Underserved

Meredith Barnes-Cook started running agile development teams before agile was even "a thing". Her no-nonsense, results-oriented approach to insurance software development led to a successful career at Liberty Mutual and other insurers. We talk about moving from career management to career ownership, getting work done through people not in spite of them, and folding in teams from formerly hostile competitors.

• Needham High School – Home of the oldest Thanksgiving football rivalry https://needhamhistory.org/features/articles/needham-wellesley/
• From agility to Agile https://www.prosci.com/resources/articles/stop-confusing-agile-with-agile
• A career jungle gym https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/sheryl-sandberg-careers-arent-ladders-theyre-jungle-gyms
• The power – and joy – of networking https://www.linkedin.com/posts/meredithbarnes-cook_networking-5-circles-of-influence-smith-activity-6702377150449807360-Rcb8
• Roblox – My son's journey to becoming a software engineer https://www.techradar.com/news/teaching-children-to-code-and-program-with-roblox
• Elon Musk - Tesla is just a small part of his story https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/elon-musk-companies-disruption/?utm_source=CB+Insights+Newsletter&utm_campaign=aeb0ccf0a5-newsletter_general_Sat_20200926&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9dc0513989-aeb0ccf0a5-94473706

Season Three kicks off with our guest Jim Martin, CTO of Shepley Bulfinch. Famed architect H.H. Richardson gave birth to the company way back in the 1800s with the design of Trinity Church in Boston, and they have remained in practice ever since. Jim's job is to make sure technology is an enabler for architects, helping them better design, draw, and deliver solutions to their clients. We talk about growing up with LOGO, the intricacies of CAD software and its IT care and feeding, and Jim's involvement as the president of SIM Boston (the Society for Information Management).

• Knowledge Management - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management
• Positive Deviance - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_deviance
• Starchitect - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starchitect
• Shepley Bulfinch - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepley_Bulfinch
• Autodesk Revit - https://www.autodesk.com/products/revit/overview
• SIMBoston - https://www.simboston.org/home
• Zoom break out rooms - https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206476093-Enabling-breakout-rooms

We are back with Part 2 of our BBQ Bonus edition of Underserved! This episode features the tips and tricks that our pitmasters have learned during years of time spent over the smoker. Learn secrets including brining, rub and sauce selection, resting, wrapping, and more.

Featured are: Dave White - Director of Software Engineering at Iron Mountain, weekend BBQ warrior https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsw999/ Carlo Crocetti - Owner of Crocetti's and South Shore Meats, the thrill of the grill https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlocrocetti/ https://www.instagram.com/the_boston_butcher/ Bill Gillespie - Distribution Designer for National Grid and pitmaster of world-champion team Smokin Hoggz BBQ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-gillespie-7aaa6410/ https://www.smokinhoggzbbq.com/

Just in time for summer - A special 2-part BBQ bonus edition of Underserved! Years back I decided to get good at cooking barbecue and formed a competitive team called Tasty Bytes BBQ. Along the way, we won some contests, cooked some good food, met some great people, and learned a ton. This episode features three friends I have made in the BBQ world. We talk about how they got into BBQ and what they enjoy most about it. Next episode we will feature tips and tricks from all three of them. Featured are: Dave White - Director of Software Engineering at Iron Mountain, weekend BBQ warrior https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsw999/ Carlo Crocetti - Owner of Crocetti's and South Shore Meats, the thrill of the grill https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlocrocetti/ https://www.instagram.com/the_boston_butcher/ Bill Gillespie - Distribution Designer for National Grid and pitmaster of world-champion team Smokin Hoggz BBQ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-gillespie-7aaa6410/ https://www.smokinhoggzbbq.com/

Capping off Season Two, Bharathi Balasubramanyam (B, for short) tells us about finding computer science when biology class went awry, serverless frameworks, imposter syndrome, and becoming the queen of working remotely. You won't want to miss B's around-the-world experience with Remote Year, where she traveled to 23 different countries in one year all while keeping the same job!

• Lifescore Labs - https://www.lifescorelabs.com/
• AWS Lambda - https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/
• Remote year - http://boston.cbslocal.com/video/3839298-highly-skilled-workers-travel-the-world-while-keeping-their-jobs/
• The Ikikai tribe - https://remoteyear.com/itineraries/ikigai

Our guest PK Shiu was building remote development teams long before it was fashionable (or the only way!) to do so. We cover the organizational and people challenges of making remote work, talk a bit about audio production, and about getting kids interested in coding using the Scratch programming language from MIT.

