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Episode #23: With Daniel Odd

27 June, 2019 | 50 mins 09 secs

On this episode we interview Daniel Odd General Manager of IT at Coal LSL. Daniel is a pretty well known character in the Newcastle tech scene, having worked around Newcastle for quite a while. In the episode you will hear Daniel’s take on his road to becoming General Manager of IT.

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  • Transcription:

    Welcome to NewyTechPeople today we have Daniel odd Jim of IT course L welcome Daniel thanks for having reasonably well-known character from the Newcastle tech scene for those who don’t know you make gives quick overview of what you’re currently doing so currently I’m working for : service life I’m the general manager of IT that’s Matt have we get to that had yet to general mind righty how’d I get there ah so like will you Castle boy – my first job here for I started with you might not like this one woman’s health Australia did it was my first ever IT job in Newcastle that’s what I probably never heard before now it’s working so access databases that’s what I was working on back then when I was going to you so yeah great great little organization so they’re a longitudinal study still going debate surveying women for take a guess and I started there from there moved away when I’ve seized for a little bit and then I come back and to life there berries so how to sit there when I moved to RB it’s been 5 or 10 years working there scenic tours for a bit for sites technology Erica and Naomi that’s right nice so that’s probably way doing reasonably well known you probably work with a good chunk of Newcastle technology talent overview time yeah a couple of bit of stick from some of the guys I walk we walk to lunch although we are right next to and I base building I’m constantly walking part saying hi to people some of the guys I work with give me a bit of stick about who you know and that sort of stuff but yeah what a lot of the tech nights and things that you go to one or two people are okay so on that you do have a bit of a reputation for someone having a robust discussion let’s put it that way in the taxi where’s this come from robust discussion reputation so you’ve heard this from people especially my background I suppose robust discussion I think I I’m not sure with my opinion maybe is another way of saying a robust discussion there’s another way you’ve done that I really like that in the teams and the spaces that I’ve worked in I think yeah always really fostered that sort of culture and environment I think I’d like to think that I’d do that where I currently work so the ability for robust discussion working on the best idea yeah you’re something that I’m probably pretty passionate about I talk to my team at that so somebody has an idea somebody would challenge that idea and if their challenge is a valid one then we have a brand new problem we got to solve that and within that team environment you can really challenge each other put your opinions forward and then at the end of that whole design solutions of finding process we end up with hopefully the solution and the best solution I find that if you sit back there’s probably nothing worse than saying oh I had an idea that would have stopped that happening I find that person well to me I think that’s the person that I don’t want to be in a team I bet he’d prefer to be someone that would speak up highlight what I see go that way yeah versus or I didn’t say anything yeah there was a cliff we were going towards it but I didn’t mention it dementia we’ve got a break over here correct yeah yeah great oh great I think it’s a good thing I think it’s a good thing it’s worth an opinion if you’ve got an opinion might as well voice’ and it’s good been an environment hitch me at least you hope a coffee and sharing that without fear of they’d shut their huh I’ll be acute look I’m sure everyone said that you know has a good robust conversation and has great opinions yeah that’s yes I’m the cultures so recent places so Erica and we’ve had Austin on the podcast really good guy yeah great guy fantastic guy to work with yeah he fostered a culture out there that let people have these robust discussions and opinions yeah I obey was you know its culture how it did for a while but I’m pretty sure they still definitely would wear yeah you want people you want to be in there you want to be challenging you want to make sure you yeah working on the best solution

    yeah now it’s not look good can I can easily step over the line stuff asking me questions while you need grilling me it’s a fine line to tread but yeah that’s the other part have you mentioned a couple of companies in Newcastle yes when my old man went girl I buy here as always I keys you join a company you stick with a company for life right that’s obviously changed these days you’re a testament to that sure what’s your opinion on you know moving around you know obviously not sure about I’m you’ve moved for good reasons and you’ve had good growth a pretty pretty young general manager variety and it’s obviously come route through opportunities maybe what’s your opinion on you know moving companies and I guess that as a whole yeah it’s a try to their honor yeah your journeys is yours I’ve had yeah I’ve put on my had really good experiences moving commerce there’s always the fear of what you don’t know it’s pretty scary thing to do you’ve got to walk away from what you know the devil you know versus the devil you don’t to step in a new role but new roles they make you learn new skills build new relationships solve new