Episodes

He had no IT background, no plan, and was living in a tree house between jobs. Then one interview sent him somewhere he never expected. Chris Day grew up in Silicon Valley, bounced through pizza shops, Chili's, and bartending gigs, and graduated UC Santa Cruz with a self-designed degree in communication, sociology, and psychology. He had no roadmap for what came next. What happened next was an interview for an account executive role that turned into an offer to teach software - and a career that...

He broke the family computer in 8th grade trying to teach himself DOS. The repair shop he took it to hired him for the summer. That is how Jesse Taylor's career in technology began. Jesse Taylor is the Senior Manager of Cloud and Systems Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His path to that role spans Apple retail, college newspaper IT, media companies, a hotel property that declared bankruptcy, and a first month on the job that collided with Hurricane Sandy. None of it was plann...

What do you do when healthcare is your calling but the patient side is not your path? Rachel Papka figured that out the long way. She started at a hospital as a PBX phone operator. Worked through ER registration, landed in radiology, and was asked to become a super user when the hospital adopted its first electronic medical record. There were no certifications for healthcare technology at that time. No clear career path. She learned on the job and never looked back. That first step grew into 1...

Episode Information Show NotesWhat does it look like to build a tech career when no one hands you anything?Jordan McConnell ran network operations at Langley Air Force Base with a top-secret clearance, supporting 100,000 people across 15 bases. When he left active duty, the civilian job market didn’t care about any of that. So he took help desk calls getting yelled at, rebuilt from the bottom, and funded every step of his own career development without waiting for an employer to do it for him. ...

Episode Information Show NotesAt age seven, Juan Mazo told his family he would bring his mom’s family to America one day. By 26, he had done it. His mom hasn’t paid rent since 2015. And then he fell into depression.Juan built a tech career that most people would call a success from PC repair out of his aunt’s restaurant in Connecticut to hedge fund IT support in New York, to running the IT department at a clinical trials software company, to spending two years unemployed before landing at Verac...

Episode Information Show NotesKim Snyder graduated with three degrees in accounting, MIS, and entrepreneurship. Companies had no idea what to do with her. They weren’t ready for someone who wanted to do all three. So she built the career herself. Over the next 30+ years, Kim went from QA engineer to tech consultant to finance consultant to business owner, coach, and speaker. Her path wasn’t linear. It was strategic in some places and instinctive in others. She learned to read herself early know...

Episode Information Show NotesWhat do you do when you get laid off at the biggest project management conference in the world? You work the room, go home, and build your own company.Parmjit Kaur did not set out to be a project manager. She wanted to be a Bollywood actress, then a doctor, then a teacher, then a radio host. What she became was one of the more interesting career stories you will hear – born in Scotland, raised in England, claiming New Jersey, and now running her own consultancy in ...

Episode Information Show NotesHe has spent 30 years in tech sales. He has almost never gone through a formal interview.Every major opportunity in Rodney Detrick’s career came from a relationship he had already built. Not a resume. Not an online application. Someone who knew him, trusted him, and opened a door. This episode is about how that happens – and what else Rodney has learned in three decades of selling, leading, and teaching others to do both.Rodney is the Executive VP of Growth at Conn...

Episode Information Show NotesThe people you least expect are watching your career. Rhonda Lemke built nearly 30 years in technology on that truth.Her career started at Arthur Anderson, where she worked as a secretary and executive assistant. A mentor asked her at 19 to quit her job, move in with her, and go to college. That moment set everything in motion. From there, Rhonda worked her way through help desk management, 15 years at Accenture in IT consulting and change management, network opera...

Episode Inforrmation Show NotesWhat does it take to walk away from a 20-year career in hospitality and start over in tech at 38 with no degree, no certifications, and no hard skills? For Michael Steffen, it started with a jiu-jitsu training partner telling him he was miserable and handing him a Security+ study guide. He passed. He volunteered at DEF CON for three years. He’s now in targeted account sales in cybersecurity and he got there without ever applying for a single tech job.Michael spent...

Episode Information Show NotesHis father got tired of him playing video games. So he threw a book at him. Thirty years later, Dennis Moriarity is Chief Information Officer at Link Technologies in Las Vegas, and the book his dad threw “Learn C in 24 Hours” started everything. Dennis grew up in LA and wanted to be a police officer. He applied to the LA Sheriff’s Department at 18 and didn’t get in. He started a business during the dot-com era, watched it dry up when the bubble burst, then went bac...

Episode Information Show Notes - Bri Haralson wanted to be a chef. Sixteen years later she’s the Director of SLED at Cribl, one of the most connected people in the Southwest public sector tech community, and about to step into her next leadership rol...

Episode Information Show Note - Ever wonder how someone goes from desktop support to protecting a professional sports team’s entire digital infrastructure? - Andrew Ferrall’s career path shows that there’s no single route to landing your dream job i...

Episode Information Show Notes - Sometimes the career you’re meant for finds you through the most unexpected path. - Art Green III, Senior IT Workforce Programs Instructor at Tech Impact, joins Career Downloads to share his journey from college athl...

Episode Information Show Notes - Mike Green didn’t start out planning a career in technology. As a passionate art student in small-town New York, he faced a tough decision: pursue a field he loved with uncertain job security,

Episode Information Show Notes - The Week That Changed Everything Ray Freeman’s tech career includes a chapter most people would rather forget. After the 2008 financial crisis, Ray lost his job, his wife lost hers,

Episode Information Show NotesWhat happens when a drummer who played for 10,000 people realizes the music business won’t pay the bills? Rebekah Panepinto shares her unconventional journey from Nashville musician to successful Accou...

Episode Information Show NotesBreaking into a major tech company requires more than submitting applications online. Chelsey Bonilla shares how strategic networking, intentional preparation,

Episode Information Show NotesWhat happens when you stop planning your career and start asking better questions?Ruben Sarino didn’t set out to co-found an AI security company. The path from military kid bouncing between six countrie...

Episode Information Show NotesSometimes the best careers are the ones you never planned. - Aakin Patel went to school for geology. He spent years studying plate tectonics and doing computational modeling. The plan was academia.

Episode Information Show NotesFrom Age 7 to MSP Owner: Simon Robert’s IT Journey - Simon Robert’s IT career started earlier than most, at just 7 years old, he was already fixing computers his father brought home. Now,

Episode Information Show NotesTechnical skills land you the job. People skills determine everything that comes next. - Yvette Durazo brings conflict resolution expertise to Silicon Valley tech companies.

Episode Information Show Notes - What happens when you combine curiosity, willingness to take chances, and genuine interest in people? You get Bob Leek’s career story – a journey from a small town in North Carolina to becoming CIO of Clark County,

Episode Information Show Notes - Episode Summary: Vika Nevmyvakova’s career path looks nothing like she planned. - She arrived in the US from Ukraine at 20 with law school dreams. No resources to make it happen. No network. No connections. -