Career Downloads

Career Downloads

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Manuel Martinez hosts the Career Downloads podcast where he interviews a different guest each episode to learn about their individual and diverse backgrounds, job history, and techniques they use to manage their career. So plug in and download the knowledge.

Sep 8

From Nursing to Physical Security Tech with Iana Relampagos | Ep073

What happens when the career your family picked for you isn't the one you actually want? Iana Relampagos grew up in a Filipino household where the path was already decided. Be a nurse. Be a doctor. Chase the stability. So she enrolled in pre-nursing at UNLV, even though her favorite classes had always been computer classes. Two years in, her grades started slipping and her heart wasn't in it. She switched to computer science, then eventually dropped out of school entirely while working full time to pay for it herself. From there her path went sideways more than once. She tried real estate school right before COVID shut down the housing market. She took a job as a security officer with no IT team on site, and started asking the tech every question she could think of just to understand how the cameras and badge readers worked. That curiosity led her to a free bootcamp called Tech Impact, a 16 week program that paired her with a mentor, placed her in an internship, and helped her land her first help desk job. WHAT IANA DOES NOW: Iana currently works as a PSOC Technician in a physical security operations center. She recently moved into the role for a pay raise after her help desk position wasn't financially sustainable, and she's using the shift to build relationships with cybersecurity professionals while she continues working toward her long term IT goals. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS CONVERSATION: Family Expectations Aren't Always the Right Fit Iana separated what she wanted from what her family expected of her, and that's what made switching majors possible. A Step Back in Title Isn't a Step Back in Career Taking the PSOC role felt like leaving IT behind. Instead it taught her how physical security and cybersecurity depend on each other. Imposter Syndrome Doesn't Disappear, You Learn to Work Through It A mentor gave Iana a book on the topic that she still references before interviews and meetings. Curiosity Is a Skill You Can Practice Asking "how does this work" turned a security officer job into an IT education, one shadowed task at a time. Community Changes What's Possible Her Tech Impact cohort studied together, supported each other, and nearly all 20 members passed their certification. TOPICS COVERED: Growing up with a tech-savvy dad and floppy disks as a kidChoosing nursing because of family and cultural expectationsLeaving pre-nursing at UNLV for computer scienceWorking full time while attending school full timeTrying real estate school before COVID changed everythingBecoming a security officer with no on-site IT supportTeaching herself how cameras, badge readers, and servers connectA coworker reciting port numbers that led her to Tech ImpactWhat a 16 week bootcamp cohort and mentorship program look likeLanding a help desk job at a large hospitality companyTaking a pay raise into a physical security operations center roleWhy she calls herself a "jack of all trades, master of none" WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR: Anyone weighing a career change against family expectationsEarly career professionals dealing with imposter syndromePeople curious about the overlap between physical security and ITJob seekers wondering if a tech bootcamp like Tech Impact is worth itAnyone who feels like a step back in title might actually be a step forward CONNECT WITH IANA RELAMPAGOS: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iana-relampagos-b5004828a/ ABOUT CAREER DOWNLOADS: Career Downloads covers technology careers through conversations with professionals who share their journeys, lessons learned, and practical advice. Hosted by Manuel Martinez, each episode exposes listeners to different technology roles and helps them manage their own careers more successfully. New episodes release every Tuesday. Connect with Career Downloads: Website: https://careerdownloads.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/career-downloads YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@careerdownloads TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@careerdownloads Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careerdownloads FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Career-Downloads/61561144531249
Sep 1

