IT Career Energizer

GUEST BIO: Bruno is a Java Developer and Open Source Evangelist at Summa Technologies and a Cloud Expert at Tools Cloud. He is the creator of Code 4 Life, helping Java developers to improve their careers and work on cool projects with great people. Bruno is also founder and organizer of SouJava, the Brazilian Java Users Society, which is one of the world’s largest Java User Groups, as well as a founder of the Worldwide Java User Groups Community where he has helped in the creation of hundreds of Java User Groups worldwide. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Bruno Souza is Phil’s guest on today’s show. He has a passion for helping other developers to progress their careers and for the Java language. Bruno is the founder and organizer of the Brazilian Java User Society. He has helped to set up hundreds of other Java Users Groups, across the world. Bruno is the creator of Code4.Life. This project enables developers to work together to become better developers. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.11) – So Bruno, can you expand on that brief introduction and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Bruno responds by saying that for most of his time in IT he has been helping other developers to develop their own careers. He has done this in many ways. That includes creating user groups, working with them on complicated projects and finding innovative solutions. He helps them to become good enough to be able to easily break into working on all of the coolest projects. Those challenging projects push them to continue to improve and become even better developers. Thus, a positive feedback loop is established. (2.25) – Phil asks Bruno for a unique IT career tip that the audience perhaps doesn’t know, but should.  Bruno explains that developers tend to value their technical skills above anything else. This is understandable. After all, without the technical skills you cannot get into the game. But, Bruno has said that being able to communicate and share what you know is just as important. You need to be able to present and write well to be able to work on interesting projects. You need to communicate to people what you do, what you are good at. If you do not do that you cannot be in the running. It is also important to share. Sharing is the fastest and best way to improve your career prospect. Plus, when you share you get more clarity yourself. It is especially good to speak. Speaking out loud helps you to reorder and clarify your thoughts. That is why the rubber duck debugging technique works so well. (5.43) – Bruno is asked to share his worst career moment by Phil. That happened when Bruno was working on what he thought was a cool project. The big innovative company he was working for, at the time, wanted to do all kinds of new stuff. It seemed exciting, but turned out to be a nightmare. The customer was all over the place. Every five minutes things were changing. There was no communication and a lack of honesty. Things were so bad that he did not want to get up and go to work in the morning. Like a lot of developers he put up with that situation. Now, he realizes there was no need for him to do that. Bruno says that developers need to learn how to say no. To stand up when they know something is not right. Should you not be listened to and things don’t improve there is no reason for you to stay. After all, there are plenty of other cool projects you could be working on. (9.35) – Phil asks Bruno what his best career moment was. Bruno explained that his dad insisted that he did not work while he was at university. His father was an engineer and he had tried to juggle work with attending university. For him, that did not work out well. It ended up taking him far longer to finish his studies, so he did not want Bruno to make the same mistake. But, Bruno knew he needed to work to consolidate what he was learning. Naturally, he and his father got into a huge shouting match about whether he should work while studying at university. In the middle of it Bruno got a call from a friend telling him there was a job at Sun Microsystems that was his if he wanted it. He told his dad. Immediately, his dad stopped yelling and sat down to help Bruno to complete his resume. He landed that job and has always appreciated the way his dad put his feelings aside and helped him to start his career. It is one of the reasons Bruno works so hard to help others to move their careers forward. Every time one of the hundreds he has helped shares details of their success with Bruno he gets a boost. For him these occasions are the highlights of his career. (13.39) – Phil asks what excites Bruno about the future for the IT industry. Bruno is very excited to see developers taking responsibility, stepping up and leading. The fact that people are now doing this means that there is a brighter future for everyone. He is also pleased to see fewer developers simply relying on their companies to provide ongoing training for them. Instead, people are taking the initiative. They are going out and learning what they need to progress their careers. It is also exciting to see people volunteering via OpenSource and community projects. The fact that there are so many people doing things is making a huge difference to the future. (17.05) – What drew you to a career in IT, Bruno? When Bruno was 8 his father got him a computer. Bruno loved the fact he could change the source code. He worked out how to do it, so that he would win. He loved the fact that you could beat everyone by just using your brain. (17.32) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Bruno starts by telling the audience a story about his life. At one stage, Bruno wanted to develop a product and sell it. So, he told his boss he was leaving. But, his boss advised Bruno to stop and think for a bit. He pointed out that Bruno had a lot of free time in his life. Time that he could potentially use to work on his project to make sure that his business idea was sound. It was wise advice, which helped Bruno to realize that your career is not necessarily all about what you do in your work life. What you do in your free time matters too. Potentially, you can also use your free time to help you to progress. Over the years, he has learned a lot and honed his skills while volunteering and running user workshops. (18.46) – If you were to start your IT career again, now, what would you do? Bruno says he would start by getting involved in an OpenSource project that is related to something he loves to do or felt passionate about. Working on a project like that is a great way to hone your skills and become a really good developer. Once you get to that stage, you will be in a strong position and should be good enough to secure roles working on interesting paid projects. With most OpenSource projects nobody is going to say I am not going to hire you because you are not good enough. (19.59) – Phil asks Bruno what he is focusing on at the moment. Until recently, Bruno has been splitting his time between being a technical person running his company and helping people to progress their careers. Practically all of his mentoring, workshops, blogging and public speaking have had to be done in the evenings, during lunchtimes or at weekends. In the near future, Bruno plans to switch things around, so that most of his time is spent on showing developers how to gain more skills and progress their careers. (21.28) – What is your most important non-technical skill? The one that has helped you the most in your IT career. Bruno says that is easy – “sharing what I know.” He discovered the power of doing this by accident. It all started when his boss needed someone to talk to a reporter about Java. Fortunately, Bruno knew something about the subject, so was able to help. After that, if the company needed someone to speak about Java, they would turn to Bruno. It took a while for him to get good at these presentations. But, when he did, his career really took off. If he had not been prepared to share what he knew this would not have happened. (22.51) – Phil asks Bruno to share a final piece of career advice. He said – “go share”.  Anything you know is shareable. Even if you are a beginner share what you are doing. Tell people how you are getting started and what it is like to become a developer, right now. Any knowledge is shareable, so you do not have to learn something new before you start sharing. BEST MOMENTS: (4.01) BRUNO – “Learning how to communicate well, that can make such a huge difference.” (4.11) BRUNO – “The one thing that is guaranteed that will actually get you improving your career is if you start sharing now. Go share to a blog post, go share to social media, go share to presentations, go share to open source.” (14.54) BRUNO – “Growing your career is your responsibility.” (18.23) BRUNO – “It's not only about doing things at work. We can use the love that we have, the passion that we have, for a lot of other things outside of working time.” (19.27) BRUNO – “Open source helps you eliminate the chicken and egg problem, because you can start working on an amazing project.” (21.15) BRUNO – “So, you know, helping people to become leaders of their life, of their project, of their companies. If I can help a little bit to improve the computer industry by doing this, I'm all for it.” CONTACT BRUNO SOUZA: Twitter: https://twitter.com/brjavaman @brjavaman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brjavaman/ Blog: https://code4.life/blog/author/bruno

