IT Career Energizer

Guest Bio: Jeff Atwood is an experienced software developer with a particular interest in the human side of software development.  In 2004 Jeff started the blog “Coding Horror” which led to him founding Stack Overflow and subsequently the Stack Exchange network, now one of the 150 largest sites on the internet.   Episode Description: In this episode, Phil chats with Stack Overflow Founder and writer of the blog “Coding Horror”, Jeff Atwood. Jeff shares his career journey from starting his blog to founding Stack Overflow and starting his latest project, Discourse. Jeff recalls his experience way back on how hard it was to get hold of resources about programming, unlike today. Aside from these, Jeff also stresses how important it is to hone your communication skills – whether it be through writing or networking face-to-face with people. Discover how important this is and how it can help you to grow your career.   Key Takeaways:   (1.02) Phil opens the show by asking Jeff to share a little more about his career journey. Jeff emphasizes that a huge part of his career is coloured by his blog “Coding Horror.” Jeff shares how he started his blog in 2004 as an open research notebook. He adds that his writings are still accruing benefits for him so he advises that you also make your work public.   (4.10) Phil highlights the technological changes that have happened since Jeff started his blog. It’s all about portability and smartphones right now. Jeff agrees and adds that the speed of conversation is moving forward rapidly. There’s lesser long-form writing which he considers not to be a bad thing. He also recognizes that information is digested more through images than words.   (6.28) Phil then asks Jeff for a unique career tip. Jeff’s primary advice is to take into account the people you’re working with. He says that you should make sure that your team is better than you. You should not be the smartest or best person at your job. He adds that any programming job today is navigating the waters of and interacting with other people in the IT industry.   (8.54) Phil and Jeff talk about Jeff’s worst IT career moment. Jeff talks about pre-internet times when it was hard to find people that you can actually learn from. All his IT failures were due to limitations in being able to learn and grow. He says that programmers nowadays are lucky to be living in a hyperconnected world where resources and mentors can be found easily.   (12.21) Jeff says that meeting his hero Clay Shirky was his career highlight. Jeff claims that him building Stack Overflow has been greatly influenced by the writings of Clay Shirky about the human interactions in programming. Stack Overflow is really about one working programmer helping another working programmer.   (16:29) Phil proceeds to ask Jeff’s take on the future of IT. Jeff agrees that a programmer is needed in building and fixing things. But he says that he’s got mixed feelings about how we perceive it as essential for everyone. Some people are just interested in how they optimize the use of computers and tech, in general. And, that’s what all programmers should consider.   (19.20) Moving onto the Reveal Round, Phil first asks what attracted Jeff to start an IT career. Jeff answers that it’s about being a kid living in the world without control. And the only thing he considers he can control is a computer. It’s not just entertainment he gets but he also learns from it.   (20.45) Phil then asks about the best career advice Jeff ever received. Jeff advises that whenever you’re at a crossroads and you have to make a decision, you should choose the option that scares you. He adds that if there is no fear, then you’re not really challenging yourself.   (22.02) When Jeff was asked what he’d change if he was to start his IT career again right now, he answered that he’d choose to start 15 years earlier than when he started. There’s so much information that he thinks he could use and it’s accessible to everyone.   (23.44) Phil wants to know about Jeff’s career objectives. Jeff shares that he’s currently working on Discourse. This is very different from the Q&A platform of Stack Overflow. Discourse concentrates on a more social kind of interaction between users. As Jeff puts it, “It’s a tool for not letting online discourse devolve into the howling of wolves.” And unlike Stack Overflow, Discourse is open-source.   [26:34] Phil then continues the conversation asking about Jeff’s non-technical skill and which one has helped his career the most. Jeff quickly answers that it’s his writing skills. Practicing your writing skills will help you in the grand scheme of things. He says that even Stack Overflow hones good writing skills. The best answers are always those which are clear and concise.   [28:07] Finally, Jeff shares his parting career advice for the IT Career Energizer audience. He reiterates his original advice to challenge yourself and to pick things that scare you a bit. Once you’re exploring difficult scenarios, you’re honing your skills.   Best Takeaways: (03:39) Jeff: "The really endearing lesson for me is do a lot of your work in public because you gain tremendous benefit from that."   (06.56) "If you're at a job where you feel like, “I'm the smartest person at this job,” then that's a bad job... You should not be the smartest person at your job. If you are, you need to reconsider where you're going rapidly."   (10.56) "All my earliest IT career fails were really about being in isolation and just not knowing what I’m supposed to be doing."   (18.04) "The job of programmers is to make sure we don't need that many programmers."   Contact Jeff Atwood: Discourse: https://www.discourse.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/codinghorror/ Blog: https://blog.codinghorror.com/

DESCRIPTION Welcome to episode 76 of the I.T. Career Energizer, a weekly podcast where your host Phil Burgess chats with inspiring I.T. professionals, consultants and experts from around the world. On today's episode Phil interviews founder of HashiCorp, creator of Vagrant, Packer, Serf, Consul, Terraform, Vault, and Nomad, Mitchell Hashimoto. Mitchell is a passionate engineer and professional speaker whose goal is to make the best DevOps tools in the world. Mitchell is also an O’Reilly author and a top Github user in terms of followers, activity and contributions. To find out more about the podcast visit itcareerenergizer.com And remember to “Subscribe” to get new episodes automatically downloaded to your device KEY TAKEAWAYS (00.59) Phil introduces Mitchell and asks him to tell us more about himself and his I.T career. Mitchell eagerly responds to state that for the last 6 years he has been hyper-focused on building out Hashicorp and the open source tools around it. He names DevOp tools such as Vagrant, Packer, Serf, Consul, Terraform, Vault, and Nomad to give context to his focus. (01.47) Phil asks Mitchell to share a unique career tip with the audience. Mitchell gives the advice of time. He mentions that you should always schedule time, not to go on holiday but to try new things related to what you're trying to achieve. In Mitchell’s case this is exploring new cloud based tools to see how they work and how to maintain them in real life projects. Mitchell mentions that by taking this time you can become inspired and keep abreast of the latest technology and this can help in your job (03.13) After hearing Mitchell’s advice, Phil asks if he feels