The People Stack Podcast
Jen Bunk
We explore the intersection of Tech Leadership & Dream careers. We do this by creating inspiring podcasts - including interviews with amazing individuals in the tech leadership space.
Dr. Jen Bunk earned her Ph.D. in I/O Psychology (a.k.a. The Science of Work). She is a retired Associate Professor and an accomplished speaker & researcher. As the CEO of the People Stack, she’s used her decades of experience to coach hundreds of tech leaders to create their dream careers - and the dream lives that go with them.
Rob Allen (Jen’s husband) is a 20+ year software industry veteran who moved from IC to Leadership in 2010, where the focus has always been on helping the technical folks who worked for him live their best lives. In 2019, he broadened that to the tech community as a whole by joining Jen full-time at The People Stack as her Co-CEO.
Dr. Jen Bunk earned her Ph.D. in I/O Psychology (a.k.a. The Science of Work). She is a retired Associate Professor and an accomplished speaker & researcher. As the CEO of the People Stack, she’s used her decades of experience to coach hundreds of tech leaders to create their dream careers - and the dream lives that go with them.
Rob Allen (Jen’s husband) is a 20+ year software industry veteran who moved from IC to Leadership in 2010, where the focus has always been on helping the technical folks who worked for him live their best lives. In 2019, he broadened that to the tech community as a whole by joining Jen full-time at The People Stack as her Co-CEO.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 11, 2017 • 42min
Episode 31: Nick Caldwell VP of Eng at Reddit talks team building, hiring, and more
Nick Caldwell (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickcaldwell), VP of Engineering at Reddit.com stops by the People Stack to talk about hiring practices, building great teams, the importance of diverse backgrounds in those teams, and developing leaders to rapidly scale. You can check out Nick’s writing on these topics and more on https://blog.devcolor.org/, https://ThinkGrowth.org and https://hackernoon.com/Special Guest: Nick Caldwell.
Aug 26, 2017 • 45min
Episode 30: Jean Hsu talks about the transition to leadership then to entrepreneur and more
Jean Hsu (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanyhsu) has worked at companies big and small, fast and slow and is now a full-time Tech Leadership Coach and writer. Check out her writing on Medium (https://writing.jeanhsu.com). Jean stopped by the People Stack to talk about her transitions from Junior to Senior Engineer, then to Engineering Leader, and now entrepreneur as she takes on technical leadership consulting clients. Oh, and she's a mom too.Special Guest: Jean Hsu.
Aug 13, 2017 • 45min
Episode 29: Elyse Hammond talks about the role of HR, pay and transformational leadership
Elyse Hammond,(https://www.linkedin.com/in/elysehammond) HR Generalist for GSK (http://www.gsk.com) stops by the People Stack to talk about the changing role of HR, just who's job IS IT to fill out pesky I9 forms, how pay influences motivation, transformational leadership and more.Special Guest: Elyse Hammond.
Jul 3, 2017 • 50min
Episode 28: Technical coach Marcus Blankenship talks one-on-ones coding while managing and more
Technical coach, author and former coder Marcus Blankenship (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusblankenship) stops by the People Stack to talk about how much you should code as a manager, how to better handle your 1:1s, surviving your battlefield promotion to manager and finding role models other than a pointy-haired boss.Special Guest: Marcus Blankenship.
Jun 11, 2017 • 49min
Episode 27: Spencer Varadi of Speed and Function talks IO Psych and
Spencer Varadi (https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencervaradi/), Director of Product at Speed and Function (https://speedandfunction.com/#!about) stops by the People Stack to talk about how we can use the ONet database to make better career choices, how his IO Degree does and doesn't help his consulting practices and how unpredictable software can be.Special Guest: Spencer Vardani.
May 22, 2017 • 41min
Episode 26: Jess Gallus of the US Army SHARP office talks harassment and prevention
Jessica Gallus (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-gallus-360b805/) of the US Army Sexual Harassment/Assault Response Program (http://www.sexualassault.army.mil/ ) stops by the People Stack to talk about augmenting the people skills of strong contributors once they move to management, raising awareness and preventing sexual misconduct in the US Army, and making sure you unplug when work is too real.Special Guest: Jessica Gallus.
May 8, 2017 • 43min
Episode 25: Mike Johnson of Mass TLC talks hiring, pay transparency and more
Mike Johnson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpjohnson/), Director of Communities & Technology at Mass TLC stops by the People Stack to talk about the benefits of MassTLC membership, pay transparency, the current hiring climate, and the addition of his new role where he gets to fix printers.Special Guest: Mike Johnson.
Apr 22, 2017 • 46min
Episode 24: Andrew Ramsden of Alpha Transform talks about the 6 tech management Superpowers
Andrew Ramsen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/irama), CEO of Alpha Transform and host of the Alpha Geek Podcast (https://www.alphatransform.com.au/alpha-geek-podcast/), stops by the People Stack to talk about his journey, the 6 superpowers of tech management and his upcoming book.
Apr 2, 2017 • 43min
Episode 23: Taras Mankovski of This Dot uses his business brain to talk mentoring, making a company
Taras Mankovski (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarasm/), @EmberSherpa on Twitter and CTO of https://www.thisdot.co/ stops by the People Stack to talk about Mentorship as a Service, creating a Company for helping people, and how to provide meaningful assistance to backend developers making rich web applications.Special Guest: Taras Mankovski.
Mar 11, 2017 • 51min
Episode 22: Luke Stevens of Berklee Online talks remote teams, custom tools and more
The People Stack drops in on Luke Stevens (https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-stevens-875a295), CTO of Berklee Online at the Berklee College of Music (https://online.berklee.edu/) to talk about building tools for online education, leading a mixed team of local and remote developers, the benefits of making some communication public, using Slack, and try to answer what the hell email is for.Special Guest: Luke Stevens.
