The Work Item - Real Talk on Tech's Toughest Career Choices

Talking to Chad Fowler, you quickly realize what true leadership means. Chad has extensive experience leading large technical organizations such as LivingSocial and 6Wunderkinder, being a venture partner at BlueYard Capital, and now - helping make the Internet safer as Chief Product Officer at DEVCON. Did I mention that Chad also is a musician?In this episode, I talk to Chad about his work, lessons learned from music and travel and how those apply to life and career, and what is the approach to consider for one to carve out a path towards an executive role.You can find Chad on the following sites:🐤 Twitter📝 Blog🎶 Mahakala Music(Chad's record label)Make sure to also check out Chad's book - The Passionate Programmer.The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky. Music by Wataboi from Pixabay. Feedback If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

Folks often forget that engineering is inherently a very creative process. Monica Dinculescu found her own niche where she can build impactful things and do it in some of the most unusual ways possible. An excellent engineer, creative thinker, and fellow Eastern European by origin, Monica joins me today to talk about the things she learned as she figured out her career path.You can find Monica on the following sites:🐤 Twitter📝 Blog🛍 StoreMake sure to also check out Tim Holman's work, that Monica recommended during the show!The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky. Music by Wataboifrom Pixabay. Feedback If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

From Pascal, to writing image processing code, if there is one word you absolutely can't use to describe Ben Sandofsky‘s career, it would be “uneventful.” He was one of the first mobile engineers at Twitter, had a stint helping build Periscope, and ultimately ventured into unexplored territory to finish a photo app he always wanted, that later became Halide.In this episode, I sit down with Ben to get a better understanding of the decisions he made in his career, and what were the critical turning points that made him start his own studio - Lux.You can find Ben on the following sites:🐤 Twitter📝 Blog📸 LuxWhile at it, you should check out Halideand Spectre- the must-have camera apps for iOS!The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky. Music by Wataboi from Pixabay. Feedback If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

From all the questions I get asked, this one comes up quite often - “How do I become an engineering manager?” While I don't know the answer myself, I think I have an idea of who might have the insights on this topic.Rebecca Murpheytried a lot of things on her way to becoming an engineering manager at Stripe - from journalism to advertisement, and even learning how to fly.In this episode, I sit down with Rebecca to learn more about her path, what were the important lessons learned in her non-tech career that helped her be an efficient engineering leader, and what aspiring engineering managers can start doing today to figure out if this career track is for them.You can find Rebecca on the following sites:🐤 Twitter📝 BlogThe podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky. Music by Wataboi from Pixabay. Feedback If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

There is a certain air of mystery around careers in Human Resources (HR), and David Daniels, who is a veteran HR leader in tech, is here to bring some clarity about the work.David has extensive experience being in HR at Microsoft, Pinterest, and now - Snapchat. He shares his insights about going from education to leadership in some of the most prominent tech companies, fighting against the fixed mindset, and uncommon recommendations for folks wanting to get started with their careers.You can find David on the following sites:🤵 LinkedIn📝 BlogThe podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky. Music by Wataboi from Pixabay. Feedback If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

There is no single, well-defined path to becoming a product manager. There are more questions than answers when it comes to figuring out which skills are necessary, what books or blog posts to read, or which courses to take.Dan Olsen, the author of “The Lean Product Playbook,” former product leader at Intuit, Friendster, Box, and the US Navy (he worked on submarine design) shares with us some insights on what it means to grow as a product manager.You can find Dan on the following sites:🐤 Twitter📝 Blog🎥 YouTube🤵 LinkedIn📅 MeetupMake sure to sign up for Dan's upcoming Lean Product Management online workshop on April 20, 2021.The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky. Music by Wataboi from Pixabay. Feedback If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

Jack Zerbyis not your typical designer. His experience producing music, working at Pentagram and Frog, building startups, pitching to Gary Vee, and now - building tools for creators at Gumroad, puts him square in the middle of a very uncommon career path.In this episode, I chat with Jack to learn more about what motivated him to grow his career, how to break into design, how to make the transition from a big company to a startup, and what does it mean to build compelling narratives in deck format.Make sure to check out Jack's upcoming Design for Decksworkshop to change the way you think about presentations.The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky. Music by Wataboi from Pixabay. Feedback If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

Jess Leeis the co-founder of dev.to- a developer community that emphasizes the importance of a friendly approach to guiding folks through the tumultuous waters of software development.In this episode, we chat about Jess' career, the journey to founding Forem- the open-source platform powering large communities, and her experience building successful distributed teams.The podcast was produced by Den Delimarskyand Courtny Cotten. Music by Wataboi from Pixabay. Feedback If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

Charlie Kindel is a tech industry veteran who helped bootstrap, grow, and manage teams that built home servers, phones, voice assistants, home automation software, and hopefully soon - space technologies. In this episode, we dive a bit deeper into Charlie's approach to product ideation and design, discuss the importance of having a principled organization, and ask questions about his most recent adventure around space.The podcast was produced by Den Delimarskyand Courtny Cotten. Music by Wataboi from Pixabay. Feedback If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

Paige Bailey is one of the few Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) experts who is able to convey complex technical topics in an easy-to-understand and relatable language. Her Twitter feed is full of AI/ML paper recommendations, open source projects, and insights about the ever-evolving tech space. What was her journey like to a career in a very complex domain? What does it mean to build an inclusive AI? This week, we sit down with Paige to learn from her experience.The podcast was produced by Den Delimarskyand Courtny Cotten. Music by Wataboi from Pixabay. Feedback If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!