Tech World Human Skills

This episode looks at why career growth in technology rarely happens by accident, and what people working in tech can actually do to take control of their own progression.

Ben sits down with Jeremy Burns, VP of Platform Engineering at Hawke and author of Earn More Move Up, to dig into the mechanics that decide who gets promoted, who gets paid more, and who quietly stalls. The conversation centres on a simple hierarchy that Jeremy uses for almost every career decision: customer, company, team, self. Reverse that order and your career suffers. Get it the right way round and the rewards follow naturally because you are creating real value for the business.

They also unpack the unwritten contract every employment relationship lives inside, the difference between endorsing and adjusting feedback, and why pay rises and promotions are a lagging indicator of work you did six to nine months ago. Jeremy explains why walking into a performance review with a beautiful self-pitch document is almost always too late, and what to do instead. Ben adds the leadership view from his time managing budgets at Microsoft, including the moment a manager sits down with their final pot of cash and realises someone has been quietly invisible all year.

The final section is about knowing when to leave. Jeremy uses the boat metaphor to talk about staying, accepting your boat, or moving on. Ben shares the eighteen months of planning that sat behind his decision to leave Microsoft and start Elevated You. The throughline is the same idea Jeremy returns to throughout: be first to your own rescue.

About the guest: Jeremy Burns is VP of Platform Engineering at Hawke, host of the Build Your Edge podcast, and author of Earn More Move Up. He started in marketing, taught himself to code, and worked through development and management into senior technology leadership over a long career. His view sits at the rare intersection of having been on both sides of the performance review table.

Listen and subscribe:

Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eUGUEB7s 

Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eMHTNE-3 

YouTube: https://lnkd.in/esq9jDs2 

Newsletter and archive: https://www.techworldhumanskills.com 

Connect with Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benpthoughts 

Connect with Jeremy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyburns/ 

Buyers in a serious software evaluation sit through between eight and thirteen vendor demos, and most of them blur into the same slick performance, so the sales engineer who actually gets remembered is the one who shows up as a real human.

This episode digs into the three timeless behaviours that Ron Whitson has spent twenty-eight years in pre-sales learning the hard way: be authentic, listen actively, and leave an impression. The conversation works through each one in turn, what gets in the way of doing it well, and the small habits that move the dial.

On authenticity, Ron makes the case that imitating someone else's demo always reads as fake, and that in a market saturated with AI-generated polish, the slightly boring real version of you is more valuable than a perfect performance. On active listening, he separates listening to understand from listening to respond, and explains why putting the phone down and resisting the urge to jump in is harder than it sounds, especially for technical experts who already know where the question is going. On leaving an impression, he frames the audience reality clearly: when a buyer has watched a dozen presentations in a week, the differentiator is rarely the product, it is whether they liked you and whether the solution was simple enough to explain to a colleague.

It also questions the lazy assumption that being audience-centric means becoming whatever the room wants you to be. Ron argues that you can adapt to the situation while staying anchored to a consistent set of values, and that giving yourself permission to say "I have not had that question before, let me come back to you" is itself an authentic move. Useful for Sales Engineers and Solution Consultants who are tired of polishing the same deck, and for leaders who keep getting feedback that their team's calls all sound the same.

About the guest. Ron Whitson is Senior Director of Solution Consulting at Thomson Reuters and the author of A Friendly Human in Pre-Sales. He has spent twenty-eight years in pre-sales work, roughly half of that in leadership roles, and now spends a lot of his time coaching, mentoring, and developing solution consulting teams.

Listen and subscribe:

Newsletter and archive:

Ron Links

Stories are like mustard on a ham sandwich. A little lifts everything. An inch thick and you lose the room.

Tim Chinchen has spent 30 years in technology, half of that leading pre-sales teams. In this episode he walks through the storytelling habits that move deals and the ones that sink them. Why some cultures expect you to share your life before you share your ask. Why breaking a client's website inside a demo can work better than showing them a feature list. Why the classic hero's journey does not hold up in a 40-minute call where the exec might get pulled out after ten.

The conversation unpacks a three-act structure you can drop any story into, the three business themes every commercial story eventually serves (making money, saving money, and not getting sued), and the habit of putting the last thing first so even a distracted audience gets the point.

Tim also shares where he still gets it wrong. He recently used an AI note-taker to review his own job interviews and was told he used too many stories. The lesson is that the right number is rarely the maximum.

This is for sales engineers, pre-sales leaders, technical consultants, and anyone using narrative to get technical ideas across to people who have other things going on.

About the guest: Tim Chinchen has spent 30 years in technology, the first 15 as a developer and architect, the next 15 leading pre-sales teams. He ran Northern European sales engineering at Acme Packet before the company was acquired by Cisco for 3.7 billion dollars, and has spent the last 8 years running global pre-sales at PagerDuty. Find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timchinchen/

Show notes footer:

Enjoyed this episode? Here's what to do next:

Tech World Human Skills is the podcast for technical professionals who want to communicate, influence, and lead at the highest level.

How to get better results from your technical team is one of the most searched questions in tech leadership. And the answer is almost never about hiring better people. It is about how you assign work, how you give feedback, and how much oversight you are actually running.

