Jennifer Wong is a seasoned engineering manager who started her journey in civil engineering. The fast pace of the tech industry drew her in, and she stuck with it for years since making that call. In this episode, I chat with Jennifer about her transition from a non-traditional career path into software, reasons to take on management instead of being an individual contributor, and why taking the road less traveled in terms of career progression might just be the recipe for long-term growth and success.

You can find Jennifer on the following sites:

 * 😺 GitHub [https://github.com/jennz0r]
 * 💼 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferewong/]

The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky [https://den.dev]. Music by Wataboi [https://pixabay.com/users/wataboi-12344345/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=1165] from Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1165].

Feedback

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

#83 - Don't Take The Easy Path - Jennifer Wong (Engineering Leader)

Craig Hewitt, the founder of the podcasting platform Castos, comes from generations of entrepreneurs, and his own journey builds on the experience and stamina of those that came before him. In this show, we chat about best practices for hiring developers for your bootstrapped startup, finding the right approach to deliver hard news, and how to ensure that your relationships aren’t hurt as you embark on the entrepreneurship treadmill.

You can find Craig on the following sites:

 * 📝 Blog [https://www.craighewitt.me/]
 * 💼 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-hewitt-78386a66/]

And of course, make sure to check out Castos [https://castos.com/]!

The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky [https://den.dev]. Music by Wataboi [https://pixabay.com/users/wataboi-12344345/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=1165] from Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1165].

Feedback

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

#82 - Stop Building SaaS Landing Pages - Craig Hewitt (Founder, Castos)

In episode 81, Den Delimarsky chats with Kirupa Chinnathambi, a product manager at Google who has built his own personal brand in what is now known as kirupa.com [https://kirupa.com]. Kirupa is a talented web developer, designer, writer, and packs so much knowledge in his blog that you can learn how to create great web-based experience on that content alone.

We discuss best ways to balance everything in one’s life and still have a successful career, finding the right angles to change a team culture, making your hobby your career, and how to increase your likelihood of building more luck in the day-to-day activities.

You can find Kirupa on the following sites:

 * 🍊 Kirupa.com [https://www.kirupa.com/]
 * 📽️ YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/kirupa]
 * 📸 Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/kirupac/]
 * 💼 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirupa/]
 * 🎙️ Podcast [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kirupa]

The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky [https://den.dev]. Music by Wataboi [https://pixabay.com/users/wataboi-12344345/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=1165] from Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1165].

Feedback

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

#81 - Making A Career Out Of A Hobby - Kirupa Chinnathambi (Product Manager - Google)

One of the things that Miriam Suzanne realized early in her developer journey is that web development is a tool - she wanted to build a website for her theater company and ended up building a career and a company around it. And not just that, but she also joined the CSS Working Group - the official standards body that determines how the CSS stack evolves.

In this show, we talk about her early discovery of the power of the web, how she joins creativity with technical prowess, and how CSS is really like poetry written in the browser.

You can find Miriam on the following sites:

 * 🐘 Mastodon [https://front-end.social/@mia]
 * 🐘 OddBird (Mastodon) [https://front-end.social/@OddBird]
 * 🐦 OddBird Website [https://www.oddbird.net/]
 * 📝 Blog [https://www.miriamsuzanne.com/]
 * 💼 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/terriblemia/]

The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky [https://den.dev]. Music by Wataboi [https://pixabay.com/users/wataboi-12344345/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=1165] from Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1165].

Feedback

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

#80 - Web Development Is Theatre - Miriam Suzanne (CSS Working Group, OddBird)

We often talk about promotions and growth, but the moment the conversation shifts towards paths to staff or executive positions, the advice goes blank. There is very little actionable information out there that can tell you how you can get to the highest echelons of leadership.

To get a clearer picture on this topic, I sat down with Lena Reinhard [https://www.lenareinhard.com/], a seasoned executive with an extensive track record at CircleCI, Travis CI, and more. Lena shares her insights on the best ways to accelerate career growth in the tech space, answer thorny questions, such as “Why are executives hired from the outside?” and provide some candid takes on why taking things slow sometimes can pay off in the end.

You can find Lena on the following sites:

 * 🌍 Website [https://www.lenareinhard.com/]
 * 💼 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenareinhard]
 * 🎙️ Leadership Confidential Podcast [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leadershipconfidential]

The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky [https://den.dev]. Music by Wataboi [https://pixabay.com/users/wataboi-12344345/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=1165] from Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1165].

Feedback

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

#79 - How To Get Promoted To Tech Executive - Lena Reinhard (VP Engineering, CircleCI, Travis CI)

One’s journey from their early career to working at startups in Silicon Valley can take many forms. Some folks take the more traditional route of joining a company right after college. Others get tired of their corporate life and decide to try something different. Katie Fujihara, an engineer and a technical program manager amalgam, decided that her journey to the heart of “startup land,” San Francisco, would be an impromptu one - she just packed up her bags and set out on an adventure.

I am delighted to share with you this recording, where I talk to Katie about her early starts in Hawai’i, how working in engineering was not the end goal for her career journey, and what the best practices are for overcoming impostor syndrome.

You can find Katie on the following sites:

 * 😺 GitHub [https://github.com/KatieFujihara]
 * 🤵 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-fujihara/]
 * 🦜 X [https://twitter.com/KatieFujihara]

The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky [https://den.dev]. Music by Wataboi [https://pixabay.com/users/wataboi-12344345/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=1165] from Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1165].

