
As AheadInTech goes on hiatus I'd like to introduce you to another project I co-host called Tech Team Weekly, a weekly roundup of tech news that's getting our teams talking this week!

Check it out on [techteamweekly.com](https://techteamweekly.com)


Introducing Tech Team Weekly!

STEM Learning - Helping kids into STEM careers | Dan Smith, Project Officer

UK Software IT Contracting Market - Seb, Senior Contractor

Troy Budd, Software Engineer @ OVO


Check out [Tech Team Weekly](https://techteamweekly.com) 👈here!


The Stand-Up Special! - Abi Travers, Thomas Ochman and Louise Jeffery

From Web Developer To Teaching Kids How To Code! - Dan Budd


Find all of Pete's content on [meaningfulmoney.tv](https://meaningfulmoney.tv/)!


Managing and Growing Your Money - Pete Matthew, meaningfulmoney.tv


Read Neil's excellent blog and post-recording write-up [here](https://blog.neilstudd.com/aheadintech)!

QA and Software Testing Deep Dive - Neil Studd, Senior SDET @ Postman


- 00:00 Start
- 01:25 Building Engineering Culture
- 04:15 Role as Director and Manager at EVRYTHNG
- 07:30 Visual Identity at EVRYTHNG
- 12:13 Modern Tech/Engineering Recruitment
- 19:59 Current state of hiring market
- 23:02 Long term investment, nurturing people
- 30:41 COVID Effect, team culture and cohesion
- 37:24 Future of Remote Working
- 39:17 The T-Shaped Individual in Engineering
- 43:54 Broad depth vs deep specialisation
- 45:23 Roles at EVRYTHNG
- 46:15 Joke of the Show!


Care and Maintenance of Tech Teams - David Grain, Director of Agile Delivery


- 00:00 Start
- 01:35 Why retrain into coding?
- 05:29 The Software Engineering Bootcamp experience
- 09:08 Getting the first role
- 12:15 Hitting lead dev for the first time
- 16:44 Continued growth at a startup
- 20:54 Moving to the MoJ at Lead level
- 24:25 Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
- 26:33 Leading others with more experience than you
- 29:18 Importance of Mentors
- 33:22 Technical Leaders vs People Leaders
- 36:49 Future growth


Getting to Lead Dev - Rebecca Appleyard @ Ministry of Justice UK


- 00:00 Start
- 01:25 Motivation to learn Coding via Bootcamp
- 04:35 Fear of going to Bootcamp
- 06:27 His Bootcamp experience
- 09:19 Gaining confidence after the course
- 11:09 Landing the first job
- 14:13 Growth by challenging yourself with career moves
- 18:05 Getting the latest role at Voxnest
- 22:12 Technical growth
- 24:45 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
- 26:36 Joke of the Show!


The 'Quietly Confident' Bootcamp Experience - Guillaume Bouffard - Engineer at Voxnest


- 00:00 Start
- 01:53 Work that Credit Benchmark is doing
- 09:16 The JavaScript courses at City University London
- 20:41 What you've learned teaching Devs and Engineers
- 24:56 Company labels, startups, scaleups
- 30:17 What you need to know before working at a startup
- 37:41 Meaninglessness of Job Titles
- 43:44 Imposter Syndrome
- 51:26 Joke of the Show!


Training Developers and working at Startups - Gilles Guegan


- 00:00 Start
- 01:18 Why start this podcast
- 05:50 What's surprised or impressed you from career journeys
- 09:07 How do you cope with stress
- 10:53 Most useful lesson from people's career stories
- 12:46 Best piece of advice for a Tech career
- 15:28 Will you go back to coding
- 19:45 What have you learned promoting your podcast
- 23:30 Are you fully yourself when interviewing people
- 26:42 What's the future of the show
- 31:39 What do you want to be most proud of
- 34:52 Which character from Friends would you be


Season 1 Finale - The Reverse Interview!


