I dubbed Joram Mutenge as a “trifecta” when it comes to the data profession. He is a data engineer, data analyst, and data scientist! As with many people, the route wasn’t a straight one, but suits him well once he learned to love the parts few enjoy and how to be safely creative within data.

To become as valuable as possible, Joram has spent time learning SQL, Python, and JavaScript. We discussed multiple tools and libraries along with how to approach a web-based visualization as opposed to a print visualization. He’s now also learning Rust!

One of his biggest recommendations for anyone trying to learn something new? It’s not random tutorials! Instead, consider a “curated” path of learning. When you invest some level of money into a course or something similar, you’re more likely to finish it because you’re also financially invested and you won’t waste as much time jumping around and trying to put the pieces together on your own.

In this episode, we’ll talk about Joram’s journey into data engineering, the differences between data engineering/analytics/science, various languages and tools he works with, data cleanliness, how to learn and using a curated learning path, and where we can focus energy to spend our time wisely.

Your call to action? → Useless things take just as much effort as useful things. Ask yourself: Is what I’m doing right now useful to what I’m trying to accomplish?

Chapters

00:00 Journey into Data Engineering

05:27 The Importance of Data Cleaning

10:14 The Trifecta of Data Roles

11:55 Thinking in Tables

15:53 Learning Paths and Curated Education

25:52 Embracing Rust in Data Engineering

32:27 Final Thoughts on Effort and Utility

All the Good Stuff - Links & More

LinkedIn

Joram’s blog

So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport

Data-focused libraries & tools discussed:

D3

Apache ECharts

Matplotlib

Plotly

hvPlot

Pandas

Polars

Thanks & Gratitude 🙏

🎵 The background music in this episode was created by the amazing Sarah Garlock. You can also find Sarah @sarg_makes_beats on Instagram and TikTok!

Let’s Connect!

🎧 You can find this podcast episode and more at wip-podcast.com or wherever you enjoy your favorite podcasts.

👩‍💻 I also write a Substack newsletter about things I’m learning at codeOutLoud. You can find me on LinkedIn, YouTube, or take a peek at what I’m up to at mindi.omg.lol.

Want to be - or recommend - a guest for the show?

Fill out or send this short Notion form to a friend to be considered for an upcoming episode! I’m looking for interesting people working ALL across the tech world! 😁

Grace Dees came into my life through networking with women in tech in Colorado as she worked to break into the cybersecurity field! Most recently she has worked with a startup as a Cybersecurity Business Analyst.

Between personal life changes and growing into this profession, she has learned a lot about setting boundaries in both small and big ways. Also, moving into a new-to-you field calls for time, grace, and self-reflection on what you need and want. For Grace, calendar and project management have been essential!

In this episode, we’ll talk about transitioning from the equine to tech industry, boundary-setting, preventing burnout, giving space to grow and learn, and moving forward and asking for help even when you’re scared.

Your call to action? → Do it scared. Do it nervous. It can be hard to keep going when you’re not confident, but it’s so worth it to reach out for help at your comfort level. There are plenty of resources out there and people who truly want you to succeed!

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Grace Dees

01:43 Transitioning into Cybersecurity

03:38 Current Projects and Responsibilities

06:16 Navigating Burnout and Setting Boundaries

08:56 Learning and Adapting in a High-Demand Field

12:03 Building Confidence and Personal Agency

14:54 Overcoming Fear and Taking Action

17:51 Community Support and Resources

All the Good Stuff - Links & More

LinkedIn

Thanks & Gratitude 🙏

🎵 The background music in this episode was created by the amazing Sarah Garlock. You can also find Sarah @sarg_makes_beats on Instagram and TikTok!

Let’s Connect!

🎧 You can find this podcast episode and more at wip-podcast.com or wherever you enjoy your favorite podcasts.

👩‍💻 I also write a Substack newsletter about things I’m learning at codeOutLoud. You can find me on LinkedIn, YouTube, or take a peek at what I’m up to at mindi.omg.lol.

Want to be - or recommend - a guest for the show?

Fill out or send this short Notion form to a friend to be considered for an upcoming episode! I’m looking for interesting people working ALL across the tech world! 😁

Mara Kaela is a health coaching consultant who discovered her own health and wellness journey after a health crisis post-study abroad trip. Over years she’s asked questions, experimented, and iterated, learning along the way.

