IT Career Energizer

GUEST BIO: In this episode Phil talks to Wes Bos. Wes is a Fullstack web developer and designer who spends most of his time working with JavaScript, CSS3 and HTML5.  Wes is also a lead instructor at HackerYou, an instructor for Ladies Learning Code and a regular conference speaker on everything from Front End Dev to ServerSide JavaScript. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­­­ (1.00) – Phil asked Wes to tell the audience a bit more about himself? Wes says he has been a Fullstack web developer for about 10 years now. He spends most of his time writing JavaScript. Mostly React on the frontend and Node.js on the backend. He also builds web development courses and has been running his own podcast for about a year now, which is regularly in the iTunes top 40.  (1.53) – Phil asks Wes for a unique IT career tip. Wes starts by saying that for his whole career he has been teaching people how to learn code. Over the years, he has noticed that most people become frustrated with their rate of progress. They want to know what the secret code is in order to understand things. I always tell them that there is no secret. Repetition is what you need to learn. You have to keep putting in the time and just build stuff. Developers need a continual learning mindset and they have to put what they learn into practice. (3.40) –Wes is asked to share his worst career moment. Wes explained that this happened when he was working for an oil and gas company. At the time, he was earning great money. It was a 4-month summer co-op deal, which was fortunate, because Wes hated it. For him, that time was his career low point. However, the experience taught him that he was far better off running his own business. That is what he has done and it is working out really well for him. (5.12) So, has your focus been courses as much as anything else? Wes, says yes, but not only courses. He has continued working as a freelancer to ensure that he stays sharp. But, right now, most of his income comes from his courses and teaching work. (5.53) – Can you take us through your career highlights or greatest successes. Wes ran a blog and wrote a book about Sublime Text. At times he doubted anyone would read it. However, when he finally published it, within a month he had been paid way more for his time than he would have had he used that time to work as a freelancer. It was a good feeling. (7.04) – Phil wants to know what excites Wes about the future for the IT industry and careers. Wes finds it amazing how fast things are developing. He likes the way an ordinary person, a regular developer, can radically change things. That is exciting, so is the fact that industry moves so quickly. It means that anyone can start learning now and be at the forefront quickly if they are prepared to apply themselves. (8.38) - Are there any particular technologies or languages or anything like that, that you think right now are the ones to look at? For Wes it is learning JavaScript and things like TypeScript. Ordinary people can learn how to use it and within 3 or 4 years be doing amazing things with it. (9.28) – What first attracted you to a career in IT? Wes’s dad worked in IT, so they were the first kids on the block to have a computer, followed by the internet. He got used to, and liked, being at the cutting edge of everything and he loved computers. For him a career in IT was a natural progression. (9.57) – What is the best career advice you’ve ever received? Wes tells Phil it was “double your rates”. He tried it and it worked. This enabled him to work part-time on client work and still have enough money and time to spend on other interests. (10.46) – If you were to begin your career again, right now, what would you do? Wes said he would start by spending a lot of time on YouTube just soaking in much as he could. (11.28) – Phil asks Wes what career objectives he is currently focusing on. Wes says he has always “optimized for happiness” and still does today. He is currently able to spend as much time as he wants with his kids, take holidays whenever he needs to, and he feels happy with what he produces. So, his focus is on maintaining that freedom, staying happy. (12.35) – What’s the number one non-technical skill that has helped you in your career, so far? Wes says funnily enough it is writing. He sees himself as a terrible writer who is always making grammar and spelling mistakes. However, he can convey what he needs or wants to be done, in succinct emails, which is a great skill to have. He is also able to write good copy for marketing websites, which is also useful. (13.41) – Phil asks Wes to share a parting piece of career advice with the audience. Wes says – “Just go out there and start. Start doing it rather than sitting around pontificating about it.” BEST MOMENTS: (2.30) WES - "I always tell people, there's no formation without repetition." (3.36) PHIL - "Learning is only balanced by the doing. That's the vital ingredient from my point of view." (3.40) WES - "You definitely have to have a mindset of like a forever learner and you should always be picking up new skills" (7.31) WES – “Technology that you're able to put into just a regular web developers hands or a regular IT person's hands is super powerful" (12.22) WES - "If you really work at it, you can do it from anywhere and you can you can make your own rules." (14.00) WES - "You're going to get where you want to be by actually putting in the time and building that skill whatever it is that you want." CONTACT WES BOS: Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/wesbos @wesbos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesbos/ Website: https://www.wesbos.com    

GUEST BIO: Jon Skeet is a Staff Software Engineer at Google, working from the London office on the Google Cloud Client Libraries for .NET. He's probably better known for his contributions on Stack Overflow and his book, C# in Depth. Jon is married to Holly Webb, a prolific children's author, and they have three children together. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: In this episode Phil interviews Jon Skeet who is a senior software engineer for Google. He is the author behind C# in Depth, a book that made him something of a C# legend. Jon is also a well-known Stack Overflow contributor who has a reputation for providing descriptive answers that solve the toughest challenges. Some go as far as calling him “the Chuck Norris of programming”. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­­­ (1.00) – So Jon, can you expand on that summary and tell us a little bit more about yourself? In response, Jon explains that he is a big fan of working from home. So, he does not spend very much time at Google’s London headquarters. Instead he works out of a high tech, air-conditioned shed, complete with an ice-cream maker and surround-sound. Jon is a feminist, a Methodist and a local preacher who has a passion for musical theatre. (2.03) – Phil asks Jon for a unique IT career tip, something the audience should know. Jon replies that it is important to remember that “you will make far quicker progress in the long run, if you take one step at a time. Work through the problem in a structured way using a language you are really familiar with. If you are learning a new language, start by doing really simple things. But, don’t be afraid to “step into the dark” to try something totally new. Just do so consciously and accept that failing, at first, is fine. You will learn a lot that way. Spend most of your time working in a familiar way and try just one new thing at a time, so that you are always making progress. (4.14) Phil asks if Jon would describe that as a sort of incremental process. Jon said yes, “it is really don’t run before you can walk.” (4.38) – Phil asks Jon to share his worst career moment and what he learned from it. For Jon his low-point was not directly related to coding or a technical issue. He was working on a product launch with a looming deadline. As a result, he ended up working very odd hours to get the job done. Instead of arriving at the station at his normal time of 6.45 he was getting there at about 3.30am. He was compensating a bit by going home a little earlier than normal but he was actually working long hours. Plus, even though he was going to bed earlier he was not sleeping well. People were telling him he did not look well, so he was clearly stretched. But, he carried on working that way, until one morning he was mugged. The mugging probably would not have happened if there were more people around. Being mugged stopped Jon in his tracks and he realized that he needed to take more care of himself. He decided to stop putting in a lot of hours at the wrong times of the day. He no longer pushed himself so hard or let others do it to him.  