GUEST BIO: Eric Vanderburg is a cybersecurity leader, consultant, author and thought leader.  He is Vice President of Cybersecurity at TCDI and Vice Chairman of the board of directors for the Technology Ministry Network. Eris is a continual learner who has earned more than 40 technology and security certifications and he has a strong desire to share technology insights with the community.  He also the author of several books, a frequent writer of articles a regular presenter at conferences, seminars and other events. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Eric Vanderburg who is a leader in the cybersecurity field. He is a consultant, author and thought leader who leads the cybersecurity consulting team at TCDI. Eric is also the Vice Chairman of the board of directors for the Technology Ministry Network. This not for profit organization equips those involved in the ministry with technology tools. He is also a part of the advisory boards for several colleges. Eric has earned 40+ technology and security certifications. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.09) – So Eric, can you expand on that brief introduction and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Eric goes on to describe himself as a creative guy who worked at a college and created a curriculum for others to teach different programs. In time, he got into consulting, so has ended up working for lots of different companies. Over the years, he has been able to find some really interesting solutions for all kinds of problems. (1.53) – So, how did you find your way into cybersecurity, in particular? Eric explains that he has always found himself asking – “How could this system be broken or how could someone misuse it?” He became fascinated with trying to work out ways to defend against the ideas that he came up with. Basically, his curiosity led him down his cybersecurity career path. (2.43) – Phil asks Eric for a unique IT career tip. Eric’s biggest tip is to seize those opportunities that will stretch you. It is important to get outside of your comfort zone. Eric often finds himself working outside of his comfort zone. If he had to wait until he had learned things 100%, he believes he would always be the “laggard at the end.” IT moves so quickly, so you really have to push yourself in order to keep up. If you do not do that, you miss out on many opportunities. (3.52) – Phil comments that many of us forget to be on the lookout for opportunities, as a result they pass us by. Eric agrees. (4.03) – Eric can you maybe share with us your worst IT moment and what you learned from that. Eric’s worst experience taught him to keep life in balance. A few years ago, everything was going really well. His business was growing as was his social presence. Yet, he was still able to spend time with his family and help his community. Everything was moving along well, the only problem was he did not have any buffer built in. So, when someone in the family got sick he had no choice but to put other things on the backburner. Fairly quickly, things that were not urgent started to become critical, deadlines were missed. So, he had to hand things over to others. At that point, Eric realized the importance of not maxing out your time. You need to leave a little breathing space so you can cope with change in your life and have some time available to take advantage of great opportunities, when you come across them. (5.41) – Phil asks Eric to tell the group about his best career moment. Eric starts by stating that – any great achievement requires a lot of work. For example, he is really proud of his first book. Eric had to dig deep to write about storage. A subject he thought he understood, until he started writing about it. At which point, all sorts of questions popped into his mind. Questions that he discovered were not being fully answered. So, he felt compelled to dig a little deeper and provide true answers to those questions. He took the extra steps necessary to do so. This included calling companies up and getting down to the nitty-gritty and solidifying his knowledge. It felt really good when he finished that book. His next two books were a lot easier because he knew the process. (8.04) – Phil asks Eric what excites him about the future for the IT industry and careers. IT is a part of every element of our lives. All of that needs development, support and security. So, there are plenty of opportunities for IT professionals.The way technology is hooking into and interfacing with real life makes now a particularly interesting time to be involved in the industry. (9.12) – Are there any directions or technologies that are of particular interest to you? Eric has always been interested in virtual reality. But, now, it is augmented reality and IoT that fascinates him. The potential applications for these technologies are almost endless. (9.41) – What drew you to a career in IT? Eric says he has always been interested in computers. He used to read the manuals and fix the neighbors computers, so it was natural for him to get involved in IT. (10.31) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Eric says that came from his father. He told him that your integrity is everything and that you should never compromise. If you do you may gain something in the short term, but, it will always come back to bite you in the end. This is especially the case now. Everyone is connected, so we are all exposed to an extremely high level of scrutiny. (11.07) – If you were to begin your IT career again, now, what would you do? Eric says he would not focus on the things he is working on now. Instead, he would probably research the human/computer interaction and the ethics of technology’s impact on us as humans. (11.46) – Phil asks Eric what objectives he is focusing on in his career, at the moment. Eric says that right now he wants to “empower the next generation.” He is heavily involved in information sharing via social media, blogging and public speaking. Plus, he is giving those that work for him more opportunities to challenge themselves. (12.25) – What is the one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Eric says it is probably his ability to organize. It has helped him to put the right pieces in place to succeed. He is continually improving his internal processes. (13.07) – Phil asks Eric to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Eric encourages everyone to seize opportunities, stretch themselves and always be learning. BEST MOMENTS: (2.54) ERIC – “Seize the opportunities that are going to stretch you as an individual.” (5.30) PHIL – “So, you'd recommend not maxing out your time? Making sure you got an element of flexibility available for anything that does come up.” (10.43) ERIC – “Your integrity is everything, never compromise it. Gains that might seem worth it in the short term, will always come back to bite you.” (11.55) ERIC – “I'm kind of at this stage of my career where I'm trying to empower the next generation.” (13.15) ERIC – “Everybody can teach you something. S,o be humble enough to learn and be excited about what you do.” CONTACT ERIC VANDERBURG: Twitter: https://twitter.com/evanderburg @evanderburg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanderburg/ Website: https://securitythinkingcap.com/

GUEST BIO: Adam Bien is a freelance architect and developer with a focus on Java.  He has written several books including “Real World Java EE Patterns – Rethinking Best Practices”.  Adam is also a Java Champion and was Java Developer of the Year in 2010.  He is also a regular conference speaker and three times a year he organizes Java related workshops at Munich Airport. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Adam Bien. Having worked with JDK 1.0, EJB, JavaFX, J2EE, and Java EE from launch onwards he has a phenomenal understanding of the language. He knows Java inside out and is a leader in the field. Adam regularly shares his knowledge by organizing workshops, speaking at conferences as well as writing books, articles and updating his blog. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.06) – So Adam, can you expand on that brief introduction and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Adam said that originally he wanted to learn multiple programming languages, work a bit and enjoy life. However, things did not work out that way. The demand was so high that he ended up sticking with Java. Even after 22 years, he still enjoys working with this language. (1.55) – Phil asks if he has plans to switch to a different technology or will he stick to Java.  Adam says with Java, it is impossible to learn everything. He just keeps diving deeper. But, he is also doing a lot with JavaScript. He jokes that to learn both Java and JavaScript you would need at least two lives. (2.29) – Phil asks Adam for a unique IT career tip. Adam advises everyone to develop their own strategy. Not anything huge like - “I would like to take over the world, in 10 years time.” It has to be something logical. For example Adam has been working to make development simple for the clients he works with. He uses standards, which makes it possible for his clients to use other consultants. Adam has found that his clients really like this approach. It is one of the reasons they like working with him. (3.30) – Phil asks when you talk about standards are you thinking of different ways of working and models as well as industry standards? Yes, says Adam. The availability of Java’s quasi-standards like JCB Java community process, Java EE and Java SE are partly behind the language’s longevity. While lots of other technologies and frameworks have come and gone, Java has remained in use and popular. Sticking with the standard means users can stay up to date using just incremental learning. Building on what they already know to learn to use the new Java innovations. There is no paradigm change needed. Understandably, clients like that because having to migrate to new technologies is always hard and bad for business. (4.33) – Adam is asked to share his worst career moment and what he learned from it. Adam says that surprisingly he has not had any really bad career experiences. He did have one funny experience though. During the rollout of Java 6 or 7 he was due to speak about it at two Sun Microsystems locations, on two different dates. Somehow the dates got muddled up. So, Adam ended up in the wrong city on the first date, which was a funny rather than bad career moment. Although, Adam did say that when his server goes down things can get a bit crazy. Everything is on there, including his website, so he gets hundreds of emails asking him if he realizes he is no longer on the internet. (5.58) – Phil asks Adam what his best career moment was. Adam runs something called Taskforces. For example, if a system dies in production and the issue cannot be