Épisodes

  • Layoff Bounce Back: Resilience through Personal and Professional Networks with Dave Stevens

    Layoff Bounce Back: Resilience through Personal and Professional Networks with Dave Stevens
    Dec 23 2025
    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 newsAfter 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 StevensIn 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 can take your time and really find the job that you want. That’s the one thing that kind of took me by surprise….” – Dave Stevens Did Dave’s wife also point him in a direction or provide feedback on the type of work he should pursue? We’ve spoken to previous guests who had spouses that provided insight into the type of work that made them happy.Dave ...
    Voir plus Voir moins
    41 min
  • Translating Experience: Clarity from Leadership in the People Industry with Christy Honeycutt (2/2)

    Translating Experience: Clarity from Leadership in the People Industry with Christy Honeycutt (2/2)
    Dec 2 2025
    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 can help them translate your experience, the better you’re going to be positioned to get you over the line…. They don’t want to talk to 10 people to get 1 hire. They want to talk to 3 people to get a hire…. And remember that the TA, HR, recruiters, whatever you want to call them…there’s a pretty good chance that they want to help you and that they’re doing the job because ...
    Voir plus Voir moins
    39 min
  • People First: Systematizing Go-to-Market for Your Role with Christy Honeycutt (1/2)

    People First: Systematizing Go-to-Market for Your Role with Christy Honeycutt (1/2)
    Nov 18 2025
    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 HoneycuttFor 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 producing in the state of Texas.Christy came up with marketing initiatives to get customers to visit the bank. She gives the example of a yearly Halloween contest.At one point, the bank was robbed, and Christy learned to lead in stressful situations through this experience. She also learned that she has a photographic memory. Christy tells us her career really began in banking and then transitioned into marketing. Listen to the story about one of her clients who was a mortgage broker. Christy had 2 boys in various sports and was wearing herself out ...
    Voir plus Voir moins
    43 min
  • A Special Announcement – Changing Our Release Schedule

    A Special Announcement – Changing Our Release Schedule
    Nov 4 2025

    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.
    Voir plus Voir moins
    1 min
  • Opt In: A CEO’s Take on Becoming AI Native with Milin Desai (3/3)

    Opt In: A CEO’s Take on Becoming AI Native with Milin Desai (3/3)
    Oct 28 2025
    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 DesaiMilin 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. Something goes wrong at Sentry…I am it. And I have to go to sleep every day thinking about it. I wake up every day thinking about it.” – Milin Desai, quoting a question from former boss John Martin and speaking to the contrast of being CEO compared to general managerYou have to know you want to be CEO. Many people think they want to do it until they are doing it and realize how difficult it is.Milin admits being CEO has been difficult, but having a great team has been very helpful.Before taking the role, Milin spoke to his ...
    Voir plus Voir moins
    36 min
  • Scope and Upside: The Importance of Contextual Communication with Milin Desai (2/3)

    Scope and Upside: The Importance of Contextual Communication with Milin Desai (2/3)
    Oct 21 2025
    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 DesaiMilin 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 DesaiMilin 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 doing, it could be connected to another initiative, another project, another product that the team is building. So, coming back to the same curiosity we talked about, and knowing what’s happening around you, you may find something. Or you may just learn…. But you came ahead as a high IQ individual who is saving them time, who cares about them more than they care about selling a product.” – Milin DesaiIt’s important that we learn to ...
    Voir plus Voir moins
    35 min
  • Expand Your Curiosity: Build, Own, and Maintain Relevance with Milin Desai (1/3)

    Expand Your Curiosity: Build, Own, and Maintain Relevance with Milin Desai (1/3)
    Oct 14 2025
    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. Perhaps without realizing it, Milin was doing the work to build and maintain professional relevance. Listen closely in episode 349 as we follow Milin from his early days as a computer science student through roles as a QA tester and software developer all the way into technical marketing. You’ll hear advice for expanding your own curiosity inside your current company, ways you can provide value to a mentor, and an empathetic approach to customer conversations that can help you build relevance and develop a strong reputation. Original Recording Date: 09-29-2025 Topics – Meet Milin Desai, A Unique Trait, Internships and Job Interviews, Curiosity and the Importance of Control, Mentorship as a Stream of Active Conversations, Beyond the Scope, Becoming Relevant in Something Different 2:40 – Meet Milin Desai Milin Desai is currently the CEO of Sentry. Sentry helps teams find where code is broken in production and helps them fix it fast, and with AI, fixing it faster is greatly accelerated. 3:15 – A Unique Trait Around 7th or 8th grade Milin recognized how much he enjoyed math and science in school. Milin had an affinity for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).Milin cites his dad, a mechanical and electrical engineer, as a big influence. Going into 10th grade, Milin thought he would pursue mechanical engineering.Milin’s cousin Rajiv (who had worked for NASA) would come visit and began showing Milin some of the work he was doing. This is the point at which “everything changed” for Milin, and he decided to pursue computer engineering / computer science. Milin also tells us he built hundreds of websites in India during the time of dial up modems. Milin pursued an undergraduate degree at a school in Mumbai, but his family knew he wanted to come to the United States. Milin came to the United States in 1999 and attended USC (University of Southern California) to purse a master’s degree.The potential for opportunity and the vastness of the United States captivated Milin. Did Milin ever ask Rajiv what he should study, or did he naturally gravitate toward those areas? Rajiv would have conversations with Milina and show him the work he was doing.Milin started working for Rajiv while pursuing his undergraduate degree. He was building websites for companies in India.The building of the websites was interesting to Milin, but he was also doing the selling part. Milin had to make a pitch to companies explaining what a website could do for them, share the price, and collect the check if they said yes.“Not only did he influence me in kind of figuring out…this is where the opportunity is and inspire me…but he also went on to tell me that I have a unique trait where I can talk business tech selling, and I know the technology part. And I can bridge the two worlds. He was one of the early people to recommend that in the long run I may want to think about the business side or…the entrepreneurship side of things when it comes to tech, not just the programming or the systems side of things. And he in fact felt my combo made me more relevant…in that lane versus just staying a programmer.” – Milin DesaiRajiv gave Milin these cues early on in addition to inspiring him to do the work.As people who work in sales engineering today, John and Nick agree that the combination of technology and business value is very valuable. 7:49 – Internships and Job Interviews Milin began working for Veritas after he finished his master’s program as an entry-level software engineer. Pursuing an advanced degree can give you the chance to pursue internships, and Milin had a family friend working at Veritas who introduced him to the hiring manager for a quality assurance (or QA) internship.After successfully getting the internship at Veritas, Milin was doing QA for software-defined storage volume management.Milin’s work during the internship led to a full-time offer from Veritas upon his graduation.“The first break is always hard, by the way, to get. I see it even to this day with folks coming out of school. Not everyone…lands in the perfect opportunity right away, and the dots need to be connected. I’ve been fortunate enough to have people open doors and open opportunities…. But I remember being rejected a lot.” – Milin DesaiMilin tells us he struggled in job interviews as a new graduate. Many of his friends from school had multiple job offers from these conversations, and compared to them, Milin had much less success getting offers outside of the one from Veritas.From a timing perspective, this ...
    Voir plus Voir moins
    46 min
  • Organizational Flattening: Intentionally Model Behaviors to Build the Culture You Want (2/2)