Jon realized that he had to take care of himself. (7.18) – Phil wants to know what Jon’s best career moment was. Jon starts by explaining that he is proud of helping thousands of people and being at the top of Stack Overflow as well as his book and software. But, his career highlights have come while talking with other people. For example, in June, Jon spent several days talking with and teaching alongside a lead designer on C#. During that collaboration he learned a huge amount about why C# is designed the way it is. Talking and working with others teaches him a lot and is very fulfilling.  (9.18) – Phil asks what excites Jon about the future of IT. To some extent for Jon it is how little we know about it. “We are now in an age where when you go to university half of the jobs the student take up don’t exist yet.” The fact that we cannot really tell what tech is going to look like in 10 years time is exciting. Potentially, a whole area that nobody is even considering now could easily come to the fore. (10.56) – What drew you to a career in IT, Jon? From the age of 8 Jon played games on a ZX Spectrum 48K. Eventually, he started programming on the Spectrum. For his first project, he created a logo interpreter. He was motivated to do so because the BBC microcomputer at school had one. His innocence meant that he did not know that you could not implement the code yourself. So, he did not see that so-called impossible barrier. As a result, he just kept working at it until he got it done. By age 9 or 10 he was in love with programming. (12.32) – What is the best career advice you were given? “Be good at one thing” – make sure that there is one thing that you are really comfortable in. It is good to have several strings to your bow. But, be the go-to person for at least one topic or discipline. (13.36) – If you were to start your IT career again, what would you do? Jon said that because things are changing so quickly he has no idea. It would depend on what would hook him. “I am a big fan of doing something that you are interested in for whatever reason you’re interested.” He explained why this is so important using an example.  Someone could be inspired to help out in a soup kitchen and while there wonder if they can automate the rota. That leads to working out what the best way to organize it is. This in turn leads to them falling into all kinds of optimization things. Suddenly, you are having fun developing and optimizing things and you become an inspired developer.  (15.29) – Phil asks Jon what career objectives Jon currently focusing on. Jon’s response is “Having a good time.” He has never chased money or power. Instead, he has chased having a good life. Right now, he enjoys writing in C#. Jon also relishes the fact that he can work from home and spend plenty of time with his family, which he loves doing. (16.52) – What is your most important non-technical skill? Jon’s short answer is “empathy and compassion”. We have done a great job of solving the problems of straight white men, because that is the demographic of most software developers. That needs to change. We need to solve the problems of the people that are not represented in the software community. Jon is finding that being a novice feminist is changing the way he works. Feminism is all about seeing things from multiple perspectives. It teaches you that people’s problems and challenges are different, so they need to be answered and solved in different ways. (18.24) – Phil asks Jon to share some final career advice. Jon’s reply is– “really just focus on your life, think about what is genuinely important to you and pursue that.” That might mean switching from IT to solving an environmental issue you believe you can solve. If you think you can make a difference, just do it. You only have one life. BEST MOMENTS:  (2.20) JON – “You will make far quicker progress in the long run, if you take one step at a time.” (2.55) JON – “If you are learning a new language, start with really simple things, just so that you feel familiar in the language,” (6.59) JON – “I was just putting in lots of hours and the wrong hours, and you've got to take care of yourself, basically.” (9.20) JON – “It's really the people I've worked with that have provided the highlights rather than the code I’ve written.”  (13.42) JON – “Have a balance between knowing plenty of things to just as much as you need, but have one thing that you're the expert on.” (17.32) JON – “The ability to look at the world from other people's perspectives is absolutely crucial for software.” CONTACT JON SKEET: Blog: blog.jonskeet.uk Blog: codeblog.jonskeet.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonskeet @jonskeet  

GUEST BIO: Justin is co-founder of Test Double, an agency of highly skilled developers on a mission to fix what’s broken in software.  As well as running Test Double, Justin is also an occasional conference speaker. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Today, Phil is talking to Justin Searls who is the co-founder of Test Double. An agency that embeds their developers into businesses to deliver the software they really need. Their approach includes refactoring legacy code, where appropriate, and mentoring the clients they work with. Justin is also an occasional public speaker. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­­­ (0.41) – Phil asked Justin to share a bit more information about himself. Justin responded by saying that he is a lifetime consultant, so has worked on many different projects. As a result, he deeply understands how software teams fail. This, in part, inspired him to start Test Double. He realized that he needed to hire developers who were passionate, positive. People who were happy to act as teachers and mentors while fixing company’s software issues. (2.37) – Phil asks Justin to share a unique career tip. Justin explains that following your passions all of the time was not necessarily a good idea, at least in the long-term. He explained that when speaking at universities most students say they want to be games developers. This is understandable, but the market is flooded with games developers. So, many of those who go ahead and follow what they love end up being paid relatively low wages. When Justin started out he resisted the temptation to just do things he liked. He focused on JavaScript testing. At the time only a few other people were doing that. So, they ended up with an almost unique, highly sought-after skill set. Justin focused on what people needed more than what he wanted, which led to a successful career. (5.39) – Justin is asked about his worst career moment. For Justin that happened when he was working for a major financial institution. Many of their transactions had to be confirmed and recorded in writing, so they received around 40,000 pieces of mail every day. It all had to be opened and processed manually. Justin was a key part of the team that put together an OCR style system that would capture all of that data and improve the efficiency of the mail system. On the night of the handover, all of the servers went down. Justin had no internet and because the phones were VOIP no way of communicating with anyone. It turns out a cleaner had knocked a fire extinguisher over in the server room, which pressed the cut out button. It took the firm days to get the old system back online. Then they still had to go through the process of moving to the new system. It was a disaster. That experience showed Justin how important continuous delivery is when switching to new systems. Taking an incremental approach when you can is far safer and more efficient in the long run. (8.56) – Phil asks Justin to share a career highlight. Justin explained that Double Test now employs 40 people all of whom work remotely. Most of them rarely meet each other. However, every now and again they get together at a mentor retreat with their plus ones. Seeing them all together like that, the first time, made him realize that he had played a role in creating a group of people who all respected and cared for each other and were able to pull together as an effective team. For Justin, that was a truly joyful moment, a career highlight. (10.55) – Phil wants to know what excites Justin about the future for the IT industry. Justin starts by saying if you were to ask a group of business leaders about who would be coding in 10 years you would get conflicting answers. Half would say everyone, while the rest would say nobody. He suspects that both sides are right to some extent. Some things will be done automatically, but everyone will end up at least tinkering with code. For example, the Siri shortcuts that have recently been released will allow users to create their own custom workflows. The future of coding is going to be different, which is exciting and brings all kinds of opportunities. (15.36) – Phil asked Justin what drew him to a career in IT. Justin got the bug at a young age. On a school vacation his luggage was lost, which meant that he did not have the clothing he needed to be able to spend time outside. So, he was stuck indoors with just what was in his backpack. That happened to be his homework and a graphing calculator. Using this tiny handheld computer he started to program simple games. That was it, Justin had the IT bug. At that point he realized that coding opened up untold (17.25) – What is the best career advice you have been given? Justin says he was advised to live below his means for as long as possible as a student and after qualifying. He did it for a long time and saved up a lot of money. Doing this gives you the financial freedom to move jobs whenever you want. There is no need to be stuck in a bad job or one where you are not growing your skills. Financial safety is liberating. It makes you a better developer, you are not timid and afraid to speak up or share an idea.  