Techlife

EP014: Neil Moore 8X CCIE, CCDE, RHCE and all the other E’s on InterOp being what makes his career (and yours too).

Yes, this interview is with THE Neil Moore – the guy who is tied with only one other human on the planet for having every Expert level cert from Cisco – All CCIE’s and the CCDE.  I first found out about Neil through a YouTube channel he had when he was at HP doing some interop stuff with their switches.  The funny thing is, THAT EXACT CONCEPT is how Neil Views his success.  Listen in on this amazing interview, there is so much wisdom in it!

00:00 Neil Moore – Who he is started with the computer lab at Panamerican University, and a Highschool job doing PC stuff.
07:00 Refinement of the CCIE study process – from the guy who has them all.
09:00 INE and IP expert (RIP IPX [the training company and the protocol!])
13:00 Combining technologies as a superpower.
17:00 It’s not about the money for Neil. It’s about something he’s passionate about AND something he likes to do.
21:00 Making sure your training process isn’t too old, and not boxing yourself in to learning methods.
24:00 Unbidden, it’s Pillar 6!
25:00 Certs are structured learning – and Neil’s take.
28:00 Software has become like sampling songs – learning everything that you think is cool tends to pop up again and again.
30:00 Choosing a technology based on what you LIKE – so that you keep interest
32:30 Code RGV and how Neil Gives back to the next wave of tech workers
34:30 Mentoring – You can’t get off the couch and run a marathon. You have to train yourself up – Neil times zero to hero in 18 months. Pillar 1 and Pillar 6 aplenty.
41:00 Social media and showcasing your work.
44:30 Neil on moving in front of automation and commonality.
48:00 What Neil’s doing now -> Technology hop vs job hopping.
52:00 The importance of knowing people inside your company or outside who can think about a problem with you.
54:30 Neil Moore’s dedicated learning time – 1 to 2 hours per day, 7 days a week.
59:00 Min/Maxing your study time and time boxing stuff that is frustrating.

Find Neil online at LinkedIn (HERE), and on Twitter (HERE).

More can be found about Neil’s methodology about CCIE study on the How To Network blog entry (HERE).

 

EP013: Cisco NetDevOps Evangelist Hank Preston on smart people learning new things (even when it’s scary).

 

I never do quite know when I will stumble across someone who I think “I must have this person on my podcast”.  A Cisco Network Automation webinar was one such place, when I met Hank Preston, the NetDevOps Evangelist for Cisco Networks.  He had a HUGE amount of great knowledge to share with us on this episode.  Tackling Pillar 4, Explaining Automation, and talking about why people screw themselves up by not listening.

00:00 Intro for Hank Preston.
10:00 Network Programmability Basics Course (here)
15:00 What is CI/CD and Network Pipelining
17:30 Network Configuration Pipeline
24:00 MEETUP!
29:00 Deep Learning vs Wide Learning – Don’t look for unicorns.
31:00 Developer.cisco.com discussions.
36:00 Discussion on certs and their value.
41:00 SE Jobs and how listening and not snap judgment is the key.
50:00 Everyone’s favorite buzzword – IoT.

You can find Hank online at @hfpreston and @ciscodevnet. He also gives killer webinars about using programmability to automate your network.

EP008: Small Goat Farm to Massive Server Farms with Storied Developer, Author, Blogger, and Speaker Strata Chalup.

Ep-008-Strata-Chalup-Author-Blogger-Superstar-and-Speaker

 

Today on this episode of Angle Free IT I got together with Strata Chalup, who is a Developer, Author, Blogger, and Speaker from many conferences, including the LISA conference.  Strata has been an influential person in my career because of her framework on troubleshooting.  I got it from a friend who saw her speech at LISA and have gone over it many times with people.  If you’re interested, I have a link to it below the show notes.  We touch on Interview Strategies, Solopreneuring, and Strata’s dynamic career pivots.

01:00: Intro with Strata.
04:30: When to go solo consulting versus employee.
06:00: How to skill build by learning frameworks.
07:45: Strata’s how to troubleshoot presentation and what impact it had on Preston’s career. Logic vs knowledge.
10:30: Diversity and inclusion – today versus yesterday – and what still needs to change.  Talk about Pillar 1 as well.
16:30: Imposter sydrome and battling it.
19:45: Joining IT when you’re not fresh out of school.
21:00: ‘Just’ is not just a phrase. It’s a nightmare.
23:00: Conduit – the race to the bottom price and how it affects Tech. Your job is to find out what is going “to be tires” in a few years and stay away from that.
24:30: Mentorship discussions, talk about Pillar 6.
27:00: Building a brand via values.
29:00: Things to avoid when looking to interview – ‘You should be able to explain a technical answer on a subway if you have one stop’.
31:00: Thoughts on pivots, and how Strata has accomplished pivots. PM-ing vs hands on.
34:30: Guest turnover – things Strata Loves: Arduino, and Adafruit. Also – super cool book Vehicles

You can find the latest book Strata Co-Authored Here.

