Tech Connects

Our guest today is Sethu Meenakshisundaram, co-founder of Zluri, an SaaS management startup that offers ways for companies to make their SaaS spend more efficient. Like many co-founders and CEOs right now, Sethu is gearing up to welcome a new group of interns into his company’s offices, and I thought it’d be great to talk through how companies can find interns who match their culture and priorities, what potential interns should look for as they pursue opportunities, and how tech teams can ensure that interns access a company’s data in a safe and secure way.  Here are some key takeaways from our discussion: First, if you’re an executive or team leader who’s hiring interns, keep in mind that interns want enriching experiences. If you’re committed to just having your interns do grunt work, chances are good the relationship won’t fully work for either you or them. Second, companies should be prepared for their legions of interns. That means ensuring that interns can do meaningful work without inadvertently causing chaos. Review with your team what you need to do to ensure that everyone accessing company data does so in a safe, informed way, for example. Third, keep an eye on your driven and engaged interns—they might end up becoming some of your best full-time employees. And with that, 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 Sachin Gupta, who is the CEO and Co-Founder of HackerEarth. We’ve had Sachin on the show before, and he’s always great at providing insights into the tech industry and how companies are hiring. A developer by trade, Sachin is passionate about the developer community and ensuring every developer is connected with the right opportunity. During this episode, we’re going to dig into the current must-have skills, how tech recruiting has changed in the post-pandemic period, the best ways to survive a technical interview, and much more. Let’s listen in! As Sachin mentions during our chat, the tech industry is experiencing a bit of turbulence at the moment. However, there’s still a widespread hunger for technology professionals, especially those who have mastered key skills such as blockchain, data science, and machine learning. By keeping your skills up-to-date and becoming comfortable with organizations’ hiring processes, you stand a good chance of landing a life-changing job interview. Here are some other takeaways: First, some of the biggest of the big tech companies have laid off thousands of workers, and some tech startups are having trouble getting funding. Nonetheless, multiple organizations across a broad swath of industries continue to hire aggressively. Sachin believes that much of the tech industry will rebound, as well, once we’re past all the turbulent events of the past few quarters, such as rising interest rates. Second, there’s continuing interest among developers in cutting-edge technologies such as blockchain and machine learning. For example, even though the cryptocurrency industry has undergone some spectacular meltdowns, there are still significant business applications for the blockchain such as smart contracting. Staying aware of the latest, most cutting-edge tech can only benefit you. Third, depending on the roles you’re applying for, chances are good you’ll face a technical interview of some sort. While these technical interviews are potentially intimidating, it’ll be okay so long as you follow some basic steps. Take as much time as possible to prepare, including reviewing the fundamentals of your particular specialization. Also, hiring managers and recruiters might be more forthcoming than you think about the contents of a technical interview; feel free to ask them about what any assessment will actually include in terms of concepts and tools.

Our next guest is Errol Pierre, who’s a healthcare executive, professor, public speaker and author. He is a Senior VP at one of the most notable healthcare nonprofits in New York, and was previously COO at Empire BlueCross BlueShield. His recent book, “The Way Up,” breaks down how underrepresented groups from all walks of life can grow to their full potential and climb up the corporate ladder. He’s also a huge advocate for mentoring, and I wanted to speak with him about how mentorship had changed his life, and how anyone can use a mentor to achieve their goals.It’s fascinating to talk to Errol because he’s thought so deeply about mentorship and how it can impact careers. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you’re seeking a mentor, or if you’re a tech pro who feels ready to mentor others who are earlier in their career.First, it’s important for a mentor and mentee to have chemistry. If you’re seeking a mentor, make sure what they’re saying really resonates with you, and that you feel at ease while talking with them. As you deepen your relationship, your mentor may come to you with issues and questions of their own; take the time to listen and give them the best possible advice.Second, you’re not going to have one mentor (or mentee) throughout your career. People grow and evolve, and you should pause to evaluate your mentoring relationship every so often. It’s perfectly normal to move on if you feel it’s time—but make sure to never lose touch with someone who’s helped you so much.Third, you’re always potentially ready to mentor someone, just as long as you can devote the proper time and resources to the relationship. You don’t need to be a CEO or CTO to help someone along in their career; if you’re able to answer their questions and help them navigate at least some professional issues, you can mentor.And with that, 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. 

The next episode of the Tech Connects podcast is here! Every month, we have great guests who share their expertise about the current state of the tech careers world, from the hottest tech skills to the state of the tech hiring market to what companies are doing to retain and attract top talent.Our latest ‘Tech Connects’ guest is Josh Millet, who’s founder + CEO of Criteria, which builds assessments and tools so that organizations can make objective, evidence-based talent decisions. When done right, good assessments should drive great hiring outcomes while reducing bias. But how do you create a truly objective assessment? How can companies adjust their hiring processes to boost hiring successes and retention while reducing turnover? Let’s listen in! Even under ideal circumstances, hiring is a tricky and stressful process for pretty much everybody involved, so it’s interesting to talk to people like Josh who are trying to revolutionize the process. Here are some key takeaways from our discussion:First, any company can set up a hiring process that minimizes the potential for bias, especially if they focus on a structured and rigorous process based around the job’s objective aspects. For example, the tools and languages involved in software engineering. Quantifiable assessments and an evidence-based approach can help organizations hire the most effective talent.Second, even though offices are opening back up, many organizations have embraced the idea of doing at least some hiring interviews via video. As Josh explained, many are doing the initial interview over Zoom, then moving to in-person for the final interviews. For managers and tech professionals, that means maintaining and perfecting both your video and in-person interviewing skills. Third, there’s a growing movement behind using assessments to inform growth, development, and teambuilding. If you’re a manager and you’re concerned about your team’s morale, consider an assessment-based approach to evaluating their happiness and willingness to leave.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. 