He also said that it is important to work on as a consultant, so you can gain experience, expand your horizons and be a well-rounded developer. (19.53) – If you were to start your career now, what would you do differently? Justin said that he would probably have progressed his career at a slower pace.  He also said he would network more with people who were not from the same race, background, sex or socioeconomic class as him. The fact that he did not make an extra effort to do this at the start of his career meant that he inadvertently ended up with a firm made up almost entirely of straight white men. It is important to attend more meet-ups that include people who are different from you and have a different view of the world. (21.54) – Phil asks Justin what career objectives he is currently focusing on. When Justin and Todd founded Test Double they had to take on roles they had never trained for. Gradually, they are recruiting people to take over some of those processes. Most of the marketing and sales responsibility fell to Justin. So, currently they are developing a marketing and sales funnel that can be handed over and run successfully by someone else. (23.25) – What non-technical skill has helped you in your career so far? Justin said his liberal arts education coursework exposed him to a wide range of subjects. Having to study world religion, philosophy, history, political science and other subjects, helped to make him a more rounded  and curious person. It contributed to his being good at analyzing complex algorithms. Having to absorb such an eclectic mix of information, while studying, made it easier for him to look at things from many different perspectives at once. (24.51) – Phil asks Justin to share a few final words of career advice. For Justin taking time out to observe and really think is important. Being able to control your attention and stay focused is a tremendously marketable skill. He recommends that people read Deep Work by Cal Newport and Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey to learn more about why that is and learn how to build that skill. BEST MOMENTS: (1.22) Justin - "Humans are nothing if not pattern recognition machines. You know, before there was machine learning there was learning, learning." (8.57) Justin - Speaking about implementing new projects Justin said - "If you just like let all that fear uncertainty about pile up into this big two-year event, all you're going to end up with is like, you know, a gigantic pizza party and a lot of pain." (10.55) Justin - "We have, like, mobilized effectively, a very healthy team of people who are then able to go and make other teams more healthy." (16.53) - Justin - "I just saw this tremendous potential for magic for making a computer do what I wanted it to do by dint of just spending enough time in a very tight feedback loop." (19.00) Justin - "If you are financially independent paycheck to paycheck on that job, not just disappearing, you're going to act from a defensive crouch that is more conservative." CONTACT JUSTIN SEARLS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/searls @searls LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/searls/ Website: https://www.testdouble.com

Today, Phil chats with James Shore. James teaches, writes and consults on Agile development processes. He is a recipient of the Agile Alliance’s Gordon Pask Award for Contributions to Agile Practice, co-creator of the Agile Fluency Model, and co-author of “The Art of Agile Development”. James has also been named as one of “the most influential people in Agile” by InfoQ. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­­­(0.31) – Phil started by asking James to tell everyone a bit more about himself. James explained that he started his I.T. career as a programmer. In 1999, he was introduced to what was known as Extreme Programming (XP), which is the most prominent of the Agile software development methodologies. At first, James was not convinced, but when he tried it, he was hooked. So much so, that he decided he could not work any other way. At the time, he could not find anybody else working the XP way, so he decided to teach the method himself. That is how he became an Agile consultant. (2.45) – Phil and James discuss the fact that Agile is not new. It has been around for just over 20 years now and the movement is really gathering pace. However, James does point out that “a lot of what people call Agile is not really Agile.” The quality of implementation varies quite a bit. (3.26) – Phil asks James to share a unique IT career tip. James responded by saying you need to “make a point of understanding the business impact of what you're doing." He went on to remind everyone that a typical software team costs circa $1 million to run. A cost that has to be covered by the value the team adds to the business. He highlighted the fact that a 5% improvement in a team’s performance is worth at least $50,000. When you ask for something to improve efficiency remember to make the business case and explain the cost savings clearly. (4.44) – Phil asked James to share a business experience from which he learned something important. For James that happened 20 years ago. At the time he was working for the firm that provided the robots used by Intel to move silicone around on its chip production line. James was part of a team who worked on a distributed system that had multiple services running on different computers. Each service worked in its own environment, but when they hooked it all up the problems began. At the time, the waterfall or phase gate development method was the norm for software development. It was supposed to be a flawless development process. But, in reality, it was not. That project and several others James worked on that followed the standard “waterfall” method were disasters. At that point, James realized the futility of a development method that tried to predict everything in advance, lock things down and come up with the entire design. He also saw how dangerous it was to wait to the very end to validate the work and make the biggest decisions. It was then he understood the flaws of the way development was managed 20 years ago. It was this experience that helped him to recognize the true value of Agile development methods when he was introduced to them. (8.51) – Phil asks what James considered to be his best career moment. James explained that about two years ago he consulted for a start-up that had just gone public and had growing pains. They had 40 teams, so keeping tabs on what they were all doing was impossible. Plus, there was a lot of interdependency between teams, so everything took forever. James discovered that waiting around for another team to do something was causing 95% of the delays. On one project, during a 3-month period, only 3 or 4 days of real work could be done. This stop-start, multitasking way of working, was terrible for focus too. James minimized the teams and got the firm to start by working on the smallest projects that added value, first. These changes minimized the amount of inter-team dependency and got everyone working together and actually delivering working projects fast. He also encouraged teams to solve more of their problems internally. The net result of his changes was that they reduced the delays from 95% to 0%. Most MMFs were completed in just a week or two. The company thrived and grew very quickly. (12.49) – Phil wants to know what excites James about the future for the IT industry. James explains that the fact the industry is so young is exciting because it means change is possible and can happen quickly. Agile is the exact opposite of the Waterfall way of working, yet in less than 20 years people have adopted this new way of working. That is a 180-degree change. In an older industry that just would not happen. In I.T you can suggest new ideas and people will actually be willing to try them.  (15.05) – What is the best career advice you have been given? James responded with three words “be well-rounded”. (15.11) Phil asks if you were to begin your I.T. career again, right now, what would you do? James says that he would focus on networking and finding a mentor. (15.20) – Phil asks James what he is focusing on, right now. James says he is really focused on his business The Agile Fluency project. (15.29) – What is your most important non-technical skill, the one that has helped you the most in your career, so far? James says my “curiosity, flexibility, and a desire and willingness to experiment.” (15.40) – Phil asks James to share a final piece of career advice. James says that if you are working somewhere that does not enable you to do your best work you should try to change that from within. If you discover that is not possible, you need to move on and work for another organization. BEST MOMENTS:  (3.13) - James - “A lot of what people call Agile is not really Agile.” "The actual implementation tends to vary in quality by quite a bit." (3.25) - James - "One of the most valuable things that you can do for your career is to make a point of understanding the business impact of what you're doing." (11.50) - James - "We went from 95% delay for most teams we got it down to zero delays, no delay at all." (12.12) - James - "It's a big cultural mindset change. And making that sort of change requires making sure that everybody's involved and understands how they benefit from this change." (13.15) - James - "Every single company of any size whatsoever needs software. Anybody that's larger than tiny needs custom software." (13.25) - James - "It's a young industry. It's open to new ideas and ways of working." (13.37) - James - "Best practices, at the time, was waterfall, which is basically the exact opposite of agile and now 20 years later, agile has taken over the world." (16.08) - James - "Don't put up with mediocrity. Don't put up with a lousy work environment, just because it's got a great salary."   CONTACT JAMES SHORE:   Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-shore-7475b6/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/jamesshore@jamesshore Website – www.agilefluency.org Personal Website – www.jamesshore.com  

GUEST BIO: Michael Kennedy is known best for being a Python expert. He is a Python Software Foundation fellow. His two podcasts Talk Python to Me and Python Bytes are well regarded, as are his developer training courses. Michael has been working in the developer field for more than 20 years and has spoken at numerous conferences including NDC and DevWeek. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: In this episode, Phil interviews Python Specialist Michael Kennedy. He is the host of Python Bytes and Talk Python to Me. Michael is also the founder of Talk Python training and a fellow of the Python Software Foundation. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­­­ (0.59) – Phil asked Michael to tell the audience a bit more about himself? In response, Michael explained that when he started his work life he focused on the science sector. While working on his maths PhD, he discovered programming. He said, “It just really connected with me”. That was 20 years ago, yet every day he feels a little bit more excited than he was the day before. With IT you are always learning, which is exciting.  (2.05) – Phil asks Michael for a unique IT career tip. Michael started by saying that it is important to remember that “small things add up”.  He said, we often overestimate what we can accomplish in a week, but massively underestimate what can be done in a couple of years. He pointed out that you need to carry on learning to progress. He also explained that it is important to realize that in the IT world there are no longer gatekeepers. The days when you had to ask permission from somewhere like IBM or Oracle to be accepted into the IT world are gone. Today, you are in control. “You no longer have to ask permission to be part of this, excel and be a leader, you just have to want it”If you want to do something all you have to do is to work gradually towards doing it. (4.13) – Michael was asked to share his worst career moment by Phil. Michael said that happened while he was working for DARPA, which is an advanced US government research facility. He was working on a secret project that used software to pull together the efforts of several companies and organizations. Unfortunately, the software did not work properly, so needed debugging. Under normal circumstances that would be a tedious task, but not a huge problem. But, for this project, his main partner was a man from the UK and he did not have the necessary security clearance to attend the meetings where the issues were discussed. He could not be in the room. Someone had to summarize what the problems were and he had to use that information to debug the software. Very stressful. (6.55) Phil asked “did you learn anything particular from this situation?” Michael said, yes, we should have tested more and used a technical person who could have physical access to the thing we were working on. (7.23) – On the flipside, Phil asks Michael what his best career moment was. Michael explained that he started working as a developer and enjoyed that work. But, it was starting to teach programming and developer skills that has been the highlight of his career, so far. (11.14) – Phil wants to know what excites Michael about the future for the IT industry. The fact that it is relatively easy for new people to enter the field and learn is something that Michael finds exciting. Students no longer have to hope that they can work it out from a book because there is plenty of support available. (11.14) – What drew you to a career in IT? Michael enjoys the fact you actually get to build things, rather than just working with theories. He enjoys the debate involved in developing a product and being able to press the button and find out if what you have done actually works. (12.10) – What is the best career advice you have been given? Because Michael was self-taught he said that he did not get much IT career advice from mentors and teachers. But, after speaking to others working in the field, he thinks that the most important piece of advice he can share is “just take action.” He said, “Even if you go the wrong way you will learn enough that you actually learn more about what the right way is.” (13.38) – Phil asks what approach Michael would take if he were to start his IT career again, right now. Michael says he would have been more selective and strategic when it came to choosing the projects he worked on. He feels that this would have made things easier for him. (14.30) – Phil asks what career objective Michael is currently focusing on. Michael said “I'm really focused on trying to inspire and inform developers”. The fundamental goal of his podcasts is to make people aware of new things that they should be interested in. He is working to make it easier for people to learn Python and develop successful IT careers. (15.33) – What would you consider to be your most important non-technical skill? For Michael, learning to speak publically had been especially beneficial. The urge to share helped him to overcome his fear and communicate better. (16.36) – Phil asks Michael to share a few final words of career advice. Michael said – “every day, think about where you want to put your energy and really what you want” That may mean taking a job for 5 years with Google, so that you can learn the skills you need to build your own product. Whatever you need to do to achieve your dreams, just go ahead and do it. BEST MOMENTS: (1.30) Michael - "Every day, I'm just a little more excited than I was the day before about it. It's great." (2.00) Michael - "We often overestimate what we can accomplish in a week, but massively underestimate what can be done in a couple of years." (3.38) Michael - "You no longer have to ask permission to be part of this and excel and be a leader  you just have to want it." (3.45) Phil - "I think the opportunity is there. And it's up to the individual to take the opportunity." (10.40) Michael - "Because so much stuff is new you don't have to do it for 20 years to be an expert" (13.20) Michael - Just take action. He said, “Even if you go the wrong way you will learn enough that you actually learn more about what the right way is.” (18.00) Michael - "Every day, think about where you want to put your energy and really what you want." CONTACT MICHAEL KENNEDY: Website: http://michaelckennedy.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mkennedy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkennedy/ Podcasts: https://talkpython.fm https://pythonbytes.fm.  

