Today on the Angle Free IT podcast, we meet with someone that I immediately thought “I have to get this guy on my show”. This person is none other than VMware Staff SE Prabhu Barathi. Prabhu was recently voted as SE of the year prior to our recording, and I would like to first and foremost congratulate him! Secondly, I would like to thank him for being so approachable on matters such as immigration, career paths, and mentorship.

03:00 Prabhu’s origin story and journey to SE of the year.

I greatly appreciated having Prabhu sharing some time with me.  Look him up on LinkedIn (here).

Prabhu mentioned building your brand, and I would like to circle back to one of our christening episodes – Episode002 with Nic Cole.  It was essentially all about building your brand and is a great reference on the *HOW* of building your brand.

I appreciated Prabhu’s candor and willingness to be honest in this episode.  Unironically, we talked a lot about being truthful – something that some people find at odds with people in sales roles.  Usually for good reason.

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Hello everyone!  This week, I’d like to introduce Sam Gavis-Hughson.  He’s here to help with technical interviews and developing the skills to work through the pressure of a large technical company and startup coding interviews.  He shared SO MUCH good stuff with us on this episode, I think you’ll appreciate how down to earth he is.  We talk about prepping for interview skills, as well as getting ready for the metal game of an in-person interview.

Take a listen and learn what Sam has to offer us all!

00:00 – Sam’s intro – including an origin story involving Lego Mindstorm programming (proving that the program actually DOES work to increase STEM grads!)

If you’re looking for more information on dynamic Programming – check out Sam’s FREE ebook at www.byte-by-byte.com/dpbook

As we talked about – here are Sam’s favorite MOOC classes on fundamental programming and data structures – FOR FREE!

MIT: Click for MIT because you like it more than Princeton.

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One thing we do a LOT around Angle Free IT and online on forums is giving advice.  It’s kinda my ‘thing’ because I couldn’t find a non-anonymous way to get tech career advice online.  At the same time, people want and have asked for personalized coaching sessions to get them pointed in the right direction.  I wanted to let you listen in on one of the first mini-coaching sessions we did a few months ago with a longtime friend and listener Willie Moore.  It focuses on WGU degree options for technology folks.  I think you’ll enjoy it, especially if you’re on the fence about WGU, or what degree options you are looking into.

02:00 Intro.

05:00 ISA degree vs Networking degree.

12:00 Why WGU worked for me.

16:00 Willie discussing which ones worked.

20:00 Doing vs Telling and why they’re different things.

30:00 Programming skills and why they’re key in the future.

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Yes, this interview is with THE Neil Moore – the guy who is tied with only one other human on the planet for having every Expert level cert from Cisco – All CCIE’s and the CCDE.  I first found out about Neil through a YouTube channel he had when he was at HP doing some interop stuff with their switches.  The funny thing is, THAT EXACT CONCEPT is how Neil Views his success.  Listen in on this amazing interview, there is so much wisdom in it!

00:00 Neil Moore – Who he is started with the computer lab at Panamerican University, and a Highschool job doing PC stuff.

Find Neil online at LinkedIn (HERE), and on Twitter (HERE).

More can be found about Neil’s methodology about CCIE study on the How To Network blog entry (HERE).

The post EP014: Neil Moore 8X CCIE, CCDE, RHCE and all the other E’s on InterOp being what makes his career (and yours too). appeared first on Angle Free IT.

I never do quite know when I will stumble across someone who I think “I must have this person on my podcast”.  A Cisco Network Automation webinar was one such place, when I met Hank Preston, the NetDevOps Evangelist for Cisco Networks.  He had a HUGE amount of great knowledge to share with us on this episode.  Tackling Pillar 4, Explaining Automation, and talking about why people screw themselves up by not listening.

00:00 Intro for Hank Preston.

You can find Hank online at @hfpreston and @ciscodevnet. He also gives killer webinars about using programmability to automate your network.

The post EP013: Cisco NetDevOps Evangelist Hank Preston on smart people learning new things (even when it’s scary). appeared first on Angle Free IT.

Episode 12 on deck!  One of the coolest things I get to do is catch up with people I’ve fanboy’d over.  Jason Abbott probably had very little idea how much he inspired or helped me along in my career when we worked together, probably because I was fairly aloof and terrible at troubleshooting when he first met me.  Nevertheless, he took me under his wing, even when I wasn’t ‘his guy’ and taught me a lot of invaluable skills (which he had been taught from Strata Chalup – Episode 8). We talked about his willingness to just put himself out there and attempt stuff when no one else would, and how that’s propelled him along in his career.