- 00:00 Start
- 02:19 Internships in Tech
- 08:12 Being prepared for your first Software Engineering role
- 10:20 Minor Program in Shenzhen, China
- 14:54 Internships leading to first Developer role
- 19:25 Great company cultures to look out for
- 22:45 Tech interests
- 24:00 Career paths
- 27:28 Remote culture and challenges
- 31:10 Maintaining Junior growth while remote
- 33:30 Post-pandemic work-from-home WFH expectations
- 36:11 Working alongside Bootcamp graduates
- 38:15 Importance of diversity
- 39:37 Current state of Women in Tech
- 44:04 The "Cut The Code" Podcast
- 46:49 Contacting Nikita


The American CS Grad Journey - Nikita Rajput | Software Engineer @ Salesforce


- 00:00 Start
- 01:50 Motivation for coding Bootcamp
- 03:36 Experience at Bootcamp
- 06:26 First Developer role
- 07:22 Toasty - the 2nd startup
- 10:10 Exiting the startup
- 11:54 Motivation to exit
- 13:02 Taking the harder paths in life
- 14:56 Motivation to Build in Public
- 16:49 Intro to Building in Public
- 18:35 First experiences with Building in Public
- 21:19 Guides and resources
- 25:24 Benefits of Building in Public
- 27:38 Key strategies
- 30:10 Storytelling
- 31:07 Retaining engagement
- 33:17 Common misconceptions
- 36:19 The future of Building in Public
- 39:14 Building in Public 30day challenge
- 41:46 Cohort-based learning
- 43:02 Journey of self-discovery and uniqueness
- 46:36 Personal life in Public
- 47:32 Joke of the Show!


Building in Public, Social Media Strategies for Growth - Kevon Cheung | publiclab.co


- 00:00 Start
- 00:51 Childhood and early career
- 03:15 Creating a Data job
- 06:40 Selling the Data role to the Business
- 15:21 Boundaries between the different Data roles
- 19:00 Biggest problem for Data Scientists
- 20:34 Using Data with Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
- 21:54 Most common Business Data issues
- 24:12 Signs your Business doesn't have Data under control
- 27:14 Limited experience with Coding/Software Engineering
- 27:54 Job titles
- 29:49 Burnout leading to a break and a new job
- 35:15 Noticing burnout too late
- 37:38 Maintaining a sustainable pace
- 41:53 Gaining perspective on work/life balance
- 42:50 Current role as Head of Data Management at Encompass
- 45:14 Approach to optimization and automation
- 47:10 The future of Data
- 49:00 Joke of the Show!


A Life in Data - Klaudia Gowero | Head of Data Management @ Encompass


Check out Evgeny's coaching website at [evgeny.coach](https://www.evgeny.coach)

- 00:00 Start
- 01:52 When being CEO harms your mental wellbeing
- 05:39 Root causes of internal pressure
- 08:16 Different leadership for different stages of a company
- 09:53 Improving mental wellbeing
- 12:54 Coaches vs Therapists
- 14:13 Personal experience being coached
- 16:42 Jerry Colonna's CEO bootcamp
- 20:54 Motivation to go into Executive Coaching
- 22:42 More personal business relationships
- 23:53 Benefits of coaching for startup leaders
- 31:29 Many different types of coaching
- 33:36 Sports coaching as the genesis of executive coaching
- 35:44 Beginning a coach-client relationship
- 39:25 Benefits leaders seek from coaching
- 44:25 Making time for yourself
- 46:41 The Rubber Ducking technique
- 49:15 Ways to find mindfullness
- 51:03 Thoughts of becoming a Monk
- 55:19 Joke of the Show!


Executive Coaching Deep-Dive - Evgeny Shadchnev | CEO/Coach @ evgeny.coach


- 00:00 Start
- 03:22 Motivation for going to Bootcamp
- 05:35 Moving from Web Design in Australia to UX in London
- 08:13 Left brain logical thoughts vs right brain creativity
- 10:16 First experiences at Bootcamp
- 12:06 Things she enjoyed
- 13:25 When you realize Bootcamp isn't for you
- 17:42 Mindset
- 19:39 Still dabbling in Coding
- 20:24 Joy of crafting and improving
- 22:02 After Bootcamp
- 25:54 Carrying on the UX journey
- 32:12 Caron's new business helping Creatives
- 36:13 Making money as a Creative
- 39:24 Consulting services
- 44:28 Validating ideas quickly and cheaply
- 45:58 Helping people take back control of their lives
- 48:14 Joke of the Show!


Life After Hating Coding Bootcamp!  Helping Creatives - Caron Stace Railly | UI/UX/Marketing


- 00:00 Start
- 01:01 What are Life Sciences and career opportunities
- 01:58 Why move from pure Tech to Life Science Recruitment
- 03:36 Booming Junior Developer/Engineer hiring in Life Sciences
- 04:36 Required qualifications
- 05:32 Competitiveness in the industry
- 06:19 AI and Data Science
- 08:34 Behind the scenes process as a Recruiter
- 13:52 Shady practices in Recruitment
- 17:54 Competitive and cynical nature of Recruitment
- 19:04 Discussing salaries
- 20:43 Good relationships between candidates and Recruiters
- 21:46 LinkedIn reply rates
- 22:28 Getting out of your comfort zone, risk vs reward
- 23:45 Getting the best salary
- 24:47 Finding the RIGHT Recruiter to work with
- 25:42 Motivation and enjoyment from the Recruiter role
- 26:25 Joke of the Show!


