The Blind Ambition with Jack Kelly provides a candid look into the top companies in business and tech. Go behind the scenes with industry and workplace leaders and explore work culture, what it takes to land a role at these companies, and how to build, scale and thrive in your career. Hosted by Jack Kelly and Rick Chen and presented by the professional social network Blind.
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Robert Israch, President At Tipalti: When Is The Right Time To Switch Companies?
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Robert Israch is the President of Tipalti, a global finance automation platform, who has over 20 years of leadership experience. During Rob’s tenure, Tipalti has experienced 50x growth, while helping the company receive a valuation of over $8.3 billion. The company has appeared on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and Inc. 5000 lists for the last fi…
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Kiranbir Sodhia, Senior Manager At Google: How Interviewing In Big Tech Can Be A ‘Rough Journey’
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Kiranbir Sodhia is a Senior Engineering Manager, leading teams developing machine learning frameworks for Google and the open-source community. He has over 15 years of experience working in AI, AR, gaming, mobile app and semiconductor industries at companies like Microsoft, Apple and Garmin International. Notably, at Microsoft he led development te…
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Mark McCaffrey, CFO of GoDaddy: Taking Risks
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Mark McCaffrey is the CFO of GoDaddy. McCaffrey joined the company in 2021 after a long and successful career at PwC—a decision that was swiftly made within 24 hours of a conversation with the company's CEO. He was drawn to GoDaddy's passion for its customers and its underdog mentality, as well as the opportunity to contribute to the company's tran…
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How The Betting Markets May Influence Voters
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Although we are having an American Presidential election, it looks like people from other countries can bet on the outcome of who wins the US Presidency. For example, a French trader known only as "Théo" has made headlines for placing a massive $30 million bet on Donald Trump winning the 2024 presidential election through the cryptocurrency predict…
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Jack and Rick Take on Home Depot Requiring All Employees to Work in its Stores
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen react to Home Depot's policy requiring all corporate employees to work eight hours at one of its retail stores every quarter. Rick discusses the practicality and what it'd be like to have senior executives, remote workers or people who don't have any day-to-day understanding of retail policy or frontline experience working.…
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Chip Hazard, Co-Founder and General Partner of Flybridge: How to Become a Venture Capitalist
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Chip Hazard, Co-Founder and General Partner of Flybridge Chip shares how he became a venture capitalist, including how he convinced Greylock to hire him when they hadn't added anyone to their team in 10 years. He explains what the day-to-day work is like as an investor and even what it's like to be a member of a company's board of directors. Finall…
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Jack and Rick Take on Tech CEOs Getting High on Ayahuasca
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen dive into the growing popularity of ayahuasca, ketamine and other mind-altering substances in the tech industry. We look into why tech CEOs are becoming more outspoken about their drug use and how some telehealth-style startups are cashing in on the craze for psychedelics. Jack takes an inventory of all the reasons Silicon …
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Jack and Rick Take on Recent Claims of the Tech Job Market's Collapse
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen investigate whether recent news reports of tech jobs disappearing are accurate. Rick explains that the tech industry isn't one of the hardest-hit industries by job cuts and casts some doubt into the methodology of how reporters and their sources count jobs and job losses. He also shares how some companies have slowed hiring…
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Naveen Rao, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Databricks: How a Neuroscientist Became an AI Entrepreneur
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Naveen Rao, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Databricks Naveen recalls his journey to become a trained neuroscientist and how his PhD studies at Brown University informed his entrepreneurism in AI. We explore how he convinced venture capitalists to invest in hardware startups when it was out of fashion and why the first AI startup found…
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Jack and Rick Take on the Tagged Waymo Car, Anti-Tech Sentiment and Whether Tech Kills Jobs
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen react to the viral social media video of a Waymo driverless car getting stopped and tagged with graffiti in the streets of San Francisco. We look into how it happened, including how driverless cars work and their safety record, and whether the incident might be part of an anti-tech movement and sentiment. Jack and Rick then…