that this helps him stay motivated and enthused by what he does. Mitchell responds saying that this time away can keep you innovative and up-to-date with the latest trends (05.53) As a result of hearing Mitchell's worst mistake in his career, Phil asks him to share with the audience his career highlight. Mitchell says that a change in thinking came about with the development of 'Vault' a secrets management tool. It's different to other management tools and now has lots of adoption in businesses and fortune 500 companies (07.07) Phil asks Mitchell to share with the audience what excites him about the I.T industry. Mitchell says that I.T infrastructure is being viewed more and more as disposable machines and as a result it improves stability and makes everything more resilient (09:48) Phil begins the Reveal Round and asks Mitchell what first attracted him to a career in I.T? Mitchell says that he has always gotten a kick out of watching things work the way they are supposed to. Mitchell saw I.T as an opportunity to automate vast fleets of servers to do things for him (12:38) Phil asks Mitchell to share his career objectives, that he's currently focusing on? Mitchell says he is continuing to work on HashiCorp and to continue building confidence in the I.T industry and better integrate Vault and Terraform into more complete packages (16:37) Finally Phil asks Mitchell to share a last piece of advice with the I.T. Career Energizer audience. Mitchell responds to say, focus on automation as we’re nowhere near the limit. There’s no future without automation and anytime that you are doing a manual task consider how it could be automated BEST MOMENTS (03.09) "Find time to step away from being in the trenches to motivate and inspire yourself” (05.20) "It was misconfigured checks on our IP server that caused no traffic to be sent to the ad server" (06.45) Mitchell Hashimoto mentions that; "Google made an announcement without telling Hashicorp of their integration with Vault" (06:58) Speaking about 'Vault' Mitchell states that "The thing I'm most proud of is not it's success, it's a different way of thinking" (10.21) "What attracted me to I.T was the huge automation problem waiting to be solved (10.28) "The best career advice I've received is to 'do everything' don't focus on one thing and be the best at it, it's the time to do everything and understand what you really love" (17.10) Mitchell confidently states that; “those that have dedicated themselves to automation are wildly successful” 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 Mitchell Hashimoto is best known as the creator of Vagrant, Packer, Terraform and Consul. Mitchell is the founder of HashiCorp, an open-source software company based in San Francisco, California. HashiCorp provides open source tools and commercial products that enable developers, operators and security professionals to provision, secure, run and connect distributed application infrastructure CONTACT THE GUEST LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchellh/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mitchellh @mitchellh Website: https://www.hashicorp.com/

Guest Bio: Sam is a software developer who lives in Wellington, New Zealand. He started his software development journey with C and later Objective-C creating Apps for iOS.  Sam is also a keen blogger and writes a blog series called “Junior Dev Diaries” where he talks about what he’s learnt in the first few years of his career.  In addition to blogging, Sam is an improv actor, public speaker, writer and future thinker.   Episode Description: In this episode, Phil talks with software developer Sam Jarman about everything from his early days as a high school student developing his interest in I.T., handling lack of recognition as a junior, how to control your emotions and communicate effectively in a team environment, the exciting future for the growing I.T. industry, dreams of becoming a senior developer and how sporting wisdom can apply to software development teams.   Key Takeaways: (1.14) Phil opens by asking Sam to share a bit about himself.  Sam tells of his blog series, Junior Dev Diaries which documents and captures the lessons he's learned in his career, to help others avoid the pain.  Sam shares that he's been "doing IOS apps since high school", where he had 10 to 15 apps in the App Store before going to university and has been dabbling ever since. Sam says he joined the BNZ Bank's IOS team in New Zealand seven months ago, to work on their IOS app. He says it's been "pretty fun" going back to IOS full time. Sam says he performs Improv shows on the weekend in Wellington and while it's different to coding there are similarities, "there's a fair bit of making it up as you go along, which is a good skill in life, I think." (3.16) When Phil asks Sam for a unique career tip, Sam says that in programming, your code shouldn't be thought of as for yourself now, but for your team or yourself later. It doesn't have to be perfect, or bug free, it just has to be understandable. It makes you think about code structure and quality and the asset you're adding to the business environment.  (4.39) Phil asks Sam to share the story of his worst career moment and what he learned from that experience. Sam shares what he calls the "low point" in his career, when he was working at a startup and he was very negative and defensive in a team meeting and towards a new hire. He says he learned how to control his emotions and communicate more effectively in a team. (7.46) When Phil asks Sam whether he's changed his approach to be more open minded and collaborative, Sam expresses that the difficulty as a junior, is that it takes three to four years to be able to say something with confidence and experience behind it. (8.54) Phil asks Sam to share his I.T. career highlight or greatest success so far. Sam was recently named New Zealand's Young I.T.  Professional of the Year by the Institute of I.T.  Professionals in New Zealand, where he was recognised for his blogging and work at the startup. (11.57) Phil asks Sam what excites him about the future of the I.T.  industry and careers in I.T. Sam says the most exciting thing is that there's so many people entering the industry, there's a lot to be taught to and learn from new developers. Sam predicts that there's also going to be exciting opportunities in technical leadership in 5-10 years’ time.  Sam's also excited about technology, artificial intelligence and an API-driven world. Sam says I.T. is a growing, new industry and isn't going to go away. (15.15) Phil moves into the Reveal Round and asks Sam what attracted him to a career in I.T. Sam reveals that the "bug first hit me" in Year 9 when he had the opportunity to build a website and discovered programming with the help of the school's I.T. support person. (17.40) Phil asks Sam for the best career advice he's ever received. Sam says developing empathy for other developers and for your team, understanding other people's wants and needs is something a lot of people need to work on. (18.13) Career-wise, Phil asks Sam what he'd do if he could do it again. Sam says he would learn Python from scratch, Ruby or JavaScript and more website front-end development, because it's visual and you can get fast feedback on what you're doing. (19.21) On the topic of career objectives, Sam says he'd like to transition to a Senior Developer, become a better developer and help others improve. (20.38) Phil raises the subject of non-technical skills and what has helped Sam in his career so far. Sam says with self-awareness, things become simpler.  (22.19) Finally, on sharing his parting piece of career advice, Sam says the codes or languages or tools or technologies you write don't really matter as they're always changing. What's important is that you have to learn how to learn. He says, develop your "soft skills", being a developer is a team sport, it can be handy to apply sporting wisdom to teams in software development.   Best Moments: (11.16) Sam “I think feedback's career food and I absolutely love it and when people have no feedback for me, I get almost a little bit upset and I'm like, ‘Ooh are you sure there's nothing I can do better?’ Like I'm sure there's always something to work on…” (11.30) Phil says no matter how long you work in the industry there's always something new to learn. Sam agrees and uses the analogy of keeping fit. “You don't just run every day for six months and then you're fit the rest your life. I think you have to keep working on it and I love it, I love that process…” (14.05) Sam says the I.T. industry has a lot of work to do to support new talent and make sure that under-represented groups are getting into the industry, “Because diversity of thought is important.”   (22:34) Sam “…And I think it's that's really key and I'll say it again you don't have to know everything but you have to know how to know anything and that'll help you kind of approach in new piece of technology and spot the patterns in it that are similar to what you already know or were spot things that you need to go figure out.”   Contact Sam Jarman: Website: https://www.samjarman.co.nz Twitter: https://twitter.com/samjarman @samjarman  

Welcome to the I.T. Career Energizer Podcast. In today’s episode, your host Phil Burgess interviews curator of JavaScript January, vice president of developer relations and product marketing for Kickbox and developer advocate Emily Freeman.   After many years of ghostwriting Emily made the choice to switch careers to software engineering. Learn more about her journey on today's episode.   KEY TAKEAWAYS from Phil Burgess (05.53) It’s all about branding and positioning and it’s similar to brand/self-marketing (08:16) There’s a lot to be said for the changes in the way I.T. is delivered these days, unfortunately some corporates still follow a traditional waterfall approach, handing the process off to a series of individuals, resulting in friction and communication failure. (13.14) The reveal round: Phil asks Emily some quick-fire questions. Q1. Phil: What first attracted you to a career in I.T.? Emily: The problems and the ability to think abstractly, I love the idea of being a tenacious problem solver. Q2. Phil: What is the best career advice you’ve ever received? Emily: To be you; when you are your authentic self, you are your best self. Q3. Phil: If you were to begin your I.T. career again right now what would you do? Emily: I would rewind back to school and learn more about ‘true computer science’. You can learn the CS fundamentals in a fun way. Q4. Phil: What career objectives are you currently focusing on? Emily: Growth and moving towards the next challenge. My biggest objective would be to solve increasingly bigger problems. Q5: Phil: What’s the number one non-technical skills that’s helped you in your I.T. career so far? Emily: Absolutely my writing, I put so much practice into writing and it’s really helped. The best writing is conversational, authentic and written the way you speak. Q6. Phil: Can you share a parting piece of advice with the audience? Emily: What I tell everyone is, if you have to choose between becoming better at something or promoting yourself, I would choose promoting yourself. You don’t have a lot of time and the people that are ‘experts’ aren’t the most technical, they’re just the most visible. KEY TAKEAWAYS from Emily Freeman (01.06) Phil asks Emily to tell us a little bit more about herself. Emily welcomes the audience and shares in more detail her career story. Emily found a career in ghostwriting and runs a freelance copywriting business called EditingEmily (@EditingEmily). After moving into engineering her background in writing has been significantly helpful, and now Emily has been an individual contributor in Java and is currently a ‘Developer Advocate’.   (02.34) Phil responds to Emily’s career background, asking her to explain what her role as a ‘Developer Advocate’ is? Emily replies, by stating that the role is relatively new to the industry and that it involves getting intelligent developer users to use API’s. It’s a mix between engineering and marketing and it can be described as the connection between engineering, marketing and product to ensure the wishes of the community are communicated to the company. Emily summarizes by saying “It’s a very interesting role and no two days are the same”   (04.41) Phil asks Emily to share a unique career tip, that the audience might not know and should? Emily responds quickly to say that “It doesn’t matter who you know, it matters who knows you”. Emily recalls a previous life lesson that explains that you can blend your professional and personal life together, to help your career move forward. And when an opportunity comes up, you want to be the name that pops into someone’s head. Emily goes on to say that by acknowledging self-promotion and personal branding we can highlight what we do well. (06:38) Phil asks Emily to tell us what her worst career I.T. moment was and what she learnt from the experience. Emily replies to say that in her first job as a developer, it was like an accelerator into finding out everything that was wrong in the industry. The setup of the engineering department was very old school and the developers didn’t have production access etc. That set up creates a great deal of personal conflict. (11.20) Phil asks Emily to explain what she is most excited about in the I.T. industry. Emily passionately responds to say that our technology is evolving so much faster than our brains. The biggest problems that we’re facing right now is that we’re human. It’s our fear, our patterns of behavior, our brain functions and our limitations because of that. As a result I.T. is an exciting area that is overcoming this, removing the decision process errors and choice ability so that people can do what they do best, and engineer. BEST MOMENTS - Emily states that her writing background has significantly helped her in her engineering career. - The aim of the Developer Advocate role is to speak marketing to engineering and vice versa, because a lot of the time these two things miss each other. - I feel uniquely blessed that I can talk at conferences and be a voice of the industry 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 Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilTechCareer @PhilTechCareer Website: www.itcareerenergizer.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/philburgess   CONTACT THE GUEST Twitter: https://twitter.com/EditingEmily  Website: www.emilyfreeman.io

