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by John White | Nick Korte
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- Jan 27, 202640 min
An Intentional Ending: Completing the Journey for This Body of Work
When does a body of work reach completion? One answer is to end it by choice. This week in episode 356 you’ll hear the reasons behind our intentional ending of the Nerd Journey Podcast. We’ll rewind the clock and focus on the show’s trajectory and inflection points over time just like we’ve done for guests, share what we learned over the course of an 8-year journey from idea to consistently released show, and discuss our favorite moments. All of our content will remain online and accessible for listeners like you to go back and enjoy. Don’t miss our final call to action in this episode. Just because this body of work is complete, there is still work for all of us to do for our careers. Original Recording Date: 12-20-2025 Topics – A Purposeful Ending, Where We Started, Interview Format and Getting to Launch, The Why Behind the Ending, The Lessons We Learned, Our Favorite Moments, What to Expect from Us Moving Forward, There’s More to Be Done for All of Us. 1:01 – A Purposeful Ending We’ll give you the bottom line up front: this is the last episode of the Nerd Journey podcast. We still love the mission, but the time has come for us to complete this body of work. When we have interviewed guests on the show, we’ve talked through their career timeline and pulled out the lessons learned. Today, we’re going to do it for the show itself. 1:38 – Where We Started John was working as a sales engineer at VMware and was the co-host of the VMware Community Roundtable Podcast. He loved listening to podcasts, enjoyed the medium, and wanted to find a topic for a show. At the same time Nick was in the process of joining VMware, John and Nick were discussing all the things Nick needed to know to transition into sales engineering for a technology vendor. “In that conversation, I said ‘maybe we should start a podcast.’” – John White As Nick remembers it, this happened the weekend before Nick started at VMware in December 2017 (almost exactly 8 years before this episode’s recording). Nick wasn’t sure what he would talk about on a podcast. This suggestion from John started the ideation period, and our launch of the show was in July 2018. John talks about some of the initial ideas for the focus of the show. At that time, VMware podcasts and blogs were a great way to interact with the greater community. Doing something like this was also a way to become what John calls “nerd famous.” By the way, no one else can use that term now (trademarked by John). We initially considered talking about VMware news and our opinions on it since we both were going to be working at VMware. Both John and Nick came from small-to-medium business IT operations and eventually became sales engineers at a technology vendor. One of the things the show could be for is to talk about that journey and help others understand it was a possibility for them as well. John and Nick recorded about 10 episodes before launching to help hit the release cadence. Nick doesn’t remember why they chose a weekly release cadence but remembers the show launched while he was on vacation. John and Nick even recorded a podcast episode while Nick was on that vacation, which started a habit of Nick doing podcast work while on vacation. Because they had recorded so many episodes in advance, they were not going to be timely or points of authority on VMware technology. Both Nick and John’s roles were as technical generalists on the VMware side. “The only evergreen stuff that we had was the career stuff, so that became a little bit more the focus. I think that we were still thinking…we’ll just record more maybe VMware specific stuff later on…as that happens. For right now, here it is.” – John White Early episodes were very prescriptive about resumes and job interview processes at larger tech companies, for example. Nick points out that John had to carry the conversation in these early episodes because he was just learning to think about career focused topics (sort of like being new to lifting weights). But, Nick picked up a lot just from the conversations on the show. 7:50 – Interview Format and Getting to Launch Nick couldn’t remember what made them bring in guests originally, but Episode 13 with Tom Delicati was our very first guest interview on the show. John feels bringing in guests was always back of mind for him, and it was what
- Jan 13, 20261h 12m
Mind the Gaps: Organizational Changes and Your Career Lifecycle with Ryan Conley
Has organizational change redefined your job role? If it hasn’t yet, it will at some point. Whether acknowledged or ignored, every organizational change at a company impacts you. This is broader than just layoffs and more employees under a single manager. What are the organizational changes we might see, and what can we do to stand out and stay the course? This week in episode 355 we’re joined by guest Ryan Conley. Listen closely as we uncover different patterns of organizational change and provide practical tips to take action when those changes happen. Ryan helps us understand the corporate lifecycle and how to reframe this concept to understand where we are in the career lifecycle. You’ll hear from Ryan’s personal experience why the most resilient (and successful) technologists can identify and fill the gaps left after an organizational change whether that means working for a new boss, joining a different team, or changing job roles. Original Recording Date: 11-13-2025 Topics – Framing Our Focus on Organizational