IT Career Energizer

GUEST BIO: Dave is a Software Developer who has been building web applications since using HTML tables for layout started to go out of style.  A background in classical design and computer systems technology has enabled him to roam between the worlds of design and development.  Dave hails from Ottawa, Canada where he works remotely for Test Double. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Dave Mosher.  He has a background in classic design and computer systems technology. Today, he works remotely for Test Double as a Software Developer. Dave has also held this position at Shopify and Pillar Technology. For several years, he ran his own consulting company DAVEMO. He specializes in producing high-performance front-end web architecture and is currently working on getting more deeply involved in coaching and mentoring. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.04) – So Dave, can I ask you to expand on that intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Dave started his IT career working as a designer. He started out just working with HTML and CSS. At first, he did a lot of desktop publishing work. But, he soon moved on to development, working with databases. (2.27) - How did you get into Test Double? When did that come about? Dave spent a few years working at a start-up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, doing Python app development on Google App Engine. During that time, he grew a lot and learned to wear lots of hats. That role ended and Dave found himself at a loose end. Around the same time, Kevin Baribeau, a fellow test dabbler, was also under-occupied. He got a job at a consultancy called Pillar Technology. So, Dave applied for a role there too and was hired as a remote consultant. During much of his time with Pillar Technology he worked directly with the guy who hired him, Justin Searls. He also came across Ted Kaufmann while working there. Within about two years, Justin and Ted left Pillar Technology and set up Test Double. Dave ended up working for them as a consultant and later as a full-time employee. It was Justin that helped him to learn TDD, how to write tests and introduced him to the realm of Agile software development. Dave says he learned more in the nine months he worked directly with Justin than he had in the previous five years. (4.53) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Dave’s advice is not to chase technology if you are not happy in your current role. In all likeliness a shiny new piece of technology is not going to solve your problems. If you start chasing after shiny tech it usually ends in disappointment. Ultimately, technology is not really the source of the challenge you are looking for. Solving people’s problems is what brings job satisfaction. You don’t need to be using the latest technology to do that.  Phil asks if he is saying that you need to avoid the shiny penny syndrome. Dave confirms that is the case. Chasing after the latest tech is a trap that a lot of newcomers fall into. They tend to underestimate the human factors of software development. (7.09) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Before joining Double Test full time, Dave took a job with Shopify. He wanted to get away from using JavaScript and learn to use Ruby on Rails. Overall, it was a good move. He learned a lot while working there. But, it was also where his worst career moment took place. At the time, he was refactoring their asset pipeline. It was really slow, taking five minutes to run, so Dave re-tooled it. He did a good job and got the run time down to about 20 seconds. So, they rushed his enhancement out to production. That was a mistake, a big one. They ended up taking down the whole of Shopify for about 15 minutes. At the time, there were around 80,000 websites running on the platform, so it was a big deal. This incident taught Dave that if you are making a change to a big platform you need to be especially careful before proceeding. You have to slow things down a bit and vet everything in every possible environment. It is also important to keep your QA and production environments as closely aligned as possible. At the time, Shopify had not succeeded in doing that. Dave and the people he was working with had been lured into a false sense of security. When the enhancement test went green in the QA environment they, understandably, assumed it would work in production. Unfortunately, that is not what happened. (11.10) – What was your best career moment? For Dave, that was when he first started working for Double Test. At the time they were working on a contract for a very large firm. Like most large corporations, the work environment was incredibly restrictive and inflexible. They had lots of standards in place and hoops to jump through. It was impossible to work fast because Dave and his colleagues had virtually no autonomy. However, they did find a way around this. Working with one of the firm’s developers, who did a lot of API work, they were able to build a shim and their own tooling. This enabled them to work in isolation at the front end with the angular piece and JavaScript. That meant that they could work much faster. For everyone involved in coming up with this solution it was a great technical triumph. But, Dave took the most pleasure from the fact that they had been able to help the team lead they were working with to gain confidence and excel. They invested a lot of time and energy into coaching him and giving him personal encouragement. This included teaching him people skills, for example, how to avoid confrontations and not become defensive. By the end of their time together he was a completely different person. So much so that he actually said “you guys changed my life.” (13.50) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that the barrier to entry has been lowered significantly really excites Dave. Code boot camps are making the field of IT a lot more accessible. In particular those boot camps that have structured their courses so that you do not necessarily have to pay your tuition fees up front. Dave has also been involved in producing educational resources. He took what he was doing at work and replicated the processes via screencasts so that he could help and educate other people. It was wildly successful and Dave found that putting together the lessons helped to solidify his knowledge. So, the benefits were twofold. Both parties benefited. He has noticed that a lot more people are starting to do share their knowledge, recently, something he is very pleased to see. (17.10) – What drew you to a career in IT? Dave drifted into IT through design. But, to get involved in the back end he had to go back to school and complete a Computer Systems Technology diploma. It was the only way he could go from being a starving artist, so to speak, to making some real money. (17.36) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? That advice came from Justin. He was struggling to convince Dave that test-driven development was the way to go. Dave, like most developers, was used to starting with the code first, then thinking about tests. Justin knew, from experience, that he was right. But, when Dave did not listen he did not continue to badger him. Instead, he let him go his own way and discover the painful way that he was wrong and Justin was right. Test-driven development did work best. This experience taught Dave the value of allowing yourself the freedom to fail. He learned how to use his pain as a motivator. He still remembers how going down the wrong path feels, so stops and thinks more before choosing a course of action. Dave is also more inclined to listen to others than he was when he first started his career. (18.54) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Dave says that he would probably spend a lot more time working with relational databases. If you want to specialize, being a database admin, and understanding the nuts and bolts of PostgreSQL or Postgres is a great approach, right now. He would also get a better handle on data modeling. Developers have a tendency to start without the data. As a result, all too often, they end up painting themselves into a corner pretty quickly. (19.56) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Right now, Dave wants to get more involved with mentoring. He wants to have more of an impact on people’s personal lives. Dave is currently figuring who the people in his community are so that he can make himself available to them and help others to level up. (20.39) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? For Dave, that is his musical abilities. He plays piano, drums, bass, and guitar. Dave finds playing to be a good creative outlet and has noticed that there is a lot of crossover between musicality and IT. While playing music, you learn to pick up on patterns and how to improvise. This skill set is useful for IT professionals as well as musicians. Playing music with others sharpens your ability to spot where they are going and follow them or add to what they are doing. These skills are also useful in the workplace. (22.18) – Phil asks Dave to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Dave’s parting piece of advice is - When you feel it's time to move on, reconsider. Usually, if you are at the end of your rope there will still be something you can do to reframe the engagement in a way that is positive. Adversity provides you with the chance to rise to the challenge and learn. So, when you are struggling, stop, think and see if you can solve the problem without necessarily changing companies. Only move on when you have considered things carefully and determined there is no way to fix the problem. BEST MOMENTS: (1.45) DAVE – "I was drawn to the web via the power of design." (3.05) DAVE – "Don't chase technology would be my number one career tip." (7.08) PHIL – "It's the right technology for the right solution as opposed to a specific technology." (10.45) DAVE – " Take a little bit more time than you think you need and try to vet all of the things that you're working on in every environment possible" (18.33) DAVE – "Allow yourself the freedom to fail." (22.23) DAVE – “When you feel like it's time to move on, reconsider.” CONTACT DAVE: Twitter: https://twitter.com/dmosher LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmosher/ Website: https://blog.davemo.com