From South Central to Blockchain CEO with JC Rolison

What happens when the advice that builds your first business is the same advice that destroys it? JC Rolison grew up in South Central Los Angeles without knowing a single person working in technology. He was a standout athlete, signed with UCLA out of high school, then played at Alabama State and majored in criminal justice. Sports were the plan. Tech was never part of the conversation. After college, JC started a clothing brand with a handful of t-shirts. It grew fast, scaling to 90 stores worldwide within a few years, fully self-funded and never a dollar of debt. Then he made a decision that cost him the whole thing: he tried to save money by switching manufacturers, and the brand couldn't survive the fallout. Within five months, it was gone. He went into car sales to survive, and that job became the unexpected bridge into technology, connecting him to a Vista Equity executive who helped him build his first platform. WHAT JC ROLISON DOES NOW: JC is the CEO at nuBlock, a payments network for a borderless world. nuBlock builds blockchain infrastructure and crypto-to-stablecoin payments, along with on-ramp and off-ramp services through Visa and MasterCard. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS CONVERSATION: The path that looks like a detour can become the foundation. JC's fashion brand and his car sales job both taught him skills that shaped how he builds and runs his company today. Self-funding is a deliberate choice, not just circumstance. JC has never taken outside funding for any of his businesses, including nuBlock, because he wants control over the direction and the culture. One decision can undo years of momentum. Trying to save money on production nearly overnight ended a brand that had scaled to 90 stores across the globe. Reading people is a skill you can build anywhere. Selling cars taught JC to read people and body language, a skill that now shapes how he hires and who he brings into his business. Financial literacy is the real advantage. JC believes understanding how money and payments actually work matters more right now than chasing the next AI trend. TOPICS COVERED: Growing up in South Central Los Angeles with no exposure to techPlaying college football and track at UCLA recruitment and Alabama StateMajoring in criminal justice and psychology without a clear career planStarting a clothing brand from a handful of shirtsScaling to 90 stores worldwide by self-funding every stepThe manufacturing decision that cost him the brandGoing into car sales to survive after losing the businessLearning to read people and body language through salesMeeting a Vista Equity executive who opened the door to techBuilding ScoutBid, an automotive platform, and a dealership CRM appPivoting to blockchain when the pandemic slowed everything downRunning nuBlock and why he still refuses outside fundingThe three things he looks for before hiring anyoneWhy he believes blockchain matters more than AI right now WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR: Anyone who has made a costly business or career mistake and needs to hear that it's survivableAspiring entrepreneurs weighing self-funding against outside investmentCareer changers who don't see a clear path from where they are to where they want to beSales professionals looking to sharpen how they read peopleAnyone curious about blockchain, stablecoins, and how global payments actually workPeople who grew up without exposure to tech and wonder if they belong in the industry CONNECT WITH JC ROLISON: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcdistance/ YouTube: www.youtube.com/@jcdistance X: https://x.com/Jcdistance_ ABOUT CAREER DOWNLOADS: Career Downloads features conversations with technology professionals who share their journeys, lessons learned, and practical advice. Hosted by Manuel Martinez, each episode exposes listeners to different technology roles and helps them manage their own careers more successfully. New episodes release every Tuesday. Connect with Career Downloads: Website: https://careerdownloads.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/career-downloads YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@careerdownloads TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@careerdownloads Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careerdownloads FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Career-Downloads/61561144531249
Jun 23

From Pizza Shop to Enterprise Software Founder with Chris Day

He had no IT background, no plan, and was living in a tree house between jobs. Then one interview sent him somewhere he never expected. Chris Day grew up in Silicon Valley, bounced through pizza shops, Chili's, and bartending gigs, and graduated UC Santa Cruz with a self-designed degree in communication, sociology, and psychology. He had no roadmap for what came next. What happened next was an interview for an account executive role that turned into an offer to teach software - and a career that has now stretched more than two decades, all the way to founding a SaaS company he is still actively building today. This conversation covers the full arc: how Chris went from software instructor to consultant to custom software developer to building A1 Enterprise, an 18-module enterprise risk management platform that every single feature of has come directly from real users. WHAT CHRIS DAY DOES NOW: Chris is the Founder and CEO of A1 Enterprise, a SaaS company specializing in enterprise risk management software. The A1 Honeycomb platform covers 18 modules across risk, compliance, workers compensation, insurance, and more - all built from user feedback over 16 years of product development. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS CONVERSATION: The accidental pivot is still a pivot Chris did not plan to go into tech. A wrong-turn interview and a suggested redirect from an interviewer landed him in front of a classroom. He said yes anyway. That moment started everything. Bombing a class is data, not a verdict When Chris failed his first Microsoft Access class - ill-prepared, with his father in surgery that day - he did not quit. He went back to the drawing board, studied harder, and within three to six months was teaching every Access class the center offered. Teaching and doing together is dynamite Chris's own words. He learned that knowing your material well enough to teach it is one thing. Actually building something for a real client changes everything. The two together accelerated his growth faster than either could alone. Know your limits - and then push them Chris was not a developer. He knew that. He acknowledged it, asked for help, and used that awareness to build around his gaps rather than pretend they did not exist. The distinction, as he put it, is between knowing your limits and staying within them versus pushing them while asking for help. Your customer base is your best product team After 16 years of development, Chris says every feature in A1 Enterprise has come from a user. No assumptions, no guessing. Real needs from real people, built in. TOPICS COVERED: - Growing up in Silicon Valley with no career direction - Working through food service and bartending in his 20s - How a self-designed degree in communication, sociology, and psychology prepared him for tech - Discovering the software instructor role at New Horizons computer training center - What it took to teach technology to 30 different types of learners in one room - The Microsoft Access failure that changed how he prepared for everything - How moonlighting consulting gigs came out of his teaching clients - The construction company project that launched A1 Enterprise - Presenting a live web application to 100 people from a personal laptop with no IT support - Building a remote development team out of a garage using Citrix and a T1 line - The 2008 market crash decision to stop doing custom work and build a product - Sixteen years of ERM platform development under the radar - The 2018 rebrand that brought A1 Honeycomb into the open - Working with UNLV Lee Business School students - Why staying open matters more than having a plan WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR: - Anyone in their 20s who feels behind and does not have a clear direction yet - People considering a career pivot into tech without a traditional tech background - Early-career professionals trying to decide whether to stay in a role or make a move - Self-taught learners who want to know how far curiosity and self-study can take you - Founders or aspiring entrepreneurs interested in how software products are built from real customer feedback - Anyone who has failed at something on the job and wondered whether to push through CONNECT WITH CHRIS DAY: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/a1enterprisechrisday/ ABOUT CAREER DOWNLOADS: Career Downloads explores technology careers through conversations with professionals who share their journeys, lessons learned, and practical advice. Hosted by Manuel Martinez, each episode exposes listeners to different technology roles and helps them manage their own careers more successfully. New episodes release every Tuesday. Connect with Career Downloads: Website: https://careerdownloads.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/career-downloads YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@careerdownloads TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@careerdownloads Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careerdownloads FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Career-Downloads/61561144531249
Jun 9