Change, Observations and Patterns, Defining the Career Lifecycle, When Colleagues Leave the Company, Layoff Resources, Working for a New Boss, Becoming Part of a Different Team, Shifting Job Roles or Job Level Changes, Parting Thoughts 2:58 – Framing Our Focus on Organizational Change Ryan Conley is a global field principal with 11p years of technical pre-sales experience. Before this, Ryan accumulated 13 years of systems administration in industries like education, finance, and consulting. In a recent episode of our show, guest Milin Desai compared organizations to living, breathing organisms that change. Nick posits that we don’t always think changes at our company will or can affect us as employees, but they do. Ryan references Aswath Damodaran’s writings about organizational change through the frame of a corporate lifecycle. We can relate by considering where our company might be in that lifecycle. As we experience the impacts of organizational change, Ryan encourages us to consider where we are in our career lifecycle. 4:19 – Observations and Patterns We see organizational change in different ways. What are some of the things Ryan has seen that he would classify as organizational changes? Let’s take a step back, past the current headlines, and look at the wider industry. Companies are growing inorganically (through mergers and acquisitions) or organically through investments in R&D (research and development), for example. Ryan has worked with companies that grew by acquiring 2 new companies each year to give an example. When you’re on the IT side of the acquiring company, there is a lot involved in the process like integrating e-mail systems, networks, and CRM systems. This process also involves getting 2 teams to work together. If one team needs to move from Office 365 to Gmail, it can be a big adjustment to employees’ daily workflow. The acquiring and acquired companies may have the same or very different cultures. In some cases, a company will want to acquire others with similar cultures, while some may not be concerned about the culture and choose to focus on the intellectual property (products or services, knowledge of how to build or manufacture something, etc.) of the company to be acquired. Nick says the experience for people on the side of the acquiring company and that of the company getting acquired can be quite different. Nick worked in IT for a manufacturing company for about 9 years, and over the course of his time there saw the company acquire several other companies. Nick usually had to go assess technology systems of companies that were going to be acquired and figure out how to integrate the systems in a way that would best service the user base. From what Nick has seen, some employees from the acquired company were integrated into the acquiring company, while others were eventually no longer with the company. Anxiety levels about an acquisition may be different depending on whether you work for the acquiring company or the acquired company. “The people are just as much of the intellectual property of the company as, in many cases, the actual assets themselves. And in some cases, that culture just isn’t a fit.” – Ryan Conley Ryan shares the example of someone he knew who left after another company acquired their employer because the culture w
- Dec 23, 202540 min
Layoff Bounce Back: Resilience through Personal and Professional Networks with Dave Stevens
Imagine your work day starting off like any other only to find you’ve been laid off. What would you do next? Dave Stevens lived this reality a couple of years ago and joins us this week in episode 354 to share the lessons from that experience. We’ll take you through how Dave processed the news of being laid off, the warning signs he missed, when he knew it was time to begin searching for a new role, how he thought about what to do next, and the critical importance of his personal and professional network throughout this process. Regardless of your age or the size of your professional network, Dave shares actionable suggestions for building professional connections that we all may be overlooking. Original Recording Date: 10-28-2025 Topics – Background and the Impact of a Layoff Event, Initial Forward Progress and Reliance on a Professional Network, Skills Gaps and Unexpected Positives, Elements of the Personal and Professional Network, Reaching Closure and Reflecting Back on the Lessons 2:27 – Background and the Impact of a Layoff Event Dave Stevens is a Field Solutions Architect at Pure Storage. In this role, Dave is a technical overlay for pre-sales technical personnel at Pure across North America. This is the role Dave took after he was impacted by a layoff. What was Dave’s role before he was impacted by a layoff event? For context, the layoff event we discuss in this episode took place around 2.5 years before this recording. Dave was classified as a systems engineer or pre-sales technical resource at his employer supporting multiple account reps. It was more of a solutions architect type of role, and Dave highlights his entry into this organization and role was via acquisition. Was there an element of technical marketing to the role? Nick mentions that Dave often had to attend trade shows in this role. Dave had a virtualization background and went to a lot of events to discuss how his company’s products integrated with those different technology ecosystems. The day Dave was laid off started as a normal day at his home office. His boss was based in Europe, so most 1-1 calls were usually late in the day his boss’s time (early afternoon for Dave). A meeting popped up that was earlier than usual, but Dave didn’t