GUEST BIO: Charity is CEO at honeycomb.io.  She is a former systems engineer and manager at Facebook, Parse and Linden Lab always seeming to end up responsible for databases.  Charity is also the co-author of O’Reilly’s Database Reliability Engineering and a regular conference speaker. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Charity Majors. She started her career working as a systems engineer and manager for Linden Lab then Shopkick and Cloudmark Inc. Charity was the Infrastructure Tech Lead at Parse when they were taken over by Facebook. At that point, she became a Production Engineering Manager at Facebook. In 2016, she co-founded honeycomb.io. Today, she is CEO of this multi-node debugging tool provider. Charity is also the co-author of O’Reilly’s Database Reliability Engineering. She is also a prolific and well-known conference speaker. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.02) – So Charity, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Charity explains that she is a classical piano performance major dropout. She grew up without a computer. But, she ended up spending a lot of time in the computer lab while at university because she had a crush on a boy. It was then that she realized that an IT career was well paid while most music majors did not make a lot of money. Charity has worked in Silicon Valley since she was 17. She built her career primarily by building the first incarnation of infrastructure for systems that are just gaining traction. When she gets bored she moves on and finds something else that is fresh and new to get to grips with. (2.07) – It sounds to me like your passion is to be at the beginning of the start-up. Charity describes herself as the person who comes in and makes everything regular and boring. She enjoys having some chaos to tame, which is why she likes being an early adopter. (2.36) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Charity’s advice is not to get fixated on following a traditional hierarchical career climbing path. Becoming a manager is not the only way to be successful in the IT field. If you want to simply carry on building things and progressively working on bigger and more complex projects, do that. Not everyone enjoys management. If you are one of those people, don’t let yourself be forced along that career path. Progressing along a technical route is just as valid as climbing the management ladder. (4.22) Phil agrees and comments that, in the past, climbing the management ladder was the only way to be seen as successful. But, that is starting to change with the technical path being recognized, as well. Charity agrees, but she thinks everyone needs to play a role in making sure both paths are valued. For example, when someone becomes a manager congratulate them on their career change instead of their promotion. Over the years, Charity has noticed that the most successful managers are those that see themselves as being in a supportive position rather than a dominating one. (5.24) – Phil says that is interesting given that you are now a CEO yourself. But, it sounds like you prefer to be hands on. Charity agrees that is true, up to a point. But, she does not spend as much time as she would like sat at a terminal doing stuff. This is because Charity deliberately took a step back to make sure she fulfils her role in full. When she was managing engineers, she was close enough to the code to be able to work productively alongside them. Now she is at the point where she is managing the managers she is just too far removed to carry on coding as well as managing. If she were to carry on doing that it would just be too disruptive for everyone. At the point she is at, straddling two different worlds rarely works. (6.49) – Can you share with us your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Charity’s worst moment came when Parse was acquired by Facebook. The announcement was made at an all-hands meeting where she burst into tears. Other members of the team did the same or greeted the news with stony silence. Everyone was in shock, nobody had seen it coming. Charity realized immediately that working for Facebook would change her life drastically. For example, her walk to work was about to become a 3 to 4-hour commute some days. Plus, at the time, she was not a big fan of Facebook and the way they worked. She nearly quit straightaway, but stuck it out and was able to buy herself a house. (8.44) - In terms of what you learned from that, is there anything you would do differently, now? Or do you have a different perspective on things? That situation did have a big effect on her. For example, she and Christina now run honeycomb with a lot more transparency. What happened at Parse came as a huge shock to everyone. There was no time to adjust to or prepare for this massive change. After that experience here and Christina decided to take the opposite approach. They are as open as possible. To date, they have twice considered acquisitions. On both occasions they told everyone what was going on. However, taking that approach does make things a little harder for their workforce. It means they are fully aware of the companies up and downs. (10.37) – What has been your best career moment? Charity is quite shy and introverted. So, public speaking is not something that comes naturally to her. In fact, she made a complete hash of her first important talk. She was really disgusted with herself and could not wait to get out of there. However, at the same time, she was determined to conquer her fear and become a good speaker. So, she accepted every single invitation she got and actively sought out opportunities. In addition, she went to her doctor and got a beta blocker prescription, so she could control the shaking. The fear was still there, but the prescription meant that she could physically deliver the speech. Within a couple of years, she did not need the pills. A couple of years later, she was able to improvise, deliver an ad hoc speech and feel fairly comfortable while doing so. She is, understandably, very proud of that fact. Conquering this fear and learning to have the confidence to speak in an ad hoc way has helped her career in several ways. Having more confidence and better communication and presentation skills is especially helpful in her current role as CEO. (14.02) – How often do you speak publicly now? Charity says more or less every week. When Honeycomb was first founded, she spent nearly 2 years giving talks and promoting the firm. Basically, she was the marketing team. (14.24) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? Charity is excited that when it comes to treating employees as people the industry is starting to get things together. For the tech sector, this is a golden age of opportunity. There are more jobs than people. So, there is no need to suffer and stay somewhere that does not reward their people. If you do not respect your employer or like the culture, you don’t have to stay in that job. Finally, the industry is waking up to the fact that they need to be better at management and learning what makes people thrive in the workplace. For example, the days of the whiteboard coding interview are pretty much over. This high-pressure interview technique that has always been despised, so getting rid of it is a good thing. This is just one sign that the IT industry is moving in the right direction, management wise. Making these changes is far more important than the technical transformation we are also going through. The distributed team culture is great too. It is enabling people from anywhere to work together. This change means that parents, carers and people who are neurologically A-typical can all now access the workplace. (16.42) – What drew you to a career in IT? Charity explains that the money was a big draw, in part, because she grew up dirt poor. But, she also loved spending time at the university, so was motivated to study hard. She spent night after night scripting things and reading people’s bash history, teaching herself how to do Unix and loved it. (17.16) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Charity was once told to “save money”. It was excellent advice because it means she has the security to be able to walk away from something, at any moment if she needs to. (17.37) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Charity says she would go back and get a CS degree. She would have also focused on here software engineering skills a lot more, from the beginning of her career. She thinks if she had been lucky enough to have a good manager she would have been encouraged to develop those skills early on. In fact, you could add finding a good manager to the list of things she would have done differently. She wishes she had worked for someone who has a track record for shepherding junior engineers to a senior level. (18.39) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Right now Charity’s main focus is making sure honeycomb survives. She is working at ensuring that customers get the right product, so the money keeps coming in. As well as making sure that they gather feedback and act on it. (19.01) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Definitely public speaking, but, before that, it was writing. She relied on that skill heavily to ensure that she could communicate effectively. (19.35) – Phil asks Charity to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. If you come across something that is difficult, lean into the pain and learn how to get past it. But, be careful not to carry on pushing yourself for too long. If things are not changing and you are not making progress, you need to stop leaning into the pain. Carrying on pushing will wear you down and could lead to burn-out. BEST MOMENTS: (2.36) CHARITY– "I need a certain amount of chaos to tame." (6.26) CHARITY– "You need your full creative brain to be engaged in learning what is hard and new" (14.48) CHARITY– "For people who work in, or adjacent to IT, there's no excuse for suffering. There's so much opportunity out there." (15.09) CHARITY– "If you don't respect your employer, and don't think they're investing in the right, cultural changes and choices, don't stay," (19.20) CHARITY– "Just be good at communicating in some form"

GUEST BIO: Jessica Ivins is a user experience (UX) designer and faculty member at Center Centre, the UX design school in Chattanooga, TN, where she prepares students to be industry-ready, junior UX designers. Jessica dedicates much of her time to the UX community. She founded the Chattanooga UX Design Meetup. She publishes UX articles on her blog and on Medium. She also speaks internationally at conferences such as SXSW, Midwest UX, IA Summit, and UX Cambridge (UK). EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Jessica Ivins. She started her IT career working as a web developer using mainly HTML and CSS. But, soon became interested in the UX field. Her design school prepares students to become truly industry-ready, junior UX designers. Jessica is the founder of the Chattanooga UX Design Meetup as well as a prolific international conference speaker. She also spends quite a lot of time sharing her knowledge via her blog, social media, and tech articles via the Medium platform. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.06) – So Jessica, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Jessica explains that, by trade, she is a UX designer. But, these days, her focus is teaching others to become industry-ready designers. To achieve this, she takes her students through an intensive two-year course. Once they have completed it, they are fully ready for the workplace. (2.00) - How long have you been focused on UX itself and how long have you been teaching other people? Her answer is since 2007, but Jessica explains that, before that, she was a front end web developer. A skill she still uses from time to time. She has been focusing on teaching since 2011/12. However, Jessica has been running regular workshops and attending meetups for far longer. (3.10) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Jessica’s advice is to always be preparing yourself for your next job search, even if you are happy in your current role. That does not mean applying for jobs before you are ready to move on. Jessica’s advice is to constantly improve your reputation. It is important to portray yourself as a professional, at all times. That way when you need to find a new job, you will be in a good position to land the role you really want. Making a name for yourself within the industry makes any job search far easier. (4.10) - Do you have any examples of what you might do to get your profile out there? Jessica says you can dive deep and begin blogging. That works well. So, does writing a book or public speaking. For Jessica, it was speaking at conferences that gave her career a real boost. Attending networking events helps too. As does, maintaining a strong presence on social media. You just need to hang out and be active where others who work in your field spend time. For example, if you are a designer Dribble is a particularly good platform to participate in. You can also listen to podcasts or read articles written by experts who work in your field and reach to and thank them. Plus, maybe ask a question or share something with them. Do that regularly and you will stay on people’s radar. LinkedIn has great feeds that make it really easy to do this. If you do a few