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Nerd Journey: Career Advice for the Technology Professional

Nerd Journey: Career Advice for the Technology Professional

By: John White | Nick Korte
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 Are you a technology professional unsatisfied with your current role? Looking for a resource to help understand changing job functions, changing organizations, or gaining recognition and progression? The Nerd Journey podcast helps explore alternative roles, increase job satisfaction, and accelerate career progression. Each week, we uncover patterns of technical career progression by dissecting careers of guests and discussing different job roles they’ve held, or discussing relevant career topics. We’ve interviewed people in IT operations, sales engineering, technical marketing, product management, people management, network engineering, cybersecurity, software development, entrepreneurs, and more. We also discuss improving job satisfaction and accelerating career growth. We are John White and Nick Korte, two technologists with experience in IT operations and sales engineering who started this podcast in 2018. We release on Tuesdays, and can be found at https://nerd-journey.com. Career Success Economics Personal Development Personal Success
Episodes
  • Layoff Bounce Back: Resilience through Personal and Professional Networks with Dave Stevens

    Layoff Bounce Back: Resilience through Personal and Professional Networks with Dave Stevens
    Dec 23 2025
    Imagine your work day starting off like any other only to find you’ve been laid off. What would you do next? Dave Stevens lived this reality a couple of years ago and joins us this week in episode 354 to share the lessons from that experience. We’ll take you through how Dave processed the news of being laid off, the warning signs he missed, when he knew it was time to begin searching for a new role, how he thought about what to do next, and the critical importance of his personal and professional network throughout this process. Regardless of your age or the size of your professional network, Dave shares actionable suggestions for building professional connections that we all may be overlooking. Original Recording Date: 10-28-2025 Topics – Background and the Impact of a Layoff Event, Initial Forward Progress and Reliance on a Professional Network, Skills Gaps and Unexpected Positives, Elements of the Personal and Professional Network, Reaching Closure and Reflecting Back on the Lessons 2:27 – Background and the Impact of a Layoff Event Dave Stevens is a Field Solutions Architect at Pure Storage. In this role, Dave is a technical overlay for pre-sales technical personnel at Pure across North America. This is the role Dave took after he was impacted by a layoff.What was Dave’s role before he was impacted by a layoff event? For context, the layoff event we discuss in this episode took place around 2.5 years before this recording.Dave was classified as a systems engineer or pre-sales technical resource at his employer supporting multiple account reps. It was more of a solutions architect type of role, and Dave highlights his entry into this organization and role was via acquisition.Was there an element of technical marketing to the role? Nick mentions that Dave often had to attend trade shows in this role. Dave had a virtualization background and went to a lot of events to discuss how his company’s products integrated with those different technology ecosystems. The day Dave was laid off started as a normal day at his home office. His boss was based in Europe, so most 1-1 calls were usually late in the day his boss’s time (early afternoon for Dave). A meeting popped up that was earlier than usual, but Dave didn’t think anything of it.Right after Dave joined the remote session for the meeting, someone from HR joined followed by Dave’s boss.Dave wasn’t quite sure what to expect and didn’t know what was happening. He didn’t know if it was a layoff coming or some other kind of situation happening at his company.When Dave was laid off, they told him it was not for performance reasons, but there weren’t really any other details provided on why he was being laid off.“So, at that point it was just like, ‘what do I do?’” – Dave Stevens, on receiving layoff newsAfter receiving the news, Dave’s access to company systems like e-mail was quickly cut off. He went downstairs and spent the rest of his day relaxing. Dave did not want to talk about what happened any further that first day. Did Dave struggle with separating his identity from his employer or the job he held at all when this happened? Dave says he did, at least a little bit.Dave wanted to be successful in whatever role he found himself, and the reason he was in the systems engineering role at the time of the layoff event is a result of his drive to be successful in the years leading up to that role.“I also wanted to make sure that…the people that I worked with that I enjoyed working with. If I didn’t enjoy working with them, then there was no reason to continue staying there. So that’s part of my identity on how I interact with work.” – Dave StevensIn the early days of Twitter (now X), Dave defined an identity there. He also created a personal blog. Dave says his identity was often tied to where he worked.“Once this all happened, I just kind of cut that off. And I needed some time to really digest what I just went through that day.” – Dave Stevens Is there something Dave wishes people had done for him when this first happened? Dave says he wishes he would have listened to his wife. Before experiencing the layoff event, a number of colleagues who had entered the company through acquisition like Dave were either leaving or had been laid off (including his boss being laid off). At the time, Dave didn’t think much about these events.Dave’s wife had encouraged him to look for other jobs before the layoff happened, and he feels he should have listened.“It’s much easier finding a job when you have a job. There’s not as much pressure on you. You can take your time and really find the job that you want. That’s the one thing that kind of took me by surprise….” – Dave Stevens Did Dave’s wife also point him in a direction or provide feedback on the type of work he should pursue? We’ve spoken to previous guests who had spouses that provided insight into the type of work that made them happy.Dave ...
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    41 mins
  • Translating Experience: Clarity from Leadership in the People Industry with Christy Honeycutt (2/2)