think anything of it. Right after Dave joined the remote session for the meeting, someone from HR joined followed by Dave’s boss. Dave wasn’t quite sure what to expect and didn’t know what was happening. He didn’t know if it was a layoff coming or some other kind of situation happening at his company. When Dave was laid off, they told him it was not for performance reasons, but there weren’t really any other details provided on why he was being laid off. “So, at that point it was just like, ‘what do I do?’” – Dave Stevens, on receiving layoff news After receiving the news, Dave’s access to company systems like e-mail was quickly cut off. He went downstairs and spent the rest of his day relaxing. Dave did not want to talk about what happened any further that first day. Did Dave struggle with separating his identity from his employer or the job he held at all when this happened? Dave says he did, at least a little bit. Dave wanted to be successful in whatever role he found himself, and the reason he was in the systems engineering role at the time of the layoff event is a result of his drive to be successful in the years leading up to that role. “I also wanted to make sure that…the people that I worked with that I enjoyed working with. If I didn’t enjoy working with them, then there was no reason to continue staying there. So that’s part of my identity on how I interact with work.” – Dave Stevens In the early days of Twitter (now X), Dave defined an identity there. He also created a personal blog. Dave says his identity was often tied to where he worked. “Once this all happened, I just kind of cut that off. And I needed some time to really digest what I just went through that day.” – Dave Stevens Is there something Dave wishes people had done for him when this first happened? Dave says he wishes he would have listened to his wife. Before experiencing the layoff event, a number of colleagues who had entered the company through acquisition like Dave were either leaving or had been laid off (including his boss being laid off). At the time, Dave didn’t think much about these events. Dave’s wife had encouraged him to look for other jobs before the layoff happened, and he feels he should have listened. “It’s much easier finding a job when you have a job. There’s not as much pressure on you. You c
- Dec 2, 202538 min
Translating Experience: Clarity from Leadership in the People Industry with Christy Honeycutt (2/2)
How can we help recruiters advocate for us in a tough job market? According to people industry veteran Christy Honeycutt, our guest in episode 353, it starts with being kind and translating your experience into something a recruiter can understand. And even more importantly, it takes practice. In part 2 of our discussion with Christy, she translates deep experience in talent acquisition and recruitment that gives us insight into the current job market. You’ll hear more details about the nuances of RPOs (recruitment process outsourcers), the difference between job hugging and job abandonment, and the importance of personal branding and differentiation. Stay until the end when Christy shares her reasons for turning down C-suite positions and how clarity on her long-term goals is carrying her forward into what’s next. Now that you’ve heard someone model it for you, how will you translate your own experience? If you missed part 1 of our discussion with Christy, check out Episode 352 – People First: Systematizing Go-to-Market for Your Role with Christy Honeycutt (1/2). Original Recording Date: 09-30-2025 Topics – A Deeper Look at Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Translating Your Experience with 3 Wins, Bad Actors and Leadership in the People Industry, Today’s Job Market and Life Outside the C-Suite 2:56 – A Deeper Look at Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) When it comes to RPO (recruitment process outsourcing), is this a one-size-fits-all approach, or does it show up differently depending on what a company needs? In Christy’s experience, most RPO organizations offer services like executive search, but they may offer full RPO, which usually involves hiring more than 500 people per year. Normally an RPO brings a mix of skills to the table. A client may want the RPO to take only talent acquisition or may want to control offer management, but they may want the RPO to take everything (attracting new talent, offer management, coordinating with HR for new employee onboarding). “If a company wants it a certain way, they can stop it at a certain point…. But most RPOs, full RPOs, is attraction to offer accepted and then it tees over to the HR team.” – Christy Honeycutt John has worked for companies where the recruitment or talent acquisition personnel were marked as contractors in the internal global address book but had company e-mail addresses. Would this mean the personnel are contracting directly with a company or working through an RPO? Christy says it could be either scenario. When she managed an RPO earlier in her career, they were most successful when the client encouraged the RPO to brand as the company. Someone might indicate they do recruitment for a specific company on LinkedIn but be an employee of an RPO. Christy tells us how important it is for the RPO to understand an organization’s mission, vision, benefits, and culture because the RPO is often attracting talent and selling people on why they should apply and interview. “When you think about recruitment and talent acquisition, regardless, it’s a lot of marketing because you’ve got a really cool position and you’ve got to find the perfect fit.” – Christy Honeycutt 5:55 – Translating Your Experience with 3 Wins Right now, recruiters and talent acquisition professionals have a distinct challenge. Many resumes look the same because candidates are using AI tools. “What people think is helping set them apart is actually making them look more similar. So now you’ve got recruiters and talent acquisition; they don’t know if these are fake resumes. They don’t know if they’re real. And they’re getting on the call with these people and finding out they are fake; they don’t have any of this requirement.