I.t. Career Energizer: Phil Burgess Chats With Robert C Martin, John Sonmez, David Rael And Other Successful It Professionals

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is a software engineer working in Germany.  He has been working in the IT industry for seven years and has received multiple awards, including three from Microsoft.  He is also a keen photographer, a technology blogger and also has his own YouTube channel.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s IT Energizer Podcast is the software engineer and MVP, Sibeesh Venu. He is currently working in Germany as a Full Stack Developer for medialesson GmbH. Despite having only been involved in the IT industry for seven years, Sibeesh is already a well-known tech writer and speaker. He has already become a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional three times. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.04) – So I really wanted to first ask you maybe if you could give us a little bit more about your background and tell us how you got into it. Sibeesh explains that when he left school he had no clear career direction in mind. So, on the recommendation of a friend, he went to engineering college. He got the quali

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is a Developer Advocate for Google Cloud Platform.  This gives her the opportunity to do silly things with lots of computers and to help developers build cool stuff on all sorts of platforms.   Previously she has worked in a variety of software roles, from robotics with NASA to developer advocacy for Google Glass.  She is also passionate about education, especially on the subjects of technology and science.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today episode of the IT Career Energizer podcast is Jen Tong. She is currently working as a Developer Advocate for Google Cloud Platform. But, she started her career working on software. She has worked for NASA in the robotics field before working on Google Glass. Today, Jen works as a security advocate for Google Jen is passionate about astronomy. She has spent time coding for Project PANOPTES. That community project enables anyone to build a low-cost robotic telescope. She also enjoys sharing her knowledge with others. KEY TAKEAWA

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is a world-class software practitioner and business coach, consultant, and trainer.   He is an author, keynote speaker and a globally recognized expert in software development and delivery improvement, particularly using Agile, Scrum and other Lean-Agile thinking and approaches.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s IT Career Energizer podcast is Neil Killick. He is a Len/Agile software product development practitioner, who also coaches. Over the years, he had used Lean, Agile and Scrum working methods in most of his roles. Currently, he is working as a consultant with a focus on digital business and UX analysis. He works to foster great team practices and deliver software flawlessly. Neil is also an experienced keynote speaker. He has delivered talks at Agile events, across the world. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.10) – Can you please tell us about your involvement and focus on Agile, Scrum and so forth. How did you get into that? Right from the start of his programming caree

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show was an early pioneer of Web Standards, writing a best-selling book on the subject of CSS.  He then went on to found Clearleft, arguably the first dedicated UX consultancy in the UK.   He also set up dConstruct, the UK’s first digital design conference, and UX London, the country’s first dedicated UX conference.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Andy Budd is a renowned Design Leader and agency CEO. He started his IT career working as a designer. During his early career, Andy became a pioneer in the field of Web Standards. At that point, he published his first book – CSS Mastery. Over 14 years ago, he co-founded Clearleft, one of the UK’s first dedicated User Experience consultancies. In 2015, he set up the dConstruct conference, which was held for 10 years. It was the first design conference to be run, in the UK. He is also the founder and curator of Leading Design. That annual conference improves design leadership and management. Andy speaks at these and many other conferences that ar

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show set up a software company while studying for a Ph.D. in Plant Science.  He has since worked for a number of companies at Group IT Manager and CTO level as well as immersing himself in the world of Social Software acting as a Social Media consultant.   More recently he completed an almost eight-year stint leading Green Monk, the clean tech, energy and sustainability practice of industry analyst firm Red Monk, before joining SAP as Global Internet of Things Evangelist.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Tom Raftery is a well-known IT innovator. He became involved in the industry at a time when computers were still not widely used. Tom set up a business teaching early-adopters how to use the power of computers. Later, his firm moved into software, gaming and web development. After a while, Tom took that expertise and put it to use by working at CTO level for several businesses and organizations. In the early 2000s, he ran his own Social Media consultancy. He became SAP’s Global VP. Today,

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is a full-time Python trainer.  In a given year, he teaches courses at companies in the United States, Europe, Israel, and China as well as to people around the world through his online courses.   He is a regular panelist on the Freelancers Show podcast, CTO of Rent Like a Champion and a published author, his most recent book being “Python Workout”.   He is also credited with having created one of the world’s first 100 websites just after graduating from MIT.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Reuven is an MIT graduate who started his IT career working as an engineer for Hewlett-Packard. But, he soon realized that web development was his passion. So, he became one of the first web application engineers Time Inc ever hired. From there, he went on to set up and lead a training company, take his PhD and found his consultancy firm. He is viewed as a Python expert, and is well-known for being instrumental in setting up the first newspaper on the World Wide Web. As well as providing face to