A UX course not only aided in her practice, but also got Mara thinking about new ways to approach goal-setting from a user flow perspective or building connection and relationships amongst a community!

Now, Mara is on a mission to improve community connections and relationships that will help the “conscious architects” support each other on their own journey to self-actualization. And she is on the lookout for others who might be interested to help: people with startup experience or venture capital funding, engineers, marketing and financial folks, and those who have experience with AI/machine learning.

In this episode, we’ll talk about finding a diet and lifestyle that work well for you, how UX can be applied in a bit of a unique way, her practice with Align Vegan and utilizing astrological charts and spirituality to create a “green print” for improving others’ lives, and her new project called the Starflower app, an AI-powered relational operating system designed to transform the search for a partner into a guided journey of self-actualization!

Your call to action? → We become the people that we spend the most time with. The more intentional we can be and the more tools we can have to nurture our relationships with those people that we do want to be around, he more satisfying our lives will be. It's okay to have an amazing, satisfying life!

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Mara Kaela's Journey

02:09 Health Transformation and Dietary Choices

04:10 Parallels Between UX and Health Coaching

09:50 Align Vegan: A Unique Approach to Nutrition

12:10 The Starflower Project: Building a Community

18:12 Seeking Collaboration and Team Building

21:13 Research and Development for the App

25:05 Global Aspirations and Closing Thoughts

All the Good Stuff - Links & More

LinkedIn

TikTok

Email Align Vegan

Mucusless Diet Healing System

Thanks & Gratitude 🙏

🎵 The background music in this episode was created by the amazing Sarah Garlock. You can also find Sarah @sarg_makes_beats on Instagram and TikTok!

Let’s Connect!

🎧 You can find this podcast episode and more at wip-podcast.com or wherever you enjoy your favorite podcasts.

👩‍💻 I also write a Substack newsletter about things I’m learning at codeOutLoud. You can find me on LinkedIn, YouTube, or take a peek at what I’m up to at mindi.omg.lol.

Want to be - or recommend - a guest for the show?

Fill out or send this short Notion form to a friend to be considered for an upcoming episode! I’m looking for interesting people working ALL across the tech world! 😁

From a Commodore 64, to programming, to roles like QA and support, to DevOps, Nick Clark was hooked on tech since he was 7 years old.

If we can learn one thing from him, it’s to keep learning. He’s worked on (and currently working on) many different projects! If you feel yourself stagnating, it’s the perfect time to try something new.

In this episode, we’ll talk about Nick’s path into tech, current projects he’s working on including various DevOps techniques and tools, the challenges of using multiple tools across teams and projects, certification training and the value of certs, and diversifying yourself and for organizations.

Your call to action? → Lend a hand and help each other out so we can share and lift each other up!

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Nick Clark's Journey

04:08 Exploring DevOps and CI/CD

06:47 The Role of Jenkins in Modern Development

09:45 Cloud Services and Multi-Provider Strategies

12:37 Building in Public: The GitHub Actions Project

14:44 Navigating Azure Certifications and Learning Paths

20:16 Navigating Certification Exams

22:48 The Value of Certifications vs. Experience

24:36 Exploring Career Paths in Tech

27:07 The Transition from Back-End to Front-End Development

27:53 Leveraging Tools for API Development

30:24 The Importance of Diversification in Projects

33:45 Implementing CI/CD Practices

35:05 The Power of Community and Collaboration

All the Good Stuff - Links & More

LinkedIn

BuiltInPublic (discussed in Christin Martin’s episode v0.0.2)

v0.0.2 - Christin Martin

Renovate repo

Thanks & Gratitude 🙏

🎵 The background music in this episode was created by the amazing Sarah Garlock. You can also find Sarah @sarg_makes_beats on Instagram and TikTok!

Let’s Connect!

🎧 You can find this podcast episode and more at wip-podcast.com or wherever you enjoy your favorite podcasts.

👩‍💻 I also write a Substack newsletter about things I’m learning at codeOutLoud. You can find me on LinkedIn, YouTube, or take a peek at what I’m up to at mindi.omg.lol.

Want to be - or recommend - a guest for the show?