From Curiosity to Cloud Engineering Leadership with Jesse Taylor | Ep070

He broke the family computer in 8th grade trying to teach himself DOS. The repair shop he took it to hired him for the summer. That is how Jesse Taylor's career in technology began. Jesse Taylor is the Senior Manager of Cloud and Systems Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His path to that role spans Apple retail, college newspaper IT, media companies, a hotel property that declared bankruptcy, and a first month on the job that collided with Hurricane Sandy. None of it was planned. All of it was intentional. Jesse grew up in Napa, California, and moved to Las Vegas when his father, a Department of Defense employee, had to relocate to keep his retirement after the BRAC military base closures in the early 1990s. He worked at the Apple Fashion Show store during college, helped build Apple enterprise environments at the Art Institute of Las Vegas, and spent years supporting Mac-heavy newsrooms for Greenspun Media Group. He later served as virtual CTO for Niche Media's luxury magazine portfolio - a role that put him in a New York data center days after Hurricane Sandy flooded the floors below it. WHAT JESSE TAYLOR DOES NOW: Jesse leads the Cloud and Systems Engineering team at UNLV, overseeing server virtualization, storage, and enterprise infrastructure. He previously managed identity and access management for the university for over six years, including a campus-wide migration to Okta during the pandemic. He chairs SIM Nevada and advocates for broadband access policy across the state. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS CONVERSATION: The art of listening is a technical skill Apple retail trained Jesse to evaluate needs and find the right-sized solution - not the most expensive, not the cheapest. That skill carried across every role he held afterward. Work retail at least once Jesse believes retail teaches people skills that technical training cannot: reading emotions, tracking speech patterns, knowing when to keep talking and when to stop. He calls those skills essential for anyone working in IT. You have to leave where you love working to grow Early in his Apple career, a trainer told Jesse that sometimes the only way to develop is to leave a role you love and go get skills you cannot get where you are. He applied that lesson repeatedly, moving through organizations to build range. The smartest person still has to be a good team player Skill gets you in the room. Attitude keeps you in the conversation. Jesse is direct: you can be the most talented person on the team and still be someone no one wants to work with. People are watching even when you don't think they are Multiple roles in Jesse's career came through former managers or colleagues who remembered how he worked. Not because he networked for it - because he did the job well and treated people well while he did it. TOPICS COVERED: Breaking his home PC in 8th grade and landing his first tech job because of itApple retail training and right-sizing solutions for customersWhy every IT professional should have a retail job in their backgroundMac enterprise skills built at the Art Institute and Greenspun Media GroupPrioritizing IT tickets and learning to work with executivesMoving Niche Media to Google Workspace in one day during Hurricane SandyReturning to UNLV and building the identity and access management functionPlanning and executing a campus-wide Okta migration during the pandemicBroadband access advocacy and his father's internet setup in rural NevadaEduroam and why UNLV students can open a laptop at Stanford and get online instantlySIM Nevada growing from under 15 members during the pandemic to over 100 WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR: Early-career IT professionals wondering if they need to stay in one place to growAnyone moving from technical roles toward engineering leadership or strategyTech professionals thinking about community involvement and professional organizationsIT managers working on large-scale migrations who want a real account of what planning actually looks likeAnyone who has stayed too long at a job they loved because they were comfortable CONNECT WITH JESSE TAYLOR: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessetaylorlv/ ABOUT CAREER DOWNLOADS: Career Downloads explores technology careers through conversations with professionals who share their journeys, lessons learned, and practical advice. Hosted by Manuel Martinez, each episode exposes listeners to different technology roles and helps them manage their own careers more successfully. New episodes release every Tuesday. Connect with Career Downloads: Website: https://careerdownloads.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/career-downloads YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@careerdownloads TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@careerdownloads Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careerdownloads FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Career-Downloads/61561144531249
May 19