resolved, Adam pulls together the relevant people to get things up and going again. During that process there is the often the chance to spring clean the system and make it stronger than it was before. It is a rare opportunity. If a system is running you would never dare to refactor it and rebuild it from the ground up. When a system is broken, you can do so. After all, you cannot make it much worse. (7.02) – Phil asks Adam what excites him about the future of the IT industry and IT careers. Adam says that the fact that there is always something new to learn excites him. He also finds it interesting how technologies cycle. Adam has spotted the fact that “everything repeats every 10 years.” This pattern means that provided you do not forget things you are always ahead of the game. For example, JavaScript is becoming more and more like Java. So, now because Adam knows Java really well switching between it and JavaScript is actually very easy for him. He also enjoys the fact that in IT when you teach someone you inevitably end up learning more yourself. (8.54) – What drew you to a career in IT? Adam is not 100% sure why he followed this career path. But, he has always been a fan of Sci-Fi and he saw computers as being related to that. For him computers have always been magical things. When he got his Spectrum computer you could not do much with it, but Adam became obsessed with making it do more. He became fascinated by it. (10.44) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Adam starts by sharing something he has learned in his career, rather than a piece of advice he has been given. He says that if something interests him, he just learns it and does not worry about how he is going to use and apply that knowledge. Usually, he finds that a few months, sometimes years, down the line he needs what he has learned to move a project forward. So, his advice is to “learn to enjoy learning.” Adam has found that this Meta strategy leads to success. Adam also advises developers to learn presentation and political skills. You need to explain clearly why your technological solution is good for business. After all, your clients are really only interested in the outcome not the technology. (12.25) – If you were to start your IT career again, now, what would you do? Adam says personally he would not change much. (13.03) – What career objectives do you currently have? Adam says he wants to make sure that he will still be programming in his 90s. Something that he feels will be good for his brain. He is working to ensure that he does not get swallowed up by business matters so that he can continue to program regularly. (13.52) – What’s your number 1 non-technical skill? The one that has helped you the most in your IT career. Adam says he feels that it is important to stay healthy. (14.29) – Adam can you share a parting piece of career advice with the I.T. Energizer Audience?  Yes – “Stay interested and enjoy life by being productive.” Also, carry on learning and challenging yourself. This stops you from getting bored and it helps you to stay successful. Adam also says that you should try to keep things simple. Always minimize the amount of technology and code you use to solve a business problem. That way everyone can understand and maintain it. BEST MOMENTS: (2.06) ADAM – “If you try to learn JavaScript and Java I think you will need at least two lives.” (4.26) ADAM – “I stick with a standard. So I didn't have to learn a lot, do just incremental learning all the time.” (7.30) ADAM – “If I try to teach someone about what I learned, you learn even more.” (9.25) ADAM – “Everything else was boring. But a computer was something from another world.” (11.57) ADAM – “You should be able to explain in simple words, why what they are doing is good for the business. And not just from a technological perspective, because no client is interested in technology.” (14.59) ADAM – “The learning is the most exciting thing which will keep your successful.”   CONTACT ADAM BIEN: Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdamBien @AdamBien Website: http://adambien.blog/roller/abien/

GUEST BIO: Dave is a computer programmer and was an original signatory and author of The Manifesto For Agile Software Development.  He has also co-authored several books, including “The Pragmatic Programmer”, and was a co-founder of the Pragmatic Bookshelf. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Dave Thomas is Phil’s guest on today’s show. He is a well-known programmer who works in numerous programming languages, in particular, Elixir, Ruby and agility. Dave is one of the original signatories and author of The Manifesto for Agile Software Development. Over the years, Dave has published several other books and is a trainer. Currently, he is also an Adjunct Professor at the Southern Methodist University. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (0.45) – So, Dave, can you expand on that brief introduction and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Dave says that fundamentally he is a programmer. For the past 45 years he has enjoyed coding and has done it practically every day. Most of the other things, he does really just to make a living. For example, he published more books when things crashed in the early 2000s. Even then, he spent time writing the various bits of infrastructure, he just could not stay away from the code. (3.08) – Are you still involved in the pragmatic? Dave says that about 18 months ago, with Andy’s agreement, he stepped back a bit on the day-to-day stuff. He had other things he wanted to investigate and basically did not have enough time to do so. Right now, he is almost like a Victorian gentleman scientist exploring things on his own. But, he has spent about a year shuttling from one thing to another. He is now focused again. (4.21) – Phil asks Dave to share a unique IT career tip. We work in the fastest changing industry that ever existed, so you need to keep up. You can’t know everything, but you can look at what is coming up and pick a few things that are likely to make it. Then spend a bit of time learning and researching those. (5.20) – A lot of people say my employer does not give me time to do that. Dave’s response is that is not your employer’s job. It is your career - you need to invest in yourself. If you do not, you and your skills will slowly become irrelevant as new technology replaces what you are good at. (6.11) – Dave is asked to share his worst career moment and what he learned from that experience. After 45 years, Dave has understandably had quite a few bad career moments. At least, things that felt bad at the time. But, usually he learned a lot from those situations. So, in the end, many of those experiences turned out to be positive ones. When you are working in such a malleable format it is very easy to mess things up. However, with a bit of discipline and patience, it is also very easy to fix the problem. (7.29) – Phil asks Dave what his best career moment was. Dave explained that, like most people, he has a need to create. So, when he finds his “software expressing me” he gets a lift. A great example of this is the Prestel videotext system, from the 1970s. Dave was involved in writing a front end so that people could find flight availability and book them via travel agents. One day, Dave was walking down a High Street, looked in a travel agents window and saw his software running. Seeing that brought home the fact that what he was doing really was making a difference. (9.53) – Dave explained that whenever he publishes a book, he also goes to a bookstore to see it on the shelf. Seeing a physical manifestation of your work helps you to fully appreciate what you have achieved and is very fulfilling. (11.11) – So, Dave what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers in IT in particular? For Dave the fact that in IT you are shaping the world, literally. You cannot do much, these days, without IT. We can do great things with IT, which is exciting. In the very near future our coding will become part of the fabric of life. Now we code things that mainly happen via a screen or browser. In the future, our work will become an ambient background to people’s lives. That is a phenomenal responsibility, but incredibly empowering. (13.31) – What first attracted you to a career in IT? When Dave did his A-levels he took them a year earlier, so had no work to do at school. Fortunately, he was not allowed to simply leave. Instead, his school sent him across the road to take the first-ever A-level UK programming classes. They were using Basic, with a teletype paper tape punch, but Dave was captivated by the work. He had planned to study math, instead he studies software at university and begun his IT career. (15.31) – What is the best career advice you were given? Dave’s first job was working for a startup. They were asked to produce a coupon compiler, by a client. The director of that company had quite a bit of technical understanding, but there were some important gaps in his knowledge. So, at some point in the meeting Dave said – “No, you’re wrong. That’s not right” blah, blah. There was a deathly silence. At which point his boss stepped in and moved things along. Afterward the meeting he apologized. But, his boss said “No it’s OK, you did the right thing, just not in the right way.” That incident stayed with him. It made Dave realize that we should not be saying yes all the time. Instead, we have to find a way of saying no without putting people’s backs up. (16.43) – If you were to start your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Dave replied “It depends”, but he would probably not go to college or university. Instead, he would look for a company that ran a good apprenticeship scheme and join. He would then spend 5 to 10 years flitting across different areas. At that point, he would reflect on those years and work out the thing that he enjoyed the most and work in that field. Phil agreed that was a good approach. People tend to forget that taking a job is not a lifetime commitment. In the early days, it is probably only an 18-month commitment. Nobody expects any more from you, so it makes sense to take advantage of