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Gordon Wintrob, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Newfront: How Shadowing Helped Me Start a Unicorn
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Gordon Wintrob, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Newfront Gordon co-founded Newfront, an insurance-technology startup and brokerage firm last publicly valued at $2.2 billion, but he did not start his career in insurance. We dig into his career from his days in college and how he pivoted from his electrical engineering and computer science…
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Christopher Garzon, Founder and CEO of Data Engineer Academy: Why You Should Become a Data Engineer
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Christopher Garzon, Founder and CEO of Data Engineer Academy Christopher shares his Big Tech insider's perspective on the prospects for the data engineering profession. He reveals how companies like Amazon and Lyft hire data engineers and why they can't seem to get enough, which might make breaking into Big Tech easier than other roles. We also exp…
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Jack and Rick Take on Andy Jassy's Memo and Amazon's Decision to Give Up Remote Work
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen take on Andy Jassy's memo, which, among other things, ends remote work and calls for Amazon to "operate like the world's largest startup." We break down what that means, including Jassy's decision to create a "bureaucracy mailbox" for people to snitch on bureaucratic processes, a companywide reorganization to cut management…
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Blind Bytes: Jack Explains Why You Didn't Get the Job, Despite Acing the Interview
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With Blind Bytes, Jack Kelly and Rick Chen reveal insider tips about professional life, which you can use immediately to level up your career. In this episode, we take on why you didn't get the job despite acing the interview. Jack explains how interview cycles are set up at most companies and why a hiring manager, recruiter or HR team might take t…
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Christine Tao, Founder and CEO of Sounding Board: Why Everyone Should Have an Executive Coach
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Christine Tao, Founder and CEO of Sounding Board Christine's career has been marked by some challenging economic climates. We look into how she persevered and ultimately landed an executive role at a startup. Christine generously shares the step-by-step process of how she identified and seized opportunities, how she developed into a leader along th…
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Jack and Rick Take on Walking Away From $1.2 Million and When You Should Leave Your Job
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen take on the ultimate question: "Should I stay, or should I go?" in response to some recent viral Blind discussions. We react to how many high-earning professionals feel financially stretched and falling behind and the paradox where million-dollar compensation packages still leave people feeling like they're living paycheck …
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Jack and Rick Take on Nvidia's Millionaires, Golden Handcuffs and Stock-Based Compensation
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen react to a viral Blind poll that found that 76% of Nvidia professionals claim to be millionaires, and 33% may have a net worth of $20 million or more as a result of Nvidia's incredible stock price appreciation since 2019. Rick reveals how much stock you might have gotten depending on when you joined Nvidia. Rick explains ho…
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Jack and Rick Take on Goldman Sachs' Latest Layoffs and Wall Street Compensation
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen break down Goldman Sachs' latest planned layoffs of 1,300 to 1,800 people as part of its annual performance review process. We react to the mega investment bank's plans to "cull" its workforce and why so many Wall Street firms and banks have annual layoffs. Jack reflects on how the situation is exacerbated by the stigma ass…
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Terence Bennett, CEO of DreamFactory Software: How to Make Transitions Work for Your Career
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Terence Bennett, CEO of DreamFactory Software Terence has long known he would join the U.S. Navy, but it was unclear what he might do after leaving the armed services. We explore his remarkable career journey, marked by different transitions: specialties within the Navy, military life to civilian life, and going from an individual contributor to be…
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Kyle Elliott, Founder of Kyle Elliott Consulting: How to Land Your Dream Tech Job
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Kyle Elliott, Founder of Kyle Elliott Consulting Kyle helps senior professionals and executives land their dream jobs at some of the hottest companies in Silicon Valley. We get Kyle to coach us on how to network—even when you feel like you have to start from zero—optimize your resume so that you can better compete against AI and the tens of thousan…
