))
A Podcast to Help the Technology Professional Accelerate Career Progression, Increase Job Satisfaction, and Be more Effective in Their Current Role
…
continue reading
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 ...
…
continue reading
1
Reduction in Force: Navigating Layoff Trends in Tech with Real Job Talk (1/2)
39:56
39:56
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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 …
…
continue reading
1
Reduction in Force: Navigating Layoff Trends in Tech with Real Job Talk (1/2)
39:56
39:56
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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 …
…
continue reading
1
Enhance Your Personal Brand: Feedback as a Catalyst for Change with Dale McKay (2/2)
40:43
40:43
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
Enhance Your Personal Brand: Feedback as a Catalyst for Change with Dale McKay (2/2)
40:43
40:43
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
Guardrails for Growth: A Mentor’s Experience with Dale McKay (1/2)
38:16
38:16
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
38:16
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…
…
continue reading
1
Guardrails for Growth: A Mentor’s Experience with Dale McKay (1/2)
38:16
38:16
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
38:16
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…
…
continue reading
1
Scope Creep: Evaluating Impact in Career Decisions as a Principal Engineer with Max Kanat-Alexander (3/3)
35:33
35:33
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
Scope Creep: Evaluating Impact in Career Decisions as a Principal Engineer with Max Kanat-Alexander (3/3)
35:33
35:33
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
Succession Planning: Delegation Skills and Technical Ownership with Max Kanat-Alexander (2/3)
41:39
41:39
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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 …
…
continue reading
1
Succession Planning: Delegation Skills and Technical Ownership with Max Kanat-Alexander (2/3)
41:39
41:39
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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 …
…
continue reading
1
Contribute Back: Embracing the Open Source Spirit with Max Kanat-Alexander (1/3)
48:41
48:41
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
Contribute Back: Embracing the Open Source Spirit with Max Kanat-Alexander (1/3)
48:41
48:41
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
Draft Your Narrative: Writing and Building a Technical Portfolio with Jason Belk (2/2)
51:23
51:23
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
Draft Your Narrative: Writing and Building a Technical Portfolio with Jason Belk (2/2)
51:23
51:23
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
Educate and Advocate: Certifications and Community Responsibility as a Joy with Jason Belk (1/2)
57:34
57:34
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
57:34
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…
…
continue reading
1
Educate and Advocate: Certifications and Community Responsibility as a Joy with Jason Belk (1/2)
57:34
57:34
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
57:34
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…
…
continue reading
1
All the Networking Things: Project Management, Pre-Sales, and Broadening a Technical Specialty with Amy Arnold (2/2)
49:14
49:14
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
All the Networking Things: Project Management, Pre-Sales, and Broadening a Technical Specialty with Amy Arnold (2/2)
49:14
49:14
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
Packets Don’t Lie: Quality of Service for Technical Exploration in Network Engineering with Amy Arnold (1/2)
47:03
47:03
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
Packets Don’t Lie: Quality of Service for Technical Exploration in Network Engineering with Amy Arnold (1/2)
47:03
47:03
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
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…
…
continue reading
1
Life after Layoff: A Leader’s Sense of Duty and A Series of Good Conversations with Marni Coffey (3/3)
34:41
34:41
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
34:41
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 …
…
continue reading
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…
…
continue reading
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…
…
continue reading
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…
…
continue reading
1
Everything Has a Lifecycle with Ethan Banks (1/2)
34:55
34:55
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
34:55
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…
…
continue reading
1
Book Discussion: Finish, Part 4 – The Day before Done and Perfectionism’s Final Roadblocks
34:17
34:17
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
34:17
What if deep down you are afraid of achieving a goal? Could the fear of success be the very thing that motivates you to abandon your goal? What could you be getting by not finishing? With the finish line in sight, perfectionism throws up its final roadblocks. To reach the end, we must address the fears of what’s next, what now, and the fear of thin…
…
continue reading
1
Book Discussion: Finish, Part 3 – Get Rid of Your Secret Rules and Use Data to Celebrate Your Imperfect Progress
34:24
34:24
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
34:24
Could you be making false assumptions which only serve to keep you from achieving your goals? Secret rules take self-reflection to discover, destroy, and replace with rules based on the truth. In addition to getting rid of secret rules, we can collect data to measure progress toward a goal. Even though our efforts working toward a goal won’t be per…
…
continue reading
1
Book Discussion: Finish, Part 2 – Deliberate Time Investments and Avoiding Distractions
39:53
39:53
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
39:53
In order to finish the goals we begin, author Jon Acuff says we need more time to work toward each goal, the motivation to keep going, and to maintain focus amidst any possible distractions perfectionism may throw at us along the way. Based on that, what will you intentionally decide to bomb so you have more time? How will you stay motivated to acc…
…
continue reading
1
Book Discussion: Finish, Part 1 – The Day after Perfect and Cut Your Goal in Half
33:46
33:46
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
33:46
What if the reason you aren’t completing the goals you start working toward is really a symptom of being a perfectionist? Maybe you don’t think you have a problem with perfectionism. Think again, friend. According Jon Acuff, author of Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done, perfectionism is the villain we each have to overcome on our quest to compl…
…
continue reading
1
Moonlight Business Ownership: Inside and Outside the Hurt Locker with Justin Kelly (2/2)
44:36
44:36
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
44:36
Why would someone return to a company referred to as “the hurt locker” after a stressful first experience? After moving on from “the hurt locker” to decrease his stress level, Justin Kelly, our guest in episode 271, received a unique opportunity to work inside the special operations division of his former employer as an automation developer. In con…
…
continue reading