problems remind you of one workplace well I’ve never seen this problem before that’s because we used to do this this and this oh we don’t have that here and then with what I know what this current environment is how do I apply that and try and solve a problem so I found a lot of that moving about Theodore for the right reasons yeah when you’re employing people it’s obviously something you always looking at how many different jobs they’ve had why have you hopped why have you moved yeah as much as you have on the other side why haven’t you moved yeah so I don’t think you have to move jobs to get that challenge I haven’t moved jobs just for new challenges I’ve always moved for a new experience whether it be from a big multinational sort of curry base or disposed to go and work for four sites technology is the local Newcastle firm for me just to get different challenges get different experiences different roles but if you can stay in one organization and you can move different roles I think you can get all of that there I wouldn’t be telling someone if you’ve been in a role for three years you’ve been there too long I don’t have any passionate views or about that yeah for me I wouldn’t sit in one role and just do that exact role but and I’ve met people suppose when I was a bit younger I still got a couple of people that were potentially stuck I perceived them that way I suppose is a better way of calling that out and yjc more opportunities what are you doing this and doing and I wasn’t in the order of I’ve gotten I realized that yeah some people just chasing those opportunities or looking for that next challenge it’s not what drives them yeah and they’re just very happy and content they do a good work in what they’re doing and yeah yeah be doing that yeah growth right like you can’t grow within it as long as you keep on crying like you made the same role that song has been presented your opportunities or new problems to solve something that’s not sitting stagnant on saying oh it’s don’t I know yes I think that would be my advice more than the question was like you know do you have to move or should you move or is there a cadence magic formula to it I don’t think there’s that but for me I like that new challenge and yeah like so new role so I stepped into the gem role at long service leave and that has been a very different new challenge for me and I’ve got that in that same organization yeah so it’s definitely you don’t have to move further sometimes probably comes down to I said each individual right there correct so I mentioned your pretty pretty young general manager bitey come from software development background and then you move through the be a space we should delivery give us a quick overview of my lab that that journey and why that’s sort of set you up to be you know it to be in the position you are now what set me out I think like what are your learnings along the way of do you think software is awry way about a is an infrastructure background is it either is there a best way okay so for me what I stopped working for life that Bears I just got back from playing cricket in England yeah and when I was over there I was working at a helpdesk I knew minimal about help desks and hardware but I had that on my resume there was a job on offer they took me away I went I knew that wasn’t for me and then I moved to an IB when I got there from studying software development I knew a couple of guys they brought me across and then yeah started off coding it wasn’t really my strong suit so some guys you know now like they want to argue about angular versus react or get really passionate about software development I was probably more passionate about the solution and the product that was built and solving the problem whereas some guys get more passionate about is the code written user pure what sort of test coverage do we have and they sort of veer off in that technical I veered off into probably more into product and I probably cared I had a bit more passion in that space I which then sort of actually transitioned into bio so the ability to communicate with end users think about their problems think that what they’re trying to achieve and then also the ability to talk to a developer not get lost when I start talking about angular’s and reacts or whatever it is that yeah they’re sort of they’re giving and discussing so it’s definitely that and then you know I be they went through the whole agile transformation so when I got there there was I say about tennis in development in total that was the whole kitten team yeah but yeah I said yeah ten or less and yeah outdoor some good tech law I just written their own CRM internal system they’re working on and they say back then it was some sort of bleeding edge stuff yeah they got a guy named Trent McClanahan should get him on he come along to ten IB and yeah he brought with him a bunch of agile knowledge they thank God for it works in and there’s just this like agile is culture self-managing teams just getting handed a problem and everywhere I’m just getting behind it and trying to solve that problem and achieve that goal and

