Tech Journeys Podcast

Peter Ogilvie is a solution architect at Box UK, a multi disciplinary digital agency delivering everything from focused bespoke projects to large scale platforms for national and global clients, after more than 25 years across blue chip companies including IBM, NatWest, BT and A&P Pensions. He talks about delivering a high-stakes group pensions project in the early 2000s under brutal deadlines, the teacher who once told him he "wasn't logical enough" for computing, and why he now pushes students to stay curious instead of accepting early rejection. Peter reflects on his move from big corporate structures into Box UK's smaller, hands-on setup, and explains why he treats flexibility as more valuable than a fixed career plan. The conversation is a good reminder that careers rarely move in a straight line, and that confidence often matters as much as skill.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Portia Kgotleng is a Solution Architect at AWS, where she advises enterprise financial services customers on system design and ways of working. She traces her career path from production support through process engineering into solution architecture, driven by a natural interest in patterns and systems. Portia talks about how AI now speeds up her admin work and research, but she's clear that judgment and domain experience still do the heavy lifting on real architecture decisions. She also shares advice for her younger self: learn networking and security early, and speak up about your work instead of waiting for people to notice it on their own. The conversation closes with Portia reflecting on where she might apply her skills next, from financial literacy tools to community-focused tech projects.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Or download the Tech Consulting Business Operating System here:

Sumant Satpathy is a certified Salesforce architect working as a senior Salesforce developer at the LTA, with most of his career spent building on the Nonprofit Cloud platform for organizations like National Trust and Cancer Research UK. He talks about the project that changed his career path, leading the Tennis Foundation's Nonprofit Cloud implementation for LTA, and how a technical lead role on a Cancer Research UK project brought him from India to the UK. Sumant shares his long term goal of becoming a Salesforce Certified Technical Architect, a credential held by fewer than 2,000 people worldwide, and talks about growing his audience through weekly Medium articles and university webinars on Salesforce careers.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side.

Or download the Tech Consulting Business Operating System here:

Charles Jackson works full-time as a solution architect at a consultancy while building EcoIQX, a SaaS platform that helps solar installers manage projects from customer acquisition through the full delivery lifecycle. In this episode, Charles talks about why he'd choose computer science and cybersecurity if he started his degree over again, and why he thinks the biggest wasted years in his career came from not exploring different tech paths before university. He also gets candid about where EcoIQX stands after a year: the product is built, but he's still chasing his first client and looking for a business development partner to share the load. The conversation covers how he balances a demanding day job with a growing startup, and why he sees "creating optionality" as a smarter long-term strategy than betting everything on one path.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Or download the Tech Consulting Business Operating System here:

David Toozs-Hobson has spent over 30 years in cybersecurity, starting as one of CyberArk's first partners and later founding Global Secure Systems, a security VAR he grew to 65 people before selling it a decade ago. He now works as a Solution Architect at Computacenter, where he's building out the UK's identity center of excellence. David talks about mentoring people with no industry background into senior roles, why he believes long-term customer relationships beat one-off deals, and why so many identity projects fail when companies skip proper discovery work. He also reflects on the cultural differences he saw running an office in Germany, where clients value partnership over price.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year. To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Or download the Tech Consulting Business Operating System here:

Omkar Uthale is an Enterprise Architect at Gorey Limited, a small UK consultancy where he has spent 14 years moving from SAP through Salesforce and integration work to full enterprise architecture. He talks about the manufacturing client that pushed him into architecture for the first time, the strict on-site rules that came with it, and how he now builds internal AI tools for his company instead of buying them from third parties. Omkar makes the case that anyone entering IT today needs to learn AI orchestration, not just coding, or risk being left behind. 

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Or download the Tech Consulting Business Operating System here:

Paddy Gilliland is a solution architect with 30 years in the ERP space, and he's spent the last two years going deep on AI. He walks through a workflow engine he built 15 to 20 years ago for a wealth management firm, a project that turned out to be agentic architecture before the term existed, and explains how he's now applying that same thinking to real AI systems. Paddy shares three current projects: a regulatory compliance tool for small businesses, an AI system that triages his own inbox and drafts responses, and a webcam-based model that tracks fatigue and posture during work. He also talks about cutting AI running costs by 60% just by rethinking how information gets fed to the model. It's a grounded look at what serious, production-ready AI work looks like from someone who's been building deterministic systems long before LLMs made it fashionable.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Or download the Tech Consulting Business Operating System here:

Biswajit Roy has spent 18 years building a career in Drupal and Acquia, working his way from junior software engineer to global center of excellence head for a major IT services company. He has delivered over a hundred web solutions for Fortune 500 clients across retail, media, pharmaceutical, and government sectors, and has worked on projects in Sweden, Germany, Dubai, Sydney, and Hong Kong. Biswajit talks about starting his career during the 2008 recession on a salary of £60 a month, and shares the one thing he'd do differently: build his professional network earlier. He also makes the case for choosing a career path before finishing school and gaining hands-on experience before graduation, so new graduates have real value to offer employers.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

Or download the Tech Consulting Business Operating System here:

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Mohit Joshi leads AI transformation and architecture at Ernst & Young, where he's worked for three and a half years after 21 years in tech. He talks about switching from a commerce degree into technology against the odds in India, and building his career from database work up to solution architecture. Mohit explains why domain knowledge and strong technical basics matter more than ever now that AI handles routine coding. He also shares his fail-fast approach to testing AI on messy client data, and his view that AI should upskill junior programmers rather than replace them.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

Or download the Tech Consulting Business Operating System here:

Anthony Mashford is a Cloud Solution Architect at NetApp, focused on Microsoft Azure, with a career that started in the military and moved through on-premises data centers before he found Azure back in 2012. He talks about a recent migration project that saved a customer a seven-figure sum annually, far more than the team originally predicted. Anthony also shares his honest take on AI: the technology should augment people, not replace them, and he backs this up with a story about a Cambridge choirmaster who compared AI to the invention of the piano. He's currently working towards another role at NetApp  and he talks candidly about his  corporate career, and why he never branched out beyond the Microsoft ecosystem.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/