Nerd Journey: Career Advice for the Technology Professional

John White | Nick Korte
  • 5.0 (38)
  • 职业
  • 两周一更
Nerd Journey: Career Advice for the Technology Professional

Are you a technology professional unsatisfied with your current role? Looking for a resource to help understand changing job functions, changing organizations, or gaining recognition and progression? The Nerd Journey podcast helps explore alternative roles, increase job satisfaction, and accelerate career progression. Each week, we uncover patterns of technical career progression by dissecting careers of guests and discussing different job roles they've held, or discussing relevant career topics. We've interviewed people in IT operations, sales engineering, technical marketing, product management, people management, network engineering, cybersecurity, software development, entrepreneurs, and more. We also discuss improving job satisfaction and accelerating career growth. We are John White and Nick Korte, two technologists with experience in IT operations and sales engineering who started this podcast in 2018. We release on Tuesdays, and can be found at https://nerd-journey.com.

  1. 19小时前

    Finding a Better Way: Contracting, Independence, and a Consultant’s Reputation with David Klee (2/2)

    Does a successful consulting career mean you should only work for yourself? David Klee insists you first need to become a skilled consultant with the right kind of reputation. In episode 310, part two of our focused discussion on the nuances of consulting, we dive into the realities—and the pros and cons—of contracting, working full-time for a consulting firm, and the independence of running your own business. These represent 3 of the 4 ways someone could work as a consultant. Building on last week’s conversation about what makes a great consultant, we discuss the importance of developing a reputation and some tips for how to do it. David also shares his approach to assessing consulting talent, highlighting the key traits that make a consultant stand out. And we’ll also hear why, after 11 years owning a consulting firm, David can’t see himself doing anything else. Original Recording Date: 12-18-2024 David Klee is the founder of a niche consulting company called Heraflux Technologies. If you missed part 1 of this discussion with David, check out Episode 309. Topics – Contract Work as a Consultant, Working for a Consulting Only Firm, Starting a Consulting Firm / Doing Your Own Thing, Keeping Consulting Enjoyable 2:25 – Contract Work as a Consultant * Another way to do consulting work is to be a contractor. How does this work differently than full-time employment? * Full-time employment could be 1 project for 40 hours per week, but it is unlikely. It will more often be a certain number of hours per day working on a few (or even several) different projects. * “Things just kind of float to where you’re juggling anywhere from 3 or 4 to 20 projects at the same time. A contract is going to be a tightly defined scope for a block of time for either per day, per week, whatever. And it’s going to run a duration such as 2 months, 6 months, a year…something like that where you’re able to refine what you do. It’s generally speaking going to be a task or a set of tasks, and that’s what you do.” – David Klee, contrasting being a consultant working full-time for an employer that does more than just consulting with being a contractor * A project you work on as a contractor is controlled. You know when it starts, what to expect, and when it ends. * A contractor has to line up the next project once one ends. Knowing the endpoint can help you understand when it’s time to begin looking for the next project. * Contracting might allow focusing or going deeper on the work you are tasked to do instead of getting too broad. David gives the example of needing to build a data warehouse for a specific ERP system within 6 months. * David says contract work is safe and sustainable. In fact, one of the first projects after David started Heraflux was a contract engagement which required travel to Connecticut and working 5 days per week at a customer location for 6 months. * Where can people find contract job openings? Are these on company websites, on LinkedIn, only available through headhunters, etc.? * David says it works best if you can go through a headhunting entity. Companies may post contract positions on LinkedIn or popular job sites, but a headhunter can evaluate someone’s skill set and share a set of projects that align to that skill set. The candidate can then select which projects they would like to interview for, and the interview may be with the headhunter, with the end customer, or possibly both. * “It’s a way where instead of you looking (and there may be phantom jobs or people just fishing for who is out there) the headhunter is usually going t...

