a place where you are respected. He goes on to point out that the easiest way to gain respect is to give it. When you do that your working relationships become a lot easier. BEST MOMENTS: (2.46) REID – "We wanted a place where people could come together and share ideas that were maybe slightly outside of the mainstream." (6.25) REID – "If you let people put you in a box, they will gladly do so." (10.44) REID – "You need to be able to ask the right questions to make sure you build the right solution.” (15.03) REID – "The more languages you learn, the easier it is to learn the next one." (16.47) REID – "Don't seek feedback from someone you wouldn't ask for advice?" (20.24) PHIL – "There are no dumb questions." CONTACT REID: Twitter: https://twitter.com/reidnevans LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidevans/ Website: https://medium.com/@reidev275

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show has been creating software for several decades.  He has trained developers around the world, led eXtreme programming projects for the US government and eBay, and introduced Lean and Agile concepts at Google, Guidewire Software and Apple. In 2017 he refocused on technical training and coaching, both in person and online. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Ted M Young. He started programming at the age of 13. As an adult, he became a software engineer, working for eBay, Google, the US government, Guidewire Software, and Apple. While working for them he led eXtreme programming projects and introduced Lean and Agile working practices. Ted’s passion is coaching and training. In 2017, he refocused on this aspect of his IT career and became a technical trainer, consultant, and coding coach. Today, he teaches online as well as in person. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.08) – You have been working in software for several decades now. During that time, are there any highlights that you still draw on? Ted explains that his father was into the stock market, in particular, the technical analysis side of things. At 13, Ted wrote a program to draw his father’s analytical charts. Eventually, that program got sold to Dow Jones, who was, at the time, selling software packages. (2.14) – I bet your father was pleased. Ted replies that he was. My working on his program and newsletter made things far easier for him. (3.07) – So, you've moved more into technical training and coaching. Why did you choose to go down that path? A friend got Ted involved in coaching. At the time, he had a fairly rudimentary understanding of Java but knew more than most people. So, when his friend asked him to do some Java training, he was a bit reticent to start with. But, decided to give it a go. This was despite the fact that, back then, he was still painfully shy. In an effort to address Ted’s shyness his father sent him on a public speaking course. It did not help much and was an awful experience. But, when he delivered the training, he actually did really well. Mostly because of what he had learned on the course. The fact he was still learning Java himself meant that he had an innate empathy for his students. He was able to explain things in a way a total beginner could follow. After that, he was in demand as a teacher and coach. But, in 2000, he stopped his training work. Instead, he focused on working for big corporations like eBay and Google. But, 4 or 5 years ago he got involved in an intern program. While doing that he realized that he really missed teaching and mentoring. Fortunately, not long after that, a friend told him about a great job at Apple. They were looking for a consultant who was also able to carry out internal training. The role was a perfect fit for Ted and the pay was good. He enjoyed the job so much that when he decided to go independent he carried on offering training. (7.04) – How is working as an independent going for you? For Ted, it was a tricky transition. At first, he did not spend much time actively selling his services. As a result, he did not always have enough work. But, now he is marketing himself and building his brand more, things are going well. (7.53) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Ted’s advice is not to be afraid of moving company’s regularly. When you do that you learn faster and make more connections. A lot of the people he trains are graduates. Many of whom are working for large companies. Naturally, they ask him what they ask Ted for career advice. Things like how long should I stay here? Ted’s advice is for them to continue working with a big company for a while. This gives them the chance to get used to how large corporations work. Invaluable knowledge that they can use later in their career. After about 2 years, graduates need to move to another large company, which they should also aim to leave after a couple of years. This is the case even if they love what they are doing. The idea is to get 4 years of working for large firms on their resume, learn how large corporations operate and grow as a professional. With this foundation, it is easier to go on and do other things. Including working for a small company. Usually, when you take this approach, you can easily circle back and rejoin one of the big companies you previously worked for. This is also a relatively quick way to bump your salary up. Each switch will normally lead to you earning more. Saving some money at an early stage in your career is also a good idea. This gives you the freedom to say no to roles that are not a good fit for you. (9.32) – You mentioned the dynamics of working within a larger organization. Can you elaborate a little more on how this impacts your relationship with your team, co-workers and how you interact with the company? Ted starts by explaining that when you work for a big firm you have to rely on influence a bit more. You have to convince your managers as well as your team that your approach is the right one. The way you interface with other groups within the company is also more complex. You have to coordinate very closely with them. When you work for a larger firm you have to be very observant.  You need to be able to quickly pick up on the fact something is not going well so that you can take steps to correct the issue before it works its way up the chain of command. (10.47) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. That happened over 15 years ago when Ted was still working at eBay. At the time, the company was upgrading its website search facility. They had found a way to allow users to cut down the search results using product attributes. So, if someone wanted a digital camera that had a minimum of 4 megapixels the user would only be presented with products that met those criteria. Enabling people to find what they needed faster was key to improving sales. Now, most e-com sites have that facility. Fifteen years ago, it was a radical change. Initially, things went well, the new facility worked like a dream. Not perfect, but pretty good. But, for some reason, which Ted cannot fully remember, he wanted to change the way things were read and written from the database. At least for the work that was done internally. To achieve this they decided to use Java data objects, which was pretty new, at the time. Initially, the switch progressed quickly. They got about 70 to 80% through the library and project. At which point, things slowed. It began to feel like they were climbing a mountain. Despite working weekends, progress was slow and nobody could work out how much more work was to be done. It was impossible to tell when the task would be finished. Eventually, someone pulled the plug on the project. Ted was relieved, despite the fact that having a major project canceled was not a good situation to be in. This awful career