Be Plucky Podcast (Jen Dary)

MJ is an Engineering Manager for the API and Partnerships team at Honeycomb. MJ's team works on exposing APIs and integrating Honeycomb capabilities with the broader software ecosystem to allow users to take advantage of Observability from anywhere!

Before Honeycomb, MJ spent 12 years as a consultant, developer, and leader at companies like ThoughtWorks and Apple. Outside work, she enjoys long walks listening to an audiobook or podcast (current phase - true crime or cults). She also loves legos an lazy weekends and binge-watching television shows.

We cover a lot, including:

• regular check-ins about career direction
• Will Larson's Career Check-up
• financial stability
• artifacts and structures
• specialists and innovation
• generalists and versatility
• embracing the way things are done elsewhere
• appreciating context switching
• Lara Hogan's Voltron exercise
• feeling stuck in a career
• how to recognize a need for change

Connect with MJ on LinkedIn and read more about Honeycomb here.

And finally...

Looking for new energy in your mentorships? Check out the Plucky Mentor Pack, an easy tool to inspire deep conversations about your path.

• Be Plucky Mentor Pack
• Coaching with Jen

Episode Notes

Katel LeDû is the CEO of A Book Apart, where she helps passionate tech community members become successful authors. She’s also a coach focused on helping folks cultivate creativity, develop social awareness in themselves and at work, and embody sensitivity and empathy as superpowers.

We cover a lot, including:

• uncommon career paths
• the maturity of industries
• egos and email
• pauses before answers
• capitalism
• people trusting themselves
• work as savior
• entrepreneurship
• the concepts of small as big, dangerous departures

Connect with Katel on LinkedIn and check out Katel's recent book, You Should Write a Book, here.

And finally...

Looking for new energy in your mentorships? Check out the Plucky Mentor Pack, an easy tool to inspire deep conversations about your path.

https://abookapart.com/

Meet Our Guest

Dr. Evelyn Carter (she/her) is a social psychologist who has conducted cutting-edge research on how to detect and discuss racial bias. She’s also the president of Paradigm, a consultancy that designs solutions that help companies incorporate DEI into their talent systems and processes.

As Paradigm’s President, Evelyn is focused on evolving and advancing the practice of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Evelyn’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, and in 2018, she was featured on the Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences “20 Under 40” list. In addition to her peer-reviewed scholarship, Evelyn is a highly sought-after thought leader. Her work and insights have been published in popular press outlets such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg, CBS This Morning, CNBC, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and NPR. Evelyn holds a doctorate from Indiana University, a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University.

We cover a lot, including:

• authenticity and first impressions
• interviewing and masks
• minimizing trade-offs when being yourself at work
• curating first impressions
• problematic instincts
• networking: lame and awesome
• the first impressions of places
• our choice of backgrounds on Zoom

Connect with Evelyn on her  personal website,  LinkedIn, and her Twitter, @drevvycarter.

You can follow Evelyn's blog series here and read more about opportunities at Paradigm here. 

And finally...

Looking for new energy in your mentorships? Check out the Plucky Mentor Pack, an easy tool to inspire deep conversations about your path.

Christina Entcheva is a Director of Software Engineering at GitHub. Christina has a background as a software engineer, product manager, and designer. She’s passionate about open source software, radical candor, and salads!

We cover a lot, including:

• who sets the standards for good performance
• socializing career ladders
• the difference between being challenged and underperforming
• modeling constructive feedback
• perfectionism
• weight training with a trainer
• Performance Improvement Plans
• what keeps managers up at night
• favorite moments of management

Connect with Christina on LinkedIn and read more about Communities @ GitHub! Christina's team owns a bunch of GitHub features including:

Discussions: https://github.com/features/discussions

Sponsors: https://github.com/sponsors

And finally...

Looking for new energy in your mentorships? Check out the Plucky Mentor Pack, an easy tool to inspire deep conversations about your path.

Meet Our Guest

Sameera Kapila (she/her) is a designer, educator, manager, and writer who works as a senior product designer at Netlify.

From India and Curaçao, and currently living in Austin, TX, Sameera has held roles in agencies, educational institutions, and consultancies ranging from individual contributor to executive leadership, student to educator, and everything in between. This experience influences and powers Sameera to analyze design holistically, identifying gaps and advocating for solutions in her new book, Inclusive Design Communities.

We cover a lot, including:

• daring to dream about something new
• inclusive places
• caregiving and inclusive benefits
• individuals vs. community
• unlearning (reference to: Ethan Marcotte's original book on Responsive Web Design)
• scientists and failure
• calling in vs. calling out
• tactics for empowering sponsorship and allyship daily

Connect with Sam on her  personal website,  LinkedIn, and on Mastodon. Don't forget to purchase Sam's book!

And finally...

Looking for new energy in your mentorships? Check out the Plucky Mentor Pack, an easy tool to inspire deep conversations about your path.

Meet Our Guest

Emily Allen is the VP of People at SEER interactive. Emily has 15+ years experience building, scaling and leading People Operations end-to-end at agencies and start-ups with remote and fully distributed teams. When Emily's not HR'ing, you can find her spending time with her husband, three daughters and giant Newfoundland, Rooney. 

We cover a lot, including:

• remote work since Covid
• wanting to be everything for everyone
• confidence
• communicate, communicate, communicate
• business hours
• burnout
• being a grown-up
• Zoom vs. phone
• how boundaries relate to delegation

Connect with Emily on LinkedIn and read more about opportunities at SEER.

And finally...

Looking for new energy in your mentorships? Check out the Plucky Mentor Pack, an easy tool to inspire deep conversations about your path.
 

Meet Our Guest

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Mari Chamoun (she/her) lives in Austin, TX, where she is raising a kid with her partner. Mari is COO and partner at Funsize, a digital service and product design agency, where she leads operations and sales.

We cover a lot, including:

• sales in a design organization
• mediating prices and deadlines between clients and the team
• the importance of empathy and creativity in negotiation
• meeting folks first as humans
• how to celebrate wins
• how to know when to walk
• negotiating on Zoom / remotely
• what is the other person afraid of?
• winning with a client vs. winning with your team
• negotiation as collaborative conversation
• gender in power and negotiation

Connect with Mari or find out more about Funsize here.

Looking for new energy in your mentorships? Check out the Plucky Mentor Pack, an easy tool to inspire deep conversations about your path.

Meet Our Guest

Julie Kang (she/her) is the Director of Engineering at Chord Commerce, a series A start-up, and a leadership coach. Prior to Chord, Julie was a manager at Mailchimp, worked at Minted, and several roles in in the biotech industry. Julie lives in Oakland, California with her menagerie of dogs, cats, chickens, and teenagers.

We cover a lot, including:

• using intuition as a manager
• leadership responsibility in managing toxicity acutely and timely
• creating environments for healthy teams
• baggage, grievances and boredom
• canaries in the coal mine during seasons of attrition
• the value of an empowered delegation
• allowing u-turns in management roles
• So Now You're a Manager training

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn and read more about opportunities at Chord.

And finally...

Looking for new energy in your mentorships? Check out the Plucky Mentor Pack, an easy tool to inspire deep conversations about your path.