of these things you will end up with a good online presence. So, when an employer Googles your name they will be able to find up to date information about you. Someone who is known in the industry and has a good reputation will find it easier to land a good job. Phil particularly likes the suggestion that you provide positive feedback for articles and podcasts. He knows this is effective, especially when you submit your comment not long after the article or podcast has been published. (6.50) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. At one point, despite being inexperienced and in a junior position, Jessica was expected to complete senior level work. As a result, she ended up working on some high profile and demanding projects. Unfortunately, she did not have enough experience to do everything that was expected of her. It was a very unfair position to be in. Several other people who were involved in the project were in a similar situation. Unsurprisingly, fairly quickly, everyone involved became very frustrated. However, it did make her realize that she needed to become a better facilitator. She had to develop the skill to lead individuals and teams toward consensus. It helped her to realize that being able to rally the team was an essential skill. The difficult experience she had, early on in her career, taught her a skill she still relies on heavily, today. In the end, that experience is one of the things that ended up pushing her career forward. (9.00) – What was your best career moment? For Jessica, getting into public speaking has been a highlight of her career. But, it was not something she wanted to do. She resisted, but her boss pushed her to do it. At the time, her presentation skills were not great, something her boss saw as a big issue. When she finally gave in and, she started out by speaking locally, on a subject she was passionate about. It was nowhere near as scary as she thought it would be and her public speaking ended opening a lot of doors for her. For example, while speaking at one conference she met and got to know her current boss. (10.32) – When did you actually start public speaking and how many talks have you given and do you enjoy it? Jessica explains that she started to speak publically around 2011/12, and since then has delivered dozens of talks. However, she still gets butterflies, when she speaks publically. But, she has learned to manage them better, so they are not as bad as they used to be. (11.56) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The way in which technology is becoming so integrated with our day-to-day lives excites Jessica. The pace of integration means that there are always new and interesting problems to solve, especially when it comes to the user experience. (12.40) – What drew you to a career in IT? When Jessica was in college, taking a computer programming class was mandatory. At the time, she knew very little about computers, just how to use two pieces of software and handle emails. Naturally, she was nervous about taking the programming class. But, when she did, she loved it. So much so, that she nailed her first exam. She switched majors and ended up studying to become a web developer using HTML and CSS. That is when she knew for sure that an IT career was for her. The fact that she could make enough money to live comfortably was also a win. (14.30) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Jessica says she would probably start by sharpening her self-learning skills. As a student, she had a conventional mindset. She thought the way to learn was to just go to class and do what your teacher told you. Now, she realizes that this conventional approach will only take you so far. In today’s world, you have to be really good at teaching yourself. It is the only way to remain marketable and knowledgeable enough to be really good at your job. (15.26) - Is that something you've built into a habit? Or is it something you plan out? For Jessica, it has become habitual. If you focus on learning and sharpen it as a skill, you'll get better at learning. You will learn faster and recognize which skills you need to focus on. (16.05) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Jessica is working to improve her management skills for her next cohort of students. At Center Centre, they take a different approach to education. The environment in which the students are taught is more like a workplace than a classroom. Students report to Jessica or a faculty member and have regular one-on-one meetings. Projects are managed just like they would be in the workplace. It is a sound process which produces fully trained junior UX designers. Workers who are able to do the job, from the very first day with their new companies. Jessica is pleased with the way things have gone but is working to continually improve. That means striving to manage things even better than they are now. (17.07) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? For Jessica, that is having strong facilitation skills. Being able to run meetings and lead people towards consensus and achieving goals is an invaluable skill set. Jessica feels that the ability to do this is one of the things that sets her apart, in a good way. It has also helped her to be a good educator.   (17.46) – Phil asks Jessica to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Jessica’s advice is to be intentional about how you portray yourself and make sure that you continually make small investments in your career. This will ensure that you are as ready as possible the next time you need a new job. At Center Centre, they work with students from day one to lay the groundwork for their getting a job, when they graduate, two-years later. They are encouraged to identify who they need to meet, the opportunities that will help their career and what else they can learn to boost their job worthiness. BEST MOMENTS: (3.28) JESSICA – "Lay the groundwork for your next job search now, even if you're happily employed" (8.07) JESSICA – "Public speaking opened up so many doors for me" (15.04) JESSICA – "You have to be good at seeking out new opportunities to learn, so you are marketable, hireable and knowledgeable enough to be effective at your job." (15.17) JESSICA – "If I could go back and talk to my earlier self, about the beginning of my career, I would definitely push myself to sharpen the skill of self-learning." (17.58) JESSICA – "Be intentional about how you portray yourself." CONTACT JESSICA: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessicaivins LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicaivins/ Website: http://jessicaivins.net

GUEST BIO: Ryan Levick is a developer advocate working in Berlin.  Ryan joined Microsoft as a result of its acquisition of Wunderlist in 2015.  Ryan has spent his career building apps on both the server and client side and exploring a wide range of open source technologies with a particular focus on functional programming.   Ryan has a passion for the Rust programming language, which he often writes about on Twitter and on his blog, and speaks about at conferences. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Ryan Levick. He came late to programming, having worked in marketing, communications, and business. Despite this, after just a few years of programming, Microsoft asked them to join them as a senior engineer. They did so when they acquired 6Wunderkinder, which included Wunderlist, which Ryan was working as a backend engineer. Today, he is a Principal Cloud Developer Advocate. Over the years, he has used numerous languages, including, Ruby, Rails, Scala, Elixir, JavaScript and many others. He is currently learning and working with Rust. As well as working in the Cloud. Primarily, using Azure but he is also learning other competing cloud platforms. Ryan is also a conference speaker. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.11) – So Ryan, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Ryan explains that he studied marketing, so that is the sector he began working in, when he left university. Around that time, he moved to Berlin and joined a start-up called 6Wunderkinder. That was when he first started to learn to programme. In time, he became a full-time programmer for them working on their Wunderlist project. (1.41) - I don't know anything about 6Wunderkinder or Wunderlist, can you give us an overview of what they're about? It is a small company that focuses on building productivity software. In 2015, it was acquired by Microsoft, which is when Ryan secured the first of the 3 jobs he has had with Microsoft. (2.02) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Learn as much as you can and spread out in weird and strange directions. Even if what you are learning is not immediately useful, it may be one day. This will push you to explore areas of computer science and programming you would not have otherwise looked at. (2.45) – Is this something you do yourself? Yes, all the time. (3.04) – Do you focus on the strange and unusual? If yes, how do you do that? Ryan explains that he picks up on new trends all sorts of people are talking about, then explores as many of them as possible. Usually, even if something is not ready for real-time use there are still lessons to be learned from that technology. The trick is to learn about something, then generalize that knowledge. Doing this enables you to apply it elsewhere. He always stops and asks himself how he can apply what he has learned to real-time applications and his job. (4.31) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Ryan says he hesitates to say worst because his worst career moment actually turned out to be an amazing experience. Recently, he became the manager of a small team. A role he really enjoyed, but the problem was that running his team did not leave him enough time to be hands-on and continue to learn. As a result, he feels he can categorize this experience as his worst career moment. (5.29) – So, stepping away and being more managerial is not necessarily something you want in the future? Ryan explains that he was continuing to learn new skills. About people management, career growth and things like that. But, he found that he was not waking up in the morning wanting to rush to the office like he used to. Ryan thinks it is important to find things that make you feel enthusiastic and stick to doing them. (6.08) – What was your best career moment? Ryan says he has been lucky enough to have had quite a few career highlights. For example, it felt great when Microsoft took over 6Wunderkinder and offered him a job straight away. He had only been programming for a few years, yet was still asked to become a senior engineer for Microsoft. It proves that, in this industry, if you work hard you do not necessarily need a computer science degree to be able to succeed. (7.04) - So presumably, you were able to demonstrate your value to Microsoft? Ryan explains that he was able to do exactly that primarily by showing them that he looked for and recognized new angles. He did this primarily by not being afraid to ask the so-called dumb questions, the ones nobody else wanted to ask. It turns out that, most of the time, dumb questions are the right questions, (7.51) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that things can change almost literally overnight is something that Ryan finds exciting about working in the IT industry. A few months ago he started a new job as a Developer Advocate. Even in that short period of time, the role has already evolved and changed significantly. The pace of change is amazingly fast. So, you never stop learning, which is exciting. (8.40) – Is there any technology or direction that particularly interests you? At the moment, Ryan is fascinated by a technology called web assembly. It enables you to run programs in a very controlled way. Web Assembly has the potential to drastically change the world of