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy shares a little secret about learning recruitment. She gives the example of a recruiter needing to recruit for an executive level role in technology. Recruiters are encouraged to seek out and find the C-players to practice asking them questions, understand nuance, and grasp the terminology. This is a training exercise. Following this process, a recruiter would then have more credibility once they speak to the A-players they actually want to hire. “What I would encourage is if you are a C-player, you’re not going to know it. Just be kind and know that the person you’re talking to has never held a technical role (probably, most likely)…and might not understand half the stuff that you guys do. The acronyms aren’t going to be the same. Just be gracious with them because the more you c
- Nov 18, 202543 min
People First: Systematizing Go-to-Market for Your Role with Christy Honeycutt (1/2)
Go-to-market strategy is something we often associate with a company or its products / services, but what if we could apply go-to-market to our job role? Christy Honeycutt, a talent acquisition veteran and our guest this week in episode 352, has used this mindset as a personal differentiator starting with her first job in the banking industry. We’ll follow Christy as she describes early experience as a people manager, learn why she developed a people first mentality, and recount the events that kickstarted her career in recruitment. This story helps us understand what is required to systematize the work we do and how difficult it can be for things that seem easy. Christy will also educate you on the importance of developing AI competence and the impact of recruitment process outsourcing on job candidate experience. Original Recording Date: 09-30-2025 Topics – Meet Christy Honeycutt, A Go-to-Market Perspective, Beginnings in the Banking Industry, Learning to Systematize and Duplicate Yourself, A People First Approach, Getting into Recruitment 2:10 – Meet Christy Honeycutt Christy Honeycutt has 20 years of talent acquisition experience, go-to-market experience, and some marketing experience sprinkled throughout. Christy is also the host of two different podcasts: On Inside the C-Suite, Christy interviews executive leaders to gain insight from life in these roles. StrategicShift is focused on the future of work, innovation, and AI. 3:17 – A Go-to-Market Perspective How would Christy define talent acquisition and recruitment and the differences between them? Recruitment should be thought about as more active. There is a job open with specific requirements which need to be filled based on time constraints. Talent acquisition is more strategic according to Christy. This would include understanding why a role is vacant, the succession plans, cultural initiatives, and workforce planning. Christy refers to this as “engaging passive pipelines for long-term goals.” Personnel in talent acquisition and recruitment are usually in those roles because they want to help people, but these roles may look slightly different across companies of various sizes and in different industries. How would Christy define go-to-market? We hear this term quite often but are not confident that everyone truly understands what this means. For context, Christy talks about looking at this with a lens across many different departments / internal organizations – marketing, recruitment, and even sales. “Go-to-market is understanding what is the product and who is the end user…. Am I filling a job? Then I’m going to market for that candidate that fits that job. Am I working for a tech company (which I most recently did)? Then, yes, I need to understand what is our product, who is the end user, who is the buyer…and how can I get this to market for them…to see, to use to buy, and to be delighted in? The go-to-market is really kind of a Frankenstein effect in my opinion. It’s really understanding the value and how it translates and then how you can connect the dots…. Go-to-market for me has just kind of been at my core since I was a kid.” – Christy Honeycutt For recruitment, the go-to-market is usually set based on an organization’s vision, mission, values, and culture. Christy uses the example of negotiating with her father (a former Marine) to get what she wanted when she was younger to illustrate that go-to-market can mean understanding how to sell. 7:01 – Beginnings in the Banking Industry Christy was a cheerleader in high school and got a fully paid scholarship to college, but at age 17, she was diagnosed with cancer. As a result of the diagnosis, she was not able to attend college. Christy always wanted to be a mom and did not want to ruin her chance to have children. Christy married her college sweetheart and became a stay-at-home mom of 2 children. She is now heathy, happy, and thankful she was able to have children. Christy’s father owned a nonprofit, and even while she was a stay-at-home mom, Christy was involved in marketing for nonprofits as a result. Christy also was part of the boards of her children’s schools, did volunteer work, and even taught pre-school. After moving to a new state, Christy needed to get a job to support her children. After applying at a bank, she landed a manager job. Within 6 months, the bank branch where she worked was the highest pro