From PBX Operator to Chief Innovation Officer with Rachel Papka

What do you do when healthcare is your calling but the patient side is not your path? Rachel Papka figured that out the long way. She started at a hospital as a PBX phone operator. Worked through ER registration, landed in radiology, and was asked to become a super user when the hospital adopted its first electronic medical record. There were no certifications for healthcare technology at that time. No clear career path. She learned on the job and never looked back. That first step grew into 15 years inside a health system, a three-year run overseeing Nevada’s health information exchange, and eventually the Chief Innovation Officer role at Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging. Steinberg is now part of Intermountain Health. Her title changed, but her approach never did: understand the process, understand the people, then match the technology to both. But as much as this episode covers healthcare technology, it really covers something else: learning to show up better when the pressure is on. Rachel talks openly about being “seen as difficult” early in her career, what a 360 assessment cost her when it was delivered without care, and the year her doctor gave her the evaluation that changed everything: “Rachel, you’re one of the most intelligent people I’ll ever meet. You’re great with technology. You have implemented and you’ve changed so much. Now it’s time to work on the people.” She shares how mentors and business coaches play different roles, why her emotional responses to feedback were not weakness but a signal about how feedback was being delivered, and the small specific practice she uses to keep herself grounded when a tough conversation is about to go sideways. WHAT RACHEL PAPKA DOES NOW: Rachel is the Chief Innovation Officer at Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging (now part of Intermountain Health), where she oversees change management, the contact center handling close to 3,000 calls per day, and the Health Information Technology department. She describes her role as having one foot in operations and one foot in technology. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS CONVERSATION: Process first, people second, technology third Before any implementation, Rachel asks: is there even a need for technology? She maps the workflow, identifies who the end users are, and only then matches the technology to that reality. Mentors and business coaches are not the same thing A mentor is like a cricket on your shoulder – deeply invested in who you are, growing with you over time, and available when you are in crisis. A business coach is trained, brought in for a specific event or goal, and gives you tools. Both serve a real function and they are not interchangeable. How feedback is delivered determines whether it can be received Rachel broke down in early feedback sessions, which got labeled as being difficult or emotional. But the problem was not her. It was feedback arriving without context, care, or a path forward. Understanding that difference changed how she receives criticism and how she gives it. Finding your grounding tool matters Rachel worked with her coach for eight months before realizing that reaching for her water bottle was her natural grounding move in a high-stakes moment. Finding your own version of that is worth the effort. Reflect on what went well before building what comes next Rachel’s annual family practice is to review the vision board from the prior year and ask only: what went well? Not what didn’t. Then she builds the vision for the year ahead. She calls the whole practice reflecting and projecting. TOPICS COVERED: Starting as a PBX phone operator and finding healthcare technology by accidentWhy nursing wasn’t for her and what that self-knowledge gave herBecoming a super user and training clinicians across the countryWhat workflow analysis actually means and why it must come before any technology decisionMoving from a health system to the health information exchange to outpatient radiologyThe mentor who redirected her career and still connects with her todayThe distinction between a mentor and a business coach and when you need bothBeing called “a bull in a China shop” and what she has done about itThe 360 assessment that introduced her to her own patternsThe evaluation at year one: “Now it’s time to work on the people”Why the way feedback is delivered changes whether anyone can receive itUsing water as a physical tool to ground yourself in an emotional momentAsking “are you in a good mood today?” before a hard conversationVision boards, annual reflection with family, and building the year aheadManifestation as action, not just intention WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR: Healthcare professionals who want to understand the technology side of their fieldTech professionals who want to work in healthcareLeaders who are receiving feedback and struggling to hear itAnyone who has been called “too much” and is working on channeling that instead of suppressing itAnyone building their first vision board, or their tenthPeople who don’t fit neatly in one lane and are still figuring out how to describe what they do CONNECT WITH RACHEL PAPKA: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-papka-31b7a48/ ABOUT CAREER DOWNLOADS: Career Downloads explores technology careers through conversations with professionals who share their journeys, lessons learned, and practical advice. Hosted by Manuel Martinez, each episode exposes listeners to different technology roles and helps them manage their own careers more successfully. New episodes release every Tuesday. Connect with Career Downloads: Website: https://careerdownloads.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/career-downloads YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@careerdownloads TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@careerdownloads Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careerdownloads FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Career-Downloads/61561144531249
May 5