    yeah I’m pretty passionate about so there are sort of the scrum flavor if you go any different agile umbrella you want to get in there but yeah just I really like so many of its core principles and fundamentals so I suppose that then as you said learning a bit more project delivery you just get more exposure talking to senior managers you get more involved in strategy that you do heading off under the technical routes and then yeah fast forward to this opportunity presenting itself and I suppose I’ve stepped into the jam rather I think probably the biggest difference is that yeah that understand doing business and problems and the problems you’re trying to fix and then technology just being you know an answer to those problems not vice versa not technology being you know driven versus the actual business and the problem first and how has technology helped solve that right yeah correct and there’s a there’s a big skill to that there’s skills on rapidly trying to develop and get better and then had and how do you represent what technology is so the solution a solution isn’t technology technology is part of the solution but the solution is whatever solves the cost problem so yeah you definitely can’t have a technology driving your solutions or yeah just have a technology hat on when you’re solving these things so a lot of my current role is representing some of that that more strategic level we’ve got these problems the business needs to achieve those goals and I can wear the hat and say this is where I think technology can help how do you enjoyed that change that’s as I said that’s a challenge it’s also pretty common for technology professionals it’s like not it definitely not a common trait a lot of technology professionals have is trying to wear that hat had it have you found that sort of stepping out of the technical side into the more of the strategic side it’s a new like any new coding language like it’s it’s brand new so you get the full full roller coaster emotions get the happy times gonna come you know things are going well you get that I just walked into that trap and I didn’t know it was there you get the frustrations of why I kind of just get my point across yeah so you get the full gamut how have I personally found it challenging yeah enjoyable then frustrating at times but it’s something I’ve I’ve enjoyed in the in the most part you go and you do you stay and you get a lot of a lot of technical background you can learn coding you can go on Google I’ve got this problem this interface this class or got this error message Chuck into Google I tried to communicate solution to someone or a capability and they heard something slightly different which made them a bit uneasy as to what I was saying it’s a it’s a different problem yeah a problem nonetheless and it’s enjoyable I don’t think that’s the norm and I’d say oh that’s you know I only have those problems you had the other option to is someone says I’ve got this problem in the business and you say oh I think technology could come along and help solve business in this and then you see them go how long when how can we have this tell me more so you get to have both of those so how do you best represent what you can and can’t achieve how do you make sure what you deliver lines up with the problem yeah it’s it’s fun yeah maybe China’s new learnings right and it gets described Lots canisters guys it’s just less technical guys and more guys in other areas right so just new challenges new challenges I think so yeah but I think if you down at Lera if you don’t allow your board oh I’m not talk about you personally I’m probably talking about myself for most people if I’m not challenged I get forward whatever said yeah I think I’d be I’m not challenged oh I kind of break something so I get to fix it I think I’ve coward start just disrupting in other areas to define that challenge so yeah I totally agree if you know yeah that’s why I sort of mentioned before there are some people out there that have sort of hit that level just happy dealing with the the challenges they’re generally happy applying similar fixes to what they did before and they’re really comfortable in their space and I definitely respect that though it was probably time some was a bit younger I held up Darwin what weren’t you like how about it what do you but the more of mature and grown and well too many people different organizations like I’ve definitely a respect for that and yeah sometimes you rely on having those really just rock solid steady beanie and boat never rocks nothing ever frazzles and five people in the org definitely especially when you build our teams right like great to have ya mix of those people in your team as well yeah correct sure I hear imagine bright figs just before you’re obviously a technical dude man how do you had to get in technology or use it yeah when you’re a kid are you a break fixed archive ah technology first computer an IBM sort of computer one speed cd-rom and I just I just loved interacting with it I enjoy writing some keep basic you know like get my mom to come and like try and solve my math problem and I reckon the time I gotta solve the same problem on the eighth time and she finally got it right and I realized she was just streaming me along I thought I might take this to other levels I’ve just really like technology what a big gamer so say most people you work with get it a bit of passion around sort of games on everybody took the gaming route I just love technology you’re a bit of a tinkerer that I like you’ve got your home Wi-Fi setup and different so that yeah electronics was probably the only thing I enjoyed started most it you yeah there’s probably times there I enjoy the electronics side of things I probably did the software side yeah so I still take her around my soldering iron out last night what do you think rimas at the moment so working on a start-up project if I was to ask you how much hot water you have in your tank right now did you go to answer that don’t have a tank of going those little gas things now the instantaneous Isilon gotcha ah so if my tank blew a hole and poured water out through out my backyard