that fact and move around until you find something you love doing. (19.15) – Phil asks Dave what he is currently focusing on for his career. Dave says “changing the world”, kind of. Right now, he has two main aims. Firstly, he wants to encapsulate and share what he has learned. He is on the board of a company that teaches genuine software skills to 8 to 14-year-olds. These days, coding literacy is as important as any foreign language. The other objective is to simplify software development. Things do not have to be anywhere near as complicated as they are now. Dave believes we can make software development far easier and is working on doing exactly that. (21.25) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Dave says that enjoying learning has helped him tremendously. Being able to move across industries and learn your client’s jobs, how they work and what their problems are all helps you to build software that solves the real problem, rather than just meeting the spec. (22.46) – Phil asks Dave to share a final piece of career advice. Dave says that you need to “remember to make it fun.” You need to look forward to going to work, at least most of the time. If you feel that way you will do a good job. BEST MOMENTS: (3.06) DAVE – “You just can't keep me away from the code.” (3.39) DAVE – “I've been almost like a Victorian gentlemen scientist for the last two years, just exploring stuff on my own.” (5.38) DAVE – “The most important tip is to invest in yourself. To keep yourself current, spend some time and a little bit of money on a personal level, just to make sure that you're still relevant.” (7.24) DAVE – “I honestly think it's an important thing to learn that if you break it, you can fix it.” (9.54) PHIL – “I think seeing what you produce in action is self-fulfilling, in some ways.” (13.07) DAVE – “The most exciting thing to look forward to is a future where we can really genuinely make the world better.” CONTACT DAVE THOMAS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/pragdave @pragdave LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-thomas-53aa1057/ Website: https://pragprog.com/

GUEST BIO: Trisha Gee is a developer advocate at JetBrains, where she gets to share all the interesting things she’s constantly discovering.  Trisha has developed Java applications for a range of industries and for companies of all sizes.  Trisha has expertise in Java high-performance systems, is passionate about enabling developer productivity and dabbles with open source development. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest today is Trisha Gee. She works as a developer advocate for Jet Brains. Her goal is to help developers to make their lives easier and become more productive. Trisha spreads the word about how to do this using live training, social media and public speaking. Her expertise is in Java high-performance systems. She is the leader of Seville’s Java User and Monod user groups as well as being a key member of the London groups. Trisha is a Java Champion and a MongoDB Master. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.04) – So Trisha, can you expand on that brief introduction and tell us a little bit more about yourself? She responds by saying she is interested in everything and has been a developer for 20 years. Trisha has always resisted has always had broad interests, so has never stuck to just one discipline. As a developer advocate she talks directly with her company’s developers about products, languages or frameworks that can be useful to them. Basically, she helps them to quickly get to grips with them. She enjoys the fact that, this role requires her to teach, present and write as well as use her technical knowledge. (2.10) – Phil comments that hiring a developer advocate is becoming more common. Trisha agrees that is the case. In particular enterprises like banks are starting to hire them. They have APIs that need to be widely used. Developers need to be able to easily incorporate them into what they are doing. In the past, difficult to read, official documentation was used to communicate with developers. Documentation that does not fit in with the way developers think. Today, there are developer advocates, like Trisha, who are able to quickly bridge that communication gap. (3.12) – Phil asks Trisha for a unique IT career tip. Trisha’s advice is to learn communication skills as well as technical ones. Being able to listen properly and answer questions in a clear and understandable way is extremely important. If you want to become an architect or lead communication becomes even more vital. (4.20) –Trisha is asked to share her worst career moment with the audience. Trisha said that happened when she typed rm -rf in the wrong directory. It is a mistake that a lot of people make, just not in production or a huge 8 level live testing environment, which is what Trisha was working on at the time. Trisha thought she was in directory level 6, in fact she was higher up, so ended up trashing multiple directories. Just before Christmas lunch. The testers were in the middle of testing in every one of these environments. As a result, they were not in a consistent state. So, restoring from backups would have been too hit and miss. She had to ask the testers they would need to do some of the tests again. It taught her the value of owning your mistakes. She quickly explained what she had done and how it could be fixed. Once she had done that, everyone was OK about the situation and the problem got fixed faster. (6.42) – Phil asks Trisha what her career highlight has been. Going from being a developer to a developer advocate has been Trisha’s career highlight. Becoming a public speaker was her first step along that rewarding path. But taking that step happened in a slightly unusual way. At a conference, she met Martin Fowler and mentioned the fact there were not enough female speakers. His response was “you can change that.” You are an articulate woman, so you can speak at conferences and play a part in solving the problem. Trisha had planned to do exactly that, but was thinking of it more as a long term goal. Martin had made her understand that she could get started immediately. So, when her boss asked her to co-present with him at JavaOne, she just did it. The rest is history, at that moment she started participating in showing developers the way forward. (9.00) – How much practice did you have before you stood up on stage for the first time? For that speech, she did not get any specific practice in. She had seen her boss, Martin Thompson, present that speech before and she had been blogging about it. So, he knew that she could do it on the fly. They just went through the slides and she watched the earlier version. But, Trisha does not do that now. She always practices the entire speech, several times. (9.59) – Phil asks Trisha what excites her about the future of the IT industry and careers in IT. Trisha says the broadness of the field. You can be doing anything, solving any problem. Trisha expressed the wish to see the IT industry become more diverse. Improving the diversity should be done, but it will also bring many benefits. It will spark off different ways of working together and solving problems. (12.10) – What drew you to a career in IT? She started programming when she was 9 or 10. She liked the idea of typing something into a machine and getting it to do more or less what she had intended. Also, the fact you can constantly enhance and tweak things appeals. Being able to discover something new simply by looking at it from a different angle and trying a few things is also something she enjoyed about IT. (12.59) – Phil asks Trisha if programming was what she planned to do when she left school. Surprisingly, Trisha said no. In her teenage years, she more or less stopped programming. But, studied math, physics and computer science at A level because she wanted to do astrophysics, go to Mars and join NASA. However, she realized that physics was really just lots of different types of math. With computing the computer does the math for you. Leaving you free to think about how the user can benefit from what you are doing. For her, physics was just too abstract. Computer programming appealed much more. (14.34) – What is the best career advice you were given? Trisha does not feel she has received career advice, as such. But, she has had great mentors, people who have helped her to progress along her chosen path. (15.08) – If you were to begin your IT career again, now, what would you do? Trisha says she would focus on machine learning. At university, she studied AI as well as computer science. But, when she graduated, practical AI was really just a pipe dream. (16.12) – What career objectives are you currently focusing on? Currently, she is asking herself what next? There is a possibility that she will be thinking a bit more strategically, perhaps leading other developer advocates. Or, she may turn her attention to deploying to the Cloud, DevOps and Docker, because, so far, she has not really covered those areas. But, whatever she does, she really wants to make a difference to the lives of developers. She wants to reach as many developers as possible and help them to be more effective and move forward. (18.23) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Trisha said writing, which has pushed her to sit down and work things out then share it with others. (19.16) – Phil asks Trisha to share a final piece of career advice. Trisha says it is all too easy to become overwhelmed by the fact there is so much you have to learn. It is always going to be like that. Even the most experienced people do not know everything. Things are constantly changing, so everyone in the industry has to continuously learn. You need to become with the fact that you are just going to have to learn stuff on the job. BEST MOMENTS: (3.21) TRISHA – “Don't just focus on the technical skills,” (3.45) TRISHA – “If you're able to listen to answers and listen to concerns from your users, it will make you a better developer.” (6.16) TRISHA – “You have to own your mistakes,” (11.02) TRISHA  – “I think if we improve the diversity, it is just going to become much more interesting and much more exciting, as we get different ideas from people with different backgrounds.” (11.48) TRISHA – “When you fix something for one set of people, you actually make it better for everyone.” (19.06) TRISHA – “The ability to take technical ideas and write them down in it in a useful, readable way, has probably been the best skill that I've got that isn't coding.” CONTACT TRISHA GEE: Twitter: https://twitter.com/trisha_gee @trisha_gee LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trishagee/ Website: http://trishagee.github.io/