Guest Bio: Gojko is a partner at Neuri Consulting. He is the winner of several awards, including the 2016 European Software Testing Outstanding Achievement Award and the Jolt Award for his book, Specification by Example. Gojko is also a frequent speaker at software development conferences.   Episode Description: In this episode, Phil chats with Gojko Adzic about experiencing the joy of coding and programming, but also recognizing the importance of seeing the big picture when it comes to projects. Gojka highlights this by advising people work “close to the money” to gain a better understanding of how customers use the products he makes, and how his first startup went bankrupt when he got too wrapped up in tracking technical effort instead of product value. Still, he says he can’t imagine doing anything other than working in IT.   Key Takeaways:   (1.00) Phil kicks off the interview by asking Gojko more about himself. Gojko talks about writing books, how he got his start developing software, but he always wanted to do more than just “sitting in a development box,” as he puts it. He prefers working on projects end-to-end.   (3.21) Phil follows up by asking Gojka for a unique career tip people might now know. Gojka answers with the advice: “stay as close to the money as possible.” He goes on to say that he feels like today, IT is often extremely divorced from the customers and users that they are actually making things for. It becomes hard to tell if your work is having an actual impact. Staying close to the money means making sure that the things you do serve a purpose.   (7.45) Phil moves on, asking Gojka about the worst experience of his IT career, and Gojka jokes that it’s difficult to pick the “worst.” He says the one that made him feel the worst but was the most important learning experience came when he was a CTO of a startup and that they were good at the technical side of things but had no idea how to calculate value and properly run a business and so they went bankrupt. He was way too focused on measuring effort and not value.   (13.06) Phil switches things up and asks Gojka about his greatest career success so far, and he says that he hopes he hasn’t made his greatest success yes. But he’s very proud of a project called Mind Map and that it has helped him rediscover the joy of coding.   (15.00) Phil then asks Gojka what excites him the most about the future of the IT industry, and he says software specifically is the closest thing to magic there is, and that it’s incredible that people can make something that has such a huge impact on the real world, essentially out of thin air.   (15.50) Phil starts the Reveal Round by asking Gojka what motivated him to pursue a career in IT, to which he answers that he never wanted to do anything else, quite literally from the age of six onwards.   (17.01) Next, Phil asks Gojka for the best career advice he’s ever received. Gojka says it’s probably something he read in one of The Pragmatic Programmer books, which was: “don’t say no, offer options.” Instead of saying that something isn’t possible, try to come up with options for things you CAN do instead.   (18.10) Phil then questions Gojka as to what he would do if he were to begin his IT career all over again now, and Gojka answers that he never really wanted to do anything different, but that he would try to switch jobs faster to learn as much as possible about as many different things as he could.   (19.01) On the subject of current career objectives, Gojka talks about writing a new book that’s actually about a technique that can be used to solve the problem of his worst career moment.   (20.03) Phil asks what non-tech skill Gojka has found the most useful during his career, and he responds that he doesn’t really differentiate between what’s technical and non-technical, but that the idea of selling value and not time was a non-tech thing he learned that has made a major impact on his career.   (21.31) Phil wraps things up by asking Gojka for any parting words of advice for the listeners and he advises people to not waste time working on things that they don’t really care about or find important and that they should be able to work on creating things that bring them joy.   Best Moments:   (1.15) Gojko: “I tend to write books to download the stuff in my brain so I can leave more spare capacity for new things.”   (5.48) Gojko: “My career advice for people starting here would be to figure out where the money is and stay as close as possible to that because that just cuts through the whole bullshit that most people shouldn’t really care about.”   (7.24) Phil: “I think it’s all about what the end purpose is, rather than the actual solution that gets you there.”   (12.50) Gojka: “IT’s really nice as an industry because you can make stupid mistakes and learn from them and then kind of pull yourself up.”   (14.48) Gojka: “If people feel that their work is dull they should build their own product.”   (21.56) Gojka: “You can spend a lot of time building stupid systems nobody cares about and you shouldn’t be wasting your life on that. Programming should be a joyful activity.”   Contact Gojko Adzic: Blog: www.gojko.net LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gojko/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/gojkoadzic @gojkoadzic Latest Book: https://www.amazon.com/Humans-Vs-Computers-Gojko- Adzic/dp/0993088147    

Guest Bio: Chloe Condon is a former musical theater actress and Hackbright Academy graduate. She is now a developer evangelist for Sentry. She’s passionate about bring people from non-traditional backgrounds into the world of tech, and in February of this year, Chloe was named one of the “200+ Thought Leaders in Crypto and Blockchain.” And yet, she claims to know absolutely nothing about them.   Episode Description: In this episode, Phil interviews Chloe Condon, an engineer who has written many articles on her experiences as both a woman in the tech industry and also someone coming from a very non-traditional background in musical theater. Chloe talks with Phil about the ways her theater experience has proved to be an advantage, whether it’s speaking confidently at conferences or creating more entertaining and engaging events for meetups. She also stresses the importance of speaking up for yourself and continuously learning new things.   Key Takeaways: (1.02) Phil kicks the interview off by asking Chloe more about herself, and she refers to the joke at the end of her bio, saying that she frequently writes about her experiences as a woman in tech from a non-traditional background. However, she found out that her name had been copy-pasted into an article about the best people to speak at conferences about Crypto and Blockchain, and that she really doesn’t know anything about these topics.   (2.42) Phil asks Chloe to share a unique career tip, and she says the biggest tip she can think of is to be authentic and real about yourself and your background, talking about how she was worried about not fitting in as an engineer, but that her background has actually helped her in the tech industry, including public speaking and event planning.   (4.00) Phil then asks Chloe to describe her worst IT career moment and what it taught her. Chloe replies that one of her lowest moments came when she was working in tech but before she was an engineer. She worked in various admin roles after college to try and support her theater career. She felt very invisible at her job and that the work she was doing was being taken for granted. This has taught her to always be appreciative and supportive to everyone she works with.   (7.15) Phil shifts things over to Chloe’s greatest career success so far, and she talks about publishing an article called, “What It’s Like to Be a Woman at a Tech Conference,” and the experience of coming from the female-dominated profession of theater to the much more male-dominated world of tech. People responded really well to it because it gave men insight into how isolating it could be to be a woman in tech, and also Chloe has received very positive international recognition for it.   (10.20) Chloe goes on to add that when she’s at conferences and gets asked if she’s enjoying being there with her husband and being able to respond that actually, she’s the keynote speaker, it can feel equal parts good and upsetting.   (10.47) Phil continues the interview with the question of what excites Chloe the most about the future of the IT industry. She says that, broadly, the tech industry is exciting because everything’s always changing and there are always new things to learn. Specifically, she’s excited about developing mobile apps and also machine learning. It’s an interesting time in technology to see how we interact with machines.   (12.08) Phil moves things into the Reveal Round, beginning with why Chloe started working in IT. She says that it began with wanting to learn a new skill that was so different than what she had been learning as a theater major and that technology has always fascinated her.   (12.29) On the topic of best career advice she’s received, Chloe re-emphasizes the importance of being yourself and bringing your background and perspective into the industry. She also says some very good advice she got as a woman in IT was to not be afraid to speak up and let herself be heard.   (13.05) Next, Phil asks Chloe what she would do if she were to start her whole career over from scratch, to which she replies tongue-in-cheek that she would not get a theater degree and instead teach herself to code online and take her tuition money and buy a house with it.   (13.39) Phil then asks Chloe to talk a bit about her current career objectives, which are focusing on mobile development and enjoying getting creative with a smaller design space and what applications she can make in it.   (14.10) When asked about the most useful non-tech skill that’s helped her in her career, Chloe refers back to earlier in the interview, mentioning that her theater background has given her an advantage when it comes to both public speaking and event planning to make tech meetups more fun and entertaining.   (16.21) Finally, Phil closes things out by asking Chloe for any parting words of career advice for the listeners, and she says that it’s never too late to learn a new skill, whether it’s changing from musical theater to coding or just feeling pigeonholed into a particular language or job title. There’s plenty of time and room within the industry to do something new.   (17.55) Chloe adds on that in the performing arts, you can work hard and put effort in and there will always be things out of your control that can keep you from succeeding, down to not having the right hair color, whereas, in technology, you can put in 110% knowing that you will get it back.   Best Moments: (2.50) Chloe: “My unique career tip would be to be as authentic and real as you can, regarding not only your brand but just your background.”   (6.34) Chloe: “My rule of thumb is to be nice and supportive and mentor and lift up everyone that you work with.”    (9.24) Chloe: “It feels really wonderful to be recognized for work and to look back at my life two years ago and go ‘Wow! I actually do have a voice in a community, this is really cool!’”   (11.05) Chloe: “It’s so exciting to me that in this industry, everything is always changing. There’s always new technologies, there’s always new things to learn, so you’re not stuck in one particular field or industry or expertise.”   (15.15) Chloe: “I think it’s just proof that diverse perspective is so important in technology.” Phil: “Definitely, it can be a bit dry and staid at times, so yes, a bit of energy is what it requires.”   Contact Chloe Condon: https://twitter.com/ChloeCondon @ChloeCondon https://www.instagram.com/gitforked/?hl=en @gitforked    

Guest Bio: Jennifer is a JavaScript developer, international speaker, foodie, fitness geek and community organiser, most well known for her work creating innovative and highly sought-after programs for women in technology. Jennifer is also the founder of Kansas City Women in Technology, an organisation aimed at growing the number of women in technology careers in Kansas City. And, amongst other things, Jennifer is Missouri’s Coolest Woman, according to Pure Wow.   Episode Description: In this episode, Phil sits down with Jennifer Wadella to talk about how she entered the IT industry, women in IT in general, and what to do when you find yourself in a negative work environment. Jennifer also talks about self-motivation, and that you don’t necessarily have to find inspiration in other people, but can focus on your own personal growth and skills and have faith in yourself to be able to improve and succeed.   Key Takeaways: (1.13) Phil begins by asking Jennifer to tell the listeners a bit more about herself. Jennifer says that she’s been a nerd her entire life, and while she liked being among nerds, she really didn’t see much in the way of women nerds and has made one of her missions to get more women involved in IT.   (1.38) Phil says he’s seen a lot of progress on that front, with more women entering the industry and Jennifer agrees, laughing while recalling that while at the last Kansas City Developer Con, there were so many women that there was a line for the ladies bathroom, which was a first.   (2.08) Phil moves along, asking Jennifer if she has a unique career tip that she’d like to share, and she talks about how she often hears people talking about being stuck in terrible job environments with terrible bosses and that because people in IT love their craft and what they do, they’ll stay in these jobs they hate. She advises people in those situations to not waste time in leaving to find a place where they can be happy doing the work they love. Phil strongly agrees that a good work environment is extremely important.   (3.01) Phil then asks Jennifer to speak about the worst experience in her IT career and what she learned from it. Jennifer replies that during one of her first jobs out of college, she had a boss that was a poor leader who would give her projects without much direction, and when she compiled reports on how long the project would take and the resources it would need, he didn’t like her answers, cornering her alone in the office to yell at her about how she was “a bad person with a bad work ethic.”   (3.45) Jennifer continues, saying that this was one of the lowest moments of her career, but it taught her to stand up for herself in the future and to understand and value her self-worth. The story at least has a happy ending, as she was able to get a new job just three days after updating her resume to leave that one.   (5.02) Phil takes that opportunity to ask Jennifer about her greatest success in her IT career. Jennifer talks about being a web developer right when things were expanding with JavaScript frameworks and single-page applications. As she learned JavaScript, she felt like she was struggling compared to other, more experienced people. But one day one of them came to her with a framework question and she was able to help them, and it gave her confidence and motivation to keep moving forward in her career. Phil agrees that this is often a turning point for people in their career.   (6.31) Phil asks Jennifer what she finds most exciting about the future of IT, and she answers that people are drawn to IT because they like problem-solving and that right now it feels to her like there’s no cap on what technology people can come up with to solve problems. Specifically, she’s excited about the possibilities of advancements in IoT.   (7.58) Phil moves into the Reveal Round, beginning with why Jennifer started working in IT. She says that, like many, she fell into IT a bit on accident. She was a graphic designer but couldn’t find work. In the meantime, she was building websites mostly for fun and realized it could be a career, and she was attracted to the creative side and creating something from nothing.   (8.33) Phil asks Jennifer for the best career advice she’s ever gotten, and she tells him that she had a mentor tell her not make herself fit a job, but to make the job fit her and not to try to force yourself to fit a mould.   (9.03) Phil then switches gears and asks Jennifer what she would do if she had to begin her IT career all over again right now, and she replies half-jokingly, “start younger.”   (9.32) As to her current career objectives, Jennifer says that she has been focusing on public speaking at international conferences and being at a place where she can “be a happy little code monkey.”   (10.05) Phil asks Jennifer’s opinion on what has been the most helpful non-tech skill to have in her career so far, and she answers that for her, it’s a tie between leadership skills and faith in herself and her ability to grow and always be improving.   (10.45) Phil brings things to a close by asking Jennifer for some parting words of advice for the audience, and she replies with the motto, “work hard and understand that there are no limits.” She adds that there is no cap on what you can learn and that you should focus on yourself and your own growth and not what other people are doing.   Best Moments: (1.16) Jennifer: “I’ve been a nerd my entire life, and when I got into a career in technology, it was nice to be surrounded by other nerds. But one thing was lacking and that was female nerds. So that’s kind of the origin of me creating Kansas City Women in Technology.”   (2.35) Jennifer: “If your day job isn’t making you happy and is making you miserable, my advice would be to go find something that makes your heart sing. You’re lucky enough to love writing code, do it somewhere where you’re gonna love doing it.” Phil: “I think you’re absolutely right. I think if you don’t find fulfilment and enjoyment within your career, it’s time to think about what you’re doing.”   (3.45) Jennifer: “That was one of the lowest moments because it was a really big assault against my character, but it was a really good life lesson of understanding how to stand up for myself and how to value my self-worth.”   (5.50) Jennifer: “It was kind of an amazing moment for me to realize, ‘I can do this, I can be a really successful developer,’ and just because I started out behind doesn’t mean I can’t come out ahead.” Phil: “It can be quite self-inspiring, when people come to you for advice and knowledge and so forth and you realize that you’re actually able to provide that support and input.”   (8.58) Jennifer: “If you can find a way to bring your own unique skill set to the table, you’re gonna be way more successful that way.”   (11.10) Jennifer: “Find ways that work for you to learn and grow. Don’t look at what everybody else is doing, don’t try and emulate or be exactly like other thought leaders you see. Focus on yourself, what works for you, and the unique skills you have to share.”   Contact Jennifer Wadella: Website: www.jenniferwadella.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/likeOMGitsFEDAY @likeOMGitsFEDAY LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-wadella-7985b46/  

Guest Bio: Dylan is a software architect, conference speaker, and musician. He designs APIs and distributed systems based on Microsoft .Net and he also helps to run the London .Net User Group.   Episode Description: In this episode, Phil talks with software architect Dylan Beattie about everything from understanding that software is not always the solution to a problem, avoiding getting burnt out, how writing websites can eventually get you speaking at conferences halfway around the world, and the future of tech will involve difficult lessons about community interaction and a greater shift towards user-inclusivity. Dylan also talks about finding the fun in IT, even the uninteresting parts, and why he’s glad he chose a career in IT over one playing guitar.   Key Takeaways:   (1.05) Phil opens by asking Dylan to tell a bit more about himself, with Dylan recounting his early days as a webmaster and that he got into IT purely because he thought it was fun and then learned that he could make a career out of it, and is currently working as a CTO at Skills Matter.   (2.50) When Phil asks Dylan for a unique career tip, he tells a story about how senior manager at a company he was working at had asked him to create a secure digital storage system for some sensitive documents. After learning that they only had 30 or 40 documents to store, Dylan advised them to just use a safe instead, offering up the tip that even when you’re a software developer, software is not going to be the solution to every problem.   (5.11)Phil then asks Dylan to share the worst moment in his career in IT and Dylan explains that he’s never had a specific worst moment, but several “worst periods” where he was getting burnt out working too hard on projects that he didn’t really care about. He recalls struggling with companies that were more concerned with a big picture vision than a clear roadmap of steps, milestones or deliverables necessary to get there.   (8.14)Phil changes tack to ask about career highlights and Dylan discusses starting out going to user groups and community events to listen and learn new things and that, before long, he was the one giving the talks at this events, eventually moving up to conferences and keynote speeches in other countries.   (9.25) Dylan specifically recalls going with a group to speak at  a conference in Ukraine and going to the chance to go to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and marveling at how strange it was that his particular career journey had allowed him to experience this, finishing by saying, “The highlights are the things which are unexpected.”   (10.35) When Phil asks Dylan’s opinion of what’s the most exciting thing about the future of IT, he and Dylan recall the massive impact smartphones have had on how software interacts with the world and that back in the 1990s, no one could have even conceived of it. Dylan says that he thinks that another, similar paradigm shift will happen soon, involving how we think about online communities and interactions.   (13.52) Dylan also talks about a shift towards making things not only more user accessible, but more generally inclusive, and that software development needs to catch up with that movement, joking that, “We think we can solve anything by making the fonts bigger.”   (15.54) From there, Phil moves into the Reveal Round, asking Dylan why he started working in IT, to which he reiterates that he always thought it was fun and was interested in the potential of machines and making them better, and then realized he could get paid to do that.   (17.22) On the subject of the best career advice that he’s ever received, Dylan remembers initially wanting to be a professional guitar player, only to have a local guitarist he looked up to tell him not to play for a living. He says that playing is something you do because you love it and if you make it your job then you’ll have to do it even when you don’t feel like it and you’ll grow to hate it.   (18.41) Dylan contrasts this with the career in IT that he pursued instead, saying that in tech, even when you don’t want to do something, there’s usually a compensating factor, like if a problem is boring, finding the solution might be interesting, or vice versa.   (19.34) Phil asks Dylan what he would do differently if he was just now leaving university to start a career in IT, and Dylan says he’d be at a bit of a loss because he has had the luxury of having software development complexity grow along with him and now things are much more technical and specialized.   (22.54) Phil then asks Dylan about his current career objectives, and Dylan is at a loss for an answer and instead talks about Rockstar, a new programming language he created as part of a joke that recently went viral in the online dev community. Dylan jokingly says that he’d like to make refining Rockstar a career objective and be able to go to conferences with stickers and branded swag just as a laugh.   (25.10) Phil’s asks Dylan about what he thinks is the most useful non-tech skill to have, and he says that he thinks communication is incredibly important and that the two big parts of that are writing well and be able to comfortably speak up and share ideas. But he adds that these skills are so tied-in with the job that they don’t really count as “non-tech” and changes his answer to being able to make good coffee.   (26.07) Finally, Phil asks Dylan for some parting words of advice for the listeners, and he talks about not being afraid to explore other job opportunities out of fear that you won’t be able to find another job as good as the one you currently have. He adds that he wishes that there a healthier and more natural way to change careers than the way recruitment currently works.   Best Moments:   (4.43) Phil: “So, almost trying to provide a solution and then find a problem that will fit that solution.” Dylan: “Yeah, trying to find an excuse to do something cool with hardware...we get hard problems to solve that actually matter, this is not one of them.”   (9.45) Dylan: “I got here because I started writing web pages and then started talking about it and now we’re here inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in the former Soviet Union. This is completely unexpected.”   (11.06) Dylan: “Microsoft’s mantra in the 80s and early 90s used to be ‘a computer on every desktop.’ They weren’t even thinking that nobody was going to care about desktops anymore because the computer would literally be a thing in their pocket that had started out as a telephone and evolved superpowers.”   (15.44) Dylan: “Even the most daring things we can think to dream at the moment can be completely turned on their hand within the next ten years, and who knows where that’s gonna lead.”   (20.32) Dylan: “Find a problem you care about and don’t worry too much about the software you’re using to solve it.”   Contact Dylan Beattie: Website: www.dylanbeattie.net Twitter: https://twitter.com/dylanbeattie @dylanbeattie GitHub: www.github.com/dylanbeattie YouTube: www.youtube.com/dylanbeattie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbeattie/  

Guest Bio: Ben is a technologist working in the Office of the CTO at Confluent Inc (the company behind Apache Kafka), where he has worked on a wide range of projects, from implementing the latest version of Kafka’s replication protocol through to developing strategies for streaming applications. Before Confluent, Ben led the design and build of a company-wide data platform for a large financial institution, as well as working on a number of early service-oriented systems, both in finance and at Thoughtworks.   Episode Description: In this episode, Phil sits down with Ben Stopford to discuss different kinds of career progress, the future of streaming data between different applications, and the importance of a healthy and positive work environment. Ben also touches on the benefits of learning everything you can from more experienced co-workers, and the power of motivation.   Key Takeaways: (1.02) Phil starts off the episode by asking Ben a bit more about himself. Ben reveals that, unlike most people in the IT profession, he did not study computer science in school but physics instead. He further elaborates that the majority of what he sees as the second phase of his career has been spent working on improving application streaming platforms.   (2.06) When Phil asks for a unique career tip, Ben emphasizes that it’s important to remember that there’s more than one way to progress in your career and that people shouldn’t feel pressured to try to“climb the corporate ladder” by taking management positions that really don’t suit them. He reiterates that you gain influence through respect and that you don’t have to be in management to achieve respect, just be someone who adds value.   (4.36) In answering Phil’s questions about his worst experience working in IT, Ben thinks back to his first job at an investment bank, where he had a boss who was extremely difficult to deal with and would scream at Ben and other employees. This prompted Ben to make a rule to never work for anyone he doesn’t like, and he advises that if a job isn’t right and makes you feel terrible, then it isn’t worth staying at, which Phil completely agrees with.   (6.30) Phil takes a lighter turn asking Ben about his favorite successes, to which Ben replies that he feels a major highlight of his career was forming a team at a different financial institution to find a way to increase its tech efficiency and how the different services of the company shared data. Ben says that it felt like they were on a mission and that it was productive and innovative work.   (8.46) Phil asks Ben what excites him the most about the future of IT and, like many other guests, he’s most excited at how quickly the future is changing and that being in IT means being at the heart of that change. He points out that the future his one-year-old daughter will live in isn’t going to look like anything that came before it and that thinking about it “keeps him up at night,” to which he quickly adds “in a good way!”   (10.45) As they enter Phil’s rapid-fire Reveal Round, Ben sheepishly admits that he started working in IT for the money and that, while he did enjoy being a physicist for a while, it wasn’t making him enough money to survive on.   (11.20) Phil changes tack and asks about the best career advice Ben has ever received. Ben responds that the best advice he ever got was on dealing with difficult workplace situations by taking emotion out of the equation and sticking only to facts. He says that this helps defuse tension but is a lot easier to do in an email than in person.   (12.46) When Phil asks what Ben would do if he was starting his IT career over right now, Ben replies that first, he would start out learning computer science instead of physics, and he would make a point to work at a place that does pair programming so he could soak up as much fundamental knowledge as possible from the more experienced people around him.   (14.28) Phil asks Ben about his current career objectives, to which he affirms that he’s still on his mission to find better and more efficient ways of moving data between different applications.   (15.40) On the subject of the non-tech skill he finds the most useful, Ben brings up something called the Fundamental Attribution Error, which is sort of assuming the worst of people, like that the person who cut you off in traffic is just a jerk instead of someone who might be experiencing an emergency. Ben says that fighting against that urge and thinking more about why people do the things they do instead of making assumptions gives you a more balanced view of the world.   (16.56) To finish things off, Phil asks Ben for any parting words of advice for the listeners. Ben’s advice is to recognize that motivation doesn’t always last, so make the most of it when you have it and to capitalize on feelings of desire and motivation as much as possible.   Best Moments: (3.15) “Autonomy comes, really, from the respect that other people will have for you. If you add value to a company then you tend to get given autonomy.”   (6.08) “Probably nothing affects your life more than the relationship you have with your colleagues and your boss, so that’s definitely worth investing in. And if it’s not right, just cut it. Cut it early.”   (9.52) “Today we’re able to build these much more integrated systems which work on much larger datasets. We have this whole field of heavyweight data technologies and streaming technologies that allow many different applications to coordinate that really wasn’t possible before.”   (14.06) “Go somewhere where you can have a formative experience to learn software engineering techniques, which you kind of have to learn from other people, or through experimentation yourself. But it's a lot easier if you pair with people who know what they’re doing and have been doing it for 20 years.”   (17.05) “Motivation is probably your most precious commodity.”   Contact Ben Stopford: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/benstopford/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/benstopford @benstopford Website - http://www.benstopford.com/

Guest Bio: Daniel Bryant is a technology specialist with expertise in the design, development, and deployment of enterprise-grade software applications and platforms.  Daniel also excels in leading teams that build these systems, and regularly shares his knowledge by presenting at international conferences and writing for well-known technology websites.   Episode Description: In this episode, Phil talks with Daniel Bryant about the benefits of working in a variety of areas across IT and business and how it can help you figure out the work you’re best at and will enjoy the most, as well as just taking in a wide range of new experiences. Daniel also stresses the importance of a strong and supportive community of peers, as well as the need to make sure your foundational learning is a priority.     Key Takeaways:   (1.24) Phil opens things up by asking Daniel to tell a little more about himself and what he does. Daniel explains that he actually started his career as an academic but fell in love with consulting while working on his Ph.D., emphasizing that academia was all theoretical and that he wanted to actually build things.   (4.37) Phil asks for Daniel for a career tip and Daniel recommends trying many different things, explaining how he’s worked on everything from coding to racking and stacking servers as well as on hiring teams and in positions of leadership. He says that all these different things helped him learn to empathize with people in all areas of business and IT as well as helping him discover what kind of work he enjoys most and is best at.   (5.31) Dan admits that while there is a comfortable level of stability in doing just one thing, you’re unlikely to find something you are both good at and enjoy on the first try, and that the different jobs someone does, the roles they play, and the people they meet will have a huge impact on shaping them as a person.   (6.47) Phil follows up by asking Daniel about his worst IT experiences, to which Daniel replies that he thinks his biggest mistakes include not doing due diligence in learning more about a company before signing up to work there, as he has found himself at several companies whose values did not line up with his own. In that same vein, he goes on to say that he has a problem with not thinking ahead and rolling into new positions or jobs without fully considering whether or not it’s the best idea.   (9.50) Phil then switches things up by asking Daniel to talk about what successes he has experienced. Daniel describes joining communities of people with shared interests and career paths and getting involved with them, specifically citing the London Java Community as a group that has provided him with friends, mentors, and career opportunities.   (13.16) When Phil asks Daniel what he finds exciting about the future of IT, he responds that it would be easier for him to list what DOESN’T excite him, since almost everything these days involves computers and technology and there are so many ways to be a part of it. In particular, though, he is excited to see developments in AI and augmenting human abilities with machines.   (15.08) Then, Phil enters the rapid-fire question round, with Daniel explaining that he was first attracted to a career in IT because he loved building things and wanted to help people and that the best career advice he ever received was to find mentors and to be a mentor.   (15.26) Daniel goes on to say that if he had to begin his IT career over again now, that he would nearly the same things that he already does, but with more of a focus on AI, and that his current career objective involves learning more business-specific skills so that he can help organizations solve both tech and business problems. Daniel also tells Phil that public speaking and writing have been the most useful non-tech skills he’s ever learned.   (16.12) Finally, Phil asks Daniel for some parting words of advice, which are to learn the fundamentals. Daniel reiterates that variety and learning lots of different things is important and useful, but advises to not skimp on making sure you know the basics and not to get too distracted by exciting new things to learn that you don’t get the fundamentals down.   Best Moments:   (4.08) Phil: “You certainly seem to be quite diverse in the things you do.” Daniel: “One of my sort of founding values, I guess, is I always enjoy learning and I kind of want to know everything.”   (5.31) Daniel: “There is a sort of stability with doing one thing, but what're the chances that we actually find something we like and are good at first off?”   (6.33) Daniel: “The world is genuinely a massive place and there’s so many different things we can do. I think having some of those experiences and conversations will help you find your niche.”   (14.48) Daniel: “Technology impacts politics, it impacts the markets, it impacts social stuff we do. What’s not to love?”   (17.21) Daniel: “Learn many different things, talk to many different people, read many different books, but be conscious of ‘are you learning fundamentals or are you learning the latest hotness?’ and try and mix in a bunch of those things.”   Contact Daniel Bryant Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbryantuk/ Website: https://www.infoq.com/profile/Daniel-Bryant Twitter: https://twitter.com/danielbryantuk Github: https://github.com/danielbryantuk