IT. Including how things are done on servers, in web browsers, and on people’s computers. It is such a young technology that it is hard to tell what direction it will go in. (9.36) – A lot of companies now have Developer Advocates. How do you see that influencing the way in which people develop their careers? It is very important for companies that offer products and services to developers to build a strong and close relationship with them. One of Microsoft’s aims is to provide value to developers and other IT professionals. To give them the tools they need to succeed and change things for the better. In order to do that, Microsoft has developed the Azure platform, Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. But, it is not enough to simply deliver these tools. You need to be sure that they are what IT professionals actually need. If you do not have a constant dialogue with these people, there is no way that you can serve them well. So, Ryan feels that one of his key roles is to have an honest dialogue with them. To figure out what is working for them and what is not and take that feedback back to Microsoft. Phil finds that interesting because, to date, developer advocacy has not been explained to him in that way. Others who fulfill this role have described it more as an evangelical role. To Phil it sounded like it was all about sharing a company’s latest products and ideas with IT professionals, rather than acting as a two-way feedback channel. Ryan explains that he does both. He showcases their products and helps IT professionals to recognize and unlock their true potential. But, if something is not up to standard, he  also wants to hear about it. So, that he can make sure that the product is updated and improved. (12.05) – What drew you to a career in IT? Ryan says it was curiosity that led him into the IT sector. He remembers looking over his colleague's shoulder at Wunderlist, realizing he did not understand what they were typing on the screen and started wondering how everything works. So, decided to find out. When he peeled the first layer back he just ended up with even more questions. His curiosity drew him in deeper and deeper. Now he realizes you can never know everything about computers and technology. It is impossible to hold it all in your head. Something that excites and drives him on. (12.53) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Constantly put yourself in a position to learn the right skills. The skills that you think will be applicable to your future career. Don’t get into the position where you spend all of your time maintaining a legacy system or working on something that will only ever be used inside the company you work for. If you do that, finding and moving on to a new role will become very difficult. Make sure that you are always learning new transferable skills. (14.06) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Ryan says he would definitely get involved in what he is doing now – developer relations. He really enjoys working in this field. In particular, having a legitimate excuse to spend all day speaking to people about things he feels passionate about. Things they are passionate about too. It is the perfect opportunity to be continually learning. Ryan prefers being out talking to people to just sitting in front of a screen in a dark room. That kind of IT career is not the one he wants. (15.18) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Right now, Ryan is focusing on growing his presence in the communities he cares most about. He is trying to become more t-shaped. That means continuing to maintain a wide breadth of knowledge while diving deep on one, maybe two, particular subjects. Right now, for Ryan, that means learning everything he can about cloud technology. That includes Azure of course. But, also his competitor’s technologies like AWS and Google’s cloud platform. He wants to make sure that when he needs to do so, he will have the right type of knowledge to easily switch to another job. Ryan is also working to grow his presence in the IT communities he is most interested in. That includes the Rust programming language community. He has been using this new language since late last year. (16.24) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? For Ryan, the ability to listen has been critical to his success. He has noticed that a lot of developers talk too much. They forget to take a step back and just listen. Even if you are an expert in your choosen field that does not mean that you cannot learn from other people. The technology sector is so big and varied that you will rarely be the smartest person in the room. There are always subjects about which others are more knowledgeable than you. It pays to take a step back and just listen and ask questions and grow your understanding. (17.48) – Phil asks Ryan to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Without wishing to sound like a broken record – don’t be afraid to explore. Find something you feel passionate about and dive deep into it. But, be sure to learn other things too. There is no harm in being a scatterbrain. If you believe you have covered a subject enough, don’t feel you have to stick with it forever. Instead, move on and learn something else. You will find that one set of knowledge feeds into your new subject. Ryan’s advice is to do as much as you can. Don’t worry about catching it all the first time around. Just explore, have fun and revisit it at a later date. BEST MOMENTS: (2.15) RYAN – "Try to learn as much as you possibly can and expand out into weird and strange directions." (5.23) RYAN – "If I'm not having fun at work, then I'm just not going to do as good of a job as I possibly can." (7.39) RYAN – "It turns out that most of the time the dumb questions are the right ones." (13.06) RYAN – "Constantly put yourself in the position to learn the right skills." (17.22) RYAN – "When you do talk, instead of talking at people, try to ask questions." CONTACT RYAN: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryan_levick LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlevick/ Website: https://blog.ryanlevick.com/

Melissa Perri is a Product Management coach and consultant, and founder & CEO of Produx Labs.   She has trained organizations and teams on Product Management best practices and has spoken at more than 30 conferences in 14 different countries.  Melissa is also author of “Escaping the Build Trap” as well as launching her own school, Product Institute, in 2016. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Melissa Perri.  She is the CEO of Produx Labs, a Product Management consultancy, training, and coaching firm. In 2016, she started the Product Institute, which is a 10-week online course, which anyone can take. She also developed and taught the product management section for generalassemb.ly. Over the years, she has spoken at numerous conferences, including Mind the Product, QCon and Lean UX NYC. In 2018, her book “Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value” was published. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.09) – So Melissa, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Melissa starts out by explaining that she works pretty much on a daily basis with the C suite of growth stage companies, mostly CEOs, Chief Product Officers, and CTOs. Her primary role is to help them to work out how to scale their organizations. It is a very fast paced environment, with new people are joining them every day. So, they need to standardize their procedures as much as possible. Melissa’s company, Produx Labs, also has a partnership with Insight Partners, a venture capitalist company. The rest of the time Melissa works with larger organizations helping them to transform the way they work. Her company works with the executive management team then moves on to training their product managers. This gives her the chance to get involved in solving interesting problems at all levels. (2.37) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Melissa’s advice is to always go somewhere you can find someone to teach you. Joining Google as an intern is much better than taking on the role of product manager at a startup. If you work for a well-established firm, they will be in a position to take you under their wing and teach you. (3.23) – So, do you have any specific advice for anybody who may be looking to get into product management? Getting into the field is still tricky. Right now, there is no clear path. If you have been working with an organization for a while you will likely be offered the role. Or a startup will be desperate to fill the position, so will hire you even if you have relatively little experience. Until now, that has been the fastest way into that particular role. Moving forwards, Melissa and a number of her colleagues, are trying to change that situation. They are working on setting up an apprenticeship path or associate pm model. But, right now, her recommendation is to find and follow one of the great product leaders. Choose someone you really admire, reach out to them and learn from them. The other route is to work in an adjacent field, for example, user research or UX. Once you are established, make it known that you want to learn more about the product side of things and take it from there. (4.35) - In terms of the evolution that's going on around product delivery, is the area of product management growing as well? Yes, it is probably one of the most in-demand jobs there is, at the moment. Yet, it is still hard to figure out how to break into this very well paid field of technology. (5.20) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. A few years ago, Melissa became the product manager for a marketing platform. She had some experience and had just started to teach others about the field. So, she was pretty confident she knew the right way of doing things. Unfortunately, her CEO did not see things her way. Like most founders, the CEO wanted things done their way. At the time, Melissa did not really have the skills to explain things in a way that would enable her to “bring them along on the journey”. She just butted heads with everyone and got upset when nobody appeared to be listening to the customers. It was a pretty awful experience. But, after 6 months she started to learn how to change her approach. Today, she always tries to see things from the other person’s perspective and adjust her approach accordingly. These days, she works hard to take people with her rather than try to push them down a certain path. She sells to them instead of using brute force. (7.49) – What was your best career moment? For Melissa that was when she had an epiphany moment, fairly early in her career. At the time she was working in a traditional work environment. The CEO would come up with an idea and ask the development team to build it, which, naturally is exactly what they would do. Nobody would stop and ask if that is really what the customer wanted. At the time, Melissa was learning about how to experiment with users as a way to better understand what they really wanted. The firm she was working for agreed to try some of these experiments. It proved to be a very good move indeed. For the first time, the CEO and the rest of the team had hard data that proved what the end customer wanted and what they did not. The CEO recognized the true value of doing things this way. Even though it meant his decisions were being questioned and challenged. It was these experiments that set Melissa on the successful product management career path she is now following. She was also able to position herself as a leader within the organization. Having access to the data made it much easier to have a frank and open discussion and make the right decisions. Often, the data made the argument for Melissa. (10.53) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that the technology sector is becoming more