In episode 78 of the Tech World Human Skills podcast, Ben Caird joins Ben Pearce for the third episode in a mini-series on leadership in tech. Ben Caird has 25 years in software and technology and 15 years leading large operational teams across enterprise SaaS. This episode is the most practical of the three.

What you'll learn:

About Ben Caird: Ben has 25 years in software and technology, with over 15 years leading large operational teams across enterprise SaaS environments. He specialises in building high-performing teams, driving operational improvement, and leading transformation at scale.

Episode Highlights:

[16:35] — Ben introduces the idea that feedback is rocket fuel for performance and explains why even Djokovic still has a coach.

[19:25] — The difference between giving feedback on behaviours versus judgements, with a sharp example about someone on their phone in a meeting.

[22:20] — Ben shares the WIT framework from a BBC producer and walks through exactly how to use it in a tech leadership context.

Connect with Ben Caird: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bcaird/

Enjoyed this episode? Here's what to do next:

📩 Get Ben's weekly newsletter — practical ideas for technical professionals, straight to your inbox: https://www.techworldhumanskills.com

🔗 Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benpthoughts

🌐 Explore the Technical Storytelling Professional Program: https://www.elevatedyou.live

Tech World Human Skills is the podcast for technical professionals who want to communicate, influence, and lead at the highest level.

Most technical people get promoted because they're the best at the job. Then they spend the next 18 months quietly struggling. Nobody told them it is a completely different job. Malcolm Murphy has spent his career in technical pre-sales, leading solutions consultant teams across major vendor organisations. His view is blunt: the skills that got you promoted will actively hold you back as a manager.

What you'll learn:

About Malcolm Murphy: Malcolm Murphy has spent the majority of his career in technical pre-sales, moving from UNIX engineer to leading solutions consultant teams across major vendor organisations. He currently specialises in insider risk and human risk management at Mimecast and runs the Pre-Sales Leaders Forum community in the UK.

Episode highlights:

Connect with Malcolm: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/Malcolm-Murphy

Enjoyed this episode? Here's what to do next:

📩 Get Ben's weekly newsletter — practical ideas for technical professionals, straight to your inbox: https://www.techworldhumanskills.com  

🔗 Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/benpthoughts 

🌐 Explore the Technical Storytelling Professional Program: https://elevatedyou.live 

Tech World Human Skills is the podcast for technical professionals who want to communicate, influence, and lead at the highest level.

In this episode, Ben Pearce and Panos Malakoudis discuss the evolving landscape of leadership in the age of AI. They explore the five essential human competencies that modern leaders need: Insight, Integration, Inspiration, Integrity, and Impact.

Panos Malakoudis runs his own company - Citium Solutions.  He spent many years leading Consultancy and Engineering teams at Microsoft.  Then he led coaching programs for the Microsoft leadership community and even got a Guinness World Record for it. 

Show Links

Takeaways

Keywords

leadership, modern leadership, human competencies, AI, coaching, change management, integrity, impact, technology integration, inspiration

In this episode Ben Pearce and Nic Neate discuss what it's really like to build and be part of an AI native engineering team.  Nic shares his experiences and insights on how AI is fundamentally changing the way software is developed, the skills required for engineers in this new landscape, and the challenges organizations face in adapting to these changes. 

Nic Neate is the CTO of @Nimbus.  He has many years working in the software world and previously worked at Metaswitch and Microsoft.

Show Links

Takeaways

Keywords

AI native engineering, software development, generative AI, engineering teams, AI tools, context engineering, software productivity, AI integration, engineering leadership, tech transformation

In this episode of the Tech World Human Skills Podcast, Ben Pearce and Richard Baker discuss the critical topic of managing major incidents in the tech industry. They explore the importance of preparation, communication, and the human element in crisis management. Richard shares real-life experiences and insights on how to effectively lead teams through high-pressure situations.

Richard Baker is the CIO of TWC IT Solutions.  He has years of working in the tech world and many battle scars from leading teams through major incidents. 

Show Links

Takeaways

Keywords

incident management, crisis management, cybersecurity, communication, preparation, leadership, client trust, human skills, tech solutions, business continuity

Leading through change isn't about sending a broadcast email and hoping for the best. In this episode, Ben Caird breaks down why most change initiatives fail and shares the ADKAR framework that actually gets teams moving in the same direction.

Ben Caird is a seasoned professional leader.  He's led teams of all sizes in a variety of tech companies and has years of experience.

Show Links

Keywords

change management, leadership, adkar framework, stakeholder buy-in, team transformation, organizational change, effective communication, awareness and desire, change resistance, business impact

Takeaways

In this episode we delve into the concept of value engineering and explore its significance in the tech industry. Paul explains the importance of understanding both the technology and the business needs of customers. 

We cover how to effectively bridge the gap between technical solutions and financial outcomes.

Paul Harris has worked in technical pre-sales for many years.  He is the co-host of "The Wandering Tech Podcast" and is Director of Pre-Sales at Loftware. 

Show Links

Takeaways

Keywords

value engineering, business acumen, technology solutions, financial concepts, pre-sales, consulting, enterprise sales, ROI, customer success, supply chain