better that’s good Roger so sort of like there’s people that have the solar panel on the top of that roof yeah and then they can sort of boost their side tank and they pump water through but basically just trying to figure out how much hot water’s in a hot water tank and that’s so yeah there are using technologies sitting inside the tank so it’s both so there’s basically a bunch of probes or temperature sensors yeah that’s it in the tank yeah they send internet of things so there’s a little bit of biotech cool a little name drop some things so they send I basically just constantly send their temperatures up to the cloud and then we display it on a on a web interface you know yeah team of guys work ey on that so I was building some of those yeah probes and putting them together and ask it is good to have like tactical interests outside of you know your day-to-day job as I just keeps you know I kept you engaged and obviously is it some new new technologies the AIA tear technologies and sensors and things like that yeah I think a lot of the senior managers that I’ve heard over my time yeah all have a passion for technology yeah so sometimes here like you can hire anyone to me and manage yeah and just be that man manager I find probably the person I’ve wanted to follow more in my career some of the senior managers that and they’ve also got passions outside of work and they’re still tinkering away they’re still keeping up with some cloud technologies it’ll be on a five-percent knowledge compared to some of the specialists they’ve got in their time yeah but if you can’t have those conversations with the people that you’re working with if you yeah if you go to post technical I think you won’t be as effective in your role that or potentially roles got that senior that you so many layers above the technology I don’t think I’ll ever get there I don’t think I’d ever want to get out yeah as you said it’s a lot easier to respect manages I’ve got some technical knowledge might have that depth know at least have some broad knowledge yeah and I think it helps when you are trying to get troubleshoot a problem or you’re really frustrated you’re in the trenches and I think it’s good if you can glance over your manager and they instantly get where you’re I understand your head space you’re not looking at them to recommend a solution like I appears look this and do that yeah but I think it definitely helps a team camaraderie I think it definitely helps pull some people out of the rut they’re in yeah shows an understanding of the problem yeah yeah no understanding of problem understand what sort of depth of scale answer also is where I’ve seen that happen once or twice in the past is like you don’t know who to turn to as well I tell this person over here and they sort of you’re the technical person that’s what your high thought you saw so I suppose I don’t I do I enjoy it more and I’m like a better keep technical for my role at work but what are the tinkering ideas have you got going on at the moment tinkering ideas now this is the this is the one we’ve we’ve tried a few in the past different ideas I do like to have at least one side project yeah sort of talking just before my wife is pregnant we’re expecting a child I think that side projects about to take up a lot of my time if all the advice I’ve been getting is true yeah so yeah we’ll say so I think potentially that might take a little bit of a back burner on having multiple side projects on the go I have I’ve sort of inductance there was another one else to meet getting involved in but I’ve been real with myself and the guys and say oh there’s my caddy I’d put the time into it so and that’s that’s a good man it’s good so write your own tactic by an AJ coming out of school you did a degree right yep Bachelor of IT it’s why I ended up with correct mate how did that come about what’s your experience with the degree so yeah I study a lot of IT courses at school say a lot that was – oh yeah – courses in electronics course anyone you want over access databases yeah yeah I paid – I think it was cool yeah I don’t know was a there was a software module that stage you could start he tell you two of those and I did I liked rights yeah come out of there and then just – ah for engineering yeah so four year degree it’s four year degree it’s after University you can’t see University jump straight into there and I got sort of twelve months through and I was I was looking around the room and I was sort of sitting the lecture theatre and I was thinking is this really what I’m gonna do the rest of my life so you know 19 deciding the rest of my life in the next hour thinking that that’s the sort of burden that I had on my shoulders so it was after the it’s a third semester I decided to transfer so I transferred into an IT degree so I thought that would be a bit more business orientated of business focus you comes to University they just started running it I don’t think I’ll do it in hindsight at that point in time I don’t know doing a bang a bang-up job so I lost my way a little bit and uni started taking a back seat to life so I when I spent two summers in England playing cricket just sort of travelling around I was doing a course that you need here and there I was doing some online and it took it took ten years to finally graduate so by the time I yeah finish that up and don’t say yeah when I started started working I was an undergrad yeah yeah so what am i what my thoughts on unique is that your 10 years yeah I think it was 10 I think it was yeah I think there’s a cut off with a sort of start side if you don’t wrap this up soon we’re just kind of