Working with Tech Recruiters - Henry Grover | Life Sciences Tech Recruitment


- 00:00 Start
- 01:08 Side hustles
- 02:56 The $100 Startup
- 04:14 Replacing Developers with nocode/locode technologies
- 05:03 Validating Business ideas
- 08:49 Everything about eOpinion.org
- 16:09 The Tech behind eOpinion.org
- 19:29 Joys of Zapier
- 20:57 Goals, metrics, measuring progression
- 22:59 SEO and marketing
- 25:56 Joke of the Show!


Tech Startup with no Tech Skills - Chris Hutchings | Founder @ eOpinion


Denise's Website [deniseyu.io](http://deniseyu.io/)

Tanya Reilly's "Being Glue" [noidea.dog/glue](https://noidea.dog/glue)

- 00:00 Start
- 01:06 Reasons for going to Software Bootcamp
- 03:57 Experience at Bootcamp
- 05:48 Starting the journey to Senior Software Engineer
- 11:45 Getting your first job vs getting promotions
- 13:19 Obstacles in the way of promotion
- 19:48 Being glue
- 20:34 Self-advocating
- 23:27 Importance and process of getting and giving feedback
- 30:20 Being rejected for promotion
- 32:22 Promotion vs leaving for another role
- 34:58 Where does your Imposter Syndrome come from
- 36:20 Progress beyond Senior Software Engineer
- 37:51 Joke of the Show!


Getting to Senior Software Engineer - Denise Yu | Senior @ Github


- 00:00 Start
- 01:03 The term XR
- 02:17 Writing the book Reality Check
- 04:11 Motivation for authoring Reality Check
- 05:22 Business opportunities in VR/AR/XR
- 10:27 Applications of business value
- 11:51 A brief history of Virtual Reality
- 18:04 Historical concepts of VR
- 18:57 Opportunities to disrupt and break out
- 21:46 Why Developers should be excited about XR
- 22:43 Skillsets to pick up
- 25:52 Software to use
- 26:47 ImmerseUK.org
- 28:26 Diversity and Social Mobility in XR
- 31:15 Having fun in XR playing games
- 32:31 Art and creativity in XR
- 34:06 Joke of the Show!


Business and Developer Opportunities in VR/AR - Jeremy Dalton | Head of XR @ PwC


- 00:00 Start
- 00:57 Continuing evolution of Dubai and UAE
- 04:47 Establishing a Robotics business
- 11:55 Enabling Software Development in Robotics
- 14:38 3D Printing
- 17:18 Business longevity
- 18:03 TIE Dubai
- 24:14 Entrepreneurs saving the World during COVID
- 25:43 Diversity and innovation in Dubai
- 28:22 Techstars Founders Network
- 30:56 Leaving a legacy to the Technology World
- 34:17 Joke of the Show!


Robotics and Startups in Dubai, UAE - Ashish Panjabi | COO


- 00:00 Start.
- 00:55 Motivation to manage and lead Tech teams.
- 02:23 Difference between Project/Delivery Managers, Scrum Masters and Engineering Managers.
- 03:43 Are qualifications needed to get into the industry?
- 05:14 Moving into Management roles.
- 06:11 Impact of lack of technical/coding skills.
- 07:57 Telling potential employers about your skills.
- 08:43 Remote culture in 2020/2021.
- 11:15 How to care for your team.
- 12:28 Mental wellbeing.
- 15:03 Disruption vs an easy life.
- 16:14 Approaching team promotions.
- 17:38 The importance of mistakes.
- 19:39 Taking advantage of your support networks.
- 20:37 Joke of the Show!


Journey to Software Engineering Manager - Dilip Tanna @ Experian


- 00:00 Start
- 00:52 Moving from Agency Recruiter to Internal Recruiter at YLD
- 01:24 The work at PaymentSense
- 02:28 Optimising the stages of recruitment
- 04:23 Handling recruiting for hypergrowth
- 07:59 The true value good Recruiters can bring you
- 09:54 Ideal tech tests/take-home-challenge
- 10:56 A better approach to diversity and inclusion hiring
- 17:02 Advice for your first developer/engineer role
- 18:36 Constructing your CV/resume for your audience
- 22:04 A better approach to the first screening call
- 25:10 Joke of the Show!