    49 分钟

  2. 1月7日

    The Consulting Life: Managing Travel and Becoming a Better Communicator with David Klee (1/2)

    What does it mean to be a consultant? We’ve explored the consultant role as part of the career path of previous guests, but this episode kicks off a focused two-part discussion on the nuances of consulting. In this first part of the discussion, episode 309, returning guest David Klee shares practical insights for managing business travel, enhancing communication skills, and excelling in the consulting profession. He explains how great consultants adjust the information they communicate (and the level of detail) to resonate with people in different roles within an organization. Whether you’re considering consulting, already in the field, or collaborating with consultants, this conversation has actionable advice that can help. Original Recording Date: 12-18-2024 Topics – David Klee Returns, Focusing on the Consultant Role, Consulting as a Career Path, Job Descriptions and Interview Advice, Travel Expectations and Being Productive, Working for a Company with a Consulting Arm, Presentations and Communication Skills 2:23 – David Klee Returns * David Klee is the founder of a niche consulting company called Heraflux Technologies. They do performance tuning and availability architectures for SQL Server and everything underneath. This spans on-premises, in the cloud, virtual, and physical instances. David has worked on some of the biggest SQL Servers in the world. * This discussion series is meant to be focused on the life of a consultant. If you missed the previous episodes, we recorded with David that include his origin story in technology, check out these discussions: * Episode 119 – Tinkering into Specialty with David Klee (1/2) * Episode 120 – A Time to Build with David Klee (2/2) 3:22 – Focusing on the Consultant Role * We’ve heard the term consultant used in many different interviews and contexts. How would David define what a consultant is? * “I have a whimsical definition of it. A contractor is somebody you tell what to do. A consultant is somebody that tells you what to do.” – David Klee, on the definition of a consultant * Hire a consultant to solve a problem you do not know how to fix, engineer something you’re uncertain of, or to handle tasks you may not have the skills in-house to do. Some of these tasks might be routine health checks, platform assessments, etc. * We may have worked in an environment daily for many years, but a consultant brings the unique background experience of working across many environments over time. * With the right background knowledge and experience, why do consultants get a bad reputation? * “There are a lot of really, really good consultants out there, and there’s a lot of really bad consultants out there. And there are a lot of really good consultants out there that charge a ridiculous amount of money for what they do, and there’s a lot of bad ones that do as well.” – David Klee * People remember the bad consultants they have worked with more vividly than the good, and this shapes their perception of what a consultant is. * People might develop their own persona of a consultant as someone who charges too much, doesn’t do a good job, and then leaves. David tells us this spans across industries and is not unique to technology consultants. * When people seek to hire a consultant, they might not know what to ask to vet that consultant’s experience before hiring them. Are references a nice way to do this? * David says he gets asked for references pretty often,

    47 分钟

  3. 2024/12/31

    Probe and Discover: Coaching for Impact with Ramzi Marjaba (2/2)

    What does it mean to coach someone? Is that the same or different from being a people manager? Ramzi Marjaba is back to delve deep into the process of coaching. This week in episode 308, we discuss the roles of mentors, managers, coaches, and how their skills might overlap. Ramzi will share the reasons he is passionate about coaching others and the qualities of an effective coach. We also talk about how making tasks look easy can mask the hard work behind them. Original Recording Date: 12-07-2024 Ramzi Marjaba is a returning guest and the man behind We the Sales Engineers. If you missed the first part of this interview with Ramzi, check out Episode 307. Topics – Making Things Look Easy and Keeping a Brag File, Defining Coaching through What Coaches Do, The Skills of a Coach, Managers as Coaches, Parting Thoughts and the Future of We the SEs 2:51 – Making Things Look Easy and Keeping a Brag File * A software developer would practice building software every day. A sales engineer, on the other hand, is not practicing doing demos every day. They might do a dry run before a customer meeting to prepare, but that is likely it. * Ramzi shares a story of preparing a customer demo to illustrate how salespeople and sales engineers might not truly understand each other’s roles and the work each requires. * A salesperson scheduled Ramzi to do a “quick and easy” demo to show interoperability with other solutions a customer was using. * Ramzi met with the customer before the demo happened to make sure he understood the customer’s expectation. * “I went in. None of their products worked. So, if we’re doing an interop, and their product doesn’t work in the middle of a demo, whose fault is it? The sales team, more specifically, the SE.” – Ramzi Marjaba * Ramzi did some interoperability testing with the customer, and they decided Ramzi would do a demo just to show how the product works and ignore the interoperability part. * Ramzi prepared a demo based on the prep done with the customer, and it went great. * On the way out of the meeting where Ramzi did the demo, the salesperson asked Ramzi why it took so much preparation to do a demo that was just a few clicks. * Nick references David Zweig’s book Invisibles about highly skilled people who, if they are doing their job, you might not know even exist. Likely this is how workers in IT feel when they’ve put forth large amounts of effort to accomplish a task that seems simple. * “That’s the big thing. If you’re good at your job, you make things look easy. And one of the things engineers or technical folks in general struggle with is letting people know about the work that they’ve done.” – Ramzi Marjaba * Ramzi provides the contrast between former colleagues who would work on the hardest problems that came to the team and someone who would close the most tickets due to finding known issues. The person who closed the most tickets would send out e-mails to let people know how many tickets were closed and would also get all the praise. * Ramzi was speaking with an SE manager recently who suggested keeping a brag file in which you document your accomplishments and the impact they’ve made on your company. This can easily be shared with your manager to demonstrate the work you have done and make a business case for a raise or promotion. * John likes the emphasis on practice and quantifying the level of effort we put in to make something look simple. * We can quantify the level of effort in retrospect for a career ...

    42 分钟

  4. 2024/12/24

    Sales Skills: Professional Networking and Continued Practice with Ramzi Marjaba (1/2)

    Is professional networking the same thing as sales? Does the thought of that make you cringe a little? Ramzi Marjaba, our guest in episode 307, says sales skills are some of the most important skills we as technology professions need that no one talks about. Whether you are building professional connections or searching for a job, you are running a sales cycle. Ramzi helps us understand the role of the sales engineer and the trend in job openings over the last several years. We’ll hear about the genesis of We the Sales Engineers, how it has changed over time, and what Ramzi has learned from hosting a podcast after 300+ episodes. Original Recording Date: 12-07-2024 Topics – Genesis of We the Sales Engineers, The Sales Engineer Role and Job Market Trends, Sales Skills and Professional Networking, Transformation of We the Sales Engineers, An Emphasis on Practice 2:21 – Genesis of We the Sales Engineers * Ramzi Marjaba is a returning guest and currently works as a solution specialist for a technology company. * In addition to this, Ramzi runs We the Sales Engineers, which began as a podcast. Over time Ramzi started creating blogs and YouTube videos – @WeTheSalesEngineers related to sales engineering. He has been coaching others who work as SEs / want to become SEs for a few years now. * Ramzi tells us that coaching is one of his favorite things to do, more so than being a salesperson or a sales engineer at a company. * An SE is a sales engineer, which may also be known as a systems engineer, solution engineer, solution consultant, etc. at other companies. There are many different names for this role in our industry, but it’s a technical pre-sales role. * We last spoke to Ramzi way back in Episode 27, which Nick missed due to sickness. * In that discussion Ramzi mentioned starting the We the Sales Engineers podcast because he didn’t really have a place to go to get educated on what it was like to be a sales engineer. Ramzi wanted to create resources for people getting into sales engineering profession and to build a community. * Ramzi tells the story of a specific customer meeting 2 years into his career as a sales engineer. * “Halfway through the meeting, my customer…he basically stopped me and said, ‘Ramzi, I don’t care about anything you’re showing me right now.’ And my VP was sitting there…. That was the best thing that ever happened to me because he took me aside after the call… He said, ‘Ramzi, you didn’t do any discovery.’ My immediate response to that was ‘what is discovery?’ Two years into the job and no one has ever explained to me what a discovery was. So, I went down a rabbit hole….” – Ramzi Marjaba * Ramzi ended up reading a number of sales books, but he wasn’t able to find many SE focused books. Demonstrating to Win had some helpful tips on discovery. * When speaking with other SEs inside his company, Ramzi found they were making the same mistakes. * Ramzi wanted to talk with SEs outside his company and learn from them, and he thought (at the time) that the one way to get them to talk to him was to say he had a podcast. So, he started a podcast. * “Knowing now what I didn’t know back then, I would have been able to talk to anybody without a podcast. SEs is the best community in the world from what I’ve seen. They are willing to talk to anybody to help.” – Ramzi Marjaba,

    47 分钟

  5. 2024/12/17

    People Impact: Layoffs and Survivor’s Guilt with Brad Pinkston (2/2)

    Are layoffs top of mind for you right now? Brad Pinkston is a returning guest and someone who has experienced multiple layoff events in the tech industry from different seats. In episode 306, Brad shares the story of getting laid off from a small startup. We’ll dissect how he processed that news and eventually returned to big company life. Then, looking at layoffs from a different lens, we talk about feeling survivor’s guilt. Have you ever felt it? Is it wrong to feel it when you didn’t lose your job? After deciding to continue as an individual contributor, Brad would later become a member of the team he had once managed. Listen closely to hear about the hardest part of that transition and whether Brad sees himself returning to people management someday. Original Recording Date: 11-21-2024 Brad Pinkston works in technical pre-sales and is a returning guest. If you missed part 1 of this discussion with Brad, check out Episode 305. Topics – Once Impacted by a Layoff, Examining Survivor’s Guilt, Staying Individual Contributor, Parting Thoughts 2:29 – Once Impacted by a Layoff * How did Brad process being laid off from the 2nd startup he joined? * Looking back, Brad can logically see that his position really did need to be eliminated. * Brad likes to stay on the analytical side of his mind because emotions can easily snowball in situations like these. * “The startup was taking a chance on trying to create something. After months of trying to create it, it didn’t work. Maybe a bigger company could have taken me and put me in a different place, but this is startup world…. If we’re abandoning the strategy, we’re abandoning people who were hired to execute the strategy, so that’s the way that I analyzed it mentally.” – Brad Pinkston * The emotional processing of this event was not easy. Brad says he was worried about finances and taking care of his family among other things. * Brad mentions one of the worst things a manager or leader can say in a layoff situation such as this is how great someone is and that they won’t have any trouble finding a job. * “If I’m so great, why did you need to eliminate me as opposed to repurposing me or something like that? …That was the biggest emotional reaction I had to the entire thing…. I think that managers or people that have to deliver that news…they say that thinking that it’s going to help you be more confident, but it is not helpful at all. It is a shot to the gut emotionally, so if you’re ever in a place where you have to deliver that news, don’t say that.” – Brad Pinkston, on telling someone being laid off they won’t have trouble finding a job * John highlights the fact that we as humans don’t react emotionally the same way we intellectually think we should. * “Our emotional reactions…they just are. Whether or not it makes sense intellectually, it is what happens…. You can do all of the intellectualization that you want. That doesn’t change what the emotional reaction was.” – John White, on how reactions to situations might not make sense * We might feel that we have failed again or feel worse by having an emotional reaction that intellectually doesn’t make sense. A person can spiral downward quickly this way. * John has learned to try and give himself grace in these situations (when the emotional reaction does not make logical sense). * This is the only time Brad has been laid off, and he feels lucky that it’s only happened once. * Telling people they are going to be fine might cause an emotional reaction. * Looking at this differently, Brad thinks he would have been upset if the layoff had been completely imperson...

    42 分钟

  6. 2024/12/10

    Go-to-Market: Startups and Technical Alliances with Brad Pinkston (1/2)

    What exactly is a technical alliance? Technology companies create alliance relationships to support product integration and to increase revenue by creating multiple avenues for selling a product. But as Brad Pinkston knows, alliance relationships between different companies can become quite complex. This week in episode 305 we’re rejoined by Brad Pinkston to hear his story of pursuing a role at a startup while at the same time making the move from people manager to individual contributor. We’ll define go-to-market strategy and how that related to Brad’s role at the startup, discuss what happens when a new job turns out to be different than what we expected, highlight some thoughts on evaluating startups from a different lens before joining, and listen to Brad reflect on his experience interviewing for a second-line manager. Original Recording Date: 11-21-2024 Topics – Brad Pinkston Returns, The Allure of Startup Life, Go-to-Market and an Expectations Mismatch, Technical Alliance Relationships, Returning to Individual Contributor, Managers and Interview Expertise, Running Away from Something 2:!7 – Brad Pinkston Returns * We last spoke with Brad Pinkston back in 2020. What has he been up to since? You can find our previous discussions with Brad here: * Episode 83 – The Path to People Management and Early Lessons Learned * Episode 84 – Management Interviews and Transitions with Brad Pinkston * Brad decided to leave a big company and try out life working for a startup while at the same time making a move from people manager to individual contributor. Eventually Brad transitioned out of startup life and has returned to a big company in a technical presales role. 3:21 – The Allure of Startup Life * What attracted Brad to startup life, and what makes it alluring when you work for a big company? * One reason to join a startup is the potential for a very large future payday from stocks. * “Fundamentally what I really like to do is I like to build things from the ground up.” – Brad Pinkston * Before moving to the startup, Brad was in a first line manager role at a big company. At the time, Brad did not feel he had the amount of control he would have liked over what he was building. * Moving to the startup was a chance to go and build an organization. Brad’s role was going to be leading the relationship between his past company (the big company) and the new company (the startup). The startup planned to have an OEM relationship with the company he was leaving. * More specifically, Brad was going to… * Help the two companies work together * Develop sales strategies * Teach salespeople at the startup how to work with sellers at the former company * Teach sellers at his former company about the startup’s new technology – something much more security and networking focused and out of the area of expertise of his former company * Nick sees Brad’s move as an adjacency with some good relatable experience. *Brad was a people manager who had built and led teams. He would be building an organizational structure in terms of processes and ways of working together. And he also knew the technology from his former employer. With solutions from the former company being integrated into the startup’s technology, Brad wasn’t starting from nothing. His base of knowledge was very relevant to what he would be doing...

    44 分钟

  7. 2024/12/03

    Next Level: Shifting Specialties and Broadening Your Outcome Goal with Duncan Epping (2/2)

    Are you trying to reach that next level in your career? Why do you want to get to the next level, and what is most important to you in doing that? If next level means next job level in your case, at some point there is no next level. What then? Duncan Epping would encourage you not to set a goal based on an endpoint. This week in episode 304 we share Duncan’s career progression over time to Chief Technologist, discussing his motivations and goals along the way. You’ll hear about the qualities top level individual contributors in our industry possess. We also talk through the willingness to shift our technical specialty over time and the humility of approaching everything with the intent to learn something regardless of the outcome. Original Recording Date: 10-29-2024 Duncan Epping is Chief Technologist, a published author, a blogger, and someone who loves to learn. If you missed part 1 of our discussion with Duncan, check out Episode 303. Topics – A Job Role is not the Goal, Reputation and Reliability, Shifting Your Area of Specialization 2:47 – A Job Role is not the Goal * We’ve discussed not needing to go into management to progress in our careers and continuing to progress as individual contributors with some of our guests. Sometimes this means moving to another company whose clearly defined job leveling supports this choice (staff level, principal level, distinguished level, and perhaps all the way to Chief Technologist). What does it take to progress along this path? * Duncan tells us this is something that is quite difficult to discuss because the way someone can progress can differ greatly across companies. Things which may be important for progression at one company may not be important at others. * Though Duncan is a Chief Technologist today, repeating the same steps he took does not guarantee someone will reach the same level or end up in the same situation. Some of this has to do with being in the right place at the right time or being properly positioned to reach the next level. * “Even for myself, at some point there is no career progression anymore…. There’s not always a next level. The same applies for the CEO of the company. There is no higher level…. That is also something to consider.” – Duncan Epping * We might hear of people wanting to get to the next level and then to the next, but at some point, the progression will stop. * “You also need to ask yourself, ‘why do you want to get to that next level? What is most important to you?’ …One of the things that was extremely important to me when I started out in the virtualization space…it wasn’t becoming a Chief Technologist or a CTO or anything like that…. The one thing that was really important to me was to learn as much as I possibly could about this new, cool technology that appeared on the market. That is the one thing that I wanted to do. And that is what set me up for success. I wasn’t constantly chasing new job roles. Those job roles were more or less chasing me…which I know sounds very funny, but that’s the way things really went….” – Duncan Epping * Several months after Duncan started blogging, both VMware and EMC reached out to him about job openings (because he had written a lot of content). But Duncan did not write the articles to get a new job. He wrote them to learn something about a technology he was passionate about. * After starting in professional services at VMware, Duncan consistently tried to stay on top of the latest technical innovations inside the company, expanding his professional network through discussions with product managers and engineering team members. He was asked to move over to the cloud team that did some of the earliest deployments of vCloud Director.