tray on the wayside Wow nice 10 years correct oh it’s good to get a finish anyway it was good to get a finish that may explain the heck’s a little bit easier to swallow and say that mom would have preferred finished in three four babe played a few good evenings curricular later years oh yeah yeah I play for the Newcastle University 3 o’clock but yeah so in the end it was sort of I’m this close I may as well finish it versus actually thought I’ll do this uni course and that will help me tomorrow in my job yeah if you are there it’s obviously a lot different now if you be yeah so I’m you hadn’t come through and saying would you would you advise me out of school to go do it agree I know the other option would be I suppose I supposed to may I’d ask them where I get into a robust conversation with them I would ask them yeah where they trying to get to they trying to do if classroom learning just makes them know it’s not their jam and I would say don’t go to uni because it was a 18 year old that hated classroom learning will just go and blacklist uni forever I’ve got a few of my high school mates so nervous at all graduated that sort of still get together on a sometimes weekly basis ten of them have a degree and some of them sort of went back to unit 23 others failed the HSC two years later when did the new start shot through did that saw someone yeah I don’t think there’s a really prescriptive path and I’ve seen other people that go 18 graduated 21 and they never really used that degree passed 22 yeah so yeah what would I tell them I basically what do you into yeah what makes you I think as long as you’re learning something as long as you’re progressing forward I think that’s very helpful I’m there any other wing avenues learning things that you’ve done and you found valuable it’s any other sort of online courses a lot of products these days will run training in their product yeah so you can go and do that if not the real paper certification and if you’re starting out you need something to stand on yeah cuz you’re competing you’re you’re potentially one of a hundred people going for a job and sitting on the other side of the table we have to choose the one or the two so pieces of paper show a potential employer but that’s not the be-all and end-all so I think side projects are pretty huge getting our stuff building some stuff get in there and start using it you’ve got so Cameron that you had on your show and you know he’s like he’s building a software app that’s going to your resume coat I don’t think he’s got a spot look at his webpage other day and I think there was a spot for uni degree but you know like so and I think a lot of employers aren’t about did you go to a private school what you needed you go to where you’re from it’s can you can you do the job will you fit the culture so I think as long as you’re working on something and you’re learning obviously it’s really good to get paid to develop and learn the skills that interest you in life that’s probably an added bonus so no I wouldn’t say you have to go to uni ten years to get a degree but I would also say University set up a lot of things for me so I did made people so when I think university I definitely don’t just think course content contacts that you make the the social side of things the the life skills maybe that it gives you I definitely I subscribe a lot more to that yeah I was at Union outputed pushing some that stuff down your throat again I was a bit young man but looking back there yeah going to you he definitely helped my career a whole lot but I don’t if I did something different I TAFE course or I joined a start-up or went to a code as group I potentially could have formed some of the same connections there I could be telling the same story I definitely couldn’t pin it down and say one must go to uni or one must do this because if you don’t do that you’ll never get in that door some of the people I work with an ORAC up a few guys out there to have a degree I’ve some of the guys they know B don’t have to gross and you never ever talk to someone in a workplace with what the grade you have yeah you just look at the skills what they can do and what they bring to the team and how you can best work with them so if you can get your foot in the door do it however you can it’s a bit of a known entity to get a degree yeah so you tap to a job interview at 24 with a software engineering degree when I’m interviewing that person I sort of have a pretty good vibe of where they’re at and what they can do I’m interviewing someone who’s pointing me towards their github account I’m gonna have to do a lot more research or they’re gonna have to come up with a different way to quickly educate me with where they are at yeah okay I do like they advise to do side projects or be involved with side projects I just think if you’re a tech tech professional and you’re involved and you can show real interest in some form of Technology you’re building something on the side if you’re a self weight above you haven’t built anything you have written code on your own side project that’s maybe there’s a there’s an issue yeah totally great that so some of the guys they’re working for Erica and the on the hardware side actually building explosives truck and I was helping them with a job at and I think it might be even specifically stated like don’t tell us you need agree talk about your side projects talk about your passion tell us about your failed ad we know like talk to us about electronics like because a lot of places I’ll teach you that you need to know especially that young when you’re starting out so you’re just looking for the person