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is a full-stack developer, having recently joined Test Double which is an agency of highly skilled developers on a mission to improve how the world writes software. Prior to Test Double, he spent a decade working for 1Password where he focused his efforts on browser extensions and web page filling features. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s IT Career Energizer podcast is Jamie Phelps. He is a full-stack developer at TestDouble. A firm that is working to improve the way the world writes software and wrangles code. Prior to that Jamie worked for Pier 1, 1Password and ran his own IT consultancy company. His areas of expertise include Ruby, Typescript, JavaScript, Go, Swift, Objective-C, and several other languages. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.06) – First, I want to ask you how you came to IT. You seem to have started your IT career a little later than average, so it would be interesting to hear how this transition happened. Jamie explains when he first attended university he

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show has spent most of her career in the software testing world, which led to her founding the Software Testing Club.  This evolved to become the Ministry of Testing which is a community of software testers that want to change, share and improve their craft. She says that she is a big believer in doing things ethically and that she’s fascinated by the world of community, marketing, tech, and software testing. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s IT Career Energizer podcast is Rosie Sherry. She founded the Ministry of Testing, which has grown into a global community of testers. Up until now, most of her IT career has been spent working as a tester. She is also a founder of the Brighton Girl Geek Dinners and was, for several years, the community manager and co-director of The Werks Group. While there, she helped to set up co-working spaces and build the entrepreneur community in the Brighton area. In February, Rosie joined Indie Hackers as their community manager. KEY TAKE

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is Nicholas Walsh.  Nicholas is a Technical Evangelist for Amazon Web Services, working to empower developers everywhere and to create engaging educational content. Nicholas has worked to build developer tools across multiple organizations that power artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities in applications.  Many moons ago he worked as a research assistant in the biotech space. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s IT Career Energizer podcast is Nicholas Walsh. He is a Technical Evangelist for Amazon. In that role, he works to empower developers to put AWS products and tools to better use. He is currently focusing on AI and machine learning fields. Nicholas studied for a career in medicine. But, he switched to IT when he realized that he could do more good by working in the tech industry. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.12) – So, the first thing I wanted to ask you was how you moved from being a research assistant in biotech into the IT industry. Nicholas explains

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is a front end developer who has been writing code since he was 8 years old.  He enjoys people, code and talking to people about code. He now travels around the world encouraging, educating and empowering developers in the web development community. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on his show today is Tejas Kumar. He is a front-end developer who has been coding since the age of 8. Tejas has worked with a long list of front-end frameworks, programs and languages, including JavaScript, TypeScript, React, and the Babel webpack. He is also a conference speaker who is working towards his goal of speaking at every JSConf, across the word. Tejas wants to educate and empower developers, in every corner of the globe. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.10) – I would like to start by asking about your work traveling the world speaking to developers and empowering them. Tejas explains that he started doing this, June of last year, when he spoke at JSconf EU. His talk was well received and he really e

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is an internationally recognized author, speaker, blogger and sometimes teacher and consultant.  He has been working with the web since late 1993 and is recognized as an expert on the subjects of HTML, CSS and web standards.   He is currently a technical lead at non-profit organization Rebecca’s Gift and is also co-founder of An Event Apart, a web design conference for UX and front-end experts.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Eric Meyer. He has worked in the IT industry for more than 25 years. Today, he is a teacher, designer and consultant who is a recognized HTML, CSS and web standards expert. He also has a working understanding of XML, XSLT, JavaScript, and related technologies. Eric is also the technical lead for the non-profit organization Rebecca’s Gift and the co-founder of An Event Apart, an interactive conference targeted at designers, developers and front-end experts. He is also the author of several CSS books and the founder of the css-disc

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is currently a VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. He is a recognized industry expert on a variety of topics including digital transformation, social collaboration and online business models.  And in 2015 he was identified as one of the top 20 people most mentioned by IT leaders.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Dion Hinchliffe is Phil’s guest on today’s show. He is an internationally recognized thought leader, enterprise architect and IT specialist. Dion is also a keynote speaker and the co-author of the best-selling books, Web 2.0 Architectures and Social Business by Design. He is currently a VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.07) – Please tell us about the things you have been up to, particularly recently. Dion explains that he has always worked on large IT projects. For example, he worked as a lead architect for the Missile Defense Agency on their advance battle manager program. At the time, it was one of the biggest IT projects

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is a Principal Program Manager for Mobile Developer Tools at Microsoft.  He has been a .NET developer since 2005 working in a wide range of industries including game development, printer software and web services. Before becoming a Principal Program Manager he was a professional mobile developer and has been crafting apps since 2011. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: James Montemagno is Phil’s guest on today’s show. He is currently a Principle Program Manager for Microsoft’s Mobile Developer Tools division. James started his career working as a gaming developer. But, he has also worked on printer software and web services. For several years he was a Xamarin developer evangelist and is still involved in supporting those using the platform. He is also a .NET developer. James is well known for running numerous podcasts and being a prolific conference speaker. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.20) – I want to start by talking to you about the fact that you are a prolific podcaster. Can you please start by