In this episode Phil’s guest is Kevin L Jackson, who is a senior information technologist specializing in information technology solutions that meet critical business and mission operational requirements.  Kevin is founder and CEO of Gov Cloud Network. He is also a published author and a regular speaker.  Over the years, he has worked with many different companies including IBM, JPMorgan Chase &Co, and the SENTEL Corporation. He also enjoyed a 15-year US Navy career as a pilot and aeronautical engineer. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­­­(0.52) – Phil asks Kevin to tell everyone a little more about himself. Kevin explains that his IT career began while he was serving in the Navy. For 10 years he was a carrier pilot but, later, he trained as an aerospace engineer. In that role he worked on Low Earth Orbit Systems, which are used to deliver vital information to the Navy and Marine Corps. His work as an aeronautical engineer gradually led him into the IT sector. This was before the modern internet existed. Instead he worked with the early packet-switching network The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) and HoTMetal one of the earliest HTML authoring software packages. (4.21) – Phil asks Kevin if he has a unique career tip to share. Kevin’s advice is – "Don't do a job unless you have a personal goal in doing it, unless at the end of your timeframe and that job, you're going to attain a goal that you want." (5.18) – Phil then asks Kevin what you should do if you lose enthusiasm for a project part way through. Kevin explains you need to remember that everything in life is connected. While completing that job you will inevitably learn new skills that will benefit you in the future. Every year, Kevin imagines where he wants to be in five years and works out how what he has learned in the previous year can be used to get him to where he wants to be. (6.10) – Phil points out that every career has its ups and downs. The path to success is not a linear one. (6.40) – Phil asks Kevin to share his worse IT career moment. Kevin went on to talk about the fear he felt when he lost a job because the firm he was working for went out of business. It was an experience that demonstrated to him the importance of building a true career and believing in himself. The fact that he had done this enabled him to fall back on his network and quickly identify his next step. (7.50) – Phil then wanted to know about Kevin’s career highlight. When he left the military, Kevin worked on the New Horizon spacecraft for NASA, which travelled to Pluto and photographed it. Working on this project was his career highlight. But, unusually, it took him 10 years to realize this was the case. The spacecraft took 10 years to reach the planet and for Kevin’s work to bear fruit. Only at that point did he really understand that he had worked on something that the whole of humanity could benefit from. (10.11) – Phil asked Kevin to tell everyone what it is about the future of the IT industry and careers that excites him. For Kevin the fact that IT is now a business driver rather than just a “must do” task is exciting. Information Technology is now seen as an enabler. Technology is now pushing the pace of business change. (12.06) – What is the best career advice you’ve ever received? Surprisingly, Kevin said it came from The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Simply put it is “know thy self”. (12.36) – Phil asked Kevin what he would do if he were to start his IT career again. Kevin said he would focus on the application of the technology rather than the details of the information technology. He explained that you need to understand how and why stuff works. (13.22) – What are you focusing on now Kevin? Building a strong network is an important aspect of any successful career. Kevin explained that connecting with others, understanding their thoughts and exchanging ideas all help to bring your own thoughts and ideas into sharper focus. Doing this has really helped Kevin to accelerate his career. (14.33) – Phil asked Kevin, What is your number one non-technical skill? Kevin explained that writing was something he struggled with for many years. He did not really see it as an important or relevant skill for him. When he started to write his blog he began to find writing much easier and found that doing it drastically improved his ability to communicate. (15.49) – Kevin shares a last piece of career advice by explaining that it is important not to underestimate the power of social media connections. They are crucial. BEST MOMENTS: (4.32)  Kevin - "The best thing to do for any career is to do something you love. If you're not doing something that you enjoy, you won't be good at it." (6.10) Phil - "Using what you've learned, what you've taken on board over the recent period to understand where you might be able to go in the future." (6.19) Kevin - "You're always doing a course correction in your career. Don't expect to be right at the very beginning. You don't know enough to be right." (6.32) Phil - "A lot of people think about careers as being linear, and they're not at all They take all sorts of routes and paths and ups and downs." (7.58) Kevin - "A lot of highlights in your life come from things that you don't expect." (10.18) Kevin - "IT is no longer just something you have to do to be in business, it drives business, it creates new business models." (12.10) Kevin - "The best career advice actually came from a book, Sun Tzu's The Art of War and it was basically - know thy self." (13.29) Kevin - "Your career is really mostly about your network and the network, in today's world, is mostly not a physical network. It's a virtual network." CONTACT KEVIN L JACKSON: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kjackson/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson @kevin_jackson Personal Website - http://kevinljackson.blogspot.com/ Company Website - http://www.govcloudnetwork.com/

In this episode, Phil talks to Michael Bolton, a consulting software tester and testing teacher who helps people to solve testing problems that they didn’t realize they could solve. Michael is also the co-author of Rapid Software Testing, a methodology and mindset for testing software expertly and credibly in uncertain conditions and under extreme time pressure. Michael has more than 25 years of experience testing, developing, managing and writing about software. And for almost 20 years he has led DevelopSense, a Toronto-based testing and development consultancy. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­­­(2.00) – Phil asks Michael to tell everyone a bit more about himself. Michael explains that he is – “in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction with the state of software, in the state of testing.” But that he knew this was not necessarily a bad thing because a state of dissatisfaction leads to a desire to change things for the better. Software testers need to help people to identify the problems that represent risks to their businesses. They need to be good critics and to be able to fully understand the value and importance of small things. (3.46) – Phil asks for a unique career tip. Michael says that IT specialists need to have a reputation for “excellence, for good work, for competency and for ethics.” You need to work closely with others and be willing to put yourself out there. It is important to express your thoughts and feelings and be prepared to share your experiences, good and bad. You should not be reticent to “expose yourself”. He went onto say: “That's how we come to a better world. We get to that by explaining our experience to each other.” (6.07) – Phil asks to hear about his worst career moment and what Michael learned from it. For Michael, this happened many years ago when he was working as a program manager on a memory management system. The package did not work as well as was anticipated. Unfortunately, at first, he and the team did not acknowledge the problem fully. He said: “The big mistake I made was looking for circumstances in which the product would work successfully.” Luckily Larry, the development manager, did fully recognize the seriousness of the issue and encouraged the team to actually tackle the problem. This experience made Michael realize that “a focus on the problem rather than a focus on success is the path to success.” From that point Michael refocused his attention on testing and awareness of the product and pricing. (11.13) – Phil asks Michael to share a career highlight. For Michael this is a tricky question to answer. No one project stood out. But he explained that he felt he had achieved the most when he was able to thoroughly examine the product and gain a deep understanding of it. When he was given the time to do that, he was able to work with the client more effectively. Together they were always able to identify those bugs that really needed fixing and avoid wasting time sorting out those that could easily be “lived with”. (14.00) – Phil wants to know what things about the future of IT Michael finds particularly interesting or exciting. Michael responds by saying: “I would like to see the application of a little bit more skepticism and a little bit more nuance in our enthusiasm for new technologies we've seen over the last seven years.” He went on to explain that while these innovations could bring us together they could also drive us apart. So he wants to see us be “a little bit more sober, a little bit more reflective in our embrace of new technologies.” He believes that it is the best way to be prepared to deal with problems which can and do arise when things change. (16.36) – Phil asks, “what first attracted you to a career in IT?” Michael