- Nov 4, 20250 min
A Special Announcement – Changing Our Release Schedule
Original Recording Date: 11/2/2025 Expect a Change Moving Forward – The Schedule Hi everyone – thank you for being a listener. This is a brief reminder that episodes from this point forward will be releasing every 2 weeks for the time being. Life circumstances have demanded we make this change to keep producing the show. Don’t expect any changes to our content. We remain committed to serving the technology professional and helping them accelerate career progression, increase job satisfaction, and be more effective in their existing role. Thanks for coming along with us on the journey, and it will continue. Expect to hear from us every 2 weeks from this point. See you next week for another action-packed episode! If you have ideas for a topic we should explore or a guest we need to have on the show, feel free to contact us via any of the channels below. Contact the Hosts The hosts of Nerd Journey are John White and Nick Korte. E-mail: nerdjourneypodcast@gmail.com DM us on Twitter/X @NerdJourney Connect with John on LinkedIn or DM him on Twitter/X @vJourneyman Connect with Nick on LinkedIn or DM him on Twitter/X @NetworkNerd_ Leave a Comment on Your Favorite Episode on YouTube If you’ve been impacted by a layoff or need advice, check out our Layoff Resources Page. If uncertainty is getting to you, check out or Career Uncertainty Action Guide with a checklist of actions to take control during uncertain periods and AI prompts to help you think through topics like navigating a recent layoff, financial planning, or managing your mindset and being overwhelmed.
- Oct 28, 202535 min
Opt In: A CEO’s Take on Becoming AI Native with Milin Desai (3/3)
What does it mean to become AI native? It’s not about using every AI tool on the market. For Milin Desai, the CEO of Sentry, it’s about becoming familiar with the tools and opting in to use the capabilities that deliver practical value. This mindset was born while Milin was the general manager of a business unit at a software company. In this role, he had to manage a profit and loss statement, learning the art of constrained resource planning and organizational adaptability. In episode 351, our final installment of the conversation, listen as Milin describes both the gravity and different intensity of the CEO’s role compared to past roles. You’ll get insight into the strategy behind enabling an entire organization to shift and become AI native, how this translates into value for customers and employees, and how the individual contributor can be a better contextual communicator when speaking to busy leaders. Stick with us until the end to understand how a set of first principles can guide our career progression if we choose to actively participate in it. Original Recording Date: 09-29-2025 Milin Desai is currently the CEO of Sentry. If you missed parts 1 and 2 of our discussion with Milin, check out Episode 349 – Expand Your Curiosity: Build, Own, and Maintain Relevance with Milin Desai (1/3) and Episode 350 – Scope and Upside: The Importance of Contextual Communication with Milin Desai (2/3). Topics – Contrasting the Role of General Manager with CEO, Embrace Practicality with New Technology, Junior Personnel and a Return to First Principles, Shifting Organizational Focus to Becoming AI Native, Contextual Communication to Leaders and Parting Thoughts 2:41 – Contrasting the Role of General Manager with CEO General managers usually own a profit and loss statement (or PNL statement). How was this different than the things Milin had previously gone through? Milin says you do have to prepare yourself for it, and his experience as part of product teams was very helpful to gain familiarity with many of the elements of the general manager role (i.e. revenue protections, investing resources in specific efforts, etc.). Things get very interesting when you are managing PNL in a constrained environment. Milin gives some insight into annual planning and the behaviors he has observed during these times. “Very rarely do people come back and say, ‘I’ve got the same org. I’m going to reshape the org, move things around, and I’m going to do these new things with the same number of people.’ I think most leaders are not very good with that philosophy.” – Milin Desai In this role Milin tells us he learned how to do planning with specific constraints in mind (i.e. stress testing as if no resources / extra people could be added), and this idea of keeping teams lean taught him about the adaptability of an organization. “I really think every organization should do that, and then, you always have the ability to go add more people…. Structurally say, ‘is this how we still want to operate?’ And we rarely do that…. I knew the numbers, the resources, and everything else. We did a lot of planning. But what I learned I needed to get better at is this constrained planning…” – Milin Desai Milin loved working as a general manager and thinking through how to optimize even if the organization didn’t get everything it wanted. “What is the hardest thing to do? To say no. What is the hardest thing for a product manager to do? Shut down a feature. What is the hardest thing for a VP of engineering to do? To shut down a product…. I’m lucky enough to have a leadership team that…thinks along those lines. We are unconstrained, but we kind of try to make sure…let’s put some artificial constraints and see what we would do different.” – Milin Desai Nick mentions this is analogous to the employee who is no longer a fit and having to say no to that person moving on with the company. What is the contrast between being a general manager of a business unit and being the CEO of an entire organization? Milin remembers some of the conversations when he was considering becoming a CEO. “Milin, are you sure you want to do this? And it was not a capability question. It was, ‘do you understand what you are signing up for?’ …It is very different. You are responsible for everything. There is no other person. There is no other excuse. There is no other system I can blame. Somethi