• https://emoneyadvisor.com/
• https://www.pkshiu.com/
• https://scratch.mit.edu/
• https://www.carylibrary.org/calendar/program-calendar
• https://theperfectpack.com/author/pkshiu/

Our guest Sara Morgan explains how a sick day led to a love of coding and how questions like, "Would you rather plan a party or take a doorknob apart?" can help point you towards a career. Sara also talks about how your network enables more industry portability than your expertise can, and how important attitude and perspective can be in shaping your future. We also talk about applying technology toward kids' sports and fishing.

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits.html (book is available on Amazon)
• The Speed of Trust https://www.speedoftrust.com/ (book is available on Amazon)
• Wisdom Quotes https://wisdomquotes.com/
• The Cadillac of Fish Finders for ice fishing https://www.vexilar.com/
• Youtube bass fishing videos: https://www.google.com/search?q=youtube+bass+fishing+videos&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS703US703&oq=youtube+bass+fishing&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l7.6841j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
• Lacrosse shooting w/Paul Rabil on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujqm0sdy93M

Matt Hodges (fellow member of the Commodore Army) applied lots of grit and determination to graduate with a CS degree at a time when 93% were quitting the major. Like our previous guest John Newman, Matt got to view development from a lot of different angles before becoming part of the organization (QA, DBA, Ops, etc). We talk about how being thankful and humble can be a really important part of your career, and how being the Excel stat geek can endear you to your softball team.

• Stonehill College: https://www.stonehill.edu/
• Staples (Contract Space): https://www.staplesadvantage.com/
• Curriculum Associates: https://www.curriculumassociates.com/
• React Redux: https://react-redux.js.org/
• React Sagas: https://redux-saga.js.org/
• CreateJS: https://createjs.com/
• LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/
• VueJS: https://vuejs.org/
• i18n: https://www.npmjs.com/package/i18n
• Thanks A Thousand: https://www.amazon.com/Thanks-Thousand-Gratitude-Journey-Books/dp/1501119923
• SIM Boston: https://www.simboston.org/home

Khan Klatt has been involved in education technology for the last 7 years, on both the for-profit and non-profit sides of the industry. Khan talks about how some things change and some stay the same between those two worlds, how he got his start in software, the front-end focus in ed tech, and how he applies "otaku" to his hobby of building light displays.

• CFC's Mission: https://www.cfchildren.org/blog/2016/04/safe-children-thriving-in-a-peaceful-world/
• UIUC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCSA_HTTPd
• CFC https://www.cfchildren.org/
• Open Educational Resources (OER) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources
• Bob Martin / Clean Code - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C._Martin
• NoOps/ZeroOps - https://www.cio.com/article/3407714/what-is-noops-the-quest-for-fully-automated-it-operations.html
• Otaku - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku
• Falcon PixelController - https://www.pixelcontroller.com/store/index.php
• xLights Software - https://xlights.org/

Chris Stasonis, VP of Engineering at Lola.com talks about the trajectory of an engineering career, and how to decide at critical junctures - "Stay or leave a company? Stay technical or consider management? How do I become a good (not average) manager?" Chris also (drum roll) keeps chickens and has automated some of the coop life. We talk a bit about the prosumer-ization of flying private airplanes as well.

• "Being Geek" - the software developer's career handbook https://www.amazon.com/Being-Geek-Software-Developers-Handbook/dp/0596155409
• Author page https://randsinrepose.com/
• Reid Hoffman's "The Alliance" https://www.amazon.com/Alliance-Managing-Talent-Networked-Age-ebook/dp/B00JTJ84EW/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1585582216&sr=1-1
• The GitHub repo Chris forked for the chicken door robotics https://github.com/ericescobar/Chicken_Door
• Guide for aspiring software managers https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Growth/dp/1491973897
• "Infinity pools" book https://www.amazon.com/Make-Time-Focus-Matters-Every/dp/B07DHT9BZV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=FP15NXKU2RCQ&keywords=make+time&qid=1585588299&s=books&sprefix=make+time%2Cstripbooks%2C159&sr=1-1
• For hardcore airplane geeks https://foreflight.com/