Tech Recruiting, how to hire and how to get hired - Nick Osborn | Talent Acquisition


- 00:00 Start
- 01:11 About DeadHappy
- 03:49 Lighthearted approach to death
- 05:38 Removing hurdles writing wills, preparing for death
- 07:54 Using large company experience to build startups
- 11:14 Lean, AGILE processes
- 13:04 Experience scaling
- 14:37 Importance of building teams
- 16:59 Diversity and Inclusion planning
- 22:04 Inclusivity of all personality types
- 25:24 NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming
- 28:45 Hypnosis, hypnotherapy
- 30:59 Analysis of Imposter Syndrome
- 35:40 Dealing with your Imposter Syndrome
- 37:27 Joke of the Show!


Disrupting the death industry, NLP, Imposter Syndrome - Nick Meredith | CTO


- 00:00 Start
- 01:09 Established role vs startups
- 01:51 Career progression into SEO specialization
- 03:58 Importance of SEO to developers
- 06:05 Seeing the bigger picture, solving business needs
- 07:02 Diminishing need of individual Technical skills
- 09:16 Leading Tech teams
- 14:11 Changing face of Tech over 25 years
- 17:00 Microaggressions
- 18:05 Journey improving web performance
- 23:13 Selling performance optimization to Business
- 28:48 Future of performance
- 30:40 Joke of the Show!


25 Years in Web Development, SEO, Selling Performance - Robin Allport | Application Architect


- 00:00 Start
- 00:55 Makers Academy - The first software bootcamp in Europe
- 01:18 Inspiration for the bootcamp
- 02:57 Ingredients of a successful bootcamp
- 05:37 Optimising for what employers want
- 06:59 Advice for bootcamp grads getting jobs
- 08:45 Mid-pandemic lack of Junior hiring
- 10:09 The business side of bootcamps
- 11:55 Staff culture influencing student culture
- 12:54 Diversity and Inclusion DNI
- 15:25 Setting your own salary
- 18:24 Scaling successfully
- 19:58 Exit strategy for Makers Academy
- 21:05 Listening to more experienced people as an Exec
- 23:10 Changing assumptions about people
- 25:50 Being an Executive Coach for CEOs and Founders
- 31:02 What's next?
- 32:05 The Joke of the Show!


Successful Software Bootcamps, Inclusivity, Executive Coaching - Evgeny Shadchnev


- 00:00 Start
- 00:57 Passion for books and publishing
- 02:14 Getting into software development
- 08:16 Embracing digital in the Publishing Industry
- 11:41 First steps in Tech
- 18:04 Working in Publishing Tech
- 19:18 Developer careers in Publishing now
- 23:01 Change in Publishing Tech
- 28:16 Imposter Syndrome
- 37:07 Sara's Mentors
- 42:54 Joke of the Show!


Publishing Tech, Imposter Syndrome, Mentors - Sara O'Connor | Developer


- 00:00 Start
- 01:06 Moving to work in China
- 02:50 Building up Microsoft in China
- 06:30 Insider view on changing market and consumer opinions on Microsoft
- 08:24 Not giving too much away to the competition when recruiting
- 10:35 Diversity and Inclusion at Microsoft
- 12:50 Moving on from Microsoft
- 14:25 Bounds of Technical growth
- 15:29 What https://www.smartrecruiters.com/ does
- 17:44 AI and filtering of CVs/resumes
- 19:35 AI and CV Match Scores
- 20:30 Removal of recruitment/hiring bias with Tech
- 23:24 Next frontier for Recruitment Tech
- 25:10 Joke of the Show!


Working at Microsoft China and USA, Recruiting Tech - Emre Demokan


- 00:00 Start
- 00:20 Backstory
- 01:00 When things start to go wrong in Bootcamp
- 04:04 Being OK with imperfection
- 05:00 Pairing strategies
- 07:09 The first job hunt
- 09:45 Spotting bad jobs
- 13:39 Examples of good practices
- 15:29 Levelling up technically, early days
- 17:34 What you gain from bad jobs
- 19:50 Confidence when getting a job
- 21:00 What to say to employers if you have short gigs
- 22:25 Passion for Software Development
- 24:44 Staying positive when it's bad
- 25:43 Advice for new Bootcamp students
- 26:52 Next steps
- 29:07 The Joke of the Show!