From Air Force to Cloud Engineer with Jordan McConnell

Episode Information Show NotesWhat does it look like to build a tech career when no one hands you anything?Jordan McConnell ran network operations at Langley Air Force Base with a top-secret clearance, supporting 100,000 people across 15 bases. When he left active duty, the civilian job market didn’t care about any of that. So he took help desk calls getting yelled at, rebuilt from the bottom, and funded every step of his own career development without waiting for an employer to do it for him. That journey eventually landed him at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas – where HR wrote a solutions architect role specifically for him – and later at New American Funding as a Cloud Engineer doing FinOps work he discovered at a dinner and taught himself on his own time and his own dime.This conversation also goes somewhere most tech career podcasts don’t. Jordan has lived with Crohn’s disease for 17 years, had multiple major surgeries, and still shows up every day. He talks honestly about how chronic illness shapes the way he works, why it became a source of fuel rather than a reason to stop, and what he wants other people living with invisible illness to know.WHAT JORDAN DOES NOW:Jordan is a Cloud Engineer at New American Funding, a nationally recognized mortgage lender based in Southern California. He holds FinOps Practitioner and FOCUS Analyst certifications along with several Microsoft Azure credentials, and he pitched a cost-savings plan to the company’s CISO within 90 to 120 days of joining.KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS CONVERSATION:Self-fund your career when no one else willJordan bought his own certifications and paid out of pocket to attend FinOps X in San Diego. New American Funding hired him because he showed up with six months of self-directed learning they hadn’t asked for.Closed mouths don’t get fedHe told the managing director of a Las Vegas news station that his childhood dream was to be a weatherman. His 11-year-old son got a full behind-the-scenes tour. He told a CISO at an executive dinner he was always looking for opportunity. That conversation eventually became a job offer.Ego is not your amigoAfter being laid off from MGM Resorts, Jordan posted publicly on LinkedIn asking for help finding a job. A month later he had one. Humility opened the door his resume hadn’t.People don’t earn your respect, they lose itJordan starts every relationship with trust and respect given. He keeps his baseline consistent, treats the CEO and the janitor the same way, and lets people’s behavior over time tell him who belongs in his circle.It’s easy to do hard things when you’re always doing hard thingsLiving with Crohn’s disease for 17 years has meant daily symptoms and multiple major surgeries. Jordan describes it as fuel – when you’re always uncomfortable, doing uncomfortable things gets easier.TOPICS COVERED:• Discovering FinOps through a dinner conversation and pivoting on the spot• Self-funding certifications and attending a national conference out of pocket• “Closed mouths don’t get fed” – how speaking up created real opportunity• Air Force career: top-secret clearance, Langley AFB, supporting 100,000 people• Going from Staff Sergeant to help desk calls getting cursed at• Day 91 of a 90-day contract: badge stopped working, week before Christmas• Getting 5 Azure certifications in 12 months without waiting for permission• Being the only engineer at a table full of CISOs and CTOs• The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas: becoming the first solutions architect• Living with Crohn’s disease for 17 years and choosing not to use it as a crutch• Building your inner circle through discernment and honest feedback• Character vs. reputation: you don’t control one, but you control the otherWHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR:• Tech professionals who are self-funding their own career development and want to know it pays off• Veterans transitioning from military to civilian tech roles who feel like they’re starting over• Anyone living with a chronic illness or invisible condition navigating a professional career• Engineers who want to move into leadership or management roles• People who’ve been laid off and aren’t sure whether to ask for help publicly• Anyone who wants to get better at networking without keeping it genericCONNECT WITH JORDAN McCONNELL:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanbmcconnell/ABOUT CAREER DOWNLOADS:Career Downloads explores technology careers through conversations with professionals who share their journeys, lessons learned, and practical advice. Hosted by Manuel Martinez, each episode exposes listeners to different technology roles and helps them manage their own careers more successfully. New episodes release every Tuesday.Connect with Career Downloads:Website: https://careerdownloads.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/career-downloadsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@careerdownloadsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@careerdownloadsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/careerdownloadsFaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Career-Downloads/61561144531249 TranscriptManuel Martinez: Welcome everyone. My name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads where each episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest to learn more about the background and their experiences to help you pick up some actionable advice that you can use as you’re managing your own career. For today’s episode, I have with me Jordan McConnell. He and I connected recently through LinkedIn. I’ve looked at his profile, a lot of what he had doing. He is in the FinOps world now, which is something that I’ve been introduced in my current role. We got to talking. We met up in person. Great guy has his own podcast about something completely different, which we’ll touch on in this conversation, just the blend of your personal life and then your professional life. Just some of the challenges around that. With that, I’ll introduce Jordan. Jordan McConnell: Hey Manuel. Thank you so much for having me. I’m grateful to be here. Manuel Martinez: I’m excited to talk a little bit more about you. I know you and I have shared some of those details, but for you to share that with other people who may or may not be going through the same thing, but something similar. I think in every conversation, there’s always something we can take away from something that somebody said. Jordan McConnell: I definitely agree. Manuel Martinez: So if you can start by telling us a little bit about what your current role is and some of the responsibilities. Jordan McConnell: Definitely. So I work for a company called New American Funding. They’re a mortgage lender based out of southern California. They actually just won, I think – they won a lot of awards recently. They’re one of the best companies to work for in the United States. They’re one of the best companies for women to work for the United States. One of the best mortgage lenders to work for in the United States. I’m beyond grateful to work for them. I’m a cloud engineer for them. What that means is so when people go to their jobs and log in, like manual, password, those kind of things. I work on all the stuff, infrastructure behind that to allow people to do their jobs everyday. Manuel Martinez: And it’s – It’s interesting, right? Because a lot of times people don’t realize all the work that goes behind. They’re just like, “I log in. It either works or it doesn’t.” There’s so much more behind that. Jordan McConnell: Definitely. I’ve learned that throughout my career. There’s behind the veil, kind of a Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. There’s so much going on. For people that are interested in this career field, there’s so much to learn. That’s kind of why I got into FinOps, is that I was working on just regular infrastructure, like log into your computer stuff. I was really interested in the cloud. I worked on different certifications. I got – a little tangent, but I was introduced at a dinner for a guy from Salesforce. I learned that this person was managing $100 million, something like that, like a month in cloud spend. He was telling me, “Hey, Jordan, have you heard of FinOps?” I’m like, “No, I haven’t.” He’s like, “What is it?” That’s how to optimize resources and how to save money to provide the maximum business value to an organization. That sounds like something that, to me, saving money or making money for an organization is how you stay in business. With that person’s lead, I got my FinOps practitioner certification. I got my FOCUS analyst certification. I went to the FinOps X conference in San Diego last year. I met a lot of great people over there, too. This year I had a great time. I took all that knowledge. I took those certifications and all that knowledge with me. I was able to take that to a new American funding. I was given the opportunity about 90 days after, 90, 120 days after I got there to pitch, to propose, I should say, a cost savings plan to the CISO of New American Funding himself. Folks listening out there, and actually that entire journey was self-funded and believing in myself. That’s probably one of the biggest things I wanted to talk about is just having faith having faith in your own ability. Don’t let other people tell you what you can and can’t do. That’s what I did. The certifications, I bought those out of my own pocket. I funded the entire trip to San Diego out of my own pocket. Then when I left MGM ...
Apr 21