dynamic is something Melissa welcomes and finds exciting. New roles are emerging. The creation of UX and UI managers, data analysts and engineers is making a huge difference to how effective developers and product managers can be. These changes are also enabling more people to get involved in the technology field. (11.50) – Are there any particular technologies that interest you or any particular direction that technology is going in? Melissa is particularly interested in the way ethics are starting to play a role in how products are developed. In the past, everyone’s time and energy went into solving the technical problems with very little consideration being given to the social ramifications of what they were doing. That is starting to change. (12.59) – What drew you to a career in IT? Melissa remembers her dad bringing home a magazine with Bill Gates on the front. It was then that her dad first encouraged her to become a computer programmer. She was very young, but it struck a cord. Her uncle worked for Microsoft and she knew she enjoyed playing with computers, so she was actually quite keen to follow her father’s advice. Melissa ended up studying to become an engineer. A lot of her friend’s got involved in the investment banking and financial side. But, she was always fascinated by the technical side of things and wanted to build the products rather than use them. (14.34) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? When she graduated from college she sat in front of a panel and was asked what phase of her career she was on. Was she ready to learn or earn? The panel pointed out that she still did not know that much, so suggested that she might be better off taking positions that would help her to build up her knowledge quickly, at least at that stage of her career. It was very good advice. Even today she makes sure that she is learning continuously. She pushes herself to go in directions that push here to try and learn new things. (15.45) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Melissa left college and immediately started working for a major bank in a developer role. It was a very slow paced environment, so she learned very little. She did not have a mentor either. If she were to start her career again she would not dismiss the idea of getting a job where she could have a mentor, or maybe working for a startup. A role that would have pushed her and provided her with an outlet for the energy and enthusiasm every new developer has. (17.16) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Right now, Melissa is trying to learn more about domains she is not yet familiar with. For example, last year, she got involved in learning about pricing and packaging. She is also trying to get a seat on a company board. (18.14) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Executive presence is Melissa’s number on non-technical skill. If you want to get into leadership you need to work on your executive presence from day one. You need to be a good presenter and sway people with your ideas and data. It is very important to adapt your style to suit your audience, so you can reach them. (19.37) – Phil asks Melissa to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Once again, Melissa echoes her early advice, which is to go somewhere you can learn. BEST MOMENTS: (2.51) MELISSA – "Always go somewhere where you can learn from somebody who is already there." (4.38) MELISSA – "Product management is a growing field. It’s also one of the highest paid fields in the technology industry." (7.19) MELISSA – “Always try to approach it from the perspective of the other person." (14.52) MELISSA – "Are you ready to earn? Or are you ready to learn? Which phase of your career are you on? " (18.37) MELISSA – "If you want to get into leadership, the thing that you really need to hone and work on, from day one, is executive presence." CONTACT MELISSA: Twitter: https://twitter.com/lissijean LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissajeanperri/ Website: https://melissaperri.com/

GUEST BIO: Maaret Pyhajarvi is an Engineering Manager for F-Secure leading a team while continuing with hands-on testing and programming.   In 2016, Maaret was awarded Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person and she has spoken at events in 25 countries delivering close to 400 sessions.  Maaret is also author of two books, Mob Programming Guidebook and Exploratory Testing.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Maaret Pyhajarvi. She is an Eng Manager, Tester, Polyglot Programmer, Conference Designer, Speaker and Author. For the past 25 years she has mainly worked in the testing field and has written two books on the subject. Her Mob Programming Guidebook and Exploratory Testing books are both very well regarded. Maaret received the Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person award, in 2016. She is a well-known conference speaker, who has delivered close to 400 sessions, in 25 countries. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.10) – So Maaret, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Maaret explains that she has been working in the IT testing field, for about 25 years. But, it is only in the past couple of years that she has thought about and started to understand what motivates her and the role she is fulfilling in this industry. After someone who did not work in the industry asked her what she did for a living she realized that she is actually a feedback fairy. In other words, she finds problems and shares them with the developers in a way that enables them to fix the issue. Something that end-users cannot do, they can only really highlight problems, but do not have the tech knowledge to come up with possible solutions. (2.14) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Maaret’s advice is to remember that you can craft any job you are given into the job you want. Over the years, she has been crafting the way she works to better suit each of the companies she works with. Maaret likes to over deliver, to push the boundaries. People are often surprised by the tasks she carries out. They do not identify some of these things as being tester related. This is evidence that Maaret has been crafting her role into something that better suits her and provides the firms she works for with extra benefits. Phil asks her if she brings her personal values to her work. Maaret agrees that this is very much the case. In fact, she has changed the way she works so much that when she took on a management job just 6 months ago, she realized she had been basically filling that role for some time. If there is a job to do that she knows she is going to enjoy Maaret will usually volunteer or take the initiative and just get it done. It is not always necessary to ask for permission. You just need to be ready to apologize later if you misinterpret what needs to be done. But, usually, you get it right, so apologies are not needed. (4.08) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. That happened about 10 years ago. She was working as a contractor on the customer organization side and had overall responsibility for a multi-million euro project. Normally, she would have taken a hands-on approach. But, her then manager asked her to do things differently. They wanted her to focus on the metrics. She was assigned with tracking, preparing and explaining the progress of testing, at boardroom level. Helping the board to understand where the quality was bad, basically, preparing for these discussions. Naturally, that is what she did, barely touching the application itself. The system they were developing and testing had multiple customers. So, usually there were two other big contractors, representing two other user clients in the boardroom with her. One day, when a big decision was about to be made, at the door of the meeting room, these two people told her they could not come into the meeting. They said they were working for other clients who were considered to be direct competitors of this board’s firm. So, because of a conflict of interest they had to stay outside. This left Maaret handling the meeting. At the time, there were serious quality issues and a key decision had to be made. Naturally, Maaret struggled to explain things to the board at what was a critical point for the project. She had very little hands-on knowledge of the system and was thrown in at the deep end, at the very last moment. Unsurprisingly, the outcome of that meeting was not good. She was unable to win the argument, which resulted in her company losing a huge amount of money. For Maaret this was a real career low. (7.18) – What was your best career moment? Maaret is lucky enough to work in a fast-moving field, which provides her with career highlights on a regular basis. But, one of her biggest highlights was helping one of the companies she worked for to reduce their end-user problem rate. When she joined them their issue rate was 18%, which, by any standards, is extremely high. At the time, they were releasing every few weeks. Each time things were getting done at the very last minute. A chaotic way of working, so, unsurprisingly issues were still slipping through. In an effort to tackle this issue, they decided to move to daily releases, which really helped. Speeding up the process meant they were introducing smaller changes that were easier to test and track. As a result, there were far fewer end-user issues. Plus, if anything small slipped through it could usually be fixed very quickly. This speeded up release process meant that there was not enough time for problems to accumulate and become big enough to cause serious issues for end users. It is a way of working that she has introduced to her current company. Working like this is far better than waiting weeks, even months for a release. Something Maaret is quite relieved about.  She finds that having to work on a project for 6 months before a release drives her insane. (11.08) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that the work she does has a big impact on people’s lives excites Maaret. These days, it is easier to work in a way that makes sure that what you create really does fill a need. She is also excited by the potential of today’s machine learning related technologies. Being able to work so much faster opens up a world of possibilities, things that were once impossible are now possible, easy even. (12.16) – What drew you to a career in IT? Maaret explained that she had wanted to become a chemist. But, she suffered from allergies. Her doctor advised her that working as a chemist would be too dangerous. So, Maaret looked into other possibilities and came across software development. The people involved in the industry seemed to be really nice and she enjoyed creating something useful while working in a team. (12.56) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? One of her bosses once reminded her that she did not have to be perfect. This was very good advice for Maaret. At the time, she was holding herself to a crazy high standard. So much so, that, at one stage, she felt like a complete failure. Fortunately, her boss helped her to realize that perfection is not necessary or expected. They showed her that she did add value and was good at her job. (13.19) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Maaret says she would probably follow the same career path. But, she would work differently. Instead of starting the testing process slowly using case studies, she advocates jumping straight into exploratory testing. In fact, she is now teaching 17-year-olds to work in that way. (14.01) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Right now, Maaret is figuring out how to multiply the impact of the R&D team by making them feel responsible without the presence of a product owner. (14.17) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Over the years, Maaret has developed the ability to break down illusions. To help others, and herself, to break free of conventional thinking and try to do things differently. To the extent that sometimes it is a good idea to try something even when you are fairly sure it will not work. Exploring all avenues is the best way to discover new things. (14.46) – Phil asks Maaret to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Her advice is to pay attention to your impact. You need to be hands-on and do some of the work. But, you should also be generative, helping others to multiply their impact. BEST MOMENTS: (2.25) MAARET – "Remember is that you can craft any job you're given into the job you want to have" (12.47) MAARET – "That feeling of achieving something in a in a group of people is will really draw me in and keeps drawing me in still." (14.27) MAARET – "Sometimes telling yourself to try things that you are sure don't work is the best thing you can do" (14.48) MAARET – “Pay attention to your impact.”   CONTACT MAARET: Twitter: https://twitter.com/maaretp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maaret/ Website: http://maaretp.com Blog: http://visible-quality.blogspot.fi