previously worked in the theatre, so the prospect of a steady income was what first attracted him to the IT field. For many years he had worked for companies as a full time employee before becoming an independent contractor. Once involved in the IT world he became fascinated by “figuring out how these machines work and what makes them not work.” He relishes the chance to “create beautiful and amazing things”. (18.47) – Phil says - what is the best career advice you've ever received? Michael quickly responds by saying “your CV must be focused on solving the problem for the hiring manager.” It should not be an elaborate list of where you worked. This sound advice influences most areas of Michael’s work. When he works on a project he asks himself repeatedly – “What is the problem that the person hiring me is trying to address?” This habit keeps him on track and ensures he does not try to contribute things that do not actually solve the problem at hand. (21.10) – Phil asks, if you were to begin your IT career again, what would you do? “I would focus on diversity.” Working in many different places, in various roles and on a range of projects has served Michael well. (22.57) - What career objectives are you currently focusing on? Michael says - “I'm currently focusing on trying to develop my reach.” Michael wants to influence as many different IT team members as possible. He wants everyone from the project manager to the coder and testers to work closer together. Michael is currently reaching out beyond the testers who currently make up his main audience. (24.25) – Phil’s next question is - What non-technical skill has helped you most in your career? To which Michael said: “Being able to structure a good piece of writing, being able to structure a talk, being able to organize material so that I can get an idea across.” He also feels that - being able to apply critical thinking to an argument, identify objections and address them is a great skill to have. (26.45) – Lastly, Phil says - Do you have any final career advice? Michael replies, yes, “Follow your likes, your inclinations, and your temperament.” “Don’t struggle against the current. Take note of what you are thinking and feeling.” Do what interests you. But, be sure to challenge yourself and do something a little different every now and again. Don’t be afraid to contact people irrespective of how prestigious they are or how busy you think they are. Get in touch with someone who interests you to ask for advice and ask questions. When you do that, you trigger reflection in them. Michael finds answering people’s questions helps him to learn. Phil finished the podcast by asking Michael how people could get in touch with him (details below). BEST MOMENTS: (2.33) Michael – I agree with Alan Cooper who suggested – “Every bit of improvement in the world, and in the way things happen, starts with grumpiness, starts with dissatisfaction with the state of things.” (4.19) Michael – “Your reputation is the only thing. It’s important to have a reputation for excellence, for good work for competency and for ethics.” (9.19) Michael – “A focus on the problem rather than a focus on success is the path to success. We become successful by recognizing things that we have to fix things that we have to get better at things that we are not as good as it could be.” (10.04) Michael – “Turning $1 into $2 is practically impossible. But turning a million dollars into $2 million is practically inevitable.” (18.26) Michael – “I found it really interesting to see how little tiny decisions on little tiny pieces of data can allow us to see a video or be interviewed over a long distance.” (19.38) Michael – “When you write a CV, the CV must be focused on solving the problem for the hiring manager.” CONTACT MICHAEL BOLTON: Website: www.developsense.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-bolton-08847/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/michaelbolton @MichaelBolton Email: michael@developsense.com Skype: michael.a.bolton

  EPISODE DESCRIPTION: In this episode, Phil talks to software developer Kent Beck, director of Three Rivers Institute (TRI) and author of multiple programming books. Kent shares his thoughts on how he looks at software development, the value of community and the untapped potential of engineering talent that exists in different areas of the world. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ­­­ (1.39) - Phil opens by asking Kent to expand on the introduction and tell everyone a bit more about himself. Kent explains that for the last 7 years he has been working at Facebook. His main focus, while there, was on the engineering culture. During those 7 years, he did a lot of writing, coaching and educating. As well as studying the culture as a whole. (2.18) - Phil asks Kent to share a unique career tip. Kent says: “It's easy to treat software development as a production process where there's some functionality and the more quickly you can produce it, the better you are and I think that that's it's an understandable mistake but a fairly large mistake.” “I prefer to look at software development as a learning process that throws off running software as a by-product. If you do that, you'll learn to do your job better and better, over time, and those improvements compound on each other.” (3.15) - Phil asked Kent to share his worst IT moment and what he learned from that experience. Kent said it was the first time he was fired. He went on to explain he was not paying enough attention to the feedback by saying: “I thought here's the job. I'm doing this job. That was much more important to me then what the team as a whole was trying to accomplish and I did my job as I saw it. It just wasn't what the person signing the checks cared about.” (4.09) - From then on, Kent has made a point of really listening and also making sure he is communicating effectively. He said: “So you’ll hear me, if I give a talk with question and answer, I almost always will say ‘Does that answer your question?’” (5.00) - Phil asks Kent about his career highlight or greatest success. Kent said – “Right at the beginning of my career, I stumbled into a relationship with Ward Cunningham, who would go on to invent the wiki. And it was really a mentor-student relationship, at first”. He explained how working with Ward gave him confidence in his abilities and reinforced, in his mind, the need to value his ideas. As well reinforcing the importance of listening to others. (6.43) - Phil asks if Kent felt it was the foundation of many of the things he went on to do subsequently. Kent said he thought it was. For example, “This habit of checking in started very much with the work that I did with Ward. So we would spend a few hours maybe programming something. And then we would go have a coffee and talk about not just the content that we'd worked on, but the process that we'd used for it.” Regularly checking in enabled them to pick up on little details at each stage. For example, something as simple as the fact that they had used 4 keystrokes for a process prompted them to ask can we make it 3? They optimized everything from the micro stuff all the way up to how does this fit into society. (7.39) - Phil asks what excites Kent the most about the future of the IT industry and careers in IT. Kent responds saying that 'things are going to definitely radically change'. He expands this statement by explaining that there's unbelievably good engineering talent in Africa which may lead to large-scale collaborations. Kent then states that "we're going to have to find ways of having finer-grain commits and quicker path to production, better feedback from production; but also we’re going to have to confront some of the limitations of the social structures that we’ve built around programming. (09.44) – Kent went on to say that things have the potential to change a lot but also the potential to stagnate if people become complacent. (9.55) – Phil asks Kent whether or not he thinks the trend of diversity will continue. Kent says, “I think the world has big problems, engineers and software engineers can be part of addressing those problems. We don't have near enough engineers to throw away five sixths of the world's engineering talent just because it happens to be female or have melanin in its skin.” (10.31) - What first attracted you to a career in IT? (10.41) – “My dad was an electrical engineer, and then a programmer. And when he gave me my first book about BASIC, it was like remembering. It was not like learning. It was just like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s how that works.” (11.00) – Phil asked - So you felt you found the logic behind it quite straightforward? It just worked with the way you think? Kent said yes and explained he took a microprocessor manual and just read it repeatedly until he remembered it. Even though he did not completely understand it. He knew that he just had to continue to work hard and expand his knowledge. (11.34) – What is the best career advice you ever received? Kent replied: “Um, I'm not much of an advice taker." (12.09) - If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Kent's reply was to: “Treat it as a learning process. Act as if you haven't graduated from school. This is just your next class and you're going to treat it as a learning process and when the class is over and you've learned the lessons, you're going to go to a different class.” The more diverse your learning, the more cross-fertilization happens. (12.55) - What career objectives are you currently focusing on yourself? (13.35) – “My focus is on longer-term relationships, especially with large scale software development. I think that's, that's something I have now a lot of experience with, and I have some ideas that aren't widely shared. So that's a focus. I'm also going to do individual coaching because I receive the benefits of that as a young engineer.” (14.13) – “It's much more highly leveraged to produce better engineers, than any amount of code that you could write.” He is also experimenting, so he can learn whether he has more leverage with an audience of geeks or business owners. (14.43) - What's the number one non technical skill that has helped you in your career so far? (14.57) – “I come to a place of compassion more quickly than a lot of people seem to. So if somebody is doing something that doesn't make any sense to me, I'll get annoyed just like anybody else. But pretty quickly I start to try to see the situation from their perspective. And I think that's a powerful habit.” “It is helpful for me to be able to see the situation from the other person’s perspective.” (15.54) - Can you share a parting piece of career advice with the IT Career Energizer audience. "Learning works better in a community" (16.29) – What’s the best way to connect with you? Kent says that his website is provides information about what he’s up to, what he’s written recently and where he’ll be speaking. (17.21) – Phil reminds the audience of the upcoming changes to the podcasts and the timescales for those changes.   