From Trade School to Cybersecurity Sales Engineer with Juan Mazo

Episode Information Show NotesAt age seven, Juan Mazo told his family he would bring his mom’s family to America one day. By 26, he had done it. His mom hasn’t paid rent since 2015. And then he fell into depression.Juan built a tech career that most people would call a success from PC repair out of his aunt’s restaurant in Connecticut to hedge fund IT support in New York, to running the IT department at a clinical trials software company, to spending two years unemployed before landing at Veracode, where he has been a Solutions Architect Sales Engineer for seven years. But the most important parts of his story have less to do with titles and more to do with understanding what work is actually for, how to know what your time costs, and why hitting your goals does not automatically mean you know what comes next.This is a conversation about career development that goes deeper than certifications and job titles. Juan talks about how seven years in application security sales taught him to tie tech work to business outcomes, why he reads and learns constantly but always asks himself what he is actually doing with that knowledge, and what he figured out about his own happiness during two years of reading, failing, and starting over.WHAT JUAN MAZO DOES NOW:Juan is a Solutions Architect Sales Engineer, at a company that scans applications for security vulnerabilities. He works with organizations to understand their security risks, connect security initiatives to business outcomes, and build the case for why secure code protects revenue. He has been there seven years and genuinely loves the work.KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS CONVERSATION:Security Must Connect to RevenueYou cannot go to a business and say you need something because everyone else is doing it. You have to tie it to a revenue outcome, shorter sales cycles, more audits passed, more customers closed. That framing gets initiatives approved.Your Time Has a Dollar Value Per HourJuan learned this early: when he found out his phone calls cost $200 an hour, it changed how he thought about meetings, decisions, and where to spend his energy. He applies the same logic to personal decisions.Failing Businesses Was the Best Education He BoughtHe came out of two years unemployed with $20,000 in debt and businesses that all failed. He compares it to an MBA that cost $400,000 less.Knowledge Without Execution Is Just EntertainmentReading, watching videos, going to conferences none of it builds a skill until you do something with it. The gap between learning and doing is where most people stay stuck.Achieving Your Goals Can Break You If You Haven’t Asked What’s NextWhen the thing you have been working toward since childhood is done, you will not automatically know what to do. Juan hit that wall at 26 and spent two years figuring out what actually makes him happy.TOPICS COVERED:– Building an IT side business as a teenager from a restaurant bulletin board– How a recruiter’s coaching before his first interview shaped how he shows up professionally– White glove IT service at a hedge fund and what that taught him about people skills– Becoming the first sysadmin at a 10-year-old company with no security policies– Writing security policies from a NIST framework for the first time– Learning to qualify sales opportunities and stop wasting everyone’s time– The million-dollar DocuSign that went directly to the CEO and what it cost him– Resistance to cloud in 2015 and resistance to AI now – same pattern, different decade– How he thinks about the cost of a meeting and whether it is worth the combined hourly rate in the room– Reading 26 books in a year at age 26– Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie– The businesses that all failed and what he learned from each one– Achieving his childhood goal of bringing his family to America and falling into depression after– What he needs to be happy: a good internet connection, working on cars, and family around him– Three things you cannot outrun: finances, health, and relationships– How he found his people at Veracode and later at Defcon– Using Facebook groups as a curated learning tool for cars, beer, and cybersecurity– Why community accelerates learning faster than any courseWHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR:– IT professionals wondering whether to move from technical roles into sales engineering or solutions architecture– People who feel like they are learning a lot but not sure what to do with it– Anyone who has hit a career goal and found themselves asking “now what?”– Security and IT professionals who want to get better at tying their work to business outcomes– Early-career tech workers building skills outside of their job title– Anyone who has started a side business or is thinking about it and wants to hear what failing actually looks like– People trying to figure out what happiness means for them before they spend another decade chasing the wrong thingCONNECT WITH JUAN MAZO:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanmazo/ABOUT CAREER DOWNLOADS:Career Downloads explores technology careers through conversations with professionals who share their journeys, lessons learned, and practical advice. Hosted by Manuel Martinez, each episode exposes listeners to different technology roles and helps them manage their own careers more successfully. New episodes release every Tuesday.Connect with Career Downloads:Website: https://careerdownloads.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/career-downloadsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@careerdownloadsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@careerdownloadsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/careerdownloadsFaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Career-Downloads/61561144531249 TranscriptManuel Martinez: Welcome everyone. My name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads, where each episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest to learn more about their background and their experiences. For today’s episode I have with me Juan Mazo. He and I met a few months ago at a government conference. We got to…he was working one of the booths near where I was. We got to talking, some shared interests outside of work. It just happened to be around the time that the NFR, so the National Finals Rodeo, was happening. So we started continuing that conversation. Had a couple of ones after that and discovered we have a lot of shared interest both from a tech side, outside of work. So again, this is going to be a fun conversation for me. So with that I’ll introduce Juan. Juan Mazo: Thank you for that. Thanks for having me over and my name is Juan Mazo. I currently work over at Veracode, I’m a solutions architect sales engineer, and I’ve been there for about seven years. I honestly love that job. It’s one of the coolest things that have happened to me. It’s a great opportunity for me. And one of the main reasons I want to say that is because when I actually started at that company, I was unemployed for two years. And the cool thing about it is I ended up in cybersecurity. Never really wanted to be in cybersecurity. I was always in IT though, right? So I ended up in this place. And the reason I really liked it is because it was a place where I didn’t think I had any real interest in it because I’ve always grown up around technology. But then when I got into application security, this is where you hear the stories of getting hacked, hackers, and things of that nature. And it really went down that route. And I’ve really enjoyed learning that for the last seven years. Manuel Martinez: Wow. So then it’s interesting. I know we’ll get to why no interest and some of the things that you did before that, which probably again, trying new things. So I’ve talked about it plenty of times where I thought I wanted to be a network person. I had no interest. Or I thought I had an interest, got into it. I’m like, “Yeah, this is not for me.” And I pivoted around. So then if you can tell us a little bit about where you grew up and then eventually what you thought you might do for a career and then what you actually did to start your career. Juan Mazo: Sure. So I grew up over in Connecticut, a small beach town called West Haven. And what was interesting there was I always knew I wanted to be in technology. An interesting thing that’s happened is ever since I was a young kid, I grew up with a really massive family. I have like 45 first cousins. And my family, when I was probably around seven, they would ask me, “What do you want to grow up to be?” And I would be like a cop, a firefighter, normal stuff. And then they said, “What would you want to do with your life?” And I was like, “I would always want to bring my mom’s family to America one day.” And they looked at me and said, “That’s really expensive.” And she’s like one of 10. So they always said, “You’re going to need to make a lot of money.” And from that point on, my answer to them immediately at that really young age was, “I guess I’ll just make a lot of money.” Now, I haven’t made a lot of money, but it’s relative, especially when you’re a kid, especially growing up. But then fast forward to around, I’m 14 years old and I go to trade school. And in trade school, you can learn to be a plumber, electrician, or work in technology, which is what I ended up doing. And I ended up picking a trade at 14. I remember we were all in an auditorium after going through every single trade freshman year of high school. And...
Apr 7