Hello, and welcome to Tech Connects, Dice’s podcast where we dig into the topics on tech hiring, recruiting and careers that matter to you! I’m your host, Nick Kolakowski, and I’m going to talk to great guests every month about the current state of the tech careers world, including the tech job market, the hottest tech skills, what companies are doing to attract and retain technologists in a historically tight market, and much, much more. Our next guest is Nick Durkin, field CTO of harness.io, where he’s responsible for the organization's worldwide field engineering team, post-sales engineering team, and a portion of product. Harness.io leverages artificial intelligence to streamline core DevOps processes, which gives him key insights into how automation is changing the nature of work for tech professionals everywhere. Let’s listen in as we talk about all things A.I., ChatGPT, and developers. There’s been a lot of chatter lately about how A.I.-powered tools like ChatGPT can potentially impact software developers and other tech professionals. Some of this chatter is really negative, with developers fearing that chatbots will eventually take their jobs. It’s fascinating to talk to Nick because he’s so positive about the effects of automation on software developers, especially their workflows. As he said, technology like this has the potential to eliminate some of the worst parts of your job. As A.I. and chatbots become more sophisticated, it’s also important to keep in mind that machines can’t replicate human creativity and ingenuity. Even the best chatbot can’t make the same intuitive leaps as an experienced engineer when confronted with a particularly difficult challenge. If you want to truly future-proof your career, focus on skills like management, problem-solving, and strategizing.  That way, even if these A.I. tools gain the ability to execute on even more complex tasks, you’ll still prove vital when it comes to completing projects and moving your organizations forward. Plus, there’s always an upside: A.I. might free up more hours for you to focus on what really matters to you. 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 guest today is Kaitlyn Albertoli, who’s CEO and co-founder of Buzz Solutions, which uses predictive analytics, A.I., and other cutting-edge technologies to inspect and evaluate the power grid. This is critical work, as power companies need this kind of data for everything from anticipating power outages to ensuring we can modernize the power grid and make it “smarter.” It’s always fascinating to see how technologies like predictive analytics can not only be used to tackle intense, real-world problems, but to also update the aging, often antiquated systems that we depend upon for so many things. As Kaitlyn says during our chat, it’s going to be fascinating to see what happens over the next five to ten years as these technologies mature and end up applied to different industries.Here are some other quick takeaways from our talk:First, if you’re interested in launching a startup, take the time to identify the pain points in the market, and whether your idea is a real solution that can solve that pain.Second, it’s still very early days for artificial intelligence and machine learning. If you’re in a business where you’re dealing with people who are unfamiliar with A.I. and its potential, take the time to educate them on how it works. By walking them through the strengths and weaknesses of the technology, you’ll get them onboard with your plans for using it.Third, whatever your industry, a real key to success is effectively analyzing data. Without analytics, you’ll have a harder time achieving tactical and strategic goals, especially over the long term.

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. For example, the Report revealed that average tech salaries trended upward, increasing 2.3 percent to $111,348… and yet tech professionals are more dissatisfied with their salaries year-over-year. What’s behind that dissatisfaction, and how can budget-crunched companies overcome it if they can’t actually offer higher salaries? We’ll also dig into the layoffs at some of tech’s largest companies and how that contrasts with the low tech unemployment rate, the technologies that could define the industry in coming years, the nature of digital transformation, and much more. Let’s listen in! 

Our guests are Jacob Little, Glassdoor Senior Head of People Experience and DEI, and Stuart McCalla, Evolution Managing Partner. I was interested in speaking with them because of their deep backgrounds in DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), particularly in how DEI programs can potentially improve a company’s internal diversity and culture. Back in 2020, Glassdoor noticed that users were joining companies that had high ratings on its platform, but once they arrived at their new employer, they found an unwelcoming environment. Glassdoor then partnered with Evolution, a coaching, culture, and leadership development firm, on a two-pronged mission: to boost DEI within Glassdoor, and to better infuse DEI principles into the platform itself. It was a complicated mission that produced some interesting results.Here are some key takeaways from our discussion with Jacob and Stewart: First, DEI impacts everyone. Team leaders, project managers, and even C-suite executives might think they only need to be good at engineering products or making sure teams hit deadlines, but leadership is ultimately about having the skill and fluency to recognize diversity. You need to absorb and respond to peoples’ individual experiences and culture—if you can’t do that, you’re going to have issues with retention, and your best and brightest will walk right out the door.Second, a formulaic approach to DEI just won’t cut it. You need to make sure that team members respond to DEI initiatives on an emotional level. That way, they’ll truly internalize what the organization is trying to teach. It’s more than just KPIs.Third, DEI succeeds when it’s working on three levels: the individual, the collective, and the systemic. You have to make sure that issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion are being addressed on every possible level, from the c-suite on down.

Our guest today is Anand Subbaraj, who’s the CEO of Zuper. Anand and his team build software that helps companies manage their field services. If you’ve ever had the plumber, electrician, or cable guy over to fix something, you might not have any idea about the amount of complicated tech that goes into ensuring they get to your door on time. With clients like Ikea, Zuper is also exploring how to use automation and pattern detection to make these kinds of everyday services even better.I personally had no idea about the amount of tech that went into some kinds of field operations, but when you think about it, it makes perfect sense: whether you have a dozen or a couple thousand people in the field, their tasks and movements can quickly become exponentially complex.Zuper is also just one example of how automation and ‘real time’ artificial intelligence (A.I.) are permeating pretty much every industry in a number of unexpected ways. No matter where you work—or what you’re working on—pay attention to how automation, machine learning, and pattern recognition could impact even the smallest parts of your daily workflow.