BEST MOMENTS: (3.00) – “Even a small change in learning trajectory can result in a large change in productive capacity”. (3.57) – “I did my job as I saw it. It just wasn't what the person signing the check cared about.” (Don’t forget to really listen to the client and the team) (7.50) – “Things are definitely going to change radically. There's a huge pool of unbelievably good engineering talent in Africa that hasn't been tapped.” (8.35) – “The pull request, code review, merge, deploy model I think is starting to run out of steam.” (9.34) – “We're going to have to find ways of building and maintaining teams and teamwork across a greater variety of thinking styles and cultural backgrounds.” (16.01) – “Learning works better in a community. I learn faster, I learn better if I share that learning experience with somebody else.”   GUEST BIO: Kent Beck is the founder and director of Three Rivers Institute (TRI). His career has combined the practice of software development with reflection, innovation and communication. His contributions to software development include “Patterns For Software”, “The Rediscovery of Test-First Programming” and “Extreme Programming”. Kent has also authored multiple books, including “Test Driven Development By Example” and “Extreme Programming Explained”.   CONTACT THE GUEST - KENT BECK: Website: www.kentbeck.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/KentBeck @KentBeck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentbeck/ Books: https://www.amazon.com/Test-Driven-Development-Kent-Beck/dp/0321146530 https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Programming-Explained-Embrace-Change/dp/0321278658   CONTACT THE HOST - PHIL BURGESS: Website: www.itcareerenergizer.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilTechCareer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philburgess/ Email: phil.burgess@itcareerenergiser.com  

In today’s episode Phil chats with Spencer Schneidenbach. Spencer is a software engineer and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, specialising in ASP.NET, C#, JavaScript and Angular JS. Spencer is passionate about software engineering, sharing his knowledge within the community and is a regular speaker at conferences and user groups. Spencer tells us why it’s important to be able to experiment and why we should not undervalue the value of networking. Spencer also shares his worst career moment as well as some of his career highlights and talks about a few of the things that excite him about the future of the industry. KEY TAKEAWAYS: [1.23] Phil asks Spencer to expand on the opening introduction. Spencer says that his interests lie in software engineering and architecture, and community involvement. He is currently a chief architect for a company called Ryvit who build integration software for the accounting and construction industries. [2.02] Phil asks Spencer for a unique career tip. Spencer talks about his very first development job where he was given room to experiment. If you have the ability to learn you should experiment with different things. It will help you to get started and to figure out what you love to do. [3.01] Spencer provides a second piece of career advice saying that you should focus in on the needs of the business and of the people within the business. It will help become not just a good I.T. professional but a good all round professional and put you ahead of those who only focus on the technical aspect. [4.11] Phil asks Spencer to share the story of his worst I.T. career moment. Spencer describes an early lesson in deployment which was of an anti-virus software package. Spencer pushed the software update out to fifty nodes thinking, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Five minutes later the accounting department were reporting that their computers were running slow. Spencer identified that something about the update was using up all the CPU time preventing users from getting any work done. Spencer learnt that everything you do has an impact in some way and that he should have started small, with one or two computers. [6.39] Phil moves the conversation on, asking Spencer about his greatest I.T. career success. Spencer responds saying that his current position is his greatest success. Spencer talks about his involvement in the creation of a product which continues to be used and is making money for the company. Spencer also talks about updating another software package to use Angular JS rather than web forms. It was rebuilt, from the ground up, making it easier for the end user and resulted in an increase in sales and bookings for the company. [10.37] Phil then asks Spencer what excites him about the future of the I.T. industry and careers in I.T. Spencer talks about machine learning and artificial intelligence saying that they are deep topics that have a lot of implications for the future. [12.12] Phil begins the reveal round and starts by asking Spencer what attracted him to a career in I.T. Spencer says that he grew up around computers and loved technology. But remembers saying, as a kid, “I don’t see myself working with computers as a career.” However Spencer fell into an I.T. career by accident when someone said “Doesn’t Spencer know something about computers?” [13.24] Phil then asks Spencer what has been the best career advice he has received. Spencer talks about the power of building relationships over that of building technical solutions. Get to know people on a personal level and what they care about. [14.14] Phil asks Spencer what he would do if he was starting his career again in today’s world. Spencer says that he would probably do the same again. The only thing he may have done differently is learn some algorithmic stuff earlier. [15.41] Phil follows up by asking Spencer about his current career objectives and Spencer says that he feels that he is working in the role he wants so his only goal is to continue to provide business value. [16.41] Phil continues, asking Spencer what non-technical skill has made the difference to his career. Spencer says that he believes it is empathy and being able to put himself in other people’s shoes. [17.59] Phil asks Spencer for a parting piece of career advice. Spencer says that we should not undervalue the value of networking. Go to meetups, talk to the attendees and the speakers. Get to know them and be willing to engage. ABOUT THE HOST Phil Burgess, an I.T. consultant, mentor, and coach, is the creator and host of the I.T. Career Energizer Podcast. His podcast continues to inspire, assist and guide anybody wanting to start, develop and grow a career in I.T. by inviting successful I.T. professionals, consultants, and experts to share their advice, career tips and experiences. CONTACT THE HOST Website: itcareerenergizer.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/philburgess     ABOUT THE GUEST Spencer Schneidenbach is a software engineer and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, specialising in ASP.NET, C#, JavaScript and Angular JS. CONTACT SPENCER SCHNEIDENBACH Twitter: https://twitter.com/schneidenbach @schneidenbach Website: scheids.net LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sschneidenbach/