Recently Jason Abbott moved into a Director of IT position – and I can’t commend his CIO highly enough for his selection.  He will do amazing there, I’m sure, and I’m very happy for my friend!

00:00 Intro – Chicago to Atlanta for 10-Base-2 ??

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I met Jeff Snyder many years ago when I did my own pivot into Network Security from a straight networking position. I was really ‘stuck’ in making progress moving from one discipline (networking and plumbing of the network) to another discipline (security policy and implementation). Jeff gave me tips – unpaid and unbidden – that helped me shift my mindset and land my first consulting job that spanned what I knew (networking and VoIP) with what I wanted to do (Network Security). In the years that have passed since we first connected on LinkedIn, Jeff’s coaching practice has matured, and now he even has famous clients such as the producer of the Angle Free IT podcast. This episode is chock full of actionable changes we can make in our careers – defintely a must listen.

00:00 Intro to Jeff Snyder and Jeff’s Origin Story

You can find Jeff at his website HERE.  I work with him and highly recommend him.  I know I have surveyed my audience and one common theme that came up again and again from more seior level people was : What now??  Jeff can help you with that.  I probably can too, but if you’re in his hyperniche of Sr -> Director or Director -> CxO, he’s your guy.

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Hey there Navigators!  I had the absolute fortune to catch Patrick Barnard at an internet cafe between his two latest sojourn trips to the Philipines.  Patrick is a fearless entrepreneur who has made some pretty phenomenal companies throughout the years.  I will say, the time we connected the audio was a bit funky with background noise – BUT – the interview was SO GREAT.  Bonus points to anyone who DM’s me the funniest background outbreak!  We talked about Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills, the automation displacement crisis that is looming, and talk about things such as minimum viable income for those displaced by the AI revolution.

00:00 Who is Patrick Barnard?

08:00 Why Patrick created Gamersloot, the largest distributor of World of Warcraft at one point – including countries such as Antarctica and Moldova.

10:00 Outsourcing game leveling in Romania, and cultural backlash.

14:00 AI as the next ‘Internet’.

17:00 What if AI could hire people versus a human?  Patrick sees the Pros vs Cons.

20:00 Job candidate differentiators from a guy who is a potential sensor, vs HR manager.

26:00 Why you should be eager to learn, and not limiting yourself.

30:00 Having an Idea, Having a Partner in business, and trusting others with the execution of said idea.

34:00 Facing fears, and why Patrick calls himself fearless.

41:00 What MBO can do, and how you have to look for quality when you use it (fiverr as an example).

44:00 Minimum Guaranteed Income and other ideas that Patrick thing ‘are not crazy at all’.

50:00 Bonus internet cafe background craziness.

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Jim Manico and I connected a few years ago through some of the OWASP meetings he presented at in Denver.  He was talking about cross-site scripting prevention, and in the brief training, I knew that Jim would be a great person to know if I ever needed to educate people.  Fast forward a few years, and here we are talking about secure coding and how to train the world of developers that they’re security engineers first now.  Jim and I talked about Manicode and his journey of owning his own business, and what that process has been like for him.

00:00 Intro.

Tools that Jim touched on: OWASP ASVs, OWASP Cheat Sheet Series, and last but certainly not least Jim’s Training website, Manicode.com.  If you need any coding training done – I can’t recommend Jim highly enough.  Fidelity is measured by small steps over many years, and Jim is who he is today because he’s the same guy I met years ago, only better.

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Ep-008-Strata-Chalup-Author-Blogger-Superstar-and-Speaker

Today on this episode of Angle Free IT I got together with Strata Chalup, who is a Developer, Author, Blogger, and Speaker from many conferences, including the LISA conference.  Strata has been an influential person in my career because of her framework on troubleshooting.  I got it from a friend who saw her speech at LISA and have gone over it many times with people.  If you’re interested, I have a link to it below the show notes.  We touch on Interview Strategies, Solopreneuring, and Strata’s dynamic career pivots.

01:00: Intro with Strata.

You can find the latest book Strata Co-Authored Here.

Later on, we talked about Arduino programming – and I found a great starter set for people interested here.  For small Arduino parts, I love the Colorado company Spark Fun, which can be found at http://www.sparkfun.com.

As well, we touched on a cool robotics book from MIT that Strata was talking about can be found here.

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