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is a functional programming advocate.  He has worked in the IT industry for more than 15 years in a variety of roles including software support, development lead, project management and systems analysis. He is the co-founder of the Knoxville Functional Programmers group and is currently a senior consultant for Result Stack. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is a functional programming advocate called Reid Evans. He started his IT career 15 years ago, working mainly in software support. Since then he has moved on and worked as a development lead, a project manager and systems analyst. Today is a senior consultant for ResultStack. In 2017, he co-founded Functional Knox Inc. and is currently the president. The group supports a network of functional programmers by organizing meetups and via an annual conference. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.07) – So firstly, I wanted to pick up with you could you perhaps tell us a little bit about the Knoxville functional programmers group

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show has been creating software for several decades.  He has trained developers around the world, led eXtreme programming projects for the US government and eBay, and introduced Lean and Agile concepts at Google, Guidewire Software and Apple. In 2017 he refocused on technical training and coaching, both in person and online. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Ted M Young. He started programming at the age of 13. As an adult, he became a software engineer, working for eBay, Google, the US government, Guidewire Software, and Apple. While working for them he led eXtreme programming projects and introduced Lean and Agile working practices. Ted’s passion is coaching and training. In 2017, he refocused on this aspect of his IT career and became a technical trainer, consultant, and coding coach. Today, he teaches online as well as in person. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.08) – You have been working in software for several decades now. During that time, are there any highlights th

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show has worked in IT for over twenty years after failing to become a writer and divides his career into three parts.  The first third was spent building applications for the fast-paced online gambling industry. The second third was spent maturing that business, in the area of third line support and operations.  And the remainder of his time was spent working on container technology within the highly regulated financial sector. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s IT Career Energizer podcast is Ian Miell. He is a developer, author, blogger, open source coder and conference speaker who has been working in the IT industry for nearly two decades. During that time he has held various positions at OpenBet and more recently moved into the financial sector. Working for Barclays as their Lead OpenShift Architect before moving to State Street to work as a VP, in late 2018. Ian is the co-author of Docker in Practice, Learn Bash the Hard Way and Learn Git the Hard Way. He is also a

GUEST BIO: Fran Buontempo is editor of the ACCU’s (Association of C and C++ Users) Overload magazine.  Fran has been programming in C++ for over a decade and also knows C# and Python.  Fran has also written a book about how to program your way out of a paper bag. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Fran Buontempo. She is a C and C++ expert who is the editor of the ACCU’s (Association of C and C++ Users) Overload magazine. Fran also works with C# and Python. She is a conference speaker, blogger, and author. Her first book, Genetic Algorithms and Machine Learning for Programmers (Pragmatic Programmers), has been well received. In it, she shares several ways to code your way out of a paper bag, as a fun way of providing an insight into emerging machine learning tech. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (0.53) – So firstly, I want to ask you about is your role as editor of the overload magazine? How long have you been doing that? Fran can’t remember exactly but she thinks it has been between 5 and 6 years. Becoming t

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is the founder of Cloudskills.io, a technical advisor, author and a mentor for people ramping up on cloud technologies.  He has worked for tech giants Microsoft and Amazon and has founded two consulting companies of his own. And as well as having published four books and creating multiple online courses, he is often seen speaking from the stage at events around the world. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s Career IT show is Mike Pfeiffer. He is a 20 year IT veteran and entrepreneur. Over the years, Mike has worked for large companies like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. More recently, he founded Cloudskills.io consulting, with the aim of helping more people to take advantage of cloud technologies. Mike is passionate about teaching others and helping them to progress in their tech career. He runs his own blog and podcast, as well as providing training courses. Mike is the author of 4 tech books and a prolific conference speaker. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.07) –   Can you

GUEST BIO: Michal Spacek is a developer who builds breaks and tests web applications.  He has a specific interest in web application security and likes to pass on his knowledge and experience to others, having spoken at more than 100 conferences and events to date. Michal says that he is on a mission to teach web developers why and how to build secure and fast web applications. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Michal Spacek. He has been working in the IT industry for nearly two decades. Michal started his career as a web developer. But, has since taken on engineering roles in particular those related to web application security. He believes in sharing his knowledge with anyone who wants to listen. Over the years he has become a well-known conference speaker, teacher and mentor. Michal is passionate about turning the internet into a safer place.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.05) – So Michal, can you perhaps expand on that intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Michal explains that he wor

GUEST BIO: Sarah Withee is a polyglot software engineer, public speaker, teacher and mentor, and hardware and robot tinkerer.  She has a passion for technology and has had ever since she wrote her first computer programs in elementary school. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Sarah Withee. She has been programming all of her life, which has turned her into an accomplished polyglot software engineer. Sarah is a well-known conference speaker, mentor and teacher who is also a volunteer Girls Who Code instructor. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.01) – So, Sarah can I ask you to expand on that intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Sarah explains that she got into programming at a very early age. It was a passion that she pursued throughout her entire education, so it is not surprising that she ended up becoming a developer. Over the years, she has had many jobs, which has given her the chance to learn numerous programming languages. She loves learning new things, and working with a language she h