In today’s episode, Phil chats with Andy Hunt. Andy is a programmer turned consultant, author and publisher. He’s authored a dozen books including the best-selling “The Pragmatic Programmer,” and was one of the 17 authors of the Agile Manifesto and founders of the Agile Alliance. He also co-founded the pragmatic bookshelf, publishing award-winning and critically acclaimed books for software developers. Andy shares his story about why he chose I.T as his career and reveals his best and worst experiences in the I.T world. Listen to his career tips and advice. There is a lot to learn from Andy that will help you to become the best that you can be. KEY TAKEAWAYS: [1:21] Phil asks Andy to expand upon the brief introduction provided. Andy shares the story of how he had a real interest in radio electronics at that time. He says that he was very interested in early computers with the S100 BUS and CPM. He recalls that he loved how programming lets you go in and create your own world which, for Andy, is still the most exciting aspect of it. Andy says that programming was easier and much more self-contained back then. The programming world is a very different place than it used to be. [2:41] Phil requests for Andy to share a unique career tip for the I.T Career Energizer audience, one that the audience should know but don’t. Andy excitedly answers that he’ll give two tips. He talks about his 2008 book “Pragmatic Thinking and Learning”, the thesis being that the two things you do more than anything else as a programmer are learning and communication. We communicate with the machine. We communicate with each other, and to end users to gather requirements, to learn requirements. Besides the tech stacks and the latest language of the day, you’re learning how the evolving system behave, you’re learning how your team behaves, and you’re learning how the end users work and what they expect, what the market demands. So, we’re all about learning in communication. Those are the important things. [3:42] Andy’s first tip is to never stop learning. When you come across something unfamiliar, a term you don’t know, a framework you’ve never heard of, a new language, look it up, Google’s right there. It’s on your phone. It’s right on your screen. Take the 5 seconds when something you’re unfamiliar with comes up and see what it is. Look into it. Look more into it if it’s something interesting or something that you might have to work with. So, always take that extra step and pursue the unfamiliar. That’s part one. [4:16] Andy says that this second tip makes the biggest difference for people who are successful. Always write down your ideas. Carry something with you always where you can jot down a quick note. It doesn’t have to be electronic. It might even be better if it’s not. Use an App on your phone, send yourself a voicemail. Andy says that he found out that most of the processes in the brain are asynchronous. You get interesting ideas or the seeds of great ideas randomly and usually when you’re not at a computer and not at work. So you need something with you to jot them down because you won’t remember it later. And then, when you have a chance later, when you’re at the computer, when you’re working, whatever, follow up on it. Make a note somewhere else more permanently. That’s really key to capturing the great ideas that you have but most people just loose. And Phil totally agrees with the idea. [6:54] Phil asks about Andy’s worst career moment and what he has learned from it. Andy recalls a story from early in his career when, between the time of being interviewed and starting the job, his interviewer had been fired and the position eliminated. Andy was therefore assigned to a different group. It was an awful place to work and within a year the company went out of business which made an impact on him. The myth of working for a big company and having stability is just a myth. You’re not stable with a big company. You’re not necessarily stable with a small startup either. So, in terms of career preparation, you really can’t count on the organization being there for you for any number of reasons. Later on, during Andy’s consultant career phase, one project that he rather enjoyed and he had a good time at. It was very clear from their practices and what they were doing on the project that they were going to fail. Andy made his report, talked to the boss and said, “Okay, here’s the problem. This is what you need to fix.” They said, “Thank you very much.” and didn’t change a thing. They lost $14 million. That was a lot of what inspired Andy to get on the early train of lightweight methods which was when the term ‘agile’ was coined. Andy then provides some insight into the Agile Manifesto. [12:34] Phil asks about Andy’s career greatest success. Andy recalls one of his projects which was highly successful. It was replace a debit card transaction system. In fact, that’s the project where Andy met his partner Dave Thomas. They wrote “The Pragmatic Programmer” together and founded the Pragmatic Bookshelf. He recalls that it was one of those insane projects where it was just the two of them. The key was that they had access to an on-site customer who knew the existing system inside and out. They got the project done and the system was subsequently the preferred solution when the company merged with other companies. Andy and Dave’s system did what it was supposed to do and did it better than the other companies solutions that cost a lot more money and had been written by large teams. [15:46] Phil asks Andy about the future of the industry and careers in IT. Andy says that he is amazed when he watches his nephews and nieces, toddler age, navigating an iPad and buying apps. The idea that being able to learn at an early age how computers work and how to create and adapt software yourself, that’s critical. Because if you don’t take that next step and learn how to manipulate this world, you’ll be powerless in the future. He adds that he thinks we’ve barely scratched the surface of technology. [18:42] Phil asks what first attracted Andy to a career in IT? Andy recalls when he was at a radio shack, it was in the 70’s, and there was a book about microcomputers. Andy thought that it was fascinating and as cool as any science fiction he had ever read. The author was convinced that this is going to happen in the future. It wet Andy’s appetite and he started from there. [18:54] Phil asks what the best advice Andy has ever received. Andy says don’t focus solely on the technology because the tech comes and goes. And the companies behind the tech come and go. Andy says that people are much harder to program and deal with than with computers, but this is the world we now live in. This is what you’ve got to learn to do. If you focus solely on the tech, you’re going to get steamrolled. [23:15] Phil then asks Andy what he would do if he had to begin his IT career again right now. Andy says that it would be AI, genetic algorithms, machine learning, that whole world. [24:59] Phil asks Andy what objectives he is currently focusing on and Andy says that it’s retirement and going out with a bang. He wants to come up with something interesting. [25:22] Phil then asks Andy what has been the number one non-technical skill that has helped him in his career so far. Andy thinks that all non-technical skills are critical. The sort of basics such as continuous learning and reading voraciously. Read everything you get your hands on. Write to remember. Take note and summarize. Write it in your own words. The act of writing stuff down like that really helps wire it in and to cement it in your memory. Do user group talks or write a blog if you don’t like talking in front of people. Talk to people at work, such as brown bag lunches. Be an advocate for the stuff that you’ve discovered, that you’re passionate about and that’s interesting. [26:37] Phil asks Andy for a parting piece of career advice. Andy thinks that the number one piece of advice is to realize that you’re never done and that you’ve never made it. If you’ve learned some great framework, some great language, don’t stop there. The technology, the methodology that you used in the last project that was so successful might not work at all in the next project. That could be a completely different context. You might need completely different tools. So, the number one thing is to be prepared for that and to be ready to learn something completely different all the time. BEST MOMENTS [18:00] Andy: “Turbo Pascal when it came out was brilliant. It was 79 bucks and it included an IDE and a multi-pass compiler, and it was like, “Oh my God that genius.” At the time that was a real breakthrough. These days you can get the hardware and any language you’ve ever heard of and just download it. So I think that’s pretty exciting and pretty remarkable and I think we’ve barely scratched the surface of where we can go with that.” “The stuff you learn in college you probably will not use much more than the first couple of years out in the world just because things change. So the tech comes and goes, and that’s fine. You need to know the basics. You need to understand how it all works at the lowest level.” “The hard part is that the tech keeps improving, but people are still people, and we are deeply flawed creatures. We are not like these brilliant computers that we work with. We have got major cognitive processing issues.” “You have to remember that whatever you think of the pace of change at the moment, this is the slowest that the pace of change will ever be because it is ever increasing. So as bad as it is now, this is slower. It’s going to be slightly faster tomorrow and slightly faster the day after that, on and on and on and on. So if you want to keep up, you have to keep going.” ABOUT THE HOST Phil Burgess, an I.T. consultant, mentor, and coach, is the creator and host of the I.T. Career Energizer Podcast. His podcast continues to inspire, assist and guide anybody wanting to start, develop and grow a career in I.T. by inviting successful I.T. professionals, consultants, and experts to share their advice, career tips and experiences. CONTACT THE HOST Website: itcareerenergizer.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/philburgess     ABOUT THE GUEST Andy is a programmer turned consultant, author and publisher. He’s authored a dozen books including the best-selling The Pragmatic Programmer, was one of the 17 authors of the Agile Manifesto and founders of the Agile Alliance and co-founded the Pragmatic Bookshelf, publishing award-winning, critically-acclaimed books for software developers. CONTACT ANDY HUNT Andy’s Website – www.toolshed.com Twitter – https://twitter.com/PragmaticAndy @PragmaticAndy LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pragmaticandy/ The Pragmatic Programmer – www.pragprog.com Andy’s Latest Sci-fi book – www.conglommora.com Software Methodologies – www.growsmethod.com