Thirty Years In Consulting, And Nobody Wrote The Job Description with Kim Snyder

Episode Information Show NotesKim Snyder graduated with three degrees in accounting, MIS, and entrepreneurship. Companies had no idea what to do with her. They weren’t ready for someone who wanted to do all three. So she built the career herself. Over the next 30+ years, Kim went from QA engineer to tech consultant to finance consultant to business owner, coach, and speaker. Her path wasn’t linear. It was strategic in some places and instinctive in others. She learned to read herself early knowing when she was bored, what she was actually good at, and how to ask for what she wanted before someone else decided for her. This conversation covers a lot of ground. How she navigated being a young woman in rooms full of skeptics. How she built a career through relationships she didn’t even call networking. How she still felt like a fraud 20 years in. And how she eventually figured out that holding back isn’t modesty, it’s selfishness. WHAT KIM SNYDER DOES NOW:Kim runs her own business focused on consulting, coaching, and speaking for corporate and small business clients. She also takes contract work in software test lead roles and mentors professionals through organizations like her local project management community and Startup Nevada. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS CONVERSATION:Know your strengths then say them out loudIn corporate settings, people often stay quiet about what they’re good at. Kim learned that naming it clearly makes it easy for others to give you more of the work you actually want. The title/money/company ruleEvery time you consider a career move, at least one of three things should improve: your title, your compensation, or the company you’re joining. If a lateral move doesn’t improve any of them, it’s not worth making. Build your network before you need itKim’s entire career was fueled by relationships. Not formal networking just staying in touch. She recommends 30 minutes a week, five messages to people in your field. Most of the time, just checking in. Imposter syndrome doesn’t expireKim felt like a fraud walking into client sites 20 years into her career. What broke the cycle was catching herself giving other women the exact advice she wasn’t taking herself. “It’s not about me. It’s about them.”This is how Kim got past shyness in high-pressure client situations and on stage. She stopped thinking about how she was being perceived and focused on what the other person needed. Coaching vs. mentoring know the differenceA mentor guides you over time, often informally. A coach helps you move faster in a specific area and typically charges for it. An advocate inside your company positions you behind the scenes. Kim used all three at different points in her career. TOPICS COVERED:• Three degrees, one career: accounting, MIS, and entrepreneurship• First consulting role and what drove her toward problem-solving work• Being a young woman in tech leading with experience to earn credibility fast• The “title, money, or company” rule for every career transition• Switching from tech consulting to finance consulting over company objections• Using your existing relationships to find your next role• Why she preferred smaller companies that let her do more• Staying close to customers and avoiding the promotion-away-from-the-work trap• Why 80% across multiple things beats 100% on one• Imposter syndrome after two decades in the field• Toastmasters and the path from shy athlete to keynote speaker• Shyness as selfishness – a reframe worth sitting with• Coaching vs. mentoring vs. having an advocate in your corner• Paying for your own conferences and development when your company won’t WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR:• Consultants at any level trying to figure out how to move from tech to business roles• Early-career professionals who aren’t sure how to advocate for themselves• Anyone who has ever felt like a fraud despite years of experience• Women navigating male-dominated technical environments• Professionals thinking about when to stay, when to move, and how to decide• Anyone who has been told to “just do the work” and wondered if there’s more to it CONNECT WITH KIM SNYDER:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimdsnyder/ ABOUT CAREER DOWNLOADS:Career Downloads explores technology careers through conversations with professionals who share their journeys, lessons learned, and practical advice. Hosted by Manuel Martinez, each episode exposes listeners to different technology roles and helps them manage their own careers more successfully. New episodes release every Tuesday. Connect with Career Downloads:Website: https://careerdownloads.