Successful careers after bootcamp struggles - Maciej K | Software Developer


- 00:00 Start
- 01:00 Getting that first Project Management role
- 03:25 Why it went well in Project Management
- 04:30 Knowing when to move on from Agencies
- 06:58 Project Manager vs Delivery Manager vs Scrum Master
- 07:56 Agile
- 09:36 Qualifications
- 11:49 Where PMs/DMs sit in the business
- 15:39 What motivates us
- 17:30 Passionate about individuals
- 20:37 Inspired by Developers
- 25:48 Picking up Technical knowledge
- 29:05 Progression for PMs/DMs
- 30:28 Joke of the Show!


Project and Delivery Management Deep Dive - Colin Swan | Snr Agile Delivery Manager


- 00:00 Start
- 00:45 Tech working culture in South Africa vs United Kingdom
- 02:20 Lack of investing in learning and development
- 03:56 Racial discrimination
- 04:41 Gender discrimination against Women in Tech in United Kingdom
- 05:30 Moving from Web Dev to Data
- 06:50 Taking demotions
- 08:52 Payoff of taking demotions
- 11:06 First mentor Tech Lead
- 12:29 Finding a mentor and mentoring others
- 14:42 Failing probation
- 18:06 Success for Leaders and Engineering Managers
- 22:46 Joke of the show!


Switching from Web to Data, Demotions, Mentors and more! - Francois Greeff | Tech Team Lead


- 00:00 Start
- 01:02 Career start
- 02:17 Effects of ADHD and Dyslexia
- 03:46 Channeling the energy of ADHD
- 04:38 Stigma attached to mental issues and neurodiversity
- 06:08 Advice for staying productive with neurodiverse issues
- 07:56 Discrimination with mental issues at work
- 09:18 Staying positive and hopeful
- 10:50 Discrimination as a Woman in Tech
- 12:45 Female founders
- 14:25 What's exciting about the future of tech
- 15:59 Joke of the show


Thriving with Dyslexia and ADHD, remote challenges, Women in Tech - Abi Travers | Software Engineer


- 00:00 Start
- 00:50 Danielle's career overview
- 04:40 Difference between being an engineer and creating tools for engineers
- 06:06 Rejecting Twitter, accepting Facebook, then leaving Facebook!
- 08:20 Staying connected to the industry during lockdown
- 10:14 Dealing with challenges as a woman in Tech
- 11:24 Staying motivated with others
- 12:30 Lessons learned mentoring other developers
- 13:58 Passion for mentoring
- 14:58 Effect of lockdown on developers, lack of seniors in pipeline
- 16:10 The Joke of the Show!


Offers from top-tier tech companies, inclusivity, mentoring others - Danielle Vass | Android Developer


- 00:00 Start
- 00:42 Career history
- 02:03 Key to promotion
- 04:12 Avoiding imposter syndrome
- 06:26 Becoming an empowerment coach
- 09:10 How you become a published Tech author
- 12:34 What do you realize after your first book is released
- 14:35 The Ansible books James has written
- 18:00 Lesson learned from not communicating needs
- 19:00 Favourite career highlight
- 20:05 Joke of the Show!

## You can find James' books on Ansible here:

[Practical Ansible 2](https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Ansible-infrastructure-configuration-applications/dp/1789807468/)

[Hands-On Enterprise Automation on Linux](https://www.amazon.com/Hands-Enterprise-Automation-Linux-infrastructure/dp/1789131618/)

[Mastering Ansible](https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Ansible-Effectively-configuration-management-dp-1789951542/dp/1789951542/)

## And James' work as an Empowerment Coach here:

[jamesfreeman.coach](https://www.jamesfreeman.coach/)


James Freeman | Solutions Architect and Author


- 00:00 Start
- 00:38 Career journey as a developer and manager
- 05:36 Managing the Tech build of Peacock TV
- 08:04 Productivity working remotely from home
- 08:42 Co-founding his startup CookMyGrub
- 12:58 Being mentioned on the BBC
- 14:11 Funding and crowd-funding
- 15:50 Success of FoodTech startups
- 17:10 Passion for startups and technology
- 18:37 Exit strategy
- 19:47 Advice for startup entrepreneurs
- 21:25 Lessons from career lowlights
- 22:25 Lessons from career highlights
- 23:45 Joke of the show


Ahead In Tech.

Previous Episodes