    Translating Experience: Clarity from Leadership in the People Industry with Christy Honeycutt (2/2)
    Dec 2 2025
    How can we help recruiters advocate for us in a tough job market? According to people industry veteran Christy Honeycutt, our guest in episode 353, it starts with being kind and translating your experience into something a recruiter can understand. And even more importantly, it takes practice. In part 2 of our discussion with Christy, she translates deep experience in talent acquisition and recruitment that gives us insight into the current job market. You’ll hear more details about the nuances of RPOs (recruitment process outsourcers), the difference between job hugging and job abandonment, and the importance of personal branding and differentiation. Stay until the end when Christy shares her reasons for turning down C-suite positions and how clarity on her long-term goals is carrying her forward into what’s next. Now that you’ve heard someone model it for you, how will you translate your own experience? If you missed part 1 of our discussion with Christy, check out Episode 352 – People First: Systematizing Go-to-Market for Your Role with Christy Honeycutt (1/2). Original Recording Date: 09-30-2025 Topics – A Deeper Look at Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Translating Your Experience with 3 Wins, Bad Actors and Leadership in the People Industry, Today’s Job Market and Life Outside the C-Suite 2:56 – A Deeper Look at Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) When it comes to RPO (recruitment process outsourcing), is this a one-size-fits-all approach, or does it show up differently depending on what a company needs? In Christy’s experience, most RPO organizations offer services like executive search, but they may offer full RPO, which usually involves hiring more than 500 people per year.Normally an RPO brings a mix of skills to the table. A client may want the RPO to take only talent acquisition or may want to control offer management, but they may want the RPO to take everything (attracting new talent, offer management, coordinating with HR for new employee onboarding). “If a company wants it a certain way, they can stop it at a certain point…. But most RPOs, full RPOs, is attraction to offer accepted and then it tees over to the HR team.” – Christy Honeycutt John has worked for companies where the recruitment or talent acquisition personnel were marked as contractors in the internal global address book but had company e-mail addresses. Would this mean the personnel are contracting directly with a company or working through an RPO? Christy says it could be either scenario. When she managed an RPO earlier in her career, they were most successful when the client encouraged the RPO to brand as the company.Someone might indicate they do recruitment for a specific company on LinkedIn but be an employee of an RPO.Christy tells us how important it is for the RPO to understand an organization’s mission, vision, benefits, and culture because the RPO is often attracting talent and selling people on why they should apply and interview.“When you think about recruitment and talent acquisition, regardless, it’s a lot of marketing because you’ve got a really cool position and you’ve got to find the perfect fit.” – Christy Honeycutt 5:55 – Translating Your Experience with 3 Wins Right now, recruiters and talent acquisition professionals have a distinct challenge. Many resumes look the same because candidates are using AI tools. “What people think is helping set them apart is actually making them look more similar. So now you’ve got recruiters and talent acquisition; they don’t know if these are fake resumes. They don’t know if they’re real. And they’re getting on the call with these people and finding out they are fake; they don’t have any of this requirement.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy shares a little secret about learning recruitment. She gives the example of a recruiter needing to recruit for an executive level role in technology. Recruiters are encouraged to seek out and find the C-players to practice asking them questions, understand nuance, and grasp the terminology. This is a training exercise.Following this process, a recruiter would then have more credibility once they speak to the A-players they actually want to hire.“What I would encourage is if you are a C-player, you’re not going to know it. Just be kind and know that the person you’re talking to has never held a technical role (probably, most likely)…and might not understand half the stuff that you guys do. The acronyms aren’t going to be the same. Just be gracious with them because the more you can help them translate your experience, the better you’re going to be positioned to get you over the line…. They don’t want to talk to 10 people to get 1 hire. They want to talk to 3 people to get a hire…. And remember that the TA, HR, recruiters, whatever you want to call them…there’s a pretty good chance that they want to help you and that they’re doing the job because ...
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    39 mins
  • People First: Systematizing Go-to-Market for Your Role with Christy Honeycutt (1/2)