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Charles Beadnall, Chief Technology Officer at GoDaddy: Your Career Roadmap for Faster Promotions
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Charles Beadnall, Chief Technology Officer at GoDaddy Charles was one of the early builders of the Internet. We learn how Turner Broadcasting, Yahoo!, and other tech companies influenced how he leads his engineering teams and the experimental and innovation-focused culture at GoDaddy today. Charles shares his insights into how technologists can use…
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Jack and Rick Take on Wall Street and its 100-Hour-Plus Workweeks
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen react to Wall Street's 100-hour-plus workweeks and its culture of grinding out employees, especially in the junior ranks. We explore the compensation available and whether the money is worth the sacrificed weekends, social relationships and mental health. Jack also walks through all of the available functions and roles in t…
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Angie Hicks, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Angi: How Anyone Can Be an Entrepreneur
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Angie Hicks, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Angi Angie shares the unlikely story of how she became an entrepreneur as a 22-year-old right out of college. We explore the origins of Angie's List, including how they created a marketplace startup before it became popular, why the company bears her name and the marketing tactics the company us…
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Carlo di Florio, Global Advisory Leader at ACA Group: How I Became a Regulator
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Carlo di Florio, Global Advisory Leader at ACA Group Carlo spent a decade as a senior regulator, overseeing the financial services industry at the SEC and FINRA. He gives us a rare look into what it's like to be a regulator and how someone lands a role in these top jobs. He also shares the common scams and naughty things bankers, brokers, finance e…
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Lynne Oldham, Chief People Officer at Stash: Why HR Gets a Bad Rap
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Lynne Oldham, Chief People Officer at Stash Lynne made it as an HR executive through a circuitous route across companies, industries, and even countries. We tackle all of the different HR tropes out there, including whether HR is your enemy, how they might only serve executives or the companies, and how mass layoffs might happen. Lynne gives us a s…
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Jeff Bogdan, Former Director, Learning & Development - Microsoft Windows at Microsoft: How to Create Your Own Role
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28:22
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Jeff Bogdan, Former Director, Learning & Development - Microsoft Windows at Microsoft Jeff began his career as a software engineer at Microsoft. We explore the company's culture in the '90s and discuss the launches of Windows 95, the Zune media player, and Windows Phone. Jeff shares what he learned from the failures and how they propelled him to ne…
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Gal Josefsberg, Vice President, Product and Operations at Guidewire Software: How to Ace Your Next Product Manager Interview
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Gal Josefsberg, Vice President, Product and Operations - Cloud Platform at Guidewire Software Gal has seen it all as a product management executive. He walks us through what it is like to be a product owner at an early-stage startup, a more mature startup, and how an IPO or acquisition changes the role. We explore how to work with startup founders …
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Jayesh Govindarajan, Senior Vice President, Salesforce AI at Salesforce: Everything You Want to Know About a Career in AI
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Jayesh Govindarajan, Senior Vice President, Salesforce AI at Salesforce Jayesh explains how AI is already changing how people work. We dig into how copilots work and how people are already using them to get better at their jobs and explore the new roles and career opportunities created. Finally, we explore how Salesforce hires professionals for its…
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Jack and Rick Take on 'QuitTok', Viral Layoff Videos and the Job Market
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen respond to Brittany Pietsch's viral LinkedIn status, revealing that she is still looking for a job nearly six months after recording herself as CloudFlare laid her off. We look into why HR and management teams like the impersonal layoff by video and how hiring managers and executives can do better. We also take on the hundr…
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Liz Young, Head of Investment Strategy at SoFi: How to Build a Career in Finance
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Liz Young, Head of Investment Strategy at SoFi Liz's investment strategies and insights are sought the world over from CNBC, where she is a regular contributor on TV, to SoFi, where she leads the financial technology company's strategy function. We get the tactical low-down into how someone can break into a career on Wall Street, the experience nee…
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Awa Kone, Global Head of Operations at Flutterwave: Three Secrets to Building a Global Career and Business
