Tech Connects

Our guest for this chat is Torsten Staab, who’s principal technical fellow at Nightwing, which has probably the coolest company name I’ve ever heard. Nightwing is a spinoff of defense giant Raytheon, and it’s focused on cybersecurity and intelligence solutions for government agencies and private companies. In other words, if you want to get a good idea of the issues surrounding AI and cloud security, as well as the ways companies can prevent data leakage and train employees to identify AI attacks, he’s a great person to talk to.Here are some key takeaways:First, the recent advancements in generative AI have introduced a double-edged sword. While it presents exciting opportunities to increase efficiency and improve customer service, it also opens doors for malicious actors to exploit vulnerabilities. This has ignited an "AI arms race" where both defenders and attackers are employing AI for their advantage. New threats like deepfakes and data poisoning necessitate companies to re-evaluate their cybersecurity strategies and incorporate measures to address these AI-driven attacks.Second, to mitigate the cybersecurity risks of generative AI, a layered approach is recommended. Companies should establish clear policies and usage guidelines to restrict access to sensitive information. Additionally, engineered controls such as data screening tools can be implemented to monitor data flow and identify potential leaks or misuse. As the AI threat landscape continues to evolve, it's crucial to keep these controls updated. Furthermore, cybersecurity awareness training for employees is essential to equip them with the skills to recognize and report suspicious AI activity.Third, looking towards the future, we can expect to see the development of specialized AI models designed to tackle specific tasks. Additionally, AI will become increasingly embedded within various devices and systems, posing new security challenges. As distributed intelligence becomes the norm, concerns regarding data privacy and control will likely intensify. It will be interesting to see how these trends unfold and how the cybersecurity landscape adapts to this ever-changing environment.We hope this episode has helped you to better understand a little more about AI and cybersecurity, and how those might impact your company and job. We'll see you next time… and remember, we are your best resource to find the tech talent you need to fill your open roles, and for tech pros, the best place to grow your tech career.

Our latest “Tech Connects” guest is Laura Baldwin, who’s the president of O’Reilly Media. If you’ve worked in tech, you’re well aware of O’Reilly’s training offerings, which include a massive online learning platform. I wanted to talk with Laura because of her insight into how companies are upskilling their workers for AI, the ethical implications of AI, and much more. Here are some key takeaways from the discussion:First, if you’re a manager or executive at most companies—by which I mean a company that doesn’t have tens of millions to spend on AI talent and infrastructure—consider focusing your efforts on upskilling your existing workforce to work with AI tools, rather than hiring expensive AI specialists.Second, develop an AI strategy before training your employees to ensure they learn the most relevant skills.Third, use AI responsibly and transparently, ensuring proper attribution of content and human oversight to prevent errors. This is especially crucial when you consider how businesses run on trust; if your AI efforts can’t be trusted, you’re going to be in big trouble.Fourth, provide ongoing training opportunities and encourage experimentation with new AI tools, as the field is constantly evolving.We hope this episode has helped you to better understand the impact of AI on the job market. AI is a powerful tool that can be used to transform businesses, but it's important to use it wisely.We covered a whole lot of other topics during the episode, of course, so give it a re-listen if there was something you missed. We’ll see you next time—and remember, Dice is your best resource to find the tech talent you need to fill your open roles, and for technologists, the best place to grow your tech career. 

Our next 'Tech Connects' guest is Steve Ramey, who’s CEO of IronGate Cybersecurity, a digital forensics and incident response company. I wanted to talk to Steve because he has some unique insights into the current cybersecurity market, including ways to address the current cybersecurity job gaps and train the next generation of cybersecurity pros. Let’s listen in!I love talking to Steve because of his ability to break down something as complex as the current cybersecurity landscape. Here are some takeaways from our discussion that could help your own thinking:First, businesses are facing a growing number of cyber attacks, but many are not prepared. They need expertise to respond to these threats, which means allocating a long-term budget and commitment to bulking up cyber-defenses. Cybersecurity is an ongoing process, not a one-time fix, and businesses need to prioritize it to stay secure.Second, individuals with transferable skills and a willingness to learn can break into cybersecurity careers. There are online courses, communities, and free training platforms to help you gain the necessary skills. Highlighting leadership qualities and initiative on your resume will also make you stand out to potential employers.Third, the future of cybersecurity is uncertain. Emerging technologies like quantum computing will create new security challenges. The industry is working on solutions, but continuous learning and adaptation will be essential for cybersecurity professionals.We covered a whole lot of other topics during the episode, of course, so give it a re-listen if there was something you missed. We’ll see you next time—and remember, Dice is your best resource to find the tech talent you need to fill your open roles, and for technologists, the best place to grow your tech career. 