    People First: Systematizing Go-to-Market for Your Role with Christy Honeycutt (1/2)
    Nov 18 2025
    Go-to-market strategy is something we often associate with a company or its products / services, but what if we could apply go-to-market to our job role? Christy Honeycutt, a talent acquisition veteran and our guest this week in episode 352, has used this mindset as a personal differentiator starting with her first job in the banking industry. We’ll follow Christy as she describes early experience as a people manager, learn why she developed a people first mentality, and recount the events that kickstarted her career in recruitment. This story helps us understand what is required to systematize the work we do and how difficult it can be for things that seem easy. Christy will also educate you on the importance of developing AI competence and the impact of recruitment process outsourcing on job candidate experience. Original Recording Date: 09-30-2025 Topics – Meet Christy Honeycutt, A Go-to-Market Perspective, Beginnings in the Banking Industry, Learning to Systematize and Duplicate Yourself, A People First Approach, Getting into Recruitment 2:10 – Meet Christy Honeycutt Christy Honeycutt has 20 years of talent acquisition experience, go-to-market experience, and some marketing experience sprinkled throughout.Christy is also the host of two different podcasts: On Inside the C-Suite, Christy interviews executive leaders to gain insight from life in these roles.StrategicShift is focused on the future of work, innovation, and AI. 3:17 – A Go-to-Market Perspective How would Christy define talent acquisition and recruitment and the differences between them? Recruitment should be thought about as more active. There is a job open with specific requirements which need to be filled based on time constraints.Talent acquisition is more strategic according to Christy. This would include understanding why a role is vacant, the succession plans, cultural initiatives, and workforce planning. Christy refers to this as “engaging passive pipelines for long-term goals.”Personnel in talent acquisition and recruitment are usually in those roles because they want to help people, but these roles may look slightly different across companies of various sizes and in different industries. How would Christy define go-to-market? We hear this term quite often but are not confident that everyone truly understands what this means. For context, Christy talks about looking at this with a lens across many different departments / internal organizations – marketing, recruitment, and even sales.“Go-to-market is understanding what is the product and who is the end user…. Am I filling a job? Then I’m going to market for that candidate that fits that job. Am I working for a tech company (which I most recently did)? Then, yes, I need to understand what is our product, who is the end user, who is the buyer…and how can I get this to market for them…to see, to use to buy, and to be delighted in? The go-to-market is really kind of a Frankenstein effect in my opinion. It’s really understanding the value and how it translates and then how you can connect the dots…. Go-to-market for me has just kind of been at my core since I was a kid.” – Christy HoneycuttFor recruitment, the go-to-market is usually set based on an organization’s vision, mission, values, and culture.Christy uses the example of negotiating with her father (a former Marine) to get what she wanted when she was younger to illustrate that go-to-market can mean understanding how to sell. 7:01 – Beginnings in the Banking Industry Christy was a cheerleader in high school and got a fully paid scholarship to college, but at age 17, she was diagnosed with cancer. As a result of the diagnosis, she was not able to attend college. Christy always wanted to be a mom and did not want to ruin her chance to have children.Christy married her college sweetheart and became a stay-at-home mom of 2 children. She is now heathy, happy, and thankful she was able to have children.Christy’s father owned a nonprofit, and even while she was a stay-at-home mom, Christy was involved in marketing for nonprofits as a result.Christy also was part of the boards of her children’s schools, did volunteer work, and even taught pre-school. After moving to a new state, Christy needed to get a job to support her children. After applying at a bank, she landed a manager job. Within 6 months, the bank branch where she worked was the highest producing in the state of Texas.Christy came up with marketing initiatives to get customers to visit the bank. She gives the example of a yearly Halloween contest.At one point, the bank was robbed, and Christy learned to lead in stressful situations through this experience. She also learned that she has a photographic memory. Christy tells us her career really began in banking and then transitioned into marketing. Listen to the story about one of her clients who was a mortgage broker. Christy had 2 boys in various sports and was wearing herself out ...
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    43 mins
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