GUEST BIO: Beau is a technology Strategy Consultant and has been a professional polyglot programmer since 1998.  He hosts Astrocasts and is co-host of That Podcast.  Beau is an active open-sourcer, creator of Sculpin and helped to create Stack PHP.  He is also a serving Core Committee member for the PHP Framework Interoperability Group.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Beau Simensen who is currently working as a freelance Strategy Consultant. His main professional language is PHP, but he is actually a polyglot programmer. Beau is well known for being the host of the Astrocasts podcast and the co-host of the That podcast. He is also an experienced conference speaker and a serving Core Committee member for the PHP Framework Interoperability Group. Since 2012, he has been an active member of the Open Soured community. Beau is the creator Sculpin and played an important role in creating Stack PHP. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (00.48) – So Beau, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Beau explains that since 2012 he has been involved with the PHP community and working on open source projects. During that time he has spoken at many conferences and had a lot of fun doing so. PHP is his main professional language and Dev Ops his field. (1.49) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Beau wishes he had found people who encouraged and pushed him at an earlier stage in his career. Before 2012, he was basically working alone without any outside validation, guidance or encouragement. At times it was hard going. (2.31) - How would you encourage other people to go about doing that? There are lots of ways to do it but attending conferences and meetups is a particularly good approach. On occasion, coworkers will also be able to help out. But generally speaking people who you do not work directly with will be able to help you more effectively. (3.10) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Before he started programming, Beau worked for an ISP in a relatively big town in North Dakota. He was trying to solve a problem, possibly trying to stop a zombie process. Using some documentation he had found Beau ended up typing kill space dash one into the system. Unfortunately, he did that. At which point the entire bank of 100 modems went completely silent. His heart sank; he knew he had just crashed the entire system. It was a tough way to be reminded that actions have consequences. You have to be 100% sure you know what you are doing before taking action, especially when you are going to impact other people’s lives so much. (5.05) – What was your best career moment? For Beau that was the demo he did at wearables Dev Con in 2014. At the time he was involved in a project that was developing sensors in shoes. They wanted to integrate their sensors with Google Glass. That meant getting them to speak to each other via Bluetooth. But, the Bluetooth connection didn’t have the necessary networking stack to do so. You couldn’t actually get to an IP address. But, in the end, Beau did manage to figure things out and tether them together. He was sitting in the Google Glass meetup at the conference and on the spot decided to put together a short presentation about this little project. He spent just 15 minutes putting it together. Naturally, he was nervous, but he still delivered his demo and presentation. For a change, the demo actually worked and he was very well received, which felt great. It was a real career highlight for Beau. (7.48) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that there is always stuff Beau does not know is something he finds exciting about the industry. He loves the fact he is constantly learning new things. Beau is especially excited to hear about new developers putting together amazing things simply by mashing their own code with existing stuff. In under a year, some people are already capable of  creating great things. For example, the person who has just put together an American Sign Language translator. They have just made it possible to play a video and have it translated and visually signed for the user. All of this without the program having to understand what the content is about, to begin with. (9.19) - Are there any particular technologies that are of interest to you? Beau explains that he is getting to a point where he is not as curious about the technologies anymore. He is more interested in everything else that goes around it, more the business side of things. Beau really likes figuring out what kind of outcomes people are looking for. Whether the solution is built using Rails, PHP or Node JS is not that important. What matters is that the outcome is right for the end users. Finding different ways to deploy code is what he is focused on, right now. (11.26) – What drew you to a career in IT? The fact that he could make money doing something that he loved is why Beau chose a career in IT. He had loved all things tech as a kid. His parents were very supportive of this, so he got deeply involved in HTML, deploying dial-up networks, all kinds of things. So, he knew he loved this sort of thing and was very happy to learn that he could make money doing it. (12.15) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? For Beau it was not advice as such. A friend of his once said to him who do you validate your ideas with? Beau realized he did not really have an answer for him. That conversation highlighted a blind spot for Beau. Within a year he had changed his approach. Now he asks others what they think and test what he is doing and where he is going a lot more. (13.06) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Beau says that he feels like he is starting over again, pretty frequently. His work as a freelance consultant means he is always doing something new, often, starting from scratch. If he were to start his career again he would still want to end up doing the same thing. But, he would probably get involved with the community, at an earlier stage. (13.37) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Right now, Beau is trying to gain a better understanding of the type of projects he wants to work on. When you are a freelancer it is all too easy to just grab whatever comes along. That is OK, but, at some stage you need to pause and start chasing the work that really interests you. (14.29) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Beau feels that listening is his best non-technical skill. It is certainly one he has been trying to develop more lately. Most programmers have a tendency not to want to spend a lot of time talking. They want someone to tell them what to do, then leave them alone while they do it. Beau is working to get away from being like that. He likes to sit down with people and help them to figure out what it is that they want. This is the best way to be sure that you are building the right thing. You need to be able to understand the underlying problem that they are trying to solve. If you do not do that you are going to end up building something that is nearly right, but not quite. Or worse, something that is nothing like what they want. Phil says that is certainly what used to happen with the traditional delivery approaches. (16.12) – Phil asks Beau to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Get connected is the most important piece of IT career advice Beau wants to share. Having peers and mentors you can bounce things off is hugely beneficial. They do not necessarily have to be actively looking at your code to be able to help you a great deal. Other people provide you with a fresh and diffeent perspective, which makes it easier for you to keep moving in the right direction. BEST MOMENTS: (2.29) BEAU – “I wish I'd learned earlier on how to find people that encourage and push me," (4.08) BEAU – “Actions have consequences so make sure you don't try to do things you aren't 100% sure about" (8.16) BEAU – “Every day I'm hearing about something new or interesting” (14.43) BEAU – "Listening is one of those skills where you can think that you're doing really well at it. Until you find out that you aren’t. " (16.20) BEAU – "Find peers and mentors, they do not have to be actively looking at your code to be able to help you.” CONTACTBEAU: Twitter: https://twitter.com/beausimensen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simensen/ Website: https://beausimensen.com/  

GUEST BIO: Nader  Dabit is a Developer Advocate for Amazon Web Services.  He specializes in helping teams to build and implement cross-platform applications more efficiently.  Nader is also author of the book “React Native in Action” and host of the “React Native Radio” podcast.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Nader Dabit. He is currently a Developer Advocate at AWS. Nader started his career as a front end web and software developer. Later, he moved into the field of consulting, focusing on providing in house training for clients like Amazon, American Express, Indeed and ClassPass. Over the years, he has worked with numerous languages and platforms. But, his specialist area is React Native. Nader is the creator of Reach Native Elements, the Host of React Native Radio and the author of React Native in Action. He is also an international speaker and an active open source contributor. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (00.54) – So Nader, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Nader responds by explaining that he has been a Developer Advocate with AWS for a little over a year. Before that, he worked on the front end. He then moved into consulting and training, working directly with the client. He is best known for his work with React Native. But, he is specifically interested in cross-platform application development. In particular, things like Ionic, Flutter and React Native. (2.13) – What drew you to Amazon? Nader explained that he liked their philosophy and was impressed with some of the products they were due to roll out. So, he was keen to jump on board. He was especially interested in the benefits of being able to build cross-platform using a single language. Plus, he realized that React Native was going to be important. So, he really wanted to get involved with that, as soon as possible. Taking the position he was offered with AWS was almost a no brainer. (3.00) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. Energizer career audience? Nader says that consistently creating and sharing new and original things has really helped him with his IT career. That can be in the form of blog posts, working on open source projects or building on something other people have done. Taking this approach draws attention to you as a developer. Positive attention, plus, it pushes you to learn at a faster rate. It forces you to dig deep. Phil concurs, he has noticed that the more you create the easier the creative process becomes. It is like exercising a muscle. (4.30) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. That happened when Nader started his programming career. He took a job in LA without meeting anyone from the company and moved there with his family. Unfortunately, just one month later they fired him. By then, Nader had sold the family home, moved all of their stuff to LA and taken on a lease. (5.30) – Are you able to go into why you felt it didn’t work? Nader thinks that, without realizing it, he had taken a job that he did not have the right level of experience for. It was his first IT job, so he misjudged what he was capable of, at that stage of his career. He was working with a phenomenal team, the best he had ever come across, so keeping up was just impossible. On the plus side, he learned a huge amount in the month he spent working with them. Applying what he had learned there helped him to find another job. He was working again within a month of being fired. (6.34) – I assume it changed your approach in terms of the way you look for and evaluate opportunities. Nader says it has. Now that he has a better understanding of his skill set, it is far easier for him to work out if he is a good fit for a particular role. (7.38) – What was your best career moment? Getting deeply involved in React Native from an early stage has been great for his career. He made sure he became well known in that field. Mostly, through blog posts, Nader demonstrated his in-depth knowledge of React Native and helped others to learn it. So, when a couple of years later it went mainstream and demand for training soared, Nader was in the perfect position to land some huge contracts. His first big contract was for Amazon. They bought his time for several weeks. It paid well and gave his career a big boost. If Nader had not dedicated himself to learning React Native and sharing his knowledge, he would not have been able to enjoy working in the very lucrative sector of consulting training. He went on to work with companies like Microsoft, American Express and Salesforce. (9.30) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that the industry is now building things that are easy to scale means we can potentially reach millions, sometimes billions, of people with our tech. AWS is particularly good at doing this. Importantly, they are building tools that enable others to also scale what they are doing and improve the lives of thousands, millions even billions of people. (10.35) – Are there any particular areas of tech that excite you? The serverless space, there is huge growth in the managed services and functions as a service area. Being able to offload your day to day logic tasks is huge. It means that you do not have to rewrite things like authenticators or replicant databases multiple times. Instead, you can use a blueprint and really speed up the creative process. (11.53) – What drew you to a career in IT? Nader responds by saying futurism. When he started to learn how to code he found that he really liked it. That was the first time he had done something work-related that he actually enjoyed. But, it was the fact that he was working on things that would be used in the future that really attracted him to the tech sector. (12.33) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Say yes to opportunities that scare you. In the very beginning, following that advice got him into some hot water. But, it has also helped him to advance his career and really grow as a developer and as a person. For example, when he was asked to speak at a large event, he was not daunted. Getting into the habit of saying yes to all kinds of things when he was scared meant he was able to overcome any fear and grasp the bigger opportunities. The open source space is a great place to practice saying yes and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Most of the time, in that arena, if you make a mistake, people are not going to heavily criticize you. (13.35) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Nader was not keen on school, so did not get a full formal education. As a result, he admires people who were able to put themselves through university and have got a full computer science, or closely related degree. If he was starting out again, he would major in computer science. This is despite the fact that, these days, it is not absolutely necessary. (14.40) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Right now, Nader is broadening his understanding of cloud computing. In particular, working out what is going to happen in that field 5 to 10 years down the line. (15.40) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Being social is an important non-technical skill. As a natural introvert, it was quite hard for Nader to acquire this skill. But, he forced himself to go to conferences, meetups and socialize. In time, he overcame his fears. Today, he finds talking to and connecting with people a lot easier. (16.48) – Phil asks Nader to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Nader’s advice is to get comfortable with transferring whatever you are thinking into the written word. It does not have to be perfect, spelling and grammar are not vitally important. Just learn to share what you think, feel and know in the written form. Doing this greatly improves your ability to communicate. This habit has actually gotten Nader a long way. Try to share what you know in different forums. Write GitHub documentation, blog posts, emails, use Twitter. Utilize every written format you can think of. The more you do the easier it will become. BEST MOMENTS: (3.00) NADER – "Consistently create things that are original or new." (4.13) PHIL – "On the creativity side of IT, the more you do the more creative you become." (11.36) NADER – "Saying yes to opportunities that scare you has no downside" (15.46) NADER – "Get out of your comfort zone." (17.48) NADER – "Become comfortable with just spilling your thoughts onto a page consistently." CONTACT NADER: Twitter: https://twitter.com/dabit3 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naderdabit/ Website: http://naderdabit.me/#/  

GUEST BIO: Rhia is a software engineer for a data-driven tech company where she creates backend software applications using C#, .NET, Python, AWS and a variety of other tech.   Rhia is an active member of Kansas City Women in Technology and she is passionate about encouraging underrepresented and underexposed communities to take advantage of the opportunities available in tech.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Rhia Dixon. She is a young software engineer, who is just starting her IT career. Yet, she has already done a lot within the industry. Rhia has already worked with C#, .NET, Python, AWS and several other languages and tech platforms. Recently, she delivered her first tech conference speech. She is also an active member of the Kansas City Women in Technology group. Rhia is passionate about encouraging underexposed communities to become more involved in the IT sector, so is actively looking for more ways to do that. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.06) – So Rhia, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Rhia explained that she put herself through a boot camp to get started in the tech industry. She completed a full stack coding program to be able to start her career as a software engineer. Rhia did well and found her current position, while she was still studying. That job has her working mainly at the backend using C#, which has been a great way for her to cement and hone her skills. Importantly, this role has also enabled her to quickly branch out and work with other languages and platforms. (2.03) – Is there anything in particular that you enjoy about this role? The fact that she gets to touch all kinds of tech is something Rhia loves about her work. She really enjoys the fact that the team she works with has the autonomy to try out all kinds of new things. (2.51) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Rhia’s main tip is to learn to communicate well. Networking was how she landed her current role. It is also how she became more involved with Kansas City (KC) Women in Technology. Her advice is to put yourself out there and ask plenty of questions. It is the best way to get to understand what people do and how things fit together. (3.30) In terms of networking, how did you go about doing that? Attending meetups was encouraged in the boot camp, something Rhia took note of and did, right from the start. That is how she came across KC Women in Tech. In class, she was learning to code using React. But, the KC women were using Angular to do HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This opened her eyes to the fact that there are a lot of different techs and pushed her to try out new things. Through these meetups, she met business analysts, product owners, and people in dev adjacent roles. These experiences and connections sparked her interest in all kinds of other things. Rhia also started talking more to people she already knew and began to network with them and learn as much as she could from them too. (5.10) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Rhia has only been working in IT for about a year. As a result, her worst career moment is connected to missing out on a fantastic opportunity rather than a mistake she has made. At the boot camp, all students were required to research the IT industry in the city. During this process, Rhia came across a firm she really liked. They provided a fun work environment, had an ethos she liked and were offering work she would be qualified to do once she had finished boot camp. They even had an opening for a JavaScript developer. But, she still had 3 months to go at boot camp. So, despite the fact career services encouraged her to apply, she didn’t. Mostly because she just did not have the confidence to do so. Now, she realizes she should have just applied. After all, the worst thing that could have happened was that she did not get the job. (7.40) – So, I assume you would do things differently now. Rhia says that if she came across something she was only 20% qualified for, she would still apply. Often a lack of a certain skill is not a deal breaker. It is an approach that has already worked well for Rhia, although she is aware of the fact that she has a big personality helps too. She tends to stand out and be memorable, which seems to lead to people being very willing to give her a chance. (8.29) Phil asks Rhia if she is making the point that it is not always about technical skills. Often, it is also about what else you bring. Rhia says yes that’s it exactly. (8.47) – Please share a couple of your career highlights with the I.T. Career Energizer audience. About two months into her current role, a third party site did something and broke their system. It was a high-stress situation, but, it gave Rhia the chance to dig deep and see how stuff actually worked. For the first time, she had a high-level view. Unfortunately, everything had to be built up from scratch. Not ideal, but, for Rhia, this was actually a good thing. It enabled her to really connect the dots and understand what was going on behind the scenes. Being able to obtain mentorship from people for different things has also been a highlight. For example, she wanted to become a tech speaker. When she asked Jennifer Wadella, the founder of KC Women in Tech, for advice, she offered to mentor her. In February, Rhia was able to give her first tech talk, which was very well received. That event was another career highlight for Rhia. Phil comments that he likes to get an understanding of what is going on in the IT industry from all perspectives. So, it is really interesting to hear how someone like Rhia, who