GUEST BIO: Jess Dodson is a Windows Administrator living in Queensland, Australia.  Jess describes herself as a Microsoft fan girl and for the past couple of years she has been a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional.  Jess is also keen to pass on information to others that is technically relevant, as well as other useful information for those in system administration. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Jess Dodson is Phil’s guest on today’s show. She has been supporting, managing and administering Active Directory & Windows Servers platforms. Her work has enabled her to become a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional. She specializes in Windows Server Operating Systems, Active Directory, Group Policy, File and Print, OS Lifecycle management, information & account security services. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (0.58) – So Jess, can you expand on that summary and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Jess explains that, after 15 years in the industry, she is now focusing more on Active Directory identity and security. In Australia, she is also heavily involved with the IT Professional Association. Their aim is to advance the practice of Information Technology as a profession. Currently, they are working to increase visibility and demonstrating the fact that the profession is not as boring as people make it out to be. She uses social media to convince people to give working in the administration side of IT, a go. Rather than automatically pursue a career on the developer side of things. (2,15) – Phil wants to know if Jess has noticed a big difference in the operational side of the companies she has worked for. So far, Jess has only worked for two organizations. A university and government department and she have found that they work in a very similar way on the organization side, but she is aware that in the corporate world culture differences are definitely there. (3.20) – Phil asks Jess for a unique IT career tip. Jess’ number one tip is that getting into IT and enjoying the career you want isn’t a straight line. There is no you get this degree to get this specific job path, in the IT industry. The best approach is to do what works for you. For some people, that is getting a degree, for others it means going straight from school into a mundane IT job and starting at the bottom of the ladder. You just need to do what works for you. (4.35) – Jess is asked to share her worst career moment and what she learned from that experience. She goes onto share two experiences, because she could not decide which of them was worst. The first one was when she did some live testing on her employee’s production website and wiped it out. They were able to restore it, from backup, but it was a hard way to learn never to do any testing on a production website. The 2nd one happened when she needed to delete a production server from her employee’s Windows Update server. A server that had been decommissioned so did not need updates. But, instead of deleting just that server, she deleted the entire production server group. More than 500 servers could not receive Windows update. This happened the day before the production patches were due to be deployed. Jess realized her mistake within seconds. The delete computer and delete group buttons were side by side and she knew instantly that she had hit the wrong one. For Jess, the lesson from that unfortunate mistake was to admit your mistakes immediately. She turned to a close colleague who had some experience in scripting and together they were able to fix the problem within an hour. If she had not admitted it, she would have had to fix it manually, which would have taken all night. Working as a team the problem was solved really quickly. (7.25) – Phil asks Jess what her best career moment was. She says it was speaking at Microsoft Ignite in Australia in 2013. She had never spoken publically before, so was very pleased when her speech was voted the third best of the conference. If you want to hear it you can do so here. Her speech was all about Active Directory & Domain Security, Administration & Maintenance and is called Righting the Right Rights. (8.26) – Phil asks how Jess practiced for her talk at Microsoft Ignite. She said she went online and did some research about technical speaking and followed the advice to practice 10 times the amount of time you are due to speak for. Jess has gone on to speak at Microsoft Ignite three more times and she may be speaking at the big Ignite conference that is on tour and coming to Sydney in February 2019. (9.51) – Phil asks what excites Jess about the future of the IT industry. The fact that everything changes so fast, is something that Jess finds exciting. You have to be really good at learning and keeping up. The shift into a whole range of areas that were not even thought of 10 years ago is really exciting. She also likes the fact that security is becoming increasingly important. (11.01) – Are there any other technologies that are of interest to you outside of your general remit? Jess explains that she just loves what she does so much that she is really focused on the Microsoft sphere of technology stack. (11.40) – Phil wants to know what brand of phone Jess uses. It is an Android model and jokes that she is a Google fangirl as well as a Microsoft one. (12.11) – What drew you to a career in IT, Jess? She explains that her dad was a systems engineer. From a very young age she wanted to be like her dad, which, naturally, meant a career in IT. (12.27) – What is the best career advice you were given? Stand up for what you know is right. Find a way to convince your managers or, if you need to, go around them especially if it is related to security. (12.53) – If you were to start your IT career again, now, what would you do? If she were to start again Jess would focus on the cloud and brush up on her coding and scripting skills. (13.09) – Phil asks Jess what career objectives she currently has. Right now, Jess is focusing on Azure, Microsoft’s Cloud solution. As well as moving more into the security and identity space. (13.35) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you in your IT career, so far? Her response is people skills. Your network of people is a crucial asset. You need people you can rely on, so you need to “find your tribe.” (14.11) – Phil asks Jess to share a final piece of career advice. She says “love what you do”. You cannot just do this job to pay the bills. You need to be realistic and realize that it is not always possible to “do what you love”. Sometimes you are going to end up having to learn to “love what you do”. Taking this approach ensures that you get the most out of whatever situation you find yourself in and do a good job. BEST MOMENTS: (4.03) JESS – “Every person that I've ever met in IT has completely different ways that they've gotten into the industry. So, follow the path that works for you.” (7.17) JESS – “One person can get some things done. But as a team, you can get so much more done if you work together.” (11.01) PHIL – “Security is definitely going to be a hot topic over the next 10 15 years” (13.00) JESS – “Starting from now, focus on the cloud. Focus very heavily on the cloud. (13.47) JESS – “The network of people that you know, and that you can call on, it's your number one asset. You need a tribe to rely on.” CONTACT JESS DODSON: Twitter: https://twitter.com/girlgerms LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrdodson/ Website: https://girl-germs.com/

GUEST BIO: Rob Lambert began his career as a tester, creating The Social Tester blog before moving into Engineering Management.  He likes to share his experiences and the lessons he has learned in the hope that others won’t repeat common errors.  Rob is also an occasional speaker, an author and a podcaster. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on his show, today, is Rob Lambert. He began his IT career working in the field of testing. He spent years building an agile team and coming up with a process that reduced release cycles from years to weeks. A way of working that is now used across the world. These days, he runs his own consultancy company. His focus is on helping managers and leaders to find the right people, retain them and develop their skills further. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­­(1.00) – So Rob, can you expand on that brief introduction and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Rob explained that he started his IT career by testing software. But, he always wanted to get involved in the creative industries by writing books and making films. It was that desire which led to him starting his blog and took him on his publishing and public speaking journey. He is kept very busy by his three kids and the demands of his work, but still finds the time to write his blog and publish a book every couple of years.  