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.
Episodes
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 exper...
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 ...
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...
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...
How curious do you think you are at work? Take a second to rate yourself. After today’s conversation with guest Milin Desai, you’re going to want to dial that curiosity up a notch.
Milin is currently the CEO of Sentry, and one of the keys to his success from the very beginning was allowing the scope of his curiosity to expand over time…beyond specific projects and even beyond his job role. Pe...
As managers inherit larger teams inside flatter organizations, we might immediately point out the challenges. But what about opportunities? Despite the trend, those who seek to lead (in a management capacity or otherwise) have the chance to intentionally build a better culture.
We pulled in former guests Shailvi Wakhlu, Neil Thompson, and Abby Clobridge in a roundtable format to get actionabl...
What happens when layoffs lead to organizational flattening, fewer managers, and larger teams? It’s a trend we’re seeing in the tech industry at large right now impacting team dynamics and career paths. To understand what’s really happening and the overall impact, we pulled in former guests Abby Clobridge, Shailvi Wakhlu, and Leanne Elliott in a roundtable format.
In episode 347, we explore t...
Episode 346 is dedicated to the memory of Todd Cochrane. Todd was the founder of Blubrry Podcasting, a Navy veteran and electronics technician, a geek and lover of technology at heart, a content creator, a podcasting pioneer, and a consistent friend to the greater podcast community. This week we’re airing our full interview with Todd as a single episode (previously released in episodes 250 an...
Pursuing a role in leadership is one thing, but what happens when you try to return to life as an individual contributor? Our guest, Paul Nadeau, equates this experience to having “resume damage.”
Join us for episode 345 as we dive into the differences between pursuing a technical career path as an individual contributor and a career path in people management from a guest who has experienced ...
Imagine transitioning from individual contributor at a company to managing an organization of 155 people. That’s quite the promotion. How would you approach that kind of change?
Before you get too anxious about what’s coming, Paul Nadeau, our guest this week in episode 344, has two pieces of advice: stay calm, and don’t panic.
Paul’s career began as a Radioman in the Navy where he focused on ...
Remember all the times someone took a moment to help you in your career? This act of support is what Jason Gass calls a “lost art” in the tech industry.
Jason returns this week in episode 343 to share the conclusion of his layoff story. Listen closely to understand why he’s so committed to helping other people in the industry as a result of going through this process and eventually finding cl...
“Unfortunately, your role at this company has been eliminated.” These are the words none of us want to hear, but it’s a reality many in tech are facing. What would you do if that unexpected call came tomorrow? This week’s episode is one we all need to hear.
Jason Gass returns (this time as a guest) in episode 342 to share his story of navigating a layoff. You’ll hear about Jason’s initial rea...
What can you do to stand out as an individual contributor on a large team? The first step is seeking absolute clarity on your role, and it begins with an honest conversation between you and your manager.
Al and Leanne Elliott are back with us this week in episode 341 to continue the discussion about life in flatter organizations with larger teams. Come learn why managers need a support networ...
How can managers be effective when they are expected to manage larger teams? To strengthen relationships with team members and support team cohesion, start with task cohesion.
Al and Leanne Elliott, former guests and the hosts of Truth, Lies and Work join us to explain how uncertainties in the world have impacted business owners, entrepreneurs, and people managers. In episode 340, we explore ...
Imagine getting 45 minutes to describe and defend the quantifiable impact of your body of work as an individual contributor accumulated over multiple years. It’s your job to convince a panel that you have what it takes to help solve the company’s biggest problems. Could you do it?
Our guest Daniel Paluszek has done it successfully at 2 different technology companies to become a Global Field P...
Could a greater understanding of what people managers do make you a better individual contributor? And would it also cause you to treat your manager differently?
For Daniel Paluszek, our guest this week in episode 338, it definitely did. And though this was a short stint in Daniel’s career, he refers to that experience as priceless. This week in part 2 of the story you’ll hear about Daniel’s ...
How does one company form an effective technology partnership with another company? Our guest this week might tell you it’s not so different than a successful mentoring relationship. It requires alignment on the outcomes both parties want to achieve.
Daniel Paluszek is a Principal Partner Technology Strategist at ServiceNow, and in episode 337 he helps us set some context on technology partne...
Looking back on one’s career, it might be easy to connect the dots between job roles you held in the past, but what can we really do to influence where the dots are placed in the future? Srikanth Bollavaram took an approach that pulled opportunities in his direction. What if you could do the same?
This week in episode 336, we continue the discussion with Srikanth and focus on his consistent o...
How honest should we be in job interview situations when it comes to what we don’t know? Srikanth Bollavaram, our guest in episode 335, would encourage transparency in these situations, but we should also find a way to communicate what our capabilities are and our potential to meet the challenges of a role.
Srikanth is a product development leader with experience spanning the financial, railr...
Imagine developing a set of skills that enables you to get a management job, only to find you have to throw away the entire toolkit that made you successful. This is the jarring reality for many new managers, a career change that is less of a step up and more of a step over into a completely different profession. This week in episode 334, John White flies solo to share a candid teardown of hi...
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