the mind the right attitude the ability to be taught the self one I think you want to learn with that person a lot more than yes somebody turns out from you you’re like so tell me about a project and I last use last week’s assignment was that’s not a good answer to that question especially that’s other scenario you want somebody that you’re gonna be building stuff you and somebody it’s potentially I have this all running out on at last night you know I’d be building something right like this it’s just that interest you can you can learn other things but if you have passion around that yeah if you ask me the question of supposed to further its head what I prefer somebody that had yeah five side interest projects in framing versus a uni degree with no side interest projects I’m probably glancing more at this person or I’m definitely having a conversation with that was option hey let’s move five side projects right you doubt that over the game I think so yeah oh god yeah personality yeah yeah lots of that stuff comes in but yeah I think when it comes to to getting into to IT yeah I said when I went to you know the IT degree back then didn’t teach me a whole lot it wasn’t very I was in your course to youth to and he comes to be fair but house a and I think you had someone on Anthony yeah I’m now talking about I was really sure there’s not I was talking about how did how do I stop with the lightest I think it’s a problem those sort of educational institutions have so how do you start with the latest how do you make a curriculum how do I compare this you need to that uni if everything is changing all the time and so rapidly it’s a yeah it’s a constant problem they’re going to have so they’ve got to stay relevant in that field yeah so the super knowledgeable too aware of that I think yeah he’s probably guys in that space it’s actually doing things to change outages it’s good to see ya know it was a cool interview it was yeah it was something that I thought back on my 10 years ah I thought back on yeah like I think I would have post a lot more engaged if it if it was a lot more bleeding edge if it yeah if it did get out into the industry a bit more and he did learn that like I said versus the 19 year old kid looking around the room and sort of going like is it’s my whole life just going to be Java arrays data like it just but for me personally like I said I don’t I don’t actually tend towards the real technical I as I did I went over to the IT space and I thought I always be more business orientated yeah that’s fine say your Newcastle you can’t throw through a set for you little England stints flying cricket my what’s what’s your opinion on that to change and they I guess technology landscape from Newcastle over the past few years there there’s been a few that’s my opinion it’s good it’s changed a lot I like when you first come out you know you first let’s say you know it came out of school like opportunities around for someone like yourself first now it’s it’s not in a apply correct yeah the amount of opportunity around now is the demand I think is our way in the supply at the minister so in that regard it’s great it’s fantastic you see some of the guys from the different companies some that I’ve worked for you know their AWS doing talk by saying some guys off to Vegas had to do some talks at a conference over there from Newcastle working on all the latest and greatest there’s a lot of different organizations working in cloud first approaches there’s data lakes or locks being built in around town if you’re not getting the data science stuff for cybersecurity we’ve got the full gamut of IT and you don’t have to pay over two million bucks to buy a house yeah those roles just didn’t it man it didn’t exist in Newcastle five years ago probably or definitely not ten but you know there’s definitely been a growth in probably new technologies as well like companies using the latest and greatest and the Fortran author yeah there definitely is so I’m from here so stay here I’d be here probably yeah pretty working anyway it wasn’t here but the tech st. is to come alive yeah I say if had guys talking on some of the meetup nights there around town different things you can do that’s yeah it’s really good I mentioned the challenge is probably candidate short of the moon arrived like any other challenges or spend upon that I suppose trying to you know trying to recruit trying to like skills George’s I think some of the places around town I’ve had you know developer ads just put on their web pages for for 12 months if you turn up that you’ve got the right set of skills that was high they just they just need them they’re crying out for it so when I was yes some of the previous companies I’ve worked for have targeted ads in Sydney trying to tell people about the sea change to do that sort of stuff so I don’t think have to come from Sydney to of course I’m going to say that I thought I you know you don’t have to target down there but the minute yeah you can only look so far in Newcastle there’s only so much talent we don’t an 8 million person city so but we do have the full gamut of tech it’s not like we’re just one let me just have one company here and that’s all you can work go to and if you don’t work for them and you may want to work for anyone there’s there’s many places in around town you don’t have to follow the C codes for too long to to see different organizations trying to digital transformation or some sort of strategy or trying to make their technology workforce more agile and more nimble and looking to get rid of legacy stacks and make it more bleeding-edge a lot of companies are