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Awa Kone, Global Head of Operations at Flutterwave Awa is a go-to expert for multinational corporations and multi-billion-dollar startups looking to expand worldwide, especially on the continent of Africa. In this exclusive episode, she reveals the top three secrets she's used to develop her career and the businesses she's scaled on a global stage.…
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Rich Lesser, Global Chair of BCG: How I Became CEO of a Top Management Consulting Firm
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Rich Lesser, Global Chair of BCG Rich didn't start his career in management consulting. We explore how he decided to give up his plum engineering job at Procter & Gamble to join Boston Consulting Group as a consultant. He shares how he rose through the ranks at BCG over 35 years before ending up as CEO and a trusted advisor to CEOs, politicians, an…
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George Bezerra, Senior Vice President, Head of Data: Why Data Scientists Make so Much Money
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George Bezerra, Senior Vice President, Head of Data George explains how he transitioned from academia to industry and why earning a master's or PhD can help you unlock a career in data science or machine learning. We also get George to explain the difference between analytics, data science, machine learning and AI roles and why even companies and h…
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Amit Bendov, Founder and CEO of Gong: How to Validate Your Startup Idea and Get Started
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Amit Bendov, Founder and CEO of Gong Amit is now the founder of a startup last publicly valued at more than $7 billion, but fundraising and getting the attention of investors and customers weren't always easy. We dig into the inspiration for Gong and how he persevered through the venture capitalists' many rejections in the early days. Amit also sha…
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Andrea Guerzoni, Global Vice Chair, Strategy and Transactions at EY: Everything You Want to Know About IPOs and M&A Deals
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Andrea Guerzoni, Global Vice Chair, Strategy and Transactions at EY Andrea, with more than 20 years of experience in taking companies public, advising CEOs and boards of directors about mergers and acquisitions, and helping orchestrate corporate spin-offs, explains how these IPOs and corporate deals really work. We also get a sneak peek into some o…
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Whitnie Narcisse, Operating Partner at First Round Capital: How to Land a Job in Venture Capital
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Whitnie Narcisse, Operating Partner at First Round Capital Whitnie shares how you can work in venture capital without having an investing or finance background. We explore the world of venture capital platform and all the functions and professionals that make a venture capital firm successful for the firm and its portfolio companies. She also expla…
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Monty Fowler, Vice President, Revenue Strategy and Enablement at Kentik: How Tech Salespeople Can Make More Money Than You
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Monty Fowler, Vice President, Revenue Strategy and Enablement at Kentik Monty reveals that at many companies, the most highly paid professionals are often the salespeople, and in some cases, they might make as much as a Fortune 500 CEO. We break down the total compensation and pay structures most common in tech sales roles and a possible blueprint …
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Marta Munk de Alba, Former Director, Talent Acquisition EMEA at Netflix: Everything You Want to Know About How Netflix Hires
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Marta Munk de Alba, Former Director, Talent Acquisition EMEA at Netflix Marta takes us to a world where people haven't heard of Netflix. She recalls what it was like to recruit for Netflix in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, when the streaming giant was first expanding outside of the U.S. We also ask Marta to reveal everything you might want to …
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Dan Black, Global Leader, Talent Attraction and Acquisition at EY: The Secret Behind the 'Big Four' Firm's Hiring, Promotion and Retention Strategy
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Dan Black, Global Leader, Talent Attraction and Acquisition at EY Dan leads talent attraction and acquisition at EY and is responsible for the "Big Four" firm's recruiting strategy. We get the inside details into what he and his recruiters look for when hiring and how somebody can get on their radar. Notably, we dig into the diverse roles and backg…
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Valerie Beaulieu, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at The Adecco Group: Why You Need a 'Career Backpack'
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Valerie Beaulieu, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at The Adecco Group Valerie explains her secret to a remarkable career journey, what she calls her "career backpack," which landed her in the c-suite and on the boards of various public companies and organizations. We look at when Microsoft was a startup and what it was like working in the tech in…