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/career-downloadsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@careerdownloadsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@careerdownloadsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/careerdownloadsFaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Career-Downloads/61561144531249 TranscriptManuel Martinez: Welcome everyone. My name is Manuel Martinez, and this is another episode of Career Downloads, where each episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest to learn more about their background and their experiences, to try and uncover any actionable advice that you can use as you’re managing your own career. I’m excited for the guests I have today. So I have with me Kim Snyder. Her and I met at a networking event, which is going to be a recurring theme that’s going to come up throughout this conversation. And it’s really just going to show the power. You know, I’ve posted a lot about this on LinkedIn, just meeting people. You never know who you’re going to meet. And again, it’s not for what they can do for you. A lot of times, as you might be able to learn from them, maybe you’ll be able to help them out and, you know, maybe even bounce ideas or worst case, you make a new friend. So with that, I’ll introduce Kim. Kim Snyder: Hi Manuel. Happy to be here. Do you like Manny or Manuel? Manuel Martinez: Either one works for me. Kim Snyder: Okay. I like just Kim. Manuel Martinez: You like just Kim. So Manny works fine, if you feel more comfortable. You know, I go by Manuel, Kim Snyder: Perfect. Manuel Martinez: but people that I know, they’re like, hey, Manny, it makes it – Kim Snyder: Manuel works. Manuel Martinez: a little bit more comfortable. Kim Snyder: Manuel works. Well, thank you for inviting me. And this is awesome. And yeah, the networking theme is definitely prevalent in my life. And we met in a women in tech event, which is kind of in line with both of us. We have a tech background, right? But it also was very entrepreneurial, which I also have that background too. So it was good to see there was a handful of men there. And I always love to see men supporting women. So thank you for that. Thanks for having me. I’m happy to be here and share anything I can to help somebody. So if they, if it saves them a day or a headache or something, I’m always happy to contribute, so. Manuel Martinez: Exactly. And that’s part of the reason – it’s one of the main reasons that I kind of started this podcast is just sharing other people’s experiences. Because I’ve done a lot of mentorship, I’ve done teaching, and people usually will ask like, hey, what do you recommend? Or you know, what should I do? And sometimes they’re going and asking questions that maybe I don’t have experience, but oh, I’ve talked to Kim. Kim mentioned this and they want more detail. And again, a friend of mine said, well, if you know these people, why don’t you just interview them instead of me having to be a third party or regurgitate, I can just share your story and your experiences? Kim Snyder: There you go. I love it. Yeah. So it saves you time and it helps somebody else. Right. Manuel Martinez: Exactly. So to start off, if you can tell me a little bit about your current role and responsibilities, just so that people get a sense of who Kim is today. Kim Snyder: Wow. So I am a business owner and I do contract work for corporate. And I also do speaking and coaching and consulting in the corporate space and also the small business space, which is probably a big turn from the typical corporate route that I was at, you know, five, 10 years ago, even a couple of years ago. So sometimes we have control over a career and sometimes we don’t, right? Manuel Martinez: Yeah. Kim Snyder: So I have a contract role with a former corporate client of mine and I’m in there and I’m a test lead for software, which is something I’ve never done before. But because I like to, I like to learn things and I’m like, sure, I’ll give it a try. I’ve been on projects for 20 years. So how hard can it be, right? Manuel Martinez: And of course, being able to pick up those skills along the way and you’re like, maybe I don’t know how to do this, but I have other relevant transferable skills. And maybe it’s even just the knowledge of knowing I figured out other things in the past. I’m going to do it again. Kim Snyder: Yeah. And I mean, so, you know, I’ve been on enterprise wide projects for the last 20 or 30 years. And in that, you know, even though they were smaller or a subset of what I’m doing now, you still pick up things, right? So it’s still running a large project at a company, um, products that I’m not as familiar with, but look, I’m resourceful. ...

Manuel Martinez hosts the Career Downloads podcast where he interviews a different guest each episode to learn about their individual and diverse backgrounds, job history, and techniques they use to manage their career. So plug in and download the knowledge.

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