Fill out or send this short Notion form to a friend to be considered for an upcoming episode! I’m looking for interesting people working ALL across the tech world! 😁

Colin J Lacy started his tech journey in restaurant marketing - spoiler: he was bad at it - and began learning to code instead. He started as a self-taught developer and freelancer with HTML and CSS, then expanded into many languages like JavaScript, WordPress and PHP, Rails, Python, Golang and later moved away from frontend engineering altogether into cloud engineering and he “hasn’t looked back!” There was a need and he was ready to fill it.

Throughout his tenure, continuous learning has been a common theme. Colin has felt “late to the party” with loads and loads of resources for well-established languages and tools and now with the rise of AI, he’s in an “early to the party” learning stage with little to no resources. The experience is different, but also somehow not different at all. 🤔

It still takes time and patience to grasp some of the complicated things. And that is very normal.

In this episode, we’ll talk about the many languages Colin has experience with, cloud engineering/DevOps, continuous learning in the early morning, unique challenges with AI infrastructure and observability, MCP, his YouTube channel, platform engineering alongside data scientists, and open source!

Your call to action? → Start contributing to open source early and often. 🙌

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Colin J Lacy and His Journey

05:40 Transitioning into Cloud Engineering

10:41 The Challenges of Cloud Engineering

15:32 Exploring AI Infrastructure

20:03 Understanding MCP and Its Relevance

28:32 Platform Engineering for Data Scientists

32:43 Final Thoughts and Advice on Open Source Contributions

All the Good Stuff - Links & More

LinkedIn

Colin’s YouTube channel

projectsveltos (open source project Colin mentioned)

Curious about the TypeScript moving to Go(lang) comments?

Thanks & Gratitude 🙏

🎵 The background music in this episode was created by the amazing Sarah Garlock. You can also find Sarah @sarg_makes_beats on Instagram and TikTok!

Let’s Connect!

🎧 You can find this podcast episode and more at wip-podcast.com or wherever you enjoy your favorite podcasts.

👩‍💻 I also write a Substack newsletter about things I’m learning at codeOutLoud. You can find me on LinkedIn, YouTube, or take a peek at what I’m up to at mindi.omg.lol.

Want to be - or recommend - a guest for the show?

Fill out or send this short Notion form to a friend to be considered for an upcoming episode! I’m looking for interesting people working ALL across the tech world! 😁

Brendan Schirmer is an Australian living in the UK who previously worked 10 years as a software engineer. Over time, he discovered a special touch communicating across technical and non-technical folks. Now, he’s shifted into coaching both with one-on-one clients and integrating to help entire teams under his business, “No BS Coaching.” (Get it? His initials + a cheeky statement on attitude! 😅)

With the help of his own coach, he’s made revisions to his approach in pricing and how he wants to show up as a coach. Through a series of small changes, Brendan has seen significant strides forward!

In this episode, we’ll talk about Brendan’s journey as a software engineer turned translator turned communication coach, async communication, sympathy and empathy, the two millimeter shift, how making small changes leads to big results, modeling the type of person you want to be, and - a bit surprisingly - weight loss.

Your call to action? → Consider how you communicate with others as well as yourself, and the tiny changes you can make moving forward if you want to see true change.

Chapters

02:59 Brendan's Journey from Engineering to Coaching

06:06 The Importance of Team Communication

09:00 Becoming a Translator for Teams

11:53 Async Communication and Team Culture

14:59 Empathy vs Sympathy in Communication

17:45 The Two Millimeter Shift Concept

22:42 The Power of Incremental Change

26:12 Setting Specific Goals for Transformation

29:13 Modeling Success: Learning from Others

30:58 Real-Life Examples of Two Millimeter Shifts

36:28 Communication as a Catalyst for Change

All the Good Stuff - Links & More

LinkedIn

No BS Coaching

Example of 2mm Shift Concept from Tony Robbins

Thanks & Gratitude 🙏

🎵 The background music in this episode was created by the amazing Sarah Garlock. You can also find Sarah @sarg_makes_beats on Instagram and TikTok!

Let’s Connect!

🎧 You can find this podcast episode and more at wip-podcast.com or wherever you enjoy your favorite podcasts.

👩‍💻 I also write a Substack newsletter about things I’m learning at codeOutLoud. You can find me on LinkedIn, YouTube, or take a peek at what I’m up to at mindi.omg.lol.

Want to be - or recommend - a guest for the show?

Fill out or send this short Notion form to a friend to be considered for an upcoming episode! I’m looking for interesting people working ALL across the tech world! 😁