IT Career Energizer

Phil Haack works at GitHub bringing the power of social coding to .NET and Windows developers. Prior to GitHub Phil worked at Microsoft as a Senior Program Manager shipping software such as ASP.NET MVC and NuGet. Phil is also a co-author of the ASP.NET MVC series of books as well as a regular speaker at conferences around the world. In this episode Phil Haack tells us why we need to be prepared to have difficult conversations and why this can help your career. Phil also talks about the importance of taking care when writing code and why you should test your code carefully. To find out more about this episode, visit the show notes page at www.itcareerenergizer.com/e46  

Christian is a Chief Architect of cloud applications at Red Hat and is well known in the community for being an author, frequent blogger, speaker, open-source enthusiast and committer on various open-source projects. Christian has spent time at web-scale companies and now helps companies create and deploy large-scale, resilient, distributed architectures - many of what we now call Microservices. He enjoys mentoring, training and leading teams to be successful with distributed systems concepts, microservices, devops, and cloud-native application design. In this episode Christian Posta tells us why the ability to learn is of higher value than what you know, why you shouldn’t be afraid to introduce new concepts, new technologies or question the way you did things in the past. And why companies recognise that I.T. is their greatest differentiator. To find out more about this episode, visit the show notes page at www.itcareerenergizer.com/e45

Barbara Carkenord has designed, written and taught hundreds of classes in software design, project management, business analysis, software testing and communications skills. As an early member of the International Institute of Business Analysis, Barbara worked on the development of a worldwide standard for business analysis, the BABOK Guide. Barbara is also an author of several books including “Seven Steps To Mastering Business Analysis”. In this episode Barbara Carkenord tells us why we need to have the integrity to be honest and why this can be challenging when working in software development. Barbara also shares her worst career moment, what she learnt from that experience and why you need to keep challenging yourself to try different things. To find out more about this episode, visit the show notes page at www.itcareerenergizer.com/e44

Suzanne Robertson is a principal and founder of the Atlantic Systems Guild. She is co-author of Mastering the Requirements Process, a guide for practitioners on finding requirements and writing them so that all stakeholders understand them. Suzanne is also a member of the IEEE and the British Computer Society as well as a regular speaker at conferences and universities. In this episode Suzanne Robertson explains why you should not expect people to tell you what they need from a software system. Suzanne also discusses how software engineering can benefit from disciplines outside of the I.T. and technology field and why you should open your mind to a future of possibilities. To find out more about this episode, visit the show notes page at www.itcareerenergizer.com/e43

Rex Black is president of RBCS. He is a testing leader, providing consulting, training and expert services. Rex has helped clients, from small start-ups to Fortune 20 global enterprises, apply testing best practice in a wide variety of development lifecycles. Rex is also a prolific author having written fourteen books and dozens of articles over the past 20 years as well as being a past president of both the ISTQB and the ASTQB. In this episode Rex Black tells us why Software Testers are having to become more technically skilled and why the I.T. industry is interesting, inspiring and scary, all at the same time. Rex also talks about his career experiences and the pace of change in technologies, methodologies and expectations. To find out more about this episode, visit the show notes page at www.itcareerenergizer.com/e42

David J Anderson is the Chairman of Lean Kanban Inc, a management training, events and publishing business which licenses its brand and franchises its events and training classes globally. David began his career as a games developer in the early 1980s and has worked at companies including IBM, Sprint, Motorola and Microsoft. He is also author of several books including the best-selling Kanban - Successful Evolutionary Change for your Technology Business. In this episode David tells us why we need to have Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose, and that you need to be prepared to fire your boss. David also discusses the career decisions you may have to make between being professional & ethical and keeping your job as well as the importance of sociology in the I.T. industry. To find out more about this episode, visit the show notes page at www.itcareerenergizer.com/e41

Simon Brown is an independent consultant specialising in software architecture. He is author of the book “Software Architecture for Developers” and creator of the C4 software architecture model. Simon is also an award winning speaker, presenting at conferences, meetups and organisations around the world. In this episode Simon Brown tells us why we can’t afford to stop learning and what we need to be doing to ensure that we don’t. Simon also explains why we need to be selective in what we choose to learn about in detail and why anyone can make an impact in the I.T. industry. To find out more about this episode, visit the show notes page at www.itcareerenergizer.com/e40

Brian P Hogan is a web developer, teacher, book editor and musician. He is also author of several books including, “Exercises For Programmers”. Brian is currently a Technical Editor at Digital Ocean and is also a development editor at the Pragmatic Programmers as well as a panellist on the Ruby Rogues podcast. In this episode Brian tells us why software development is mostly about people and that it’s about solving problems. Brian also talks about making the most of opportunities to engage with smart people, why the answer is always ‘No’ unless you say ‘Yes’, and why just having a backup of your data is not enough. To find out more about this episode, visit the show notes page at www.itcareerenergizer.com/e39

Scott Allen has more than 25 years of commercial software development experience across a wide range of technologies. He has successfully delivered software products for embedded, Windows and web platforms. Scott is also a Pluralsight course creator, a host on the podcast Herding Code, a published author and a conference speaker. In this episode K. Scott Allen talks about the importance of having your own brand and being able to differentiate yourself from others. Scott also tells us why obstacles can provide great learning experiences and why he believes that cloud technology provides innovation and opportunity. To find out more about this episode, visit the show notes page at www.itcareerenergizer.com/e38

Ted Neward is an industry professional with over 20 years’ experience. He speaks at conferences all over the world and writes regularly for a variety of publications across the Java, .NET and other ecosystems. He currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, two sons, dog, four cats, eight laptops, seven tablets, nine phones, and a rather large utility bill. In this episode Ted talks about psychology and philosophy in I.T. and why empathy, sympathy and compassion will help you in your career. Ted also tells us why failures provide great lessons and why he believes technology has become embedded into western society. To find out more about this episode, visit the show notes page at www.itcareerenergizer.com/e37