When it comes to writing, Rob takes a disciplined approach. Every day, he just takes himself away, shuts off everything else and writes solidly for an hour. Usually, he produces 500 to 1000 words. Over the course of six months to a year, that adds up to at least one book. (3.01) – Phil asks Rob for a unique IT career tip. Rob says that one of the things he teaches is learning to “trade your freedoms wisely”. Before you join an organization you need to stop and think about what freedoms you are trading to work for them. Organizations place all kinds of restrictions on you. They have rules you have to follow. Things like what you wear, where you work, which platforms you can work on, rigid processes you have to follow. All kinds of things, we never think about. If you end up working in an environment you hate on projects that bore you using clunky tools and processes, inevitably, you will feel frustrated. Think about your principles and values too. Rob and others involved in IT HR are seeing a lot of people burn out. Often, it is not because they are working long hours. It is usually because they are working for a firm that does not share their values and principles. (5.06) – So, evaluating your right decision before you make a commitment? Rob says “Yeah, I think so.” Sometimes he goes into some less than stellar organizations and finds some really talented people, who could do a lot better. Yet they stay. Usually, it is because their most important freedoms are being met. Perhaps it is the salary, the fact the location is right for them, the team is good or that the projects they work on are interesting. Phil sums it up by saying it sounds like you need to find a fair balance between your values and the company you work for. Rob agrees, but says that sometimes that is not possible. In that situation working for yourself can be the right solution. (6.45) – Rob is asked to share his worst career moment by Phil. A few years back, Rob got obsessed with wanting to earn more money. It led to him switching jobs. The interview was carried out in a swish, glamorous environment, but because the job was with The Ministry of Defense he did not get to see the actual office he would be working in. When he did, his heart sank. It was in a terrible state of repair, ceiling tiles falling off, holes in the wall. Nothing was happening, everyone was playing solitaire. It was awful - within 8 days he upped and left. Luckily, the next gig he found was perfect for him. (9.08) – Phil asks Rob what he learned from that experience. Rob said, it taught him to never be driven by money alone. It is never enough compensation for doing an awful job. He also advises you not to take a job without seeing the workspace you will be working out of first. His third tip is to think carefully about the freedoms you will have to give up. (10.27) – Phil asks Rob what his best career moment was. Rob is most proud of his time at NewVoiceMedia. While there he and that team took release rollout lead times down from 14 months to basically weekly releases. During his time there, they went from being a startup to employing 120 people and hired some of the best people in the industry. Employee retention and engagement was high and finding new colleagues was not hard. With hard but effective work, everything fell into place and the company was recently acquired. (12.18) – Phil asks Rob whether there are things he has taken forward from that experience. Rob says it taught him how to become a manager. Across those 7 or 8 years he interviewed about 400 people and discovered his talent for HR and building successful teams. Those are the skills that have taken him to where he is today. (13.28) – Phil asks what excites Rob about the future for the IT industry. The fact that companies are moving towards respecting their employees more is a promising sign. Firms are looking more at people’s individual strengths and allowing them to expand their skills and fulfill traditional roles in different ways. It is an environment that encourages people to thrive. It enables people to grow and carry the businesses forward at the same time. (15.13) – What drew you to a career in IT? Rob was studying media science at university at a time when the internet was in its infancy. He was learning to take complex scientific subjects and working out ways to share them using the media with ordinary people. At the time, the internet did not seem important to him. Rob ended up doing all kinds of mundane jobs while at uni, for example, working in a snack factory. When he left university somehow he ended up as a software tester. That was it, suddenly, Rob found himself in the world of IT and he enjoyed it so much that he made it his career, (16.19) – What is the best career advice you’ve ever received? Interestingly, for Rob that advice came from a book rather than a person. The book is called Growing a Business by Paul Hawken. It was written in the 80s and is basically about setting up and running a mail order company. But, the book is packed with great general advice that is still relevant today. The thing that caught Rob’s eye was the quote “a good business has interesting problems and a bad business has boring ones.” Now, when he looks for his next job he asks himself if the problems he will be solving will be boring or interesting. It is a great way to make sure he only works for the right types of companies. (17.09) – If you were to start your IT career again, now, what would you do? Rob says that he would do pretty much the same. But, he would have learned a technical skill and how to communicate well, at an earlier point in his career. If you are a technical person with good communication skills finding good work is really easy. (17.57) – Phil asks Rob what he is currently focusing on. Rob responded by saying that he is working on growing his management and consulting business. He is also working on his training arm by running more workshops and courses (18.38) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Rob’s response was – “without a doubt, good communication skills”, which are essential. To help the IT Career Energizer audience to learn these skills, Rob shared a link to his book “10 Behaviors of Effective Employees”, which you can download for free, from this page. (19.10) – Phil agrees, he says that sometimes we forget that communication is a two-way process. We tend to think about communication only from our own perspective. Not the other person’s. Rob agreed, no matter what you think you have done if the other person still does not understand. You have definitely not communicated effectively.  (19.47) – Phil asks Rob to share a final piece of career advice. Rob says it is really important to treat people, like people. Treat everyone the way you would like to be treated. If you are a manager build the type of team that you would personally enjoy working in. BEST MOMENTS: (2.29) ROB – “I just write, and in that one hour a day, you maybe get, I don't know, 500 to a 1000 words out. Over the course of six months to a year, you've got yourself a book.” (3.59) ROB – “You have to be very careful about how you choose to trade your freedoms.” (9.17) ROB – “Don't ever be driven just by money alone. Because, you know what, it never compensates for what can be an awful job in an awful environment.” (17.40) ROB – “Our industry is sadly lacking very technical people who can communicate and articulate with nontechnical people.” (19.15) PHIL – “Sometimes we forget, the communication is a two-way thing.” (20.04) ROB – “You're never more than, you know, two or three LinkedIn connections away from someone who may or may not have worked with you in the past.” CONTACT ROB LAMBERT: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rob_Lambert @Rob_Lambert LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertlambert/ Website: http://cultivatedmanagement.com/

GUEST BIO: Phil Burgess is an independent consultant who helps companies to implement software applications and systems that support their business objectives.  Phil has worked for independent software houses as well as large corporate companies across industry sectors including finance, utilities, legal and fine art. In 2017, Phil launched the I.T. Career Energizer podcast with the goal of helping others to start, develop and grow successful careers in tech. PRESENTER BIO: John Sonmez is a software developer who founded SimpleProgrammer.com to help software developers and other technical professionals advance their careers and to live happier lives.  John is author of the best-selling books “Soft Skills: The Developer’s Life Manual” and “The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide” as well as host of the Simple Programmer podcast.’ EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Today’s episode of the I.T. Career Energizer Podcast is the 100th in the series, so it is a bit different, something special. Today, it is Phil Burgess himself who is being interviewed by John Sonmez. Phil first got involved in the IT industry in the mid-90s. He has developed and implemented new systems across numerous industries. Today, his focus is on helping others to develop their IT careers. He does so for everyone from absolute beginners to seasoned professionals. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­(00.31) – Phil starts, by introducing John Sonmez,  who was his very first podcast guest. Today, it is John who is going to be asking the questions and Phil who will be answering them. (1.32) – John starts by congratulating Phil on his 100th episode. A remarkable achievement, especially when you consider that most podcasters only record around 7 episodes before giving up. John thanks Phil for inspiring so many in the coding and development industry. (3.24) – In true I.T. Career Energizer podcast tradition, John asks Phil to share a unique career tip. Phil says that it is vital to look at your plans and goals, so that you can understand where your career is going. He encourages people to put together a five-year plan. Of course, no IT career is linear and the industry moves fast. So, the plan is just a guide to give you some direction and a way of recognizing where you are. Setting a guiding goal will help you to navigate through the ever-changing world of IT. Particularly, when you regularly review and tweak your plan. Phil explains that pairing a long-term plan with short-term goals is especially helpful. Short-term goals like learning a language, taking on a public speaking engagement, attending more conferences or writing articles are all helpful. Setting goals like these will help you to identify the best ways to grow your skills, network and ultimately move your career forward. (5.24) – At this point, Phil is asked to share his worst career moment. For Phil 4 or 5 years into his career he attended a meeting with senior management and a director. The project was not going well, so the director was trying to motivate everyone and identify the issues. At one point, the director asked a technical question that had clearly been fed to him. When Phil answered it became apparent that the director had no real understanding of the issue, so could not really follow the response. Instead of seeking more understanding, the director tried to belittle Phil in front of about 15 senior managers. It felt terrible. But, it taught Phil the importance of understanding your audience. John says he has had a few similar experiences. It reminds him of one of Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power, one of which is “never outshine the master”. (8.25) – How about your career highlight? For Phil being able to help others with their careers is the thing he enjoys the most.  