Our latest ‘Tech Connects’ guest is someone we’ve had on the show before: Tigran Sloyan, who’s the co-founder and CEO of CodeSignal, a startup that’s trying to improve technical hiring at every stage of the process. CodeSignal’s products aim to present candidates and hiring managers with questions relevant to real-world scenarios, backed by research.During our last discussion, we chatted about the need to apply A.I. to training and education. Since then, generative A.I. has evolved even further, so I wanted to sit down with him again to chat about everything from internal skills training to the best ways to build a chatbot to how artificial intelligence could fundamentally impact education. Let’s jump in!Any discussion that takes us from an examination of the Prussian educational system to the frontiers of A.I. is a good one in my book. Here are some additional takeaways from our discussion:First, while generative A.I. is a revolutionary tool, people have mixed feelings about it, and there’s still some misunderstanding about the nature and capability of A.I. and large language models. Organizations everywhere need to consider educating their employees about the scope of this tech, as well as what it can and can’t do. Second, even with generative A.I. changing how we work, tech professionals everywhere still need to understand the fundamentals of what they do, and why code works. If you’re writing programming-related prompts, you need to understand exactly what you’re asking for and how it’ll be incorporated into a larger project.Third, generative A.I. may have a huge impact on training and education in future years. Pay attention to the rise of chatbots as tutors. If you’re a student or a junior technologist, this technology could radically change the ways you learn and keep your skills up-to-date.We covered a whole lot of other topics during the episode, of course, so give it a re-listen if there was something you missed. We’ll see you next time—and remember, Dice is your best resource to find the tech talent you need to fill your open roles, and for technologists, the best place to grow your tech career. 

Our next guest is Adam Seligman, who’s VP of developer experience at Amazon Web Services, or AWS. In that role, he’s been relentlessly focused on making software more accessible to everyone, no matter what their level of development experience. I wanted to chat with him for a couple of reasons:  First, AWS is launching a portfolio of A.I.-powered helpers and tools for developers, which could fundamentally change how thousands of people build the software of tomorrow.  Second, there’s a whole new generation of tech professionals who are scoring their first roles as interns, junior developers, and more. Meanwhile, the tech industry is changing rapidly thanks to the evolution of A.I. and other technologies. Adam has some interesting insight into how these new techies can use A.I. to accelerate their problem-solving and early careers. Here are some additional takeaways from our discussion: First, generative AI is being used by a wide range of people, from skilled data scientists to early career interns. Whether you’re an experienced tech professional who wants to speed up their coding, or an intern still trying to figure out how to use the building blocks of technology, A.I. can make things a little easier by automating tasks and suggesting improvements. Second, if you’re running a team or project, consider allowing your interns, junior developers, and other tech professionals just starting out to use A.I. It could allow them to solve some challenges faster.  Third, A.I. as a technology is here to stay. It’s helpful at this point to figure out how it’ll best integrate into your current workflow, whether that’s designing solutions, writing code, or debugging.  We covered a whole lot of other topics during the episode, of course, so give it a re-listen if there was something you missed. We’ll see you next time—and remember, Dice is your best resource to find the tech talent you need to fill your open roles, and for technologists, the best place to grow your tech career. 

We have a very special edition of Tech Connects this time around. Dice’s latest Tech Salary Report just dropped, and we’re talking to Art Zeile, CEO of DHI Group, the parent company of Dice, about the report’s takeaways. When it comes to tech professionals and salary, we’re in a very interesting moment. Last year’s average tech salary was $111,193, down very slightly from $111,348 in 2022. That’s a significant difference from a few years ago, when the average salary rose 9 percent between 2019 and 2021. However, widespread cutbacks in tech spending, combined with mass layoffs in late 2022 and early 2023, put some pressure on salary growth. But as we get into with Art, there are lots of “green shoots” of growth when it comes to salary, benefits, and more. For example, although compensation has stagnated somewhat in well-established tech hubs such as Silicon Valley and Seattle, it’s grown in up-and-coming tech centers such as Houston and San Diego.Here are some other key takeaways from the report:First, organizations will pay a premium for tech professionals who can build out on-premises and cloud infrastructure, especially when that infrastructure powers cutting-edge initiatives such as AI and data analytics. Keep that in mind as you consider which skills to learn next.Second, PTO usage remained steady in 2023. This suggests more tech professionals recognize the need to take full advantage of their allotted time off. If your workplace has a great PTO policy, take advantage of it; your work-life balance is worth it.Third, if you’re looking for areas with the fastest-growing salaries, it’s clear from the report that organizations will pay a premium for tech professionals who can build out on-premises and cloud infrastructure, especially when that infrastructure powers cutting-edge initiatives such as AI and data analytics.We’ll see you next time—and remember, Dice is your best resource to find the tech talent you need to fill your open roles, and for technologists, the best place to grow your tech career. 