    Organizational Flattening: Intentionally Model Behaviors to Build the Culture You Want (2/2)
    Oct 7 2025
    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 actionable strategies. In episode 348, we present actionable strategies for managers and individual contributors to thrive in this new environment. Listen closely to understand the importance of improving one’s communication skills, the unique opportunity and impact of the player coach / team lead, the critical elements of a manager’s role, and advice for job seekers in a tough market. Original Recording Date: 09-27-2025 Topics – Framing Part 2 of Our Discussion, Opportunity for the Player Coach, Modeling the Benefits of Improved Communication Skills, Management Support of Strong Communicators, Individual Contributors and Communication, Succeeding as a Manager of a Large Team, The Culture of Large Teams, Advice for Job Seekers in a Tough Market, In Closing 1:01 – Framing Part 2 of Our Discussion Last week in Episode 347 – Organizational Flattening: Understanding the Trend, Career Challenges, and Opportunities (1/2), we introduced a slightly different format that we’re continuing this week based on an industry trend. The trend of organizational flattening in our industry has been top of mind for us. We’re seeing the continued layoffs in tech often times result in fewer management layers and an increase in the number of people reporting to a single manager.This topic is too big and has too many angles for a single conversation. We wanted to bring together multiple expert perspectives on this issue in a single episode. We’ve reached out to a handful of former guests and sent them specific questions on this topic. Those guests were kind enough to record their answers and send them back to us.Consider this a Nerd Journey roundtable or collection of hot takes from trusted voices. Our goal is to amplify their advice and provide a diverse set of strategies for navigating this landscape.In the first episode (last week), we explored the trend of flatter organizations and the consequences for your career path and team culture. This week in part 2 we will focus on actionable insights for thriving in this environment. Here’s the full set of episode links we will share throughout the conversation if you would like to hear more from one of the former guests who participated: Shailvi Wakhlu Episode 210 – A Collection of Ambiguous Experiments with Shailvi Wakhlu (1/2)Episode 211 – Structure the Levels of Contribution with Shailvi Wakhlu (2/2)Self-Advocacy: Your Guide to Getting What You Deserve at Work by Shailvi WakhluA special 15% off link for Nerd Journey listeners to Shailvi’s self-advocacy course can be found here. Neil Thompson Episode 193 – Communication for Specialists with Neil Thompson (1/2)Episode 194 – Question Askers and Problem Solvers with Neil Thompson (2/2)Teach the Geek YouTube Channel Abby Clobridge Episode 292 – Library Science: Information Architecture and the Synthesis of Details with Abby Clobridge (1/2)Episode 293 – Enterprise Knowledge Management: A Consultative Approach to Solving the Right Problems with Abby Clobridge (2/2) 1:42 – Opportunity for the Player Coach We’ll start by discussing the opportunity of being a player coach (another way we often reference the team lead or tech lead role).Shailvi Wakhlu is a leadership speaker and data consultant with experience building and leading large organizations, including structuring of job levels for career paths. We spoke to her in episodes 210 and 211 She’s also the author of Self-Advocacy: Your Guide to Getting What You Deserve at Work. Our question for Shailvi: As organizations flatten and there are less manager roles, does this create an opportunity for people to become a technical lead or team lead to help the manager scale? We would love to hear any perspective you have on how the team lead / tech lead (i.e. player coach type role) changes as a result of the org changes. Even without the trend of flattening or decreasing the number of managers, there has consistently been an opportunity for people to demonstrate the mindset of group leadership. Someone could be a project lead, a team lead, or a technical lead.The technical lead focuses more on technical standards to which a team needs to adhere.“I think anything that you do that helps your manager manage the team, scale the team, grow the output, or just have better focus…has always been a good way to get your foot in the door for those type of roles in the future.” – Shailvi WakhluShailvi remembers working at companies where several people wanted to someday get into a management role. Even in times of heavy hiring, there is no way to accommodate everyone who wants...
    Voir plus Voir moins
    21 min