I think credit to them – they’re looking to invest they’re seen benefits they’re not just are where’s the old Newcastle company we’ll just we’ll just do it the way we always have they’re finding ways to invest in the people the technology and the workforce and the staff have to keep it current so the text base it’s really good I’ve been able to move to multiple different jobs in around the Hunter Valley here so from health insurance the global travel to global explosives federal government so there’s there’s a lot of opportunity around here that’s I think it’s really good it’s good for me personally it’s good for the people I get to to work with the the meet up nights you get to go to so it’s never been stronger I’m just I’m having a baby so like you know my kids if they want to they to grow up in Newcastle and if they want to stay here to have the career that they want not have the area dictate what’s available that’s very good point yeah I think it’s all heading in the right direction right yeah it is and you spoken a lot of people in the cast before some move away go to Sydney come back to Newcastle you always gonna have people want to do that I think it doesn’t matter the industry you’re in learning people just want to fly the local area the coupe I think some some country people come to New Castle’s the Big Smoke New Castle kids will head to head to Sydney or Melbourne because that’s a bigger city I think people actually want to move in around the planets getting smaller and smaller yeah I think okay is that people shouldn’t have to like that yeah that’s what I great so that the I don’t have to it’s not that I’ve I’ve now grown up in Newcastle I want to do I want to be a software engineer I look around there’s zero opportunity for me so I now have to go to Sydney yeah those days look I never lived through those days personally but if they were around I they’re definitely not around now you don’t have to look too far at all I think if I was a grad coming out of four years of software engineering right now there would be three people not begging but they’ll be straight people that would probably accept me working for them you would have to look too far

    well wrap up soon mate about you don’t know your food we grow now how do you how do you manage your day here you are tech guy at heart and do like yourself with a what how do you from a Productivity standpoint or a project standpoint how do you so major you day find a little bit more difficult they started so I say the cam Barry JIRA board or Tokyo no

    Twitter campaign the board’s swimlanes doesn’t really matter and I so used to break any projects and all of that stuff was it was done for you just by turning up and going through your ceremonies and doing that if I ever wanted to know what my next task was I’d head over to the to do column I don’t have as much of that I’m a lot more self governed so getting stuff done or getting things done David getting stuff done getting stuff that ain’t a day getting things done anything stop getting things done yeah so I subscribed for that a lot so let’s begin the lists whether you want to use Trello board JIRA boards Google lists little posted Snagit sort of no don’t your desktop everyone to do yeah I’m big on lists big on I can file it I put in that list I will get back to it and I’ll come and I’ll read pirate eyes it and I’ll see how it goes so I think for me whatever tool floats your boat whatever one works best for you go with yeah but I think getting things done if you haven’t looked into any of that Google that day down that path of one stage there’s a pretty deep path it does get rather Dave and obviously he gets he gets right into it I think if you just look at well for me what I took from that like any advice me any advice from everybody what works for you yeah so I looked at that and things main things I took out of that would be put things in a list and make sure you go back to that list you reprioritize that list and you can’t put half your day on and then forget the other half you got a pretty religious in doing that so yeah that’s probably my biggest productivity tip for anyone that’s the self managing I think a lot of yeah a lot of the time where I’ve worked I’ve worked in a scrum time and you sit down you do spring playing I planned that literally plans at your week for two weeks and the fundamentals are if you’re working on things that aren’t on that board you’re working on the wrong thing yeah you’re working on not the priority yeah so you’re a bit gifted or blessed or you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone in that so yeah it’s all there it’s all there in front of you if you want to work on it and you think it’s important but you’re not you’ll go the prioritization meeting and you fight your case for it and try and convince people and rally around them as to why it’s important have a robust discussion have a robust discussion right is there any books podcast you the Boxee bread lightly or any podcast listener you think it’s super helpful you’d recommend a performance tech was tech slash life so yes i-i’ve I’m commuting in the car sir forty minutes a day so I get through a lot of podcasts yeah a tech tech podcasts if I wanted a book actually tech podcast I’ve been listening to so Austin brought that up here manager tools yeah cuz a good manager he’s one of the guys I’m like hey he comes across a really strong manager yeah really good dude yeah I was tough