Later on, we talked about Arduino programming – and I found a great starter set for people interested here.  For small Arduino parts, I love the Colorado company Spark Fun, which can be found at http://www.sparkfun.com.

As well, we touched on a cool robotics book from MIT that Strata was talking about can be found here.

EP007: Jeff Bowdin – Director, Dad of Daughters, and Dynamo of the 80%.

In episode 007 of the Angle Free IT podcast, I sat down to get a lesson in priorities and reality from IT Director Jeff Bowden. Jeff is very saged with his experience in technology and we met online in a few forums in which we both help people out with career questions.  We talked about a lot of things, but my highlights were diversity and inclusion, Prioritization and the 80% rule that Jeff runs his shop with. I know that I am better for having met Jeff and having gained some of his wisdom, and I am sure you will be too.

00:00 Intro

03:00 Cyclical nature in computing.

07:00 How remote skills are key.

10:00 Degree vs No Degree thoughts.

13:00 Skills Jeff sees as declining and losing their relevance.

22:00 Customer Service is what we end up doing.

29:00 Interview skills for noobs.

31:00 how to clarify your priorities.

38:00 Branching out to determine who the important people in the company are – get outside of technology (mention workplace poker).

40:30 Who some of the most important people in the company are – it’s not who you think it is.

43:30 How Jeff finds mentorship.

47:00 Pivoting and making the jump with both feet.

50:30 The 80% rule explained. Balance and Prioiritzation.

53:00 Jeff gives Preston an unexpected huge compliment.

That cool website Jeff Mentioned is HERE.

Podcast Automation Stuff – V1.0 – The upshot

I create and program the things, and then I work on automation.

The trajectory of most people in technology, especially those who are especially adept at moving up in the world includes automation.  It should come as no surprise to those of you who listen to my podcast, that I love my podcast, but that I HATE wasting time.  Automation and streamlining things are what comes first to my brain when I started working on my podcast.

When I first started to prep my podcast, I was a bit naive:

Yeah… About that… No – I was wrong.

I thought I would give you a peek behind the scenes of what I’m finding out is a straight up friggin’ pipeline for a podcast.

So, Imma CI/CD this thing and here is where I’m going to display my findings.

But Why?

One thing you’ll hear me say throughout my blog and podcast is “I can make more money, but I can’t make more time“.  Because I travel a lot for work, I absolutely disdain wasting my time on the weekends doing what I feel like is busywork.  And, can I share something with you:  I have about 2% passion for post-prep on audio and social media.  But I don’t want the podcast to suck, and I want to have my guests reach and inspire a greater audience.  Fortunately, I’ve done so many audio things off and on, as well as a ton of Adobe products.  So I have the ingrained skills to figure out how to do stuff, and then the iterative skills to do them faster.

So, without further adieu, let me share my work-in-progress of a flow map of how I’m starting to get everything arranged.  The automation flows are as follows:

  1. Guest Inquiry (only semi-automated at this point)
  2. Guest booking automation.
  3. Recording automation.
  4. Post Prep Audio Automation.
  5. Post Prep Graphic Automation.
  6. Episode Posting (can’t really be automated on the blog … yet)
  7. Promote via laptop.
  8. Promote via mobile (Instagram, Vero, other methods that require mobile only uploads).

EP004: Career Blogger Mike McRitchie on telling your story in an Interview

Today, we sit down with Career Blogger Mike McRitchie.  Mike McRitchie works with people who’ve progressed in their technical or managerial career but who are feeling stuck.

He performs a “Career Checkup” where he helps them uncover their accomplishments, unique gifts and cool stories, and then performs a “Brand Alignment” – translating that into a résumé and LinkedIn profile that gets noticed.

00:00 Intro.

07:00 Skills discussions and where to build skills.

10:00 Networking Discussions in tech.

11:30 Preston ask the degree question.

18:30 Mike talks about pivoting into a new career, and how he’s helped people to do this.

21:00 The question that torpedo’s people in tech interviews ‘Tell Me About Yourself’- without bragging.

29:00 Pillar 6 – Being the dumbest person in the room, whenever possible.

30:30 (Loosely Paraphrased) You do you man… you do you.

37:00 Talking introversion and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.

40:30 Two passionate side gigger’s talk side gig.

44:00 How Mike helps people market themselves.

To find Mike McRitchie on the web:

1: Go here for Mike McRitchie‘s resume and LinkedIn profile writing services.

2: You can also get Mike‘s free report about the One Thing you need on your resume that you otherwise risk NOT getting called for an interview.

EP002: Nicolas Cole On Why Your Digital Brand Is More Important Than A Resume.

Here in Episode 002, We talk to Nicolas Cole, Founder of Digital Press and top Quora writer about building your brand online, and killing your resume. Definitely a great listen – even if you’re not in IT. You can find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, RSS, and on my blog at https://AngleFreeIT.com

00:00: Intro

03:00: Nicolas Cole’s origin story and how gaming shaped his career.

05:00: Why people know who Cole is who he is – ‘I Am The Brand’.

07:45: What the hell is ‘building your brand’?

10:00: Anyone can start this.

11:15: “Everyday”.

14:15: Quora is brilliant for building your brand.

19:30: Sometimes, taking an opportunity is better than waiting for someone to tell you to do so.

24:00: Cole shares about how people don’t prep for interviews, and why you’ve already failed if you do this.

28:00: Cole reminds me to have compassion for people.

30:30: Talking about finding a mentor, demonstrating you want to, and burning ships.

38:00: Why providing solutions vs spotting problems gets you a job.

42:00: “For the Horde” vs my boring ass Paladin.

You can find Nicolas Cole at his website, Digital Press, Right Here (https://www.digitalpress.com/) and personal blog at (https://nicolascole.com).

You can also find the article that made me say “I gotta talk to this guy” here:(https://www.inc.com/nicolas-cole/resumes-are-dying-heres-what-you-need-instead.html)

Feel free to reach out to Cole if you know some C-Suite person who needs some help with media!

 

 

Episode 001: Lifelong Learning with Julian Rodriguez 5x CCIE, CCDE and Master of Alphabet Soup.

In this Episode, I talk with Julian Rodriguez, a friend from many years back.  We talk through his expanding arsenal of certifications, currently including 5 CCIE’s, a CCDE, VCIX-NV, CISSP, Masters Degree, Undergrad and many others.  I circle back through our decade of knowing each other, and I get to fanboy a little bit.

00:00: Intro.

02:00: Julian’s Origin Story.

06:00: Julian’s Main Philosophy.

08:00: Julian Answer ‘WHY’.

17:00: Dealing with Failure (a lot).

28:30: H1B Immigration rough ride.

33:00: An edge for those wanting to immigrate.

36:00: When to Pivot.

41:00: Julian proves he’s a consultant and gives me ‘It depends’.

47:00: When Julian studies/time philosophy.

51:00: What’s next, and programming skills.

54:00: Pillar 6 showing up in Study Groups.

A breakup letter

Hey there Navigators – I thought I’d share a post I put on the soc-med’s that I found very freeing.  A financial and tech lifestyle pivot if you will.  Hopefully, you enjoy my prose and don’t get too much PSTD from reading it!

It’s not me, it’s you: My breakup letter to my constant digital companion of over a decade.

Well, we both must have imagined this time would come, although I’m sure I’ve been contemplating it much more than you.  The constant “Things will get better” but never did.  It seems we outgrew each other.  12 years.  12 years and approximately 15k USD.  FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.  That’s how much I gave to you over the years.  And yet, you never gave me that much in return value.  Sure, there were some pretty good times at first, but as I grew as a person, you never met my needs.

My 4g used to be awesome, but you didn’t keep up.  When I asked you what the problem was, you blamed me, and said it must be my issue.  Your response was ‘you can fix this problem with a $250 repeater that you buy yourself to make me look better’.  And when I said I needed more from you – more of your attention and your 1’s and 0’s, you said that’s fine, but you needed more from me too.  Approximately 50 dollars more a month.  For 2 phones only.  On the phones I already had.  To add the boys, the bill would be somewhere around $410.  As our family grew, I knew I had to get out of this relationship.  It was toxic.

I found someone new.  Someone who is giving me 4 iPhone 8’s, 4 lines of service, unlimited data, and some various accessories.  For 30 dollars more per month than you wanted to charge me for unlimited for 2 phones.  Oh, and a streaming service to boot.  When I called you to give me an ultimatum, your answer was ‘You can’t leave me. No one is better than me, and you’ll regret this’.  That made me scared at first, but then it JUST MADE ME ANGRY.

Oh, and by the way: MY PHONE SERVICE WORKS IN MY HOUSE AND NEIGHBORHOOD NOW WITHOUT A REPEATER YOU SAID I NEEDED TO PAY FOR.

So, Verizon, I feel it’s only fair I tell you that I’ve left you for T-Mobile.