- Oct 21, 202535 min
Scope and Upside: The Importance of Contextual Communication with Milin Desai (2/3)
When we use a generative AI tool, providing more context can often lead to better output. What if we could apply this to our communication with other humans? Milin Desai, the CEO of Sentry, says contextualizing communication will change the way you operate. This week in episode 350, we’ll follow Milin’s story of changing companies and pursuing different levels of leadership. Listen closely to learn about the importance and impact of active listening, how practice with written communication can help us develop a clearer narrative, the skills needed in higher levels of leadership, and how we can evaluate new opportunities through the lens of scope and upside. Original Recording Date: 09-29-2025 Milin Desai is currently the CEO of Sentry. If you missed part 1 of our discussion with Milin, check out Episode 349 – Expand Your Curiosity: Build, Own, and Maintain Relevance with Milin Desai (1/3). Topics – Customer Discovery and Active Listening, Contextual Communication and Iterating on a Narrative, Scope and Upside, Necessary Skills at Different Leadership Levels, Enabling Active Participation 2:49 – Customer Discovery and Active Listening What Milin said without stating it explicitly was that we need to do a better job of asking people more questions to understand where they are coming from and what they care about. This is what Nick refers to as doing discovery, and it applies to the person working a ticket in IT just as much as the product leader or sales engineer working with a customer. “AI is best when given the best context, so contextualize every conversation. And if you contextualize every conversation, it will change how you operate.” – Milin Desai Milin gives the example of a support technician doing the work to close a ticket for someone but then taking a proactive step to let the submitter know there are other related issues you could help resolve. He classifies this as the “extra step” that some people just do without being asked. Very few people are self-aware and like to rate themselves as the best at different things. “That self-assessment is super important…. That extra juice that people are looking for is that contextualization, that personalization, that dot connecting…that is what will change you. And that comes with being curious, asking the questions, listening…active listening.” – Milin Desai Milin says active listening is difficult for him, but it’s something he has become better at over time. John says sometimes the question a person asks is not the question that person wants the answer to. It’s not up to us to just answer the question that was asked. It’s up to us to go the extra mile and ask questions to get more of the context. Milin shares an anecdote for people in customer-facing roles. Validation that a product pitch is resonating with a customer comes from active listening and questions. But there’s even more. “But you forgot to ask a simple question…in the next six months, if you had a dollar to spend, would you spend it on this? We forget to ask the most important question. If I’m going to build it, will you use it? Will you buy it?” – Milin Desai Without asking the above questions, product teams may relay that feedback from a customer was nothing but positive and not understand why product activation numbers are low. We need to figure out why a customer would use a product or feature rather than assuming they will use it when it is pitched / suggested to them. Be intentional about understanding the customer’s priority as well. “The same principles apply to development and everything else in our lives too. If you only had an hour a day, what would you do with it? Start thinking that way, and it makes things very, very simple.” – Milin Desai Nick says we could also ask about priority when pitching an internal project idea to management. Would someone approve the project in the next six months? John suggests asking how far out in someone’s priority list a project would be. What if your project idea or the product you are pitching is not on someone’s priority list? Should you just stop there? At this point with time left in a meeting you have options. Asking to tell someone what you are building is a mistake, and so is just ending the meeting. “What if you spend the next 5 minutes asking, ‘what is the most important things you’re thinking through?’ Because yes, it may not be the current thing you are doing, but again, coming back to knowing what other people in the company are do
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About 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.
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Nerd Journey: Career Advice for the Technology Professional covers topics including Technology, Education, Business, Careers, Self-Improvement. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
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Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.