Data & Dev with Jon and Mel

S3E1:

Asking the hard questions.

In this episode we touch on all of the following.

Business context:

using AI to replicate a business.

aiding project management workflows

Chain of thought techniques with LLMs

AI taking jobs

Risks of automation

Lawyer big oops using ChatGPT

AI to complete tasks:

Robot burger flippers

Robotics to take over more dangerous jobs to protect people

Prompt Engineering

New Roles that will develop as a result of technological advancements

If lower level jobs are automated, where do teenagers go for teenage jobs?

Speed of technological advancements

ChatGPT & writing code

Throwback - hardware restrictions on original NES

You can also find us on YouTube

What to expect from Season 3 of Data and Dev!

A follow-up on our previous compilation, our season 2 guests share more advice on working in the tech industry as well as some role specific advice.

You can also leave us a voice message with feedback on this, or any of our episodes here.

The voiced you here in order:

⁠⁠Brenda Moss⁠⁠

Kexin Xie

⁠⁠Nikhil Maddirala

⁠⁠⁠Tim Chung⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠Vic Vijayakumar⁠⁠

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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/data-and-dev/message

Hear from our season 2 guests on advice for just starting out and what they wish they knew when starting their career in tech.

You can also leave us a voice message with feedback on this, or any of our episodes here.

The voiced you here in order:

⁠⁠Brenda Moss⁠⁠

⁠Daniel Vassallo⁠

⁠⁠Emily Morgan

⁠Mat Fournier⁠

⁠Nikhil Maddirala⁠

⁠Rocco Basalmo⁠

⁠⁠Tim Chung⁠⁠

⁠Vic Vijayakumar⁠

If you work in tech long enough, you will eventually break prod, drop a database, have a major work miscommunication, or any number of other mistakes that feel horrific at the moment but provide you with stories to share that elicit both laughter and horror from your hearer.

Our season 2 guests share some of their worst work mistakes in this compilation episode.

Leave us a voice message with your feedback.

Enjoy hearing from:

⁠Emily Morgan⁠

Daniel Vassallo

Mat Fournier

Nikhil Maddirala

Vic Vijayakumar

Hear our Season 2 guests answer the question, 'Advice for handling interview nerves.'

This compilation episode recaps those prior conversations in the following order:

Daniel Vassallo

Mat Fournier

Brenda Moss

Kexin Xie

Nikhil Maddirala

Rocco Basalmo

Vic Vijayakumar

Trish Do

Tim Chung

Emily Morgan

To cap off Season 2, Jon and I spoke to what many might consider a tech success story.  Daniel Vassallo is no stranger to tech Twitter, but in case he is a new name to you, Daniel is a former Amazon Software Engineer who now makes a living with a portfolio of small bets.   He made his way to Seattle by way of Ireland, working for 7 years at Amazon before leaving the corporate world for the freedom of self-employment.  I (Melissa) love Daniel's story, largely because I long to replicate his portfolio of small bets approach to work. 

This was a wonderful conversation. I appreciate Daniel's transparency and authenticity.  Have a listen to hear:

Whether your goal is to work in tech for 30 years, or grind for 5 with an eye on early retirement, Daniel is worth a follow.  The best place to connect is on Twitter

Kexin's story is a great demonstration that sometimes building a career in tech is more about seeing and taking the opportunities placed before you rather than having a pre-planned series of steps to follow.  In this episode we talked about:

You can find and follow Kexin on LinkedIn, Twitter and Github

Get to know your podcast hosts.  After interviewing a dozen or so amazing technologists, Jon and I figured it might be good to interview each other!  We flip the script, and ask each other questions about how we got into tech.  Hands down, being the interviewer is far easier than being the interviewee.

Tune in for:

Jon

Mel

Nikhil pursued a career in Product Management through the route of an MBA.  In this conversation we talk about whether an MBA is required for a PM career, traits that make for a good PM, and more.  Listen in to hear:

Life at Adobe

Connect with Nikhil via LinkedIn

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Notes from Nikhil on Compensation:

"Couple of notes on the compensation figures. Firstly, the numbers on  levels.fyi are heavily skewed towards SF Bay Area where salaries are  much higher than the rest of the USA. Secondly, these numbers refer to  total compensation, which includes both fixed compensation (i.e. base  salary) and variable compensation (i.e. bonus and equity). With each  increasing level of seniority, variable compensation accounts for a  larger percentage of total compensation. At my level at Meta variable  comp is roughly 40% of my total comp, at the manager level it is roughly  60%, and at the director level and above variable comp is 80%+ of total  comp. Variable compensation varies significantly based on individual  performance, the company's performance, and overall stock market  performance. For example, in the first half of 2022 Meta's stock value  dropped by over 50%, leading to a significant decrease in employee  compensation across the board."