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Annette Stewart, Senior Director, U.S. Business Acceleration and Integration at RBC: How to Influence Executives
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Senior Director, U.S. Business Acceleration and Integration at RBC Annette tells us how to communicate with executives and what it takes to influence them and drive impact. She also shares how to get started, including everything from networking and meeting CEOs and other c-suite executives at your own company to what to say when you want to get th…
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Ben Morss, Product Manager at Zocdoc: How to Land a Job at Google and Become a Product Manager
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Ben Morss, Product Manager at Zocdoc Ben shares his nontraditional career path, from studying computer science and music to working as a software engineer, developer advocate, and now product manager. Ben also reveals that many of his colleagues at Google had nontraditional work experience or had to apply multiple times before landing a role at the…
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Ginnie Carlier, Americas Vice Chair, Talent at EY: Why You Need to Be More Adventurous in Your Career
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Ginnie Carlier, Americas Vice Chair, Talent at EY Ginnie reflects on the best professional advice she's ever received: You need to have an adventurous mindset. We explore how adventure and a willingness to step outside your comfort zone can unlock new career opportunities. Ginnie explains how she put the advice into practice and how it landed her h…
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Congressman Mark Takano: How the U.S. May Be Closer to a Four-Day Workweek Than Ever Before
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The Honorable Mark Takano of the U.S. House of Representatives Congressman Mark Takano recently introduced a bill called the Thirty-Two-Hour Workweek Act, which would amend the definition of the workweek in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. If passed into law, it would require overtime pay for anyone who works more than 32 hours in one …
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Jack and Rick Take on Whether Glassdoor is Still Anonymous
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen react to news that Glassdoor wants your real name. We explore the company's privacy practices and whether company reviews and other information posted to Glassdoor are really anonymous. Jack explains the real-life repercussions of being outed about posts made on Glassdoor and social media and why anonymity matters. Finally,…
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Rick Chen, Senior Director, Head of Public Relations at Blind: How Grit Can Propel Your Career
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Rick Chen, Senior Director, Head of Public Relations at Blind Rick never set out to work in public relations or communications. Instead, he took his teachers' feedback about disrupting class and combined it with a willingness to take on the tasks and jobs few others want to do. We explore how Rick became a PR executive from the very beginning when …
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Disha Patel, Head of Shopping Product at Cash App: The Importance of Finding Your Craft
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Disha Patel, Head of Shopping Product at Cash App Disha explains why finding a craft and refining it over time is essential. It's how she's evolved her career, first as an engineer and then as a management consultant and a product head. We dig into what practicing a craft looks like and how to know if you have the right network and role to thrive. …
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Heather Inocencio, Founder and CEO of The Product Consult: Why Product Managers Fail
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Heather Inocencio, Founder and CEO of The Product Consult Heather is a sought-after product management consultant with more than 30 years of product management experience at large public companies and high-growth consumer startups, including The RealReal and HauteLook. We got her to share the details about how the product management discipline has …
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Jack Kelly, Founder and CEO of Compliance Search Group: How I Became a Wall Street Recruiter
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Jack Kelly, Founder and CEO of Compliance Search Group In this episode, we flip the script and interview our co-host, Jack Kelly! Jack did not always know he wanted to be a recruiter. Instead, he stumbled upon it after visiting a recruiting agency and having a friend recommend he meet someone in the business. We look into the economics of recruitin…
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Jack and Rick Take on Google's AI Mistakes and Nvidia's Million-Dollar Pay Packages
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Jack Kelly and Rick Chen explore what happened with Google's well-publicized blunders with its Gemini AI model. Rick explains what likely happened behind the scenes that resulted in the image generator creating odd illustrations and distorting the reality of historical events. Next, Jack asks if Big Tech and the "Magnificent Seven" group of stocks—…
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