The Work Item - Real Talk on Tech's Toughest Career Choices
The web is full of podcasts that dole out generic career advice - “Follow your passion!”, “Keep learning!”, “Set clear goals!” This is all good if you're just starting out, but the pointers start to lose their luster quickly as you progress and start hitting invisible walls in your growth.
All of a sudden, it's harder to get promoted, opportunities to advance become more ambiguous, and the choices in front of you aren't as obvious as they were when you first started your job.
What does it take to get to the Staff engineer level? If you want to become an executive in the future, what should you do now to maximize your chances of hitting that goal? Should you have a time-bound career map or focus on unique opportunities that pop up serendipitously? Should you try your hand at entrepreneurship, and if so - how do you build a robust safety net?
For these questions and more, The Work Item is the podcast where I attempt to answer them with help from folks that went through trial by fire. They are not social media thought leaders - they are actual practitioners who have first-hand experience dealing with some of the more thorny challenges in this industry.
With folks like Jason Lengstorf (Founder, Learn With Jason), Craig Hewitt (Founder, Castos), Saron Yitbarek (Founder, CodeNewbie), Rob Walling (Founder, MicroConf), Cedric Chin (Founder, CommonCog), Jason Fried (CEO, 37signals), Gennadiy Korol (CEO, Moon Studios), Mayuko Inoue (iOS Engineer, Apple), Camille Fournier, and many, many more you will get extraordinary insights that will help you unlock your career potential beyond the basics you'll learn elsewhere.
Latest episodes
Jan 17, 2021 • 1h 1min
#21 - Mayuko Inoue on Building a Content Creator Career Path
Mayuko Inoue made a bold step by defying the stereotypical career path of a software engineer, and became a full-time content creator. Her videos on YouTube answer some of the more salient questions that are almost never covered in your typical coding tutorials and overviews. What was behind this career decision and what were the lessons learned? How do you build a healthy community, and develop a good work-life balance? We talk to Mayuko about her personal take on the unique trajectory she's carving, as well as the lessons learned along the way.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!
Jan 10, 2021 • 54min
#20 - Scott Hanselman on Intentionality
Our first episode of the year is with the one and only Scott Hanselman. We tried to come up with a catchy title, but the entire episode could be summarized in one word - intentionality. We discuss Scott's foray into TikTok, building your own definition of success, and fostering strong relationships with people around you.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!
Dec 20, 2020 • 41min
#19 - Wrap Up Episode For 2020
Den and Courtny reflect on the year we just went through, and discuss our plans for 2021. There is a lot to be thankful for, and we had quite a year kickstarting a new podcast from scratch. This also happens to be the last episode of our Season 1.
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!
Nov 22, 2020 • 59min
#18 - Megan Risdal on Building a Career at the Intersection of Data Science and Product Management
Right before the Thanksgiving break, we are releasing a fresh new episode with Megan Risdal, Product Lead at Kaggle. Megan took the multi-talented route to the career she has today, and enjoys every bit of it. In this episode, we talk about the importance of being a multi-dimensional professional in a product role, finding the best ways to collect customer feedback, and building communities at scale.
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!
Nov 15, 2020 • 1h 3min
#17 - Christos Matskas on Going From Consulting to Corporate and Building Identity Tools
In a surprising twist, this week we chat with Christos Matskas on two topics - transitioning from consulting life to a corporate life, as well as about building identity tools and services in the cloud.
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!
Nov 8, 2020 • 1h 3min
#16 - Bill Kenney on Building Brands That Last
This weekend, we go outdoors with Bill Kenney, co-founder of Focus Lab, a branding agency that is entirely remote. We talk to Bill about the importance of a good brand and what distinguishes professionals from amateurs in the field.
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!
Nov 1, 2020 • 51min
#15 - Tarun Gangwani on Innovation, Navigating Product Decisions, and Building Growth Engines
We sit down to chat with Tarun Gangwani, Senior Product Manager at Sanity.io. Tarun is a seasoned PM with tons of expertise to share about the product management domain. With previous experience at Twitch, where he oversaw the entire lifecycle of a developer using extensions and data services to create engaging and personalized viewing and streaming experiences, Tarun is talking about lessons learned, differences between startup and large company environments, along with the ways in which product managers can broaden the understanding of their products and customer needs.
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!
Oct 18, 2020 • 1h 4min
#14 - Interview with Richard Lander
In this episode of The Work Item we interview Richard Lander, Principal Program Manager on the .NET team at Microsoft. Richard does a deep dive on communication, being a generalist vs. specialist, and growing one's career.
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!
Sep 27, 2020 • 1h 1min
#13 - Interview with Amanda Silver
In this episode of The Work Item we interview Amanda Silver, Corporate Vice President, Developer Division at Microsoft. We discuss the process of building great developer tools, the human element in product design, and career advice for the long run.
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!
Sep 20, 2020 • 59min
#12 - Interview with Christina Weng
In this episode of The Work Item we interview Christina Weng, product designer at Facebook, about building a career in user experience design from scratch.
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!