is new to the industry, is establishing herself in the sector. (12.10) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that the industry is ever evolving is something Rhia enjoys. There is no need to get stuck doing the same thing. She is particularly excited about the way, and pace at which, the envelope is being continuously pushed. (13.28) – What drew you to a career in IT? Rhia realized a career in IT was a possibility when she saw a Facebook add for a boot camp. It looked exciting and like something she would enjoy doing, so she gave it a go. When she realized that building applications is a logical process, like solving a huge puzzle, she was hooked. The fact that it is also so creative, like composing music, is another plus. (14.14) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? By far the best advice Rhia ever got was to drop words like aspiring and junior from everything about me. She did as advised and removed them from her resume, LinkedIn, Twitter and business cards. Rather than call herself an aspiring or junior software engineer she took ownership of who she is instead of who she wants to be. Surprisingly, this simple change has made a huge difference. (14.55) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Rhia says she would learn Python first instead of starting with the frontend. (15.17) – Do you think you would have still gone through the boot camp? Would you recommend it as a way into the IT industry? Rhia says she would recommend boot camps. But, you have to remember that you get out of it what you put in. It is not possible to learn everything in such a short period of time, but, it is a good way to get started. (16.11) – What career objectives are you currently focusing on? Right now, Rhia is focusing on learning to write good tests. She wants to improve coding infrastructure standards. Her main aim is to make things more reliable. To achieve this goal, Rhia is working out how to log things and how to monitor application health. She believes taking this proactive approach will enable her to spot and deal with issues, at an earlier stage. (16.46) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Having good networking and organizational skills has proved to be very helpful to Rhia. Being well organized is helping her to write cleaner code. She is learning to write in a way that ensures she will be able to easily go back over it and enhance her code, in the future. After all, you cannot have a version 2.0 if you do not know what version 1.0 did. Rhia knows that she would not have made it so far, so fast, without her networking skills. So, that is also a non-technical skill that she is working on improving even more. (17.40) – Phil asks Rhia to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Rhia says – get out there and try everything that is available. That could be different languages or something that is not strictly IT related like finding out about different industries. For example, right now, Rhia is particularly interested in the parcel intelligence sector. It does not really matter what it is, expanding your reach will help you to figure out where to go next. BEST MOMENTS: (3.15) RHIA – "Go and talk to people and ask more questions, and just try to figure out how people fit into things and what they can do." (8.27) PHIL – "It's not just about your technical skills. It's about who you are and what else you bring" (12.49) RHIA – “I’m excited about the different horizons and the different envelopes that continue to be pushed" (17.50) RHIA – "Get out there and try all of the things that are available to you to try” (18.34) RHIA – “Expanding your reach is how you'll figure out where to go and what you even like to do.” CONTACT RHIA: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheFakeRiRi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhiadixon/ Website: http://www.rhiadixon.com/

GUEST BIO: Kyle Shevlin is a front end web developer and software engineer who specializes in JavaScript and React.   Kyle is also host of the Second Career Devs podcast where he talks to guests who became software engineers after a previous career.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Kyle Shevlin. Kyle specializes in working with JavaScript, React, Redux, GraphQL, Noda, Webpack, D3 and several others at the front end. Currently, he is working as a Senior Software Engineer for Webflow. Kyle is an Egghead.io instructor and is about to release a new JavaScript related course. He is also the host for the very popular Second Career Devs podcast, which is targeted at IT professionals who have previously worked in other industries. Kyle also speaks at conferences, meetups and regularly live streams on Twitch. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (00.57) – So Kyle, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Kyle explains that he is a software engineer at WebFlow. There he is working on democratizing software as well as expanding the world of visual development and website building. He also makes podcasts and enjoys spending too long on Twitter. Kyle is a good scratch golfer and at one time he was going to turn professional. But, things did not work out, which he is actually now quite glad about. Playing sport is a tough way to make a living, especially if you are not in the top 100. He jokes that he much prefers his cushy IT career. (2.28) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. Career Energizers audience? Kyle says it is important to be open to opportunity. Over the years, Kyle has taken advantage of opportunities that he was not really looking for. Taking chances has had a very positive impact on his life. However, Kyle is not suggesting you go into things blind. You still need to do a bit of research to make sure it is a genuine opportunity and is right for you. (3.22) – Phil comments that a lot of people are reluctant to take risks, so is interested to know how Kyle overcomes that tendency. Kyle responds by admitting that he is more risk averse than he would like to be. However, when his gut reaction is to hold back, he actively pauses and fully evaluates the situation. This helps him to respond differently, if it is appropriate to do so. A lot of the time it turns out to be fear that he does not have the ability that holds him back. Every time he has pushed himself to get past that fear, he succeeds. (4.24) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. A few years ago, when he was first hired his manager tasked him with stirring things up a bit. His manager wanted to mix things as a way of driving change, with the long term goal of producing a positive result for everyone. Unfortunately, a few weeks into the job Kyle’s manager was moved on. So, he no longer had their support. However, Kyle carried on with the task he had been given. Unfortunately, things did not work out well. He tried to push change without gaining trust and getting consensus first. This experience taught him that you need to pick the right time to make changes. If something needs changing, Kyle now pauses, takes stock, appraises the situation properly, identifies the priorities, and then proceeds. Most importantly of all, he builds trust before trying to implement change. (6.48) – What was your best career moment? For Kyle, this is a tricky question because he automatically thinks of the latest thing he has achieved as a highlight. Each new achievement still gives him a bit of a rush. Career-wise this is a good thing because it keeps him chasing the next accomplishment. Kyle believes that the fact he is always chasing that high is partly responsible for his success. For example, he is about to release a new course as a way of building on the work he has been doing with egghead.io. He knows from all of the feedback that what people have learned from him has made a positive difference to their lives. That great feeling has driven him on to produce more tutorials. (8.19) – Phil comments on the fact that feedback is great because it gives your energy levels a boost, feeds your passion and enthusiasm. This ends up pushing you towards your goals. Kyle agrees that this positive feedback loop is very beneficial. When people tell you your work is good, it pushes you on to produce something even better. (8.41) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that something new is always happening is one of the things Kyle finds exciting about the IT industry. In particular, how much the JavaScript ecosystem has grown and is still growing. It is particularly good to see the language being updated more frequently. Kyle is also excited to see more people getting involved in web development and software engineering through JavaScript. Code schools are attracting people from all walks of life. They bring lots of experience, energy and passion with them, which is beneficial for the IT industry as a whole. (10.22) – What drew you to a career in IT? Kyle really enjoys solving little problems. He has always been a fan of logic puzzles, crosswords and that sort of thing. In fact, as part of his philosophy degree, he studied logic. When he began to code, he was able to apply what he had learned about logic in a tangible way. In ways that make a positive difference in the world. (10.53) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Someone once told Kyle to remember that you have two ears and one mouth. He likes to talk, so has had to learn to pause and really listen. (11.07) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Kyle says the only thing he would probably do differently is to skip grad school. Before starting his software engineer career, Kyle was a pastor. A job which led to him spending years studying for a theology masters. Now, he really wishes he had skipped his degree, discovered IT, and switched sooner. (12.22) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Right now, Kyle is focusing on making a good start at WebFlow. His past couple of jobs were not a good fit for him. But, he already knows the CEO and many members of the Webflow team well, so feels that he is finally in the right place. So, right now, he just wants to get stuck in and do a great job. (13.24) – So, are you planning to continue with your podcast? Kyle is planning to continue putting out a podcast every couple of weeks. (14.00) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Kyle has found that becoming more empathetic has really helped him. Trying to understand how others are feeling and what their needs are helps you to click with them. Over the years, he has realized that the times he has failed usually correlate to when he has been least empathetic. Phil agrees, he has noticed that more people in the IT sector are waking up to the need to be more empathetic. It is a change that is greatly benefiting the industry. (15.50) – Phil asks Kyle to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Kyle’s advice is to be vigilant about burnout. He suffered through this about a year ago. So, he wants people to be aware of the danger and take better care of themselves and set aside enough time to enjoy a healthy personal life. BEST MOMENTS: (2.40) KYLE – "Be open to opportunity." (4.16) KYLE – "Get more into the habit of taking that risk and saying yes, because that is the only way you're going to grow" (8.33) KYLE – "When you hear quality things about the work you're doing it encourage you to make even more quality work for them" (11.00) KYLE – "I'd studied logic and coding allows me to apply that logic in a very tangible way and make a change in the world" (13.22) KYLE – "Work happiness leads to life happiness, in my case." (15.00) PHIL- “Empathy is something that people need to consider almost daily when they interact with people.” CONTACT KYLE: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kyleshevlin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyleshevlin/ Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyleshevlin/