A Podcast to Help the Technology Professional Accelerate Career Progression, Increase Job Satisfaction, and Be more Effective in Their Current Role
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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 to ...
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AI and Automation: Repeatable Patterns for Learning, Consulting, and Growth with Erik Gross (2/2)
50:10
50:10
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How many questions should you ask before offering your opinion? If you’re working as a consultant in tech, Erik Gross would advise not offering your opinion until you have the full context of the problem to be solved and the organization you’re trying to help. Erik’s recommendations for being successful as a consultant follow a repeatable pattern. …
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AI and Automation: Repeatable Patterns for Learning, Consulting, and Growth with Erik Gross (2/2)
50:10
50:10
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50:10
How many questions should you ask before offering your opinion? If you’re working as a consultant in tech, Erik Gross would advise not offering your opinion until you have the full context of the problem to be solved and the organization you’re trying to help. Erik’s recommendations for being successful as a consultant follow a repeatable pattern. …
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Idea Management: Supporting Business Growth by Investing in People with Erik Gross (1/2)
52:04
52:04
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52:04
Entrepreneurs have no shortage of ideas. But how do they know if a new business idea is actually a good idea? Our guest this week would advise seeking fast feedback during the ideation process to save time, preserve energy, and remain focused on delivering value to your intended audience. This week in episode 294 we’re rejoined by Erik Gross to dis…
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Idea Management: Supporting Business Growth by Investing in People with Erik Gross (1/2)
52:04
52:04
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52:04
Entrepreneurs have no shortage of ideas. But how do they know if a new business idea is actually a good idea? Our guest this week would advise seeking fast feedback during the ideation process to save time, preserve energy, and remain focused on delivering value to your intended audience. This week in episode 294 we’re rejoined by Erik Gross to dis…
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Enterprise Knowledge Management: A Consultative Approach to Solving the Right Problems with Abby Clobridge (2/2)
56:35
56:35
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Are you solving the right problem? To get a specific outcome, the problem we need to solve is not always what we think it is. Abby Clobridge, the founder and lead consultant at FireOak Strategies, and her team perform detailed discovery with clients to ensure everyone is aligned to solve the right problem(s). This week in episode 293 we discuss Abb…
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Enterprise Knowledge Management: A Consultative Approach to Solving the Right Problems with Abby Clobridge (2/2)
56:35
56:35
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56:35
Are you solving the right problem? To get a specific outcome, the problem we need to solve is not always what we think it is. Abby Clobridge, the founder and lead consultant at FireOak Strategies, and her team perform detailed discovery with clients to ensure everyone is aligned to solve the right problem(s). This week in episode 293 we discuss Abb…
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1
Library Science: Information Architecture and the Synthesis of Details with Abby Clobridge (1/2)
49:38
49:38
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49:38
What do you think the following jobs have in common? The answer will give you a hint about our guest this week! Doing statistical work for a market research firm Conducting research for a popular news network Architecting information flow and query optimization for websites Leading digitization initiatives for a university Becoming a consultant Own…
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Library Science: Information Architecture and the Synthesis of Details with Abby Clobridge (1/2)
49:38
49:38
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49:38
What do you think the following jobs have in common? The answer will give you a hint about our guest this week! Doing statistical work for a market research firm Conducting research for a popular news network Architecting information flow and query optimization for websites Leading digitization initiatives for a university Becoming a consultant Own…
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Layoffs and Job Market Impacts: Experience with RIFs Preferred with Real Job Talk (2/2)
30:12
30:12
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30:12
For job seekers out there, are you getting ghosted by potential employers even after asking for a status update? Is it possible that the impact of tech industry layoffs on the current job market might explain some of this, or are we observing a lack of leadership and communication? This week in episode 291, we continue a focused discussion on layof…
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Layoffs and Job Market Impacts: Experience with RIFs Preferred with Real Job Talk (2/2)
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30:12
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30:12
For job seekers out there, are you getting ghosted by potential employers even after asking for a status update? Is it possible that the impact of tech industry layoffs on the current job market might explain some of this, or are we observing a lack of leadership and communication? This week in episode 291, we continue a focused discussion on layof…
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1
Reduction in Force: Navigating Layoff Trends in Tech with Real Job Talk (1/2)
39:56
39:56
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39:56
Are layoffs in the tech industry a trend that will continue? What can IT workers do about it? Whether you’ve been impacted by a layoff event, lost colleagues in a layoff, or have just been watching from afar…this episode is part of a focused discussion on layoffs meant to encourage and advise all of us. This week in episode 290 we’re joined by Kat …
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Reduction in Force: Navigating Layoff Trends in Tech with Real Job Talk (1/2)
39:56
39:56
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39:56
Are layoffs in the tech industry a trend that will continue? What can IT workers do about it? Whether you’ve been impacted by a layoff event, lost colleagues in a layoff, or have just been watching from afar…this episode is part of a focused discussion on layoffs meant to encourage and advise all of us. This week in episode 290 we’re joined by Kat …
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Enhance Your Personal Brand: Feedback as a Catalyst for Change with Dale McKay (2/2)
40:43
40:43
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40:43
How often do you ask other people for feedback? Why are you asking for feedback in the first place, and what will you do with the feedback you receive? Dale McKay, our guest this week in episode 289, would remind us that the purpose of feedback is to make ourselves better, and we can articulate that purpose to other people when we ask them for hone…
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Enhance Your Personal Brand: Feedback as a Catalyst for Change with Dale McKay (2/2)
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40:43
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40:43
How often do you ask other people for feedback? Why are you asking for feedback in the first place, and what will you do with the feedback you receive? Dale McKay, our guest this week in episode 289, would remind us that the purpose of feedback is to make ourselves better, and we can articulate that purpose to other people when we ask them for hone…
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Guardrails for Growth: A Mentor’s Experience with Dale McKay (1/2)
38:16
38:16
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What would the job description for a mentor look like? For Dale McKay, our guest this week in episode 288, mentoring is a passion area. In fact, Nick has been blessed to have Dale as his mentor for several years. Today, Dale McKay is a VMware consultant working with federal customers. In this discussion Dale shares his Naval experience and tech ind…
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Guardrails for Growth: A Mentor’s Experience with Dale McKay (1/2)
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38:16
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What would the job description for a mentor look like? For Dale McKay, our guest this week in episode 288, mentoring is a passion area. In fact, Nick has been blessed to have Dale as his mentor for several years. Today, Dale McKay is a VMware consultant working with federal customers. In this discussion Dale shares his Naval experience and tech ind…
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Scope Creep: Evaluating Impact in Career Decisions as a Principal Engineer with Max Kanat-Alexander (3/3)
35:33
35:33
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Can we progress to the highest levels of the technical career ladder like senior staff or principal without destroying our lives? Max Kanat-Alexander would say it comes down to getting very clear about what your job is and is not. Those seeking to become principal engineers must relentlessly focus on the work they are uniquely suited to deliver wit…
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Scope Creep: Evaluating Impact in Career Decisions as a Principal Engineer with Max Kanat-Alexander (3/3)
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35:33
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35:33
Can we progress to the highest levels of the technical career ladder like senior staff or principal without destroying our lives? Max Kanat-Alexander would say it comes down to getting very clear about what your job is and is not. Those seeking to become principal engineers must relentlessly focus on the work they are uniquely suited to deliver wit…
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1
Succession Planning: Delegation Skills and Technical Ownership with Max Kanat-Alexander (2/3)
41:39
41:39
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What should we consider before taking on a new work-related or personal project? Max Kanat-Alexander, our guest this week in episode 286, thinks about the end of his involvement in a project as a first step. The only way to focus on bigger things that could make a larger impact is to offload what you’re working on now. Succession planning is about …
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Succession Planning: Delegation Skills and Technical Ownership with Max Kanat-Alexander (2/3)
41:39
41:39