Data is the lifeblood of organizations everywhere. On the latest episode of ‘Tech Connects,’ we’re speaking with Steven Hillion, SVP of data and A.I. at Astronomer, a company that helps clients manage their data pipelines. Astronomer is a commercial developer of Airflow, an open-source platform originally developed at Airbnb as a way for that tech giant to manage all of its data platforms and data pipelines. During our chat, Hillion provides some key insights into so many of the data issues impacting companies today, from verifying the quality of data to fine-tuning the large language models (LLMs) that power the current generation of generative A.I. products.If you’re someone who works with data—and increasingly, everyone’s working with data—you may draw some useful information from this episode. Here are some quick takeaways from the discussion:First, it’s important to define ‘data quality.’ Is there consistency in your data sets? Is everyone comfortable with the sources, metrics, and outputs? Everyone in your organization should have confidence in your data and the insights you’re producing from it. Fortunately, there’s a variety of tools that allow you to manage and evaluate data quality.Second, when it comes to A.I., it might be best to proceed with caution. Embrace the technology, sure, but also keep an eye on what others are doing. It’s early days for A.I., which means it’s difficult for everyone to find truly the right way forward. Within a year or two, Hillion thinks there will be reference architectures and implementations that will establish some guardrails for A.I. development; but until then, it’s important to be careful as you build and test your own A.I.-based solutions. Third, if you’re interested in data science as a profession, you’ll need to learn a core group of skills, including (but definitely not limited to) Python—which Steven calls the lingua franca of a data scientist—SQL, machine learning, and statistics. We covered a whole lot of other topics during the episode, of course, so give it a re-listen if there was something you missed. We’ll see you next time—and remember, Dice is your best resource to find the tech talent you need to fill your open roles, and for technologists, the best place to grow your tech career. 

Our latest ‘Tech Connects’ guest is Jeanne Cordisco, Chief People Officer of O’Reilly Media, which produces books, tech conferences, and an online learning platform for tech professionals who want to upgrade their skills. As CPO, she’s focused on how HR can tie a company’s “people strategy” to its broader objectives.She’s advocated for HR to participate in the highest-level decision-making to ensure the right people are being hired and retained, because that ultimately determines how well a company carries out its strategy and delivers for its customers. Let’s listen in as we break down everything from how businesses can retain their tech professionals, to the role HR can play in a company’s broader strategy:Here are just a few takeaways from our conversation:First, if you’re a manager or involved in HR, it’s important to recognize that talented, highly-specialized workers have their pick of jobs—and they’ll leave for a new employer given the right motivations. You need to be very conscious about whether you’re providing a memorable, valuable experience to your employees—and that goes beyond just salary. For example, collaborative cultures, flexible schedules, and continuous learning can all persuade valuable employees to stay onboard your company.Second, it’s important to talk to your reports and team members about career progression. Where does an employee want to go? What training do they need to get there? If a tech pro feels like their organization is committed to their growth, they’re far more likely to stay and deliver their best work.Third, HR is often considered a support function. But HR needs to play a key role from the beginning in strategic planning. They need to take a company’s existing skills and resources into consideration, figure out where there’s a gap, and help formulate a plan to close that gap.We covered a whole lot of other topics during the episode, of course, so give it a re-listen if there was something you missed. We’ll see you next time—and remember, Dice is your best resource to find the tech talent you need to fill your open roles, and for technologists, the best place to grow your tech career.

Our latest ‘Tech Connects’ guest is Tigran Sloyan, who’s the co-founder and CEO of CodeSignal, a startup that’s trying to improve technical hiring at every stage of the process. CodeSignal’s products aim to present candidates with questions relevant to real-world scenarios, and hiring managers with questions supported by research. He also wrote a recent piece for Fast Company about the need to apply A.I. to training and education. I wanted to talk to Tigran about a number of topics, from training and technical interviews to how the rise of A.I. will impact tech careers. Here are some quick takeaways from our chat: First, anyone who’s hiring tech professionals must think about skills as more than just keywords on a resume. Tech professionals must be truly competent, which means knowing how any skill—whether it’s a programming language, knowledge of a framework, or something else—interacts with other elements throughout a tech stack and ultimately yields results.  Second, it’s important for the hiring process to actually simulate the job itself. It’s not enough to ask a candidate brainteasers or math problems copied off another website: you want to see how the candidate would handle the concepts and tools involved in the job itself. Think about that if you’re currently thinking through how to create a great hiring process. Third, education works best when it’s personalized. A.I. could indeed help us create personalized learning tracks for all kinds of students. While that might raise some questions about the accuracy of what an A.I. is teaching people, you could presumably sidestep that through a system of checks, balances, and evaluations. We covered a whole lot of other topics during the episode, of course, so give it a re-listen if there was something you missed. We’ll see you next time—and remember, Dice is your best resource to find the tech talent you need to fill your open roles, and for technologists, the best place to grow your tech career.