    34 分钟

  8. 2024/11/26

    Write to Learn and Learn to Present with Duncan Epping (1/2)

    What would you do if your co-presenter for a breakout session at a large technology conference had to back out a couple of weeks before the event? One option is deliver the presentation yourself. That’s exactly what Duncan Epping did in this situation despite his crippling fear of public speaking at the time. Duncan Epping is a Chief Technologist, a published author, a blogger, and someone who has given many presentations in different settings throughout his career. In episode 303, we have a focused conversation with Duncan on presentations and public speaking. You’ll hear the story of Duncan’s first public presentation at VMworld and why he decided to continue doing presentations. Duncan shares his learning process, how writing has helped him develop deep technical expertise, and how he’s been able to translate this into presentation slides. We talk through different settings for presentations like customer meetings, small groups, and very large groups and stress the importance of focusing on what the audience wants to know. Original Recording Date: 10-29-2024 Topics – Meet Duncan Epping, A Focus on Presentations and Public Speaking, Lessons Learned Then and Later, Writing and Distilling Concepts to the Core, Think about the Audience, An Outline for Presentation Building, High and Low Stakes Presentations 2:37 – Meet Duncan Epping * Duncan Epping is presently a Chief Technologist in the VCF Business Unit at Broadcom. In the past, Duncan worked for VMware and has been part of the storage and availability team, the vSAN team, technical marketing, and even professional services. * Duncan lives in the south of The Netherlands in an area called Helmond. This is near the city of Eindhoven, which is known for its association with technology companies like Philips and ASML. * In the early days of his exposure to virtualization, Duncan was mainly focused on implementations with vSphere. He later would learn about and focus on Site Recovery Manager (SRM) and vCloud Director (VCD). * Duncan is also a blogger and the sole maintainer of Yellow Bricks. 4:17 – A Focus on Presentations and Public Speaking * Nick mentioned the diversity of Duncan’s experience comes out in his writing and especially in his presentations. Duncan has done a number of public presentations at conferences and user groups. He’s even been the keynote speaker a number of times. We wanted to have a focused conversation with Duncan on presentations through the lens of career progression. * Nick feels like he heard a story on an older episode of The Geek Whisperers about Duncan’s first public presentation being at a large technology conference with hundreds of people in attendance. * This is something Duncan would not recommend others do or repeat. Looking back, it was pretty scary and daunting. * Duncan had been blogging about vSphere High Availability (or vSphere HA) and developed a deep expertise in this area. In parallel, he got to know and built relationships with the product management and engineering teams for vSphere HA. * A member of the HA team at one point asked Duncan if he would help them create slides or possibly help deliver a presentation on the topic. Duncan agreed to help create slides but refused to do any public speaking. * “It’s an interesting thing because when they asked me, I had presented before, but it was probably for a group of like 5 or 6 people, more like a group discussion than a presentation. And it usually was with peers as well. Now, just to paint the picture, even when I needed to do that, I would always get extremely terrified. I had a pretty big fear of public speaking in general….” – Duncan Epping

    47 分钟
查看全部 300 集

预告

5
共 5 分
38 个评分

关于

Are you a technology professional unsatisfied with your current role? Looking for a resource to help understand changing job functions, changing organizations, or gaining recognition and progression? The Nerd Journey podcast helps explore alternative roles, increase job satisfaction, and accelerate career progression. Each week, we uncover patterns of technical career progression by dissecting careers of guests and discussing different job roles they've held, or discussing relevant career topics. We've interviewed people in IT operations, sales engineering, technical marketing, product management, people management, network engineering, cybersecurity, software development, entrepreneurs, and more. We also discuss improving job satisfaction and accelerating career growth. We are John White and Nick Korte, two technologists with experience in IT operations and sales engineering who started this podcast in 2018. We release on Tuesdays, and can be found at https://nerd-journey.com.

信息

你可能还喜欢

若要收听包含儿童不宜内容的单集，请登录。

关注此节目的最新内容

登录或注册，以关注节目、存储单集，并获取最新更新。
选择国家或地区

非洲、中东和印度

亚太地区

欧洲

拉丁美洲和加勒比海地区

美国和加拿大