Nerd Journey: Career Advice for the Technology Professional
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Find the Missing Context: Perspectives and Observations from Enterprise Experience with Daniel Lemire (2/4)
When you’re missing a specific experience in your career, how do you get it? Daniel Lemire was missing experience in a large enterprise to pair with the things he learned from pursuing a graduate degree. Join us this week in episode 324 to hear the story of what happened when Daniel got that experience that provided the missing context to apply what he learned. Throughout this discussion, you’ll notice Daniel’s continued openness to new opportunities lead him from a contractor position in a large enterprise all the way to technical lead. There’s also a parallel process of Daniel’s development of expertise and credibility alongside his observations of the enterprise organization as a whole that encourage us not to limit our focus only to the technical work we’re doing. Near the end of our discussion, Daniel shares his perspective on an organizational decision to begin outsourcing and the way it impacted his work. What would you do in that situation? Original Recording Date: 03-20-2025 Daniel Lemire is an AI Consultant working for ServiceNow. If you missed part 1 of our discussion with Daniel, check out Episode 323. Topics – Missing the Context of Experience, Unexpected Opportunities, Confidence and Feedback, Enterprise Experience Meets Educational Background, Gaining Organizational Perspective, The Cascade of Objectives, Technical Leadership and a Change in Strategy 3:03 – Missing the Context of Experience Daniel said after completing his master’s degree at UNT he did not have the context of experience to pair with his education. As part of the master’s program, Daniel got an education in marketing, management, and technology. In class, they might have a discussion about how CIOs make decisions or have a guest speaker to provide additional context from the business world. “I knew what the right questions were, but I didn’t understand why those were the right questions. And it was a real challenge for me because I couldn’t place what I was learning…. I was learning the right things. They really were the right things, but I didn’t know what to do with it. The curriculum I took in getting the master’s degree was exactly what I needed to be successful in a large enterprise. But because I had only ever done the independent consulting, I had only ever worked with very small companies, companies that had less than 100 employees…. So much of what I was learning about management discipline and program development and project management was for these really big organizations, and I didn’t have the context to understand why all of those things were necessary….” – Daniel Lemire, thinking back on his master’s degree program Daniel makes a reference to the 150-person relationship limit known as Dunbar’s Number and says this requires very different business management techniques. Upon finishing the graduate degree, Daniel had learned 3 very critical things: Daniel discovered through conversations with classmates and through completing specific projects that he had an aptitude for the subject matter. He also realized the program had been the right place for him. Daniel knew he had a lot to learn but that he was missing enterprise experience. It was something he really needed to get the full value from what he had learned pursuing the graduate degree. “The third piece of it that I didn’t understand until much later was that journey of taking turns between being overprepared for something and getting into something that you’re overwhelmed by. That’s yet another dichotomy because in some ways by getting the graduate degree I was overprepared for an enterprise environment, but from an interpersonal and from a political and…just being one of many in a corporation, I was totally unprepared for that experience because everything I had ever done up to that point was at a much smaller place.” – Daniel Lemire Daniel was the only IT person when he worked at the Conroe Medical Education Foundation, and there were only about 20 employees. Through his consulting work building websites, Daniel interacted with several companies across various industries. He mentions one of the largest had about 80 employees. 6:54 – Unexpected Opportunities Daniel shares a story of crossing paths with an acquaintance who had been the systems administrator at the Texas Women’s University (TWU) Police Department but was moving to a different job. “Sometimes you find somebody else that’s technically good and you know who they are, and you remember them. This was kind of one of those deals…. I’m doing this grad school thing while I’m kind of just paying the bills doing the consulting thing. So, I was ready to take on another opportunity.” – Daniel Lemire, on a chance meeting with an acquaintance who got him a job Daniel was asked if he’d be open to doing something different and possibly taking over at the university police department. After saying yes, Daniel spent a year working at TWU while he finished his graduate studies, which provided the opportunity to learn about a completely different type of business (a police business). Daniel spent time understanding what the police officers did and spent time building systems. One specific example of a system Daniel built (or contributed heavily to building with others) allowed students to buy a campus parking pass on the university’s website. This was his first experience working on an integrated system. In everything he did, Daniel’s intent was to solve problems. There wasn’t a guidebook or manual to build things like integrated systems. Another example of a project from his time at TWU was building a customized alert system for the university based on programmatic scripts (which acted as a stop gap until a vendor solution for this could later be put in place). “There’s no guide for this. I just know what the technology can do, and I know what my skillset is. We put the things together and built something that solved an immediate issue…. Even TWU as big as it was…I was just in the police department. That was a big place, but my place inside that big place didn’t take advantage of everything I’d learned in getting the grad degree.” – Daniel Lemire While Daniel was working at TWU and wrapping up his graduate degree, he received a call from a gaming buddy from his time as an undergraduate who suggested he consider a role at PepsiCo. The role Daniel’s friend mentioned was a contract role for loading operating systems on servers before they get shipped to specific sites. His friend’s description of the role was a little nebulous. As a result of their discussion, Daniel got connected with the recruiter for this role. He was intially worried about asking for too much money but found what he asked for was in range per the recruiter. Daniel was really excited about the possibility of a full-time role. After Daniel was passed along to the hiring manager to interview for this role, the manager asked him how he felt about working weekends during the interview. Daniel was honest and communicated working on Sundays was not something he could do. After the discussion with the hiring manager, the recruiter called Daniel to let him know it wasn’t going to work out and that this was a weekend job (not something that was previously communicated to Daniel as part of the process). “This isn’t going to work out because this actually is a weekend job. And I didn’t know that. That wasn’t disclosed in the conversations she and I had or in the job description details that were in front of me. I was just answering the questions honestly because that’s what the right thing to do was. That job didn’t work out for me….” – Daniel Lemire Daniel could not commit to the schedule for this role because it conflicted with his church activities. A few months later, the same recruiter called Daniel saying there was another open position for which he might be a fit. This role was better pay than the first one he had interviewed for and was more focused on the systems engineering work Daniel had been doing. This job ended up being a role on the same team as the friend who recommended Daniel apply at PepsiCo. Daniel’s friend removed himself from being part of the interview process to prevent conflicts of interest. Daniel built a good rapport with one of the decision makers and was hired quickly as a systems engineer. He started with PepsiCo working on Windows Server automation. Daniel was considered analyst level and not a lead engineer. Daniel says he had been doing more programming and coding than working with hardware coming into this role, and he was able to learn a great deal in this role. “That then was a huge opportunity for me because I got to get into something that was completely new. The hardware focus was something that I wasn’t used to…. I got to go deep into something I thought was going to advance my career because I didn’t know enough about hardware. I got to work on a team inside of an enterprise, and I really wanted that enterprise experience after I got the grad degree because I had all of this stuff in my head that I couldn’t really quite use yet.” – Daniel Lemire At TWU, there was no need to decide which server vendor to use. A specific vendor was the established server provider. The paycheck for this job was a great opportunity for Daniel to provide steady income for his family. They were able to buy a house and discuss starting a family. There were opportunities all over the place after starting at PepsiCo. Getting in and doing well could set someone up for a career there rather than just a job. 15:14 – Confidence and Feedback When Daniel was only doing consulting work, he was not around other people doing the same type of work outside of some mentors who provided guidance. Being in the graduate program put Daniel around other people doing similar work and
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