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41:39
What should we consider before taking on a new work-related or personal project? Max Kanat-Alexander, our guest this week in episode 286, thinks about the end of his involvement in a project as a first step. The only way to focus on bigger things that could make a larger impact is to offload what you’re working on now. Succession planning is about …
…
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1
Contribute Back: Embracing the Open Source Spirit with Max Kanat-Alexander (1/3)
48:41
48:41
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48:41
Do you know anything about Bugzilla? Sometimes the answer to a simple, unexpected question like this can change our direction. Max Kanat-Alexander, our guest this week in episode 285, once answered this question with a resounding yes because of something he’d done earlier. Max spent time triaging bugs for the Mozilla project while in college and ha…
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Draft Your Narrative: Writing and Building a Technical Portfolio with Jason Belk (2/2)
51:23
51:23
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51:23
Have you developed a personal narrative covering the important accomplishments in your career? Contrary to what many people think, our work does not speak for itself. We have to speak for our work. Jason Belk, our guest in episode 284, used writing to prepare his own narrative before sharing it verbally the first time, and he has continued to itera…
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Educate and Advocate: Certifications and Community Responsibility as a Joy with Jason Belk (1/2)
57:34
57:34
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How could the skills learned as a video game tester be applied to different roles in technology? Understanding and documenting the steps needed to reproduce an error in a video game aren’t so different from understanding the steps to perform a specific task like removing malware from a laptop or replacing a hard drive. Jason Belk, our gest this wee…
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All the Networking Things: Project Management, Pre-Sales, and Broadening a Technical Specialty with Amy Arnold (2/2)
49:14
49:14
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49:14
When should we adjust from focusing in a specialized area to something more broad? Amy Arnold left technical consulting because she missed working on “all the networking things.” The former network engineer who worked in public sector would boomerang back for a time before taking a role at Fortinet in pre-sales. The theme of technical exploration i…
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Packets Don’t Lie: Quality of Service for Technical Exploration in Network Engineering with Amy Arnold (1/2)
47:03
47:03
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47:03
When something related to your current job or a job you think you want isn’t for you, how do you know? And how quickly can you make that decision? Much like quality of service is applied to enterprise network traffic, we can apply the same sort of prioritization to our technology careers through the process of technical exploration and curiosity. A…
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Life after Layoff: A Leader’s Sense of Duty and A Series of Good Conversations with Marni Coffey (3/3)
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34:41
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When a people leader is laid off, they have a choice – stop everything, or continue to lead, even as you exit. Marni Coffey continued to model strong character and supportive leadership for her team until the end of her last day with PepsiCo. This is the mark of a great leader…a leader whose greatest skill is empathy. After taking time to recharge …
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Why is moving from individual contributor to technical lead or team lead such a hard leap? For Marni Coffey, it was about learning to develop the people around her. Developing others is something Marni chose to do as a team lead, and as a people leader she continues to do it. In Episode 279, you will hear how Marni approached the first set of one-o…
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If asked about your greatest skill, how would you answer? Could you even answer the question? Our guest this week was asked to name her greatest skill in a job interview, and the answer is one of the most important skills of effective people managers. Marni Coffey is a Senior Manager for Business Systems and Indirect Sourcing and Procurement at McK…
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Have you checked out the Packet Pushers Job Board? According to trends Ethan Banks of Packet Pushers is seeing, companies need experienced senior technical people who are comfortable working with a complex IT stack. If you are one of those people, you are in demand, even during times of industry layoffs. It’s challenging for the business owner to c…
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Everything Has a Lifecycle with Ethan Banks (1/2)
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We often talk about lifecycle management in technology, but every job and personal or professional project has a lifecycle that needs managing from beginning to end. When we start a job or a career, we don’t know when the end of that lifecycle will come. This week in episode 276 we’re joined by Packet Pushers co-founder Ethan Banks. As we talk thro…
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