Running the podcast has enabled him to do this for more people, so for him this has been a career highlight. He has also enjoyed meeting and speaking to so many great professionals. As well as getting feedback from his audience and answering their questions. (11.18) – John asks Phil to share one thing that excites him about the future of a career in IT. Phil says the fact that the possibilities are limitless is the most exciting thing. He went on to say that “the genie is out of the bottle”. In the future, there will be opportunities that we cannot even conceive of right now. John concurs, for example, the idea of a driverless car would have been inconceivable up until a few years ago. Phil commented on the fact that technology touches every aspect of our lives and moves really fast. He goes on to speak about the amazing rate at which the motor car replaced the horse-drawn carriage. In just over a decade, a New York City road went from having one car and dozens of horses on it, in a photo, to being full of Model T. Fords. A strong example of just how fast technology changes our lives. (13.19) – What first attracted you to a career in IT? Phil explains that at university he did a building survey course, something that had nothing to do with technology, whatsoever. As part of the course he was introduced to AutoCAD which was running on Unix systems. For him, it was fascinating. By the time he left university, he was torn between pursuing an IT career working in the building surveyor field. Phil did not know what to do, so he took a local job with a pharmaceutical company. Fortunately, they were in the process of implementing a brand new system that a small software house had built for them. Phil got involved and off the back of that he was offered work by the software firm. That was it, Phil had officially commenced his IT career. (14.50) – What is the best career advice you were given? Phil paraphrased the best piece of advice he has received, so far, by saying - “It's all about the delivery of the message and be able to bring your message to life.” Someone he has worked for, a few times, explained to him that he needed to use stories and examples to add color to the message you are delivering. You have to make it come alive to catch people’s attention and help them to understand and recognize the importance of your message. (15.49) – If you were to start your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Says he would be trying out as many things as he can before settling on something more specific. In particular, he would attend as many conferences as possible, listening, learning and evaluating. He also said that he would focus more on solving problems rather than the actual technology used. (16.31) – What career objectives are you focusing on? Phil wants to grow his reach and influence so that he can help as many people as possible. He is also keen to finish his first book and get it published. Phil also says he wants to make sure that he keeps his podcast going strong. (17.20) – What’s the number one non-technical skill that has helped you in your career? Listening is Phil’s number one non-technical skill. Really listening, rather than simply waiting for the break in the conversation, so you can make your point. Actually, hearing, absorbing and understanding what the other person is trying to say, then, taking the time to think before giving your response. (18.23) – John asks Phil for a parting piece of advice. Phil says you need to remember that “it’s your career.” Of course, you need to achieve the appraisal goals set out by the company you work for. But, you also need to make sure that what you achieve your own goals. It is up to you to progress your career, to learn what you need to know and make sure that you work on the right projects. BEST MOMENTS: (1.05) JOHN – “The IT industry is growing fast and going through a heap of challenges and it won't get better by accident. Thank you so much for playing your part.” (4.21) PHIL – “People need to set maybe a five-year plan in place, in terms of where they're going.” (6.49) PHIL – “Understand your audience when you're actually responding to things like questions.” (8.57) PHIL – “I'm quite keen to empower people.” (17.37) PHIL – “The ability to actually listen and think about what you're hearing before responding, is a really good skill to develop.” (19.25) PHIL – “Think about what you want. Take ownership and responsibility of your own career.” CONTACT PHIL BURGESS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilTechCareer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philburgess/ Website: https://itcareerenergizer.com  

GUEST BIO: Lorna is on the Developer Relations team for Nextmo. Before that, she was a developer advocate for IBM Cloud Data Services which meant that she got paid to play with and talk about open source database technologies.  Lorna is also the author of the books “PHP Web Services” and “PHP Master” as well as being a regular conference speaker and writer. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest today is Lorna Mitchell.  She has a software engineering background and has worked as a developer advocate for IBM Cloud Data Services. Today, she works for Nexmo as part of the Developer Relations team. Lorna is also the author of two, very well received, books about PHP. She describes herself as being at her happiest when her GitHub graph is green. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­­­(0.99) – Phil asks Lorna to tell the audience a bit more about herself? Lorna replies that Phil has pretty much covered everything with his introduction. (1.38) – Phil asks Lorna for a unique IT career tip. Lorna says here advice is to write things down. When you write something down, you process it in a different way. If you explain something to someone else you have to gain a deep understanding yourself. When you write a blog post you come to better understand the topic. Plus, once you publish, you get feedback and become known for being interested in that topic. As a result, you learn more. That continues, over the years. People know you are interested in the subject so start to share what they know too. This expands your knowledge even more. Plus, when you publish what you write online, people often leave insightful and helpful comments. (4.07) – Lorna is asked to share her worst career moment by Phil. Lorna was once fired, which was a horrifying experience. She was left wondering how to pay the bills. Plus, Lorna was already having doubts that a software engineering career was for her. But, at the time, she had no other skills. So, she ended up having to take an IT related job even though she was reluctant to do so. As it turns out, she was very lucky. That job was a stepping stone to great things. It led to her speaking at conferences and becoming recognized for the code that she writes. She came really close to giving up a career that she now loves. Lorna comments that she has noticed a lot of people who are new to the industry wanting to give up. At the start, it is hard to find a company that has the resources and budget to allow you to do a really good job. It is all too easy to become disheartened and give up what is actually a great career once you gain enough experience to move on and secure a role with a good company. (6.15 – Phil asks Lorna what her best career moment has been. For Lorna, that was getting published by O’Reilly. It gave her an amazing sense of achievement. Plus, people started to listen more to her, which enabled her to help even more people. (7.29) – Would you write another book? Lorna replied that she definitely will when she can fit it in. Right now, she is working full-time, so that could be tricky. She wrote her other two books when she was a freelancer. (8.16) – Phil asks what excites Lorna about the future for the IT industry. For Lorna the fact that tech is everywhere and constantly changing is exciting. It means that she is always working on something fresh and new and learning about all kinds of industries. (9.40) – What drew you to a career in IT? For Lorna, working in IT was not the original plan. She was good at math and physics and has a degree in electronic engineering, so she never saw a future in IT for herself. While studying for her degree, she did a little bit of coding and really enjoyed the experience. So, when someone offered her a job in IT, building games, she took it. From there she was hooked. (10.40) – What is the best career advice you were given? At one stage, Lorna had an awful job. She knew that potentially she could get out of it by working as a freelancer. But, she was hesitant to take that step. So, a friend, who also worked in IT, said to her “Lorna, what’s the worst that can happen?” When she looked at things from that perspective, she realized it was actually the right move for her and she became a successful freelancer. Now, if she is finding it tough to make a career related decision, she asks herself “What’s the worst that could happen?”  