moment taught Ted a lot about managing large changes. Now, if he had to do something similar, he would figure out a way to do it in stages. (16.22) – What was your best career moment? That happened not long after Ted joined Guidewire, in the late 2000s. In some of his previous roles, he had been using eXtreme programming and Agile techniques. Very quickly he realized that Guidewire would benefit from working in a similar way. So, he put that suggestion forward. His manager and the Dev manager were both keen to give it a try and let Ted take the lead in introducing Lean and Agile working techniques. A move that made a really positive difference to the way the teams worked. It felt great to be allowed to make a big change like that and even better to see it make such a positive difference. (18.40) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? When Ted started programming, information and support were both really hard to come by. Now, it does not matter what you need to know someone out there will have the information. Better still, they will want to share it with you and usually provide support. If you want to do something new it is surprisingly easy to find others who are able to help you to figure out how to do it. This is very exciting because now things progress at a much faster rate. (20.28) – So you feel the IT industry is more inclusive now? Ted explains that it is more than that. Now, you also have the critical mass needed to make things happen. (21.18) – What first attracted you to a career in IT? Ted always loved coding and problem-solving. The fact he could be paid well for doing it was a bonus. (22.22) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Quite late in his career, someone said to Ted – “You should be a coach.” For Ted that was important advice, because it led to him doing work that he loves. (23.03) - Conversely, what is the worst career advice you've ever received? Oddly, it came from his father who advised him to work for a financial firm. In a way, it was sound advice. The pay was good, there were plenty of financial firms operating in his area and Ted’s work with his father meant that he already had a good understanding of the industry. But, Ted is glad he did not take that advice. He has done quite a bit of training and coaching for financial firms and knows that type of working environment is not for him. (23.51) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Ted says that he would probably challenge himself more. Instead of sidestepping things like working with databases and handling complex sequel he would face these things head on. In the end, digging deep into things you find hard, rather than finding ways around them, stands you in good stead. He also wishes he had learned C++ back in the day. (25.03) – Phil comments that it is hard to work out which language to learn. Ted agrees, but for him, it was more a case of taking the line of least resistance and relying too much on what he already knew. Today, he would periodically ask himself what he is avoiding. Then go out and find someone to help him to understand and work through those things. (25.33) – What objectives are you currently focusing on in your career? Ted wants to do more coaching, so that is one of his main focuses. But, he would also like to do more live stream coding. The fact that people can ask questions in live time makes it a very effective way to teach. It is good for others to see that people like him, who have been coding for decades, still have to look things up and can go down a rat hole. It helps them to realize that they are better than they think. To understand that even experienced professionals are still learning, as they go. (27.15) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Ted says that he has always been naturally good at coming up with checklists and processes that work. He finds that doing this helps him to work more efficiently and not miss anything important. The ability to systemize things has helped him in all sorts of ways, during his IT career. (28.27) - What do you do to keep your own IT career energized? Ted finds that live coding energizing. But, it is also tiring. Working, talking and explaining things for 3 straight hours can be mentally exhausting. But, it does give you a buzz. (29.16) - What do you do in your spare time away from technology? Ted is a distance runner. He lives in the Bay area, so he is always able to run in a beautiful environment, in a temperate climate. When he is running, he does not think about tech. He is not particularly competitive about his running. But, he does sort of compete with himself, which is why he tracks himself with his Apple watch.  (30.58) – Phil asks Ted to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Ted says that it is important to check for understanding. If you are teaching someone, try to get them to paraphrase what you have just explained to them. It is all too easy to lose someone who does not have the same level of familiarity with a subject as you do. His other piece of advice is not to be afraid to ask questions. You need to get past the awkwardness of doing that to be able to further your understanding. BEST MOMENTS: (5.25) TED – "When you're closer to the learning part, rather than being an expert, it makes it much easier to teach." (7.27) TED – "As an independent, you have to market and sell yourself." (15.41) TED – " Don’t bite off too much when you're completely in the dark about what's going on." (22.07) TED – "There's a certain joy in, especially for me today, sharing my knowledge." (25.21) TED – "Ask yourself what am I avoiding? What am I afraid of? Then find someone to help you to understand." CONTACT TED M. YOUNG: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jitterted LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedmyoung/ Website: https://tedmyoung.com

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show has worked in IT for over twenty years after failing to become a writer and divides his career into three parts.  The first third was spent building applications for the fast-paced online gambling industry. The second third was spent maturing that business, in the area of third line support and operations.  And the remainder of his time was spent working on container technology within the highly regulated financial sector. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s IT Career Energizer podcast is Ian Miell. He is a developer, author, blogger, open source coder and conference speaker who has been working in the IT industry for nearly two decades. During that time he has held various positions at OpenBet and more recently moved into the financial sector. Working for Barclays as their Lead OpenShift Architect before moving to State Street to work as a VP, in late 2018. Ian is the co-author of Docker in Practice, Learn Bash the Hard Way and Learn Git the Hard Way. He is also a prolific blogger and international conference speaker. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.06) – First, can I ask you about why you transitioned from writing into working in IT? Ian explains that he studied history at university. As a student, he worked at The Times for a few weeks and enjoyed the experience. So, he thought he might like to be a journalist. However, he later realized that journalism wasn’t for him. He enjoyed the writing side of things, but not the pressure to simply churn out words. So, he gave up on journalism and went abroad to teach English and write a novel. But, he was unable to sell it. This was in the pre-internet era and Ian had no agent or publishing contracts, so the fact he could not get it published is not really surprising. That experience got writing out of his system, at least for a while. It was then that he decided to turn to an old passion of his – computers. Ever since he was a kid he had been fascinated by them. So, he did a conversion masters at Berkley College, London and started his IT career from there. (2.46) – But, you haven't necessarily left your writing skills behind. I believe you've subsequently written books, with a technology, slant to them. Ian agrees he has come full circle by co-authoring “Docker in Practice” for Manning Publications. It was very well received. He did a video on Docker for another publisher. The combination of these two things got his name known. At that point, his blog really took off. Now, he mainly writes for fun, covering anything that he is currently interested in. He has written a couple of books and self-published them. So, the writing side of his career has finally taken off. (4.02) – So, are you writing another book? Ian has a day job but he is still able to put aside time to write and help others to learn. He is due to do some live Bash training for O’Reilly, at the end of June. Ian also does some technical writing for various businesses. As well as updating his blog. So, right now, he does not really have the time to work on another book. But, he is learning about Terraform and waiting for the next version to come out. (4.44) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the audience? Ian says that you need to realize that you are a product. This is a fact whether you like it or not. Once you accept that and start to think about what you are selling to the market, your horizons start to open up. Ian spent 14 years working at the same company and never really got out there. He stuck to his comfort zone, which really held him back. A friend of his got him to read Ten-Day MBA, specifically the first chapter, which is all about marketing. That is when he realized that he was doing nothing at all to sell himself. At that point, he had no blog, never attended meet-ups. Effectively he was invisible to anyone who was not working with him directly. When he realized this, he started blogging, giving talks and generally putting himself out there. This helped him to focus his energy in the right direction. (6.23) – When was that? Ian says it was only about 7 years ago. When he wrote his first blog post, nobody cared. It was a bit disheartening. But, Ian managed to keep things in perspective. He recognized and took pleasure from the fact that he had actually produced something he could refer back, to in the future. This realization drove him on to do it again and again. He figured he had nothing to lose by sharing what he knew in as many ways as possible. However, Ian points out that it is not always easy. He still gets nervous when he has to stand up and talk. But, doing this opens up so many opportunities. For example, after one speech someone from Barclays offered him a drink. A year later he was working for them. There are a lot of talent spotters who attend events to recruit. So, giving talks can be a good way to find work. (9.21) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Ian explains that he was a little older than the average graduate, so felt he needed to catch up. As a result, he was quite driven and did well in his first job and quickly progressed to the point where he was asked to head up a technical team. For Ian, it was a big step up and something he really wanted. So, when, after about a year, his team had not been able to really deliver he was more than a bit disappointed. The whole experience knocked his confidence. But, after a while, he recognized that failing had actually taught him a lot. He realized that what he was trying to achieve was actually quite a cultural shift for the business. They had been making money one way, for a long time. So, when he tried to get them to try another way of turning a profit, there was a lot of resistance. For a lot of businesses, cultural change is a huge hurdle. (11.16) – Why do you think that is? At the time, the company he was working for built products, sold them, then bastardized them to fit in with what each client needed. Ian wanted them to move towards producing a range of products and selling them en masse to buyers without the bespoke element. This is a much simpler, manageable and profitable way to do business. But, people could not shift mentally from being a materials company to being a product producer. At the time, Ian did not have the experience to be able to effectively push back on that. (12.19) Phil had a similar experience. He worked for a firm that ended up supporting over a hundred variations of the same core product. In the end, the complexity of managing all of this outweighed the business benefit of offering such a tailored product. Ian says that is why, these days, we have product managers. Someone who is responsible for looking at requested changes and working out if they are financially viable. If they are not they should be telling the customer that the change is not possible, at least not yet. (13.49) – What did you take away from that experience? Ian now realizes that if senior management is not behind your idea it is best not to invest too much time into it. Without the right support, even the best ideas will fail. This experience and his time working with Barclays taught Ian that enterprises move slowly. Now, he realizes that if you want to effect change you have to work with the grain, be persistent and be patient. (15.06) – What was your best career moment? Successfully, setting up an effective knowledge base for a company that had a team of 50 live-time developers, working in different locations, was a big achievement for Ian. It got everyone working more efficiently and protected the £7millon worth of contracts the firm had, at the time. Getting this knowledgebase working properly saved the company a huge amount of money and greatly improved productivity. It also made for a happier team. Putting together the base knowledgebase was a mammoth task. It took Ian about 7 months to go through everything line by line, updating things and making sure all of the current issues were comprehensively covered. It then took a further 4 months for it to gain traction. That is when the benefits finally started to show through. (17.34) - Did you actually have to train people on how to use the knowledge base you created? Or was it very intuitive? Ian insisted on keeping the documents within Jira and making everything as simple as possible. Initially, there was some resistance to this approach because it was different from what had gone before. But, Ian stuck to his guns and once everyone realized it was easy to edit, flexible and truly real-time the resistance fell away. Everyone was allowed to contribute. If others did not like or could not follow the editing style they just had to speak up. Very quickly an effective standard for working with the new knowledgebase emerged. The fact everyone could contribute made a huge difference. It also helped the DevOps team. They had access too, so knew exactly what had been tried when a problem had to be escalated to them. He tried to do something similar at Barclays, but ultimately it failed. Ian just did not have the power or backing to get the use and updating of the knowledgebase enforced. Because it was not updated properly it quickly became out of date and was just as useless as the system it replaced. To implement a project you always need to the backing of management. (21.11) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that IT is going to become an even bigger part of our lives is exciting. Ian’s kids use computers almost constantly, throughout the day. This move towards making tech a ubiquitous part of our lives opens up all kinds of new opportunities for those working in the industry. Ian used to worry about becoming obsolete. Now, that notion seems absolutely crazy. (23.18) – What drew you to a career in IT? Ian had always like maths, logic, and computers. So, he chose a career in IT instead of one in the law. He especially liked the fact that he did not need to specialize to be able to work in the tech industry. (23.40) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Get organized is the best career advice Ian has been given. When he was about 30 he made a mistake at work. The error basically occurred because he had failed to track everything. So he read the book “Getting Things Done” and applied all of the principles to his life. That has freed his head up enough to get the things that have advanced his career, done. (24.14) Conversely, what's the worst career advice you've ever received? A CEO once told Ian that to pay the mortgage he needed to get promoted. Ian now realizes that is not true. On reflection, he thinks this was an example of poor incentive management. (24.39) – What drew you to a career in IT? Ian had always like maths, logic and computers. So, he chose a career in IT instead of one in the law. He especially liked the fact that he did not need to specialize to be able to work in the tech industry. (23.40) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Get organized is the best career advice Ian has been given. When he was about 30 he made a mistake at work. The error basically occurred because he had failed to track everything. So he read the book “Getting Things Done” and applied all of the principles to his life. That has freed his head up enough to get the things that have advanced his career, done. (24.14) Conversely what's the worst career advice you've ever received? A CEO once told Ian that to pay the mortgage he needed to get promoted. Ian now realizes that is simply not true. On reflection, he thinks this was an example of poor incentive management. (26.39) – Phil asks Ian to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Someone once told him to always choose the thing that makes him feel slightly uncomfortable when he is offered the opportunity to do two different things. Taking this approach leads to you expanding your horizons much more quickly. BEST MOMENTS: (3.42) IAN – "Now I write for fun. I write about whatever I'm interested in." (5.00) IAN – "You've got to realize that you are a product. Whether you like it or not, you're selling something within the market." (8.42) PHIL – “Standing up in front of people to give a talk and letting them know who you are is a good way of marketing yourself” (13.58) IAN – "If your strategy is not aligned with support from senior management, then your effort may well be wasted." (26.33) IAN – "Getting away from straight line thinking is really important." (26.54) IAN – “When you have a choice between two things to do. Choose the thing that makes you feel slightly and comfortable.” CONTACT IAN: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ianmiell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-miell-694496/ Personal Website: https://zwischenzugs.com/ Company Website: https://ian.meirionconsulting.com/

GUEST BIO: Fran Buontempo is editor of the ACCU’s (Association of C and C++ Users) Overload magazine.  Fran has been programming in C++ for over a decade and also knows C# and Python.  Fran has also written a book about how to program your way out of a paper bag. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Fran Buontempo. She is a C and C++ expert who is the editor of the ACCU’s (Association of C and C++ Users) Overload magazine. Fran also works with C# and Python. She is a conference speaker, blogger, and author. Her first book, Genetic Algorithms and Machine Learning for Programmers (Pragmatic Programmers), has been well received. In it, she shares several ways to code your way out of a paper bag, as a fun way of providing an insight into emerging machine learning tech. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (0.53) – So firstly, I want to ask you about is your role as editor of the overload magazine? How long have you been doing that? Fran can’t remember exactly but she thinks it has been between 5 and 6 years. Becoming the editor happened slowly, almost by accident. Fran got involved with code critiques, writing book reviews and writing or editing one or two articles. So, when the editor stepped down she volunteered. (1.40) - In terms of the following of the magazine, what's its reach? It reaches a worldwide audience of around a thousand people. A magazine is produced each month. One month it is the member-only version. The next month a different version is published, which anyone can read. (2.38) In terms of your book, how did learning to program your way out of a paper bag come about? Fran was involved in interviewing candidates for a job. One interviewee was so bad that one of their colleagues said that they couldn’t “code their way out of a paper bag.” A throwaway comment that struck a chord with Fran and inspired her to dig deeper into machine learning and improve her skill set too. This led to her writing, her book, Genetic Algorithms and Machine Learning for Programmers (Pragmatic Programmers). In the book, she goes through several AI learning techniques using the example of escaping from a paper bag to illustrate what she was sharing. It was a great way to catch people’s attention and engage them. She was also able to include examples from some of the conference talks and articles she had written. (3.44) - So you're confident now that you can program your way out of a paper bag, presumably. Fran says yes, and she has the certificate to prove it. She gave her first talk at the ACCU conference on that very subject. For fun, she asked the audience to sign a certificate if they thought she had done well enough, which they did. (4.01) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience?  Fran’s advice is to start seeing imposter syndrome as a positive thing. You get the feeling you are not sure what you are talking about when you put your head above the parapet and do something that stretches you. Feeling like that helps you to identify the holes in your knowledge and fill them. So, that is a positive thing. At this stage, Phil points out that imposter syndrome is simply a different way to describe self-doubt. (5.07) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Very early in Fran’s IT career, she was in the registry at the command prompt and accidentally deleted Windows from a work laptop. She panicked, but it all worked out OK. Not long after she was working in a team of seven that was reduced to just two, overnight. The next day everything broke. Fortunately, Fran was able to sort things out fairly quickly. But, it was a bad situation to find herself in. (6.46) – What was your best career moment? For Fran, her career highlights have come about mainly from human interactions. Being able to mentor people is something she finds to be particularly exciting and fulfilling. It feels great to watch them grow. Being thanked by someone you have helped on somewhere like stack overflow also feels good. Positive feedback from conferences and book reviews, also give her a lift. Of course, the comments are not always positive. Sometimes people do not agree with you or see the value of what you are offering. When that happens, it is important to handle things in a Zen way. Use it as a learning opportunity and see if there is something you could have done better. (8.30) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The pace of innovation is exciting. It is especially good to see a new wave of young programmers becoming interested in C++. Version 11 has made a huge difference to how popular the language is, at the moment. Fran is also fascinated by what is happening with AI and machine learning. People are now achieving things that just 10 years ago would have been impossible. As new technologies emerge and advance, this is going to continue to happen, at an even faster rate (10.01) – What drew you to a career in IT? Fran responds that it was unemployment. As a teenager, she had done a little programming, using her Dad’s computer. But, she studied maths and philosophy at university. For 3 years she taught secondary school maths but ended up becoming unemployed. That is when she realized that she already had some of the skills she needed to work in the IT industry. So, she went to a local college and got a City and Guild qualification in C programming. It only took a few weeks to complete that course. Yet, that qualification was enough to land her an IT job. Fairly quickly, Fran learned C++. At which point, she was able to become far more productive. (11.31) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? One of her managers suggested that she join ACCU. That turned out to be great advice for Fran. Finding a group of like-minded people who are willing to help you makes a huge difference. (12.09) - Conversely, what is the worst career advice you've ever received? Fran loves coding, so wants to carry on doing that. Climbing the promotional ladder usually leads to you having less time available to actually program which is not what she wants. So, for her, the advice to move into management is bad advice. It is something she has been asked to do several times. But, it is something she is not likely to want to do. (12.50) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? From the start, Fran would find a supportive group. Joining the ACCU made a huge difference to her. So, she would definitely do something like that early on. There is now plenty of good quality support available for anyone who uses or wants to learn how to use C++. (13.49) – What are your current career objectives? Recently, Fran has been daydreaming about retiring. But, she is currently fascinated with how AI can be used to speed up the programming process. At the recent ACCU conference, she demonstrated how to get AI to automatically generate FizzBuzz code. The code produced was pretty awful and it took ages to come out with the right tests. But, it did inspire her to try to do more things with AI. She is currently experimenting with genetic programming. AI has the potential to be used for all kinds of things, in particular, to create and help with test cases. Using AI you can dig deep and seek out numbers or strings that will fail the cases. Even established systems could benefit from being crash tested using AI. It could also be used for mutation testing. Fran thinks there is a lot of potential. (15.50) - What do you do to keep your own career energized? Fran finds that editing the Overload magazine keeps her energized. It makes it easier for her to stay up to date and pushes her to explore tech she would not otherwise notice. She also finds speaking at and attending conferences to be an energizing experience. Sitting back and listening is a much easier way to learn. Plus, you get to speak to the people delivering the talk afterward, which is a good way to learn more. (16.19) - What do you do in your spare time away from technology? Fran has a lot of interests outside of IT. She likes to do things that ground her. For example, she used to read dystopian cyberpunk sci-fi books as a way of switching off. These days, cooking, making bread, enjoying her garden and walking all help her to recharge her batteries (17.00) – Phil asks Fran to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. While listening to Mike Feathers, last year, at the Software Craftsmanship Conference Fran picked up a great piece of career advice. He reminded everyone that they have an amazing set of skills. Their abilities are in high demand. So, there is absolutely no reason to be unhappy in their career. If you are not happy, switch jobs or innovate. Coming up with a problem to solve and launching a start-up is always a possibility. It guarantees that you will be doing something that interests you BEST MOMENTS: (4.35) FRAN – "Imposter syndrome is really conscious incompetence from the four stages of learning." (7.53) FRAN – "You need to be quite Zen about how you read feedback." (8.15) PHIL – "For every extreme, ardent follower of yours, you're going to get somebody in the opposite end of the spectrum." (12.03) FRAN – "Finding a group of people who will help you is really important." (14.40) FRAN – "There's an overlap going on between the AI machine learning community and the tech community. If we talk to each other better, we can help each other out." (17.19) FRAN – "You have an amazing set of skills. So, you don't have to be unhappy in your career" CONTACT FRAN: Twitter: https://twitter.com/fbuontempo LinkedIn: https://about.me/frances_buontempo Personal Website: https://about.me/frances_buontempo

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is the founder of Cloudskills.io, a technical advisor, author and a mentor for people ramping up on cloud technologies.  He has worked for tech giants Microsoft and Amazon and has founded two consulting companies of his own. And as well as having published four books and creating multiple online courses, he is often seen speaking from the stage at events around the world. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s Career IT show is Mike Pfeiffer. He is a 20 year IT veteran and entrepreneur. Over the years, Mike has worked for large companies like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. More recently, he founded Cloudskills.io consulting, with the aim of helping more people to take advantage of cloud technologies. Mike is passionate about teaching others and helping them to progress in their tech career. He runs his own blog and podcast, as well as providing training courses. Mike is the author of 4 tech books and a prolific conference speaker. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.07) –   Can you please tell us more about your background and a bit about Cloudskills. Mike explains that he started Cloudskills.io after he left Amazon Web Services. At first, the team focused on consulting helping people to work out how to use the cloud and Azure. But, since then things have evolved and now they spend 70% of their time delivering cloud training. (1.53) - What was the attraction of cloud in particular for you? Mike saw that working in the cloud was the future, so wanted to get as deeply involved, as possible. It is important to see the big picture. To look up from the work you are doing, see what is going on and recognize when it is time to change direction. You need to give yourself the necessary leverage to be able to pivot when you want to. (31.14) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Mike’s main tip is to look at your career as a business or as some people do as a sport. There is a difference between your job and your career. Your job belongs to your employer, but your career belongs to you. Spending a little time off the job ramping up your knowledge and getting yourself known will always pay dividends. But, you have to work at it, so you can leverage the opportunities in the job market. (4.39) Do you think that is something that has changed in the job market? Or do you just think more of us have become aware of the need to do that? The fact that the lifespan of jobs is much smaller has lead to people having to be ready to change roles more often. So, being, open-minded, agile and moving with the times is essential. (5.29) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. In the past, Mike was a bit over ambitious. He had a tendency to take on too much. Once, due to pressure, he took on a development project for which he did not have enough time. His plan was to work on it over the weekends and in the evenings. That project burned up a lot of his time and energy. It turned out to be one of the worst career decisions he had ever made. (6.55) - Did you feel sort of obligated almost to say yes? It was early in Mike’s career, so he felt he could not turn down an opportunity. Plus, he did not fully appreciate how much work would be involved. (7.58) – What was your best career moment? About 10 years into his career, Mike started networking and working collaboratively. That change in approach that had a positive impact on his career. He began speaking at conferences, blogging and building up his social media profiles. Eventually, this led to book deals, paid speaking gigs, online courses and a much higher profile for Mike. Helping people who were coming up behind him has also been very beneficial. It was the catalyst for him starting his own business. (9.05) – Please tell us about the books you have written. Mike has already published 4 books. He is currently co-authoring a 5th. The first 4 books were all about shell scripting, specifically PowerShell. The one he is working on, at the moment, is related to Azure architecture and some of the certifications revolving around that. They are all available from Amazon. (9.49) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that the possibilities and opportunities are endless is exciting. Cloud computing, has been and, will continue to be a great enabler. At the click of a button, any company can get the infrastructure they need for any project or idea, in place. So, all kinds of interesting business and job opportunities can now come to fruition. Mike is excited to see young people going straight into the IT business. Boot camps have made this possible for so many more people. (11.49) – What first attracted you to a career in IT? Mike says that he kind of stumbled into it backward. Around 1998, he met up with an ex-colleague he knew from when he worked in the sales department, at a call center. She invited him to join her in tech support. At the time, he did not know much about computers. But, his phone and people skills were good and he was a fast learner. So, she felt that he would be a good fit. That is when Mike realized how huge the tech industry was. His peers were using the knowledge they had picked up in tech support to secure a range of tech qualifications. Some of them did not need to do any extra college training to get their certification. Mike decided to do the same. He worked day and night to educate himself and get the qualifications he needed to start his IT career properly. (13.34) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? When he was working at Amazon, one of his mentors said – “don’t be a one trick pony”. Mike took that advice on board and has made sure that he diversified his portfolio. He sees a lot of people getting caught up in the day-to-day tasks and losing sight of the big picture, something he has been careful not to do himself. At one stage, Mike’s job formed a big part of his identity. He now understands that you should not let the job that you do define who you are. It is never a good idea to just label yourself based on your job. Saying oh I am a server guy or a database girl, is underselling yourself. In reality, you are a technologist. You need to keep an open mind and be willing to learn, to adapt. This enables you to stay marketable and remain agile. (15.42) – What is the worst piece of career advice you've ever received? Mike has heard people say – “stick to what you are good at”. In a way, that is good advice because it means you play to your strengths. But, it is all too easy to take things too far and limit yourself and get stuck in a rut. You need to play to your strengths. But, it is also important to build new skills. It might take you 6 months to get some traction and become proficient. But, once you do that you will be able to achieve so much more. (16.43) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Mike says he would be drawn to software or web development. The opportunities in these fields are huge. There are tons of jobs out there for web, DevOps and application engineers. But, to do well you need to have a solid grasp on the way the software works. Building that firm foundation will benefit your career, for many years to come. Mike says he would go from High School straight to a code boot camp. Once he had graduated he would then build a portfolio of applications and demo projects. This is not the right path for everyone. But, for some people, it is the best approach. (17.55) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Right now, Mike is in full business mode. His company is currently working on several ambitious projects. However, Mike is still working to stay on top of what is going on in tech. He is also building content, programs, and online courses. Mike is continuing to post YouTube videos and present his podcast. He is also keen to continue to lower the ladder down to others and help them to succeed. Over the years, he has found assisting others to be mutually beneficial. In fact, for Mike, getting into the habit of doing that has been a game changer. (20.06) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Good communication skills make a huge difference to how effective you are. For a lot of people that work in tech, these skills do not come naturally. It is all too easy for them to get into the habit of spending all day sitting in front of a screen coding and become introverted. If you do not learn to communicate effectively it is hard to get your ideas noticed and find interesting work. Good communication skills are essential. (21.58) - What do you do to keep your own career energized? Continuing to grow, learn new things and teach others is what keeps Mike energized and enthusiastic about his IT career. In the early days, figuring out how everything worked was what motivated him. Today, it is helping others and continuing to learn that keeps him energized the most. (23.27) - What do you do away from technology, in your spare time? Mike likes to keep moving. He lifts weights and does cardio workouts five or six times a week. For him, it is not just about physical fitness. Working out helps Mike to think clearly and get more done. Exercising in the morning sets him up for the day. He eats clean and really notices the difference if he goes off the rails and starts working 15 hour days, eating the wrong things and not exercising enough. When he does that, he soon gets grumpy and struggles to think straight. (24.53) – Phil asks Mike to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Mike’s advice is to trust your gut. Most people have good intuition. Listening to your gut will help you to spot what you should be doing next. It is also important to share what you know. Don’t allow fear of being criticized by others stop you from doing that. Imposter syndrome should not get in your way. Just share what you know. Start a podcast, record an online course, go to a meetup and contribute. You don’t have to be an expert. You just need to share what you already know. There is always someone who is one step behind you. So, you will always be able to help. BEST MOMENTS:  (3.52) MIKE – "Your job belongs to your employer. Your career is yours."  (14.02) MIKE – "Don't put all your eggs in one basket, don't align yourself to one particular technology" (17.31) MIKE – "I would go straight out of high school to a code boot camp." (21.13) MIKE – "Work on your ability to communicate with other people, and express your ideas, and work on your persuasion skills." (22.38) MIKE – “Continuing to always grow, learn new things and teach other people is really what keeps me energized.” CONTACT MIKE: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mike_pfeiffer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpfeiffer/ Personal Website: https://mikepfeiffer.ioor https://askmike.io Company Website: https://cloudskills.io/

GUEST BIO: Michal Spacek is a developer who builds breaks and tests web applications.  He has a specific interest in web application security and likes to pass on his knowledge and experience to others, having spoken at more than 100 conferences and events to date. Michal says that he is on a mission to teach web developers why and how to build secure and fast web applications. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Michal Spacek. He has been working in the IT industry for nearly two decades. Michal started his career as a web developer. But, has since taken on engineering roles in particular those related to web application security. He believes in sharing his knowledge with anyone who wants to listen. Over the years he has become a well-known conference speaker, teacher and mentor. Michal is passionate about turning the internet into a safer place.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.05) – So Michal, can you perhaps expand on that intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Michal explains that he works mainly from home. Right now he is combining freelancing with working on Report URI with Troy Hunt and Scott Helme. He is also breaking some sites. (2.10) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience?  Michal’s unique tip is – if you want to learn something, go teach it to others. It sounds a bit weird, but, works surprisingly well. The act of preparing for presentations and classes forces you to do your research, dig deep and learn. Having to present something makes you structure things logically, so you are less likely to skim over or miss something that is important. It also makes you think about it from several different perspectives. This is because you have to come up with the answers to the questions you are likely to be asked. Preparing for a presentation or class switches you from work to creative mode. This subtle change in perspective leads to you uncovering lots of little details that you would have otherwise missed.  Putting yourself under this sort of pressure is a great way to learn. Plus, anyone can do it. You do not have to be a trained teacher to pass your knowledge on to others. (3.28) Phil asks Michal if the fact that you have to put yourself into the mindset of your audience has an impact on the way you learn. Michal agrees that does happen. About 10 years ago, he became very active on a Czech development forum. During his time on there, he wrote about 20,000 emails and a similar number of replies. Doing this taught home to solve problems he did not have, at the time. Michal found that this really opened up his mind. People kept coming up with interesting questions that he had never thought to ask. Plus, of course, in the process, he learned how to use all kinds of tools he would not have otherwise touched. Later in his IT career, he found the knowledge that he had built up during his time on the forum to be invaluable. Often, if he had a problem he would be able to quickly find the solution using something he had uncovered while helping others.  (4.56) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. The incident that Michal feels the worst about occurred when he had the perfect job. Everything about the work was perfect, the team, the project, the way the company operated, the money...absolutely everything. Unfortunately, he had become distracted and started dropping the ball in. He would turn up late, not finish things and could not be relied upon. Michal had kind of drifted into these bad habits. So, did not realize there was an issue until a friend pointed out he had become reliable and asked if he was OK. That conversation opened Michal’s eyes to what he had been doing. The next day he quit the job he loved. It felt bad, but he wanted to make things right and to preserve some of the friendships he had with people who worked there. Now, every now and again, Michal pauses and does a reality check. He finds that doing this stops him from getting complacent and drifting into bad habits. (7.36) – What was your best career moment? For Michal that was when Scott Helme the founder of securityheaders.com and Report URI called him and asked him to work on a project. Scott is one of the world’s top security experts and researchers. So, getting asked to work with him was a big deal. (9.03) Phil asks Michal how he ended up being in a position to work for such an important IT figure. Michal explains that he started by following Scott on Twitter. Over time, he built up a rapport with him and made it clear that he would love to work with him on making the world a safer place, which is exactly what happened. (9.42) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that you can change the lives of millions of people just by writing code is very exciting. Your skin color, sex, religion education or world view does not matter. Regardless, of who you are you can bring about change. (10.26) – Is there any particular tech that you are especially excited about? Michal is pleased to see firms consulting their data properly. Using it to determine what direction to move in, what to do next. Making truly informed decisions. (11.21) – What first attracted you to a career in IT? For Michal, it was games. (11.30) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? That advice came from his father. He said – Don’t you even dare to think that you actually know something. There is always something new to learn. So, make sure that you keep learning. The point at which you think that you actually know something is when you stop advancing. This is the case regardless of what you are doing. (12.10)  On the flip side, what is the worst piece of career advice you have ever received? When Michal left the job he was speaking about earlier, he shared the fact he was worried about what he would do next with one of his friends. Their advice was not to worry. They said someone was bound to get in touch and offer him a job. Unfortunately, that call never came. That experience taught Michal that he needed to create his own opportunities. (13.02) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Michal jokes that when something goes wrong with computers it is always related to DNS. So, he wishes he knew more about it. But, he is partly serious. Michal actually does recommend that people who are starting out in the business learn about DNS. (13.37) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Michal wants to make the internet a safer place. (14.17) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? The non-technical skills Michal values the most are his empathy, emotional intelligence and his habit of questioning reasons. (14.35) - What do you do away from your IT career to keep yourself energized? Five months ago Michal’s daughter was born. So, right now, his only focus, outside of work, is taking care of her. However, he finds receiving feedback from people about the work he has done in the past to be energizing. He enjoys knowing that he has written something worthwhile and made a positive difference in people’s lives. That lifts and energizes him. BEST MOMENTS: (2.25) MICHAL – "If you want to learn something, go and teach it." (10.04) MICHAL – "Nobody cares about your religion, skin color, education or world ideas. Through coding you can change the lives of millions." (11.43) MICHAL – "Don't you even dare to think that you actually know something? Always keep learning." (12.43) MICHAL – "You need to create opportunities for yourself and always be on the lookout for opportunities." (13.42) MICHAL – "I want to make the internet a safer place." CONTACT MICHAL: Twitter: https://twitter.com/spazef0rze LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spaze/ Website: https://www.michalspacek.com

GUEST BIO: Sarah Withee is a polyglot software engineer, public speaker, teacher and mentor, and hardware and robot tinkerer.  She has a passion for technology and has had ever since she wrote her first computer programs in elementary school. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Sarah Withee. She has been programming all of her life, which has turned her into an accomplished polyglot software engineer. Sarah is a well-known conference speaker, mentor and teacher who is also a volunteer Girls Who Code instructor. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.01) – So, Sarah can I ask you to expand on that intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Sarah explains that she got into programming at a very early age. It was a passion that she pursued throughout her entire education, so it is not surprising that she ended up becoming a developer. Over the years, she has had many jobs, which has given her the chance to learn numerous programming languages. She loves learning new things, and working with a language she has never used does not faze her. (2.17) – How did you get into teaching and mentoring? and why did you choose to go down that path? Sarah did not plan to start teaching or mentoring. It kind of happened by accident. When she was an undergraduate in college, they split the C++ class into a lab and asked if she would act as a lab assistant. Sarah said yes, thinking she would be working alongside a teacher. Only to discover, too late, that she had to stand up there alone and deliver the class. At the time, she was very nervous and struggled with talking in front of people. But, she knew the language, had passed the classes and was actively using it. So, once she got past her initial nerves, things went well. Sarah found that she actually enjoyed sharing what she knew. In fact, she turned out to be a good teacher. If someone could not understand the book or the lecture, usually, she could come up with a way of explaining things. She ended up with some of the highest evaluations in the department. Her success in the classroom is what ultimately turned her into a conference speaker. Now speaking in public comes naturally to her. (4.30) – So, is your mentoring always one on one? A lot of the time it is, but, she also engages with people via social media platforms, like Twitter. She is especially keen to help others to develop the necessary confidence to be able to speak at conferences, to overcome their nerves, as she has. (5.14) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Sarah’s advice is to always be ready to try something new. Taking this approach is the main reason Sarah has been able to achieve so much. For example, she joined the robotics team at college without knowing anything about the subject. Pretty quickly, she figured things out and was able to start to contribute. (6.20) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? That happened when Sarah was still an intern. She wrote a piece of code and sent it up to her teammate to be checked. By then, she had been programming for a while, so it looked good and he told her to send it up. Sarah did that, but inadvertently pushed up a clip that her manager had not actually looked over. Unfortunately, one of the files was not attached, an oversight that ended up breaking the build. Whenever something failed, all 200+ developers were automatically sent an email to explain what had happened and whose code was involved. So, when the build Sarah was working on broke, naturally, one of these emails went out. Understandably, Sarah was deeply embarrassed, when this happened. Her teammates told her that it was something to be proud of. But, Sarah could not look at things in that way. It really sapped her confidence and she was not sure if a career in IT was for her. She felt even worse when the build broke again while she was in the process of fixing her original issue. (8.31) - What did you learn from that experience? It helped her to understand how important code reviews are. She goes through everything with a fine toothcomb, asking herself if anything is missing and making sure she has not left any redundant code in, by accident. Sarah also likes to get other people to review her code too. (9.12) – What was your best career moment? Sarah has had quite a few highlights. For example, this year, she spoke at an international conference for the first time, sharing how to work with the open source home assistant Mycroft. Sarah has already built up a reputation for learning new tech really quickly. So, today, she regularly gets approached to try out all kinds of interesting and new stuff. (10.31) How much of your success do you put down to the contribution you have made to the industry in terms of teaching, mentoring and sharing what you have learned? Sarah says that putting herself out there and being willing to help other people has definitely helped. (10.58) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that technology can now be used to quickly solve increasingly complex issues is something Sarah finds exciting. It is especially interesting to see the way big data is improving our understanding of the world. The fact that it is never difficult to find a new challenge is also very exciting. It is becoming easier to do work that you feel passionate about and make a real difference. (12.45) – What drew you to a career in IT? For Sarah, it was definitely programming as a kid. She loved the problem solving and the idea of making a rather dumb machine do really smart things. As a kid, she loved brain teasers. For her, programming was the ultimate brain teaser. (13.18) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Sarah says that was – take care of yourself. You need to learn to take a break, to switch off for a while. It is important to rest your mind as well as your body. (13.45) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Sarah says that she would spend a bit more time searching for her first job. She would make sure it was something that actually interested her even if that meant moving cities. The fact that she did not do this meant that her career had a rather slow start. (14.45) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Right now, Sarah is in between jobs. So, her main aim is to find an interesting and challenging job. She really enjoyed her last role, so is looking for something that measures up to that. The team she was working with was close-knit, empathetic and effective. So, she is looking to work in a similar environment. (16.07) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Having empathy for others and understanding what they need has helped her to become a better programmer. (17.14) – Phil asks Sarah to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Sarah’s advice is to seek out others that work in your field that are really good at what they do. That could be software development, management or other skill. If you do this when you are not sure about something you will always have someone knowledgeable to turn to. It will also give you the opportunity to help them too. BEST MOMENTS: (3.45) Sarah – "It came pretty naturally to share all the things I've loved about programming and about software development." (5.23) Sarah – "Always be willing to try new things." (12.59) Sarah – "I love problem-solving. I love saying like, how do you make this do that." (16.28) Sarah – "It's not about the tech …you make software to help people." CONTACT Sarah: Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekygirlsarah LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahwithee/ Website: https://sarahwithee.com/