Feedback

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

#78 - I Left Hawai'i To Work In Startups, With Katie Fujihara

For today’s episode, I had the privilege of sitting down with Rachel Andrew, arguably one of the more influential folks in the world of web development. With a career spanning over two decades, Rachel has left an indelible mark on the web developer community. From her groundbreaking work on CSS to her role as co-founder of Perch CMS (she spent 20 years as a freelancer and a business owner), Rachel’s contributions have shaped the way we build and interact with the web.

Throughout her career, Rachel has not only demonstrated technical prowess but also a remarkable knack for empowering others through her writing (and now, her team’s writing as well). As an acclaimed author, speaker, and advocate for web standards, she has tirelessly championed inclusivity and accessibility in the digital realm.

You can find Rachel on the following sites:

 * 📝 Blog [https://rachelandrew.co.uk/]
 * 📣 Talks [https://noti.st/rachelandrew]
 * 🦜 X [https://twitter.com/rachelandrew]

The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky [https://den.dev]. Music by Wataboi [https://pixabay.com/users/wataboi-12344345/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=1165] from Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1165].

Feedback

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

#77 - Write About The Things You Learned, With Rachel Andrew (Google)

One of the things that is a bit taboo to talk about, both in the tech industry and outside of it is money. People just aren’t comfortable discussing openly the hard decisions that go into things like seeking funding, investing money into things that save you time, and scaling your own abilities with the help of, you guessed it, cold, hard, cash.

Saron Yitbarek, entrepreneur extraordinaire behind CodeNewbie [https://www.codenewbie.org/] and podcasts such as Command Line Heroes [https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes], generously accepted my invitation to chat and talk about all these things, and more. And of course, we talk about Saron’s latest project - Big Cash Money 2024 [https://www.bigcashmoney.com], something for folks that want to max out their income beyond just their salary.

You can find Saron on the following sites:

 * 📝 Blog [https://saron.io/]
 * 💼 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saronyitbarek/]
 * 📷 Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/saronyitbarek/]
 * 💸 Big Cash Money 2024 [https://www.bigcashmoney.com/]
 * 🎙️ Code Newbie Podcast [https://www.codenewbie.org/podcast]
 * 🎙️ Basecs Podcast [https://www.codenewbie.org/basecs]
 * 🎙️ Command Line Heroes Podcast [https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes]
 * 🎨 Not A Designer Newsletter [https://notadesigner.io/]

The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky [https://den.dev]. Music by Wataboi [https://pixabay.com/users/wataboi-12344345/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=1165] from Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1165].

Feedback

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

#76 - Be OK Talking About Money, With Saron Yitbarek

In this episode of The Work Item, I had a conversation with David Khourshid, founder of Stately.AI. You might know him as @DavidKPiano on social media. Today, we’re breaking new ground around unconventional paths of building an engineering career, entrepreneurship, and leveraging your audience as the potential first customers for your product. And of course - we talk a bit more about state machines (David is also the developer behind XState) and lessons learned from launching and growing a startup in the midst of a pandemic.

You can find David and his work on the following sites:

 * 📕 XState [https://xstate.js.org/]
 * 🕸️ Stately [https://stately.ai/]
 * 😺 GitHub [https://github.com/davidkpiano]
 * 🐤 Twitter [https://twitter.com/DavidKPiano]
 * 📷 Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/davidkpiano]
 * 🧵 Threads [https://www.threads.net/@davidkpiano]

The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky [https://den.dev]. Music by Wataboi [https://pixabay.com/users/wataboi-12344345/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=1165] from Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1165].

Feedback

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review or a rating, wherever you are getting your podcast. I really appreciate your feedback and am working to make this podcast more useful for you, the listener, with every episode. Ratings and feedback make it so others can easily discover and enjoy the insights you listen to here!

#75 - From Pandemic Pastime To Real VC-Funded Startup, with David Khourshid

Welcome back to The Work Item. Today we’re exploring the ins and outs of remote work, writing, and community engagement with a show veteran, Adrienne Tacke. I’m delighted to welcome Adrienne back to the show, especially considering that since our last recording we received quite a few follow-up questions. Just like last time, Adrienne brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our discussion, especially when it comes to remote work culture. And today, we’re adding a new twist: a dedicated Q&A segment where Adrienne will be addressing your burning questions directly.

You can find Adrienne on the following sites:

 * 📝 Blog [https://www.adrienne.io/]
 * 🏢 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriennetacke/]
 * 📕 Book - Looks Good To Me [https://www.manning.com/books/looks-good-to-me]
 * ⚡ LinkedIn Course - Learning Azure Durable Functions [https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-azure-durable-functions]

The podcast was produced by Den Delimarsky [https://den.dev]. Music by Wataboi [https://pixabay.com/users/wataboi-12344345/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=1165] from Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1165].

#74 - Books, Remote Work, and Q&A, with Adrienne Tacke

Building a fulfilling career is hard. With so many people around us taking on different adventures that propel their careers in unexpected trajectories, is there a path a person can take that is going to increase their likelihood of success? Can I build a career creating content? What does it take to make the transition from information technology jobs to space? Can I start a start-up and not lose my sanity? Every week, Den sits down with folks from a range of industries, roles, and backgrounds to learn more about their career journey, lessons learned, and what it takes to map out your own very unique track.

Den Delimarsky

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