This helps her to make up her mind and continue to move forward. (11.35) – If you were to start your IT career again, now, what would you do? Lorna would not change a lot. She says it is good to take a lot of different jobs to build up your experience and broaden your horizons. However, Lorna wishes she had got involved in open source at an earlier stage. Working on these projects enables you to build a big skill set and do so fast. You will learn everything from coding to project management skills as well as how to interact with and work well with others. (13.02) – Phil asks Lorna what she is currently focusing on at the moment. Lorna says for her career objectives are a really difficult thing to think about. She is still progressing by moving from one interesting project to another. It is an approach that seems to work for her. (14.14) – What is the non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? For Lorna, being able to write well and explain things in writing is an incredibly important skill. She has pretty much always worked remotely, so has needed to be able to explain things in writing and do so in an understandable way. There has rarely been someone available to physically look over her shoulder and spot the problem. So, she has to be able to explain it concisely to them in writing. (15.17) – Phil asks Lorna to share a final piece of career advice. Where ever you are or whatever you do make sure that you participate. If you attend a conference or working group, ask a question. Hang around afterward for a chat. Get involved. You do not necessarily have to give a speech or write something to be able to participate. In online communities and on blog posts share a comment. This will really help you to find your peer group, to belong and grow. BEST MOMENTS:  (3.09)   - LORNA – “You should write things down. The rewards and the echoes of that action have been amazing for me in my career.” (11.57)  - LORNA – “I had a variety of different jobs early on. And I think that's a really good grounding.” (15.30)   - LORNA - “Wherever you are, and whatever you do. My advice is to participate.” (16.29)   - LORNA – “Keep doing what you're doing and sharing what you do. Choose who you amplify and the content that you share and you will find your peer group.” CONTACT LORNA MITCHELL: Twitter: https://twitter.com/lornajane LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lornajane/ Website: https://lornajane.net  

GUEST BIO: Vicky Brasseur has spent most of her 20 years in the tech industry leading software development departments and teams, and providing technical management and leadership consulting to small and medium-sized businesses. Vicky is also a Vice President of the Open Source Initiative, a winner of open source awards for contribution and a regular speaker at open source conferences. This year, has seen the publication of Vicky’s book “Forge Your Future with Open Source”, which I’m sure we will be talking about during the show. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Today, Phil’s guest is Vicky Brasseur who is an award-winning open source contributor and author. She has been working in the IT industry for 20+ years. During that time, she has worked on numerous open source projects, which have led to the development of industry-leading software. Work she now combines with her writing, public speaking and consultancy engagements. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­­­(1.16) – So Vicky, can you expand on that summary and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Vicky responds by explaining that for many years she spent a lot of time doing business management stuff. But, today she mostly helps companies to understand how to contribute to and release free and open source software. She shows how to do so in a way that is both good for their bottom line and the community. (1.45) – Phil asks to share with the audience some of the benefits of using open source. For a company, there are many benefits. It removes the need to continually invent the wheel. There are millions of wheels you can use instead of wasting time and resources writing all of that code yourself. Companies can get up and running much faster using open source. (2.39) – Phil asks Vicky for a unique IT career tip. Vicky’s advice is to get involved in developing free and open source software. Doing so enables you to gain a lot of new skills and experience. Plus, it greatly improves your public and open portfolio. Importantly, you do not have to be a programmer to get involved in open source. There are many skills required to develop free and open source software, so virtually anyone can make a contribution and benefit by doing so. (3.40) Phil asks Vicky to share the best way to get involved if you are new to open source project. Vicky explains that there are lots of options, which is why she wrote a book on the subject. But, generally speaking she recommends that you pause for a moment and think about what your professional and personal goals are. It is important to work on something that interests you and will help you to grow. You could for example get involved in developing open source software for your favorite hobby. If you want to become more proficient in JavaScript and you like woodworking, go out and find a project that ticks both of those boxes. (4.53) – Vicky is asked to share her worst IT career moment. That happened when Vicky ended up working for a poorly run startup. Vicky felt she ended up in that position because she had not asked the right questions at the interview stage. It reminded her that finding a new job is a two-way street. A job seeker should be interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing you. Vicky now has a set of questions that she asks every single interviewer. This enables her to compare the companies in a logical way. She finds that the way they respond is very telling. Often, it is what they do not say rather than what they do that is very telling. (7.25) – Phil asks Vicky what her best career moment was. For Vicky being asked by Pragmatic to write a book about a subject she is really passionate about has been amazing. Getting paid to work on free and open source software is also a highlight. But, the best thing for Vicky is helping companies to see the benefit of bridging the gap between corporate and community interests. To see that it is in everyone’s interest to work in this way. (8.44) – Can you tell us a little more about your book, “Forge Your Future with Open Source”. Has it been published yet? Vicky says yes, but she has not seen the physical book yet. On the evening of the podcast recording, she was hosting an unboxing party to reveal the book to her friends, colleagues and family. Her book is all about how an individual can contribute to free and open source software. The book explains what it is, why it matters and what copyright is. It covers licensing, intellectual property how to interact with everyone effectively. Plus, more complex issues like how to take something you may have developed in the workplace and legally share it with a wider community. (11.26) – Phil asks what excites Vicky about the future for the IT industry. Vicky is really pleased to see the IT industry opening up. Over the years, the industry has been too insular. It is great to see more diversity. Diverse teams come up with better ideas and work more efficiently. The fact that IT is becoming more inclusive is exciting and will greatly benefit everyone. (13.23) – What drew you to a career in IT? Vicky responded by saying “I love pushing buttons,” She loves computers and the process of creating something out of nothing, literally by just pushing the right buttons. (14.00) – What is the best career advice you were given? Vicky answered by saying “You can get out.” If you are in a bad situation, you don’t have to stay there. Even if you cannot leave immediately, you can start to change your situation. There are tons of people who are going to treat you better and probably pay you better. So, if you are in a bad situation, work to get out of it. (14.38) – If you were to start your IT career again, now, what would you do? For Vicky that is a hard question to answer. There would be things she could change, but, she is actually pretty happy with how things have gone. (15.37) – Phil asks Vicky what she is currently focusing on. Vicky finds freelancing exhausting, so she wants to work for a company that will pay her full-time for her open source related management skills. Lots of companies have open source offices. She is hoping to work for one of those and do so for several years. So that she can get to see some projects through to the end. (16.36) – What is the non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? For Vicky it is listening, communicating and writing. Documenting how you do things is a force multiplier. When you write things down, you can share it with any number of people. Vicky suggests that the audience check out the writing tips shared at the “All Things Open” conference by Jen Wike Huger from Red Hat.  Her speech notes are available here. (18.06) – Phil asks Vicky to share a final piece of career advice. Don’t rely on your manager to move your career forward. It is something a good manager will help you with, but you cannot rely on them to do so. You need to sit down and think about where you want to go and take steps to get there. Start slow -baby steps are still steps, provided you take the action, you will progress. BEST MOMENTS:  (1.45) VICKY  – “We get that very good balance and that beneficial cycle of the corporate contributions and the community  benefit, all at once.” (3.39) VICKY - “You can move your career forward by contributing to free and open source software.” (6.34) PHIL – “When you go for an interview, make sure that you find out as much as you can about that company before you commit to joining them.” (12.20) VICKY – “The studies show that communities and projects and teams that are more diverse, are also much more innovative.” (17.28) VICKY -“I can have an idea, and I can tell it to you, and then it disappears. But if I write it down, I can share it with any number of people.” (18.13) VICKY - "You have the power. It is within your power to move your career forward. But you have to take the time to think about it." CONTACT VICKY BRASSEUR: Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmbrasseur @vmbrasseur LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vmbrasseur/ Website: https://www.vmbrasseur.com/