    yeah but yeah really good dude but he was talking about the manager tools yeah so I’ve been getting into that a fair bit yeah I don’t really subscribe to one podcast and just whatever that content I just pick and choose so whatever I’m trying to solve I find and I talked a lot of pillars like I just listened to my podcast whereas if I’m trying to solve a problem I’ll just hit the podcast and I’ll just Google and our problem is and then you’ll see there’s 26 different podcasts that you can go and listen to about that yeah so amped agile in folk you actually in folk you I’ll get into a little bit so let’s do interviews with people in the industry I was talking about their experiences successes that they’ve had so so it’s an engineering culture going in folk you yeah I don’t mind that it’s people’s it’s more about that people’s journeys where they’ve come from what they’ve done so literally what you’re asking me about myself yeah so it doesn’t get really technical manager tools yes I get where people from how they build things it gets a bit more to that Greg cricketer yeah I love Greg Craig it up so I get know that a fair bit I find it rather funny Joe Rogan podcast I just want to focus on it zone out I don’t really want to think work I don’t can’t just I can’t totally I can’t technical the whole time yeah your podcast gets around here NUI tech people so yeah that’s personally may I don’t think there’s one silver bullet podcast and one my god if you’re not on this one you’re missing out some of the guys at work listen to I’m some Microsoft century podcasts air act refined interesting so yes and but it really helps them yeah so we’ll start talking about like all there’s a release coming out for that in two months time and so there’s definitely again may not down the super technical route manager tools or people’s journeys or I find myself in when I was saying it wasn’t a whole lot of stuff out there about be a techniques and when I did find it I found it was like for real top end of town yeah like if you’re going to work in IBM and you’re trying to move 2,000 people in a direction down to the these are the tools to use there is the the a book of knowledge which of glanced over once or twice if I had to pick one for people to go look at engineering culture in [ __ ] you so last question if you had to swing it back talk to a younger Daniel like well you say or advice would you give ah her voice I’m so I’m creepy reflector retrospectively I’ll defending over analyze situations where you couldn’t get myself one piece of silver bullet advice things so a couple of things okay oh the Pantene won’t happen overnight but it will happen I probably runs here so I just Pope a shoots maybes the the beer the biggest story until there in moments the moments where you think it’s all too much try and find a way to step back and reassess I suppose that’s something that I was a bit younger I struggle with a bit more wanted too much rapper change why can’t put what you know why have things keeping up we should be moving faster we should be doing this we should be doing that letting that bundle up and get to frustrating just take a deep breath try and find the good in what’s going on and don’t get caught up yeah do what makes you four have fun what do it makes you small yeah I suppose that would be another and if you find that what you’re doing isn’t making you smile you know having fun with it find a way to do something that does

    like just yeah just grinding through because you think that’s what you have to do there is a lot of opportunity out there there is a lot of things you can do you have to quit your job to find things that make you smile but just if find things that really make you happy may I like that yeah what’s the point if yeah if you’re not enjoying it like change something up like this playing you get paid to do lots of things like if it’s good yeah not a ramen you know lets people go mortgages and financial commitments and stuff like that yeah so fun when you’re younger you can you don’t know but you can you can I think back then I could have pushed the boundaries a lot more yeah I don’t know for 50 year old maybe looking now at 30 yo face saying the same thing yeah but yeah you don’t have kids on the way down it more you’ve said these other things cloud your mind you’re a bit more you just have a swing in a different way around I can be a younger thought you don’t have those commitments you can you know you can have a crack up whatever but now I like you said yeah they’ve you know you’re probably not gonna get a quit your job to to start a startup or something like that but you can you can decide project to play with things as well yeah even then I still have some of that’s relative thought yeah there’s a very senior executive in Newcastle here and he picked up he’s he’s laugh kids wife when I overseas took his job over there and sort of mid 30s late 30s so I think it’s all relative to you yeah but I think when you’re younger I would say yeah push the boundaries a bit more forgiveness than permission yeah actually I probably had some people working with me a guy I think you already did that I don’t think you need to push that more but yeah yes right my if anyone wants to break yeah to you what’s the best way LinkedIn Twitter yes a link did it’s probably a that’s why I’m on the tweets although I have recently joined newiy slack channel we have I I reckon that so that’s a badge of honor there in a way just to get involved in that community very active community actually there’s a lot of content on there try and keep up with so yeah I can reach out to be there so I’m fairly unique names I’m sure it on Facebook and we’ve multiple different why as you can follow me Jase I stopped making thank you.

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