Real Job Talk

Welcome to L’areal Lipkins, a sales trainer and expert in goal setting, vision boards, and how to make your goals a reality by adopting the right plan and mindset. L’areal does NOT believe in SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timebound) , and we get right into it asking about her approach to goal setting. L’areal is a “recovering SMART goals user,” and she pivoted to her...

Welcome Jason Levin, founder and CEO of Ready, Set, Launch. We’re talking with Jason about launching a job search in a virtual world. Jason grew up with a happy family whose lives changed dramatically when his father lost the only job he had ever had in New York's garment district. Suddenly Jason and his brothers were the kids getting free lunch in school, and the family was struggling. Jason was...

Dr. David Campt is a national expert on inclusion and intergroup dialogue. David has worked with groups from large corporations to the White House, and has appeared on The Daily Show. He speaks about about how we talk with each other, and how to help people come together. In 4th grade, David had a teacher tell him that “People are more alike than they are different,” and in his critical work, Davi...

This week we welcome Joep Piscaer, who has grown his career by moving up the ranks in a technical organization, from sys admin to CTO, and now is an independent consultant focused on creating content in the devops space. Throughout his career, Joep has struggled with Imposter Syndrome, and despite numerous indications to the contrary, he has had to work on how to control his impulses to hold himse...

This week we welcome Adam Bertram, aka Adam the Automator. Adam wrote a post called “I told my boss I quit and……” which went viral, so we invited Adam to join us. Our goal for having Adam on RJT is to learn from his personal journey of career discovery. Adam’s a tech pressional/sys admin, blogger, and content creator. We asked Adam to share his journey before he quit. At the beginning of Adam’s ca...

We have a letter!!! Our writer (Ready to Be Independent) asks about being a consultant: what does it take, what do they need to do, and what is the pros and cons list? We break it down. Some of the things to consider as you're looking at making a leap like this: to consider are: inconsistent revenue as a consultant vs a regular paycheck and salary. What’s your brand and what do you uniquely offer?...

The US election is heating up, and Liz and Kat want to help you navigate politics, voting, and all related topics at work. First of all, know your company’s rules around voting and if you have time off to vote. Make a plan to vote! And do it within your employer’s rules. Know that social media is public , and if you are choosing to be political on social media, our advice is to be as minimalist as...

Both Kat and Liz are BIG fans of Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead . This book is about leadership; we adhere to the belief that we’re all leaders of our own lives and careers, and so we think that this book applies to everyone. Having the ability to "rumble," whether it’s in your personal or work life, will help you authentically connect with people around you to solve hard problems and come together wi...

On this episode, we welcome to Corliss Jackson, the founder and CEO of Federal Job Results and author of Cracking the Federal Job Code . Corliss is a speaker and panelist, and her company mission it to help people find jobs with the US federal government. Corliss started as a consultant after college; she decided that she wanted to work for the government but didn’t know how. She figured it out, a...

Vacation is important for relaxation and connection, even in times of COVID. Our goal is to encourage you to take vacation, especially during this strange and difficult period. It takes trust and confidence to take time away from your desk, but we want you to unplug and take vacation, even if it means you aren’t leaving your house. Plan vacation around times when your job/group aren’t busy so you...

On this episode, we’re learning more about traveling for work. Despite most of us not travelling now, we all have had to travel before, and some of us are slowly starting to travel again for work. Our guest, Stephen Andert, has taken business travel and turned it into an art form. His book, Surviving Business Travel, helps others get the most out of their business travel. ( Use code REALJOB for 15...

Welcome to RJT, Carla Birnberg! Carla is a friend of both Kat and Liz, and today we’re talking with Carla about her fascinating career journey as a solo-prenuer, marketer, writer and blogger. Carla has SO much information to offer, and she’s a wonderful example of someone who hustles and creates opportunities through talent, grit and ingenuity. Carla’s career was never planned. At the beginning of...

This episode, we caught ourselves; we talk a lot about interviewing, but we forgot to talk about how to prepare for an interview. Get out your notebook and listen closely …. this episode will teach you how to be prepared for your interviews. Behavioral Interviewing became popular about 25 years ago, and is based on the assumption that past performance will predict future performance. It’s usually...

We recorded this episode to help people ask for what they need at work, without also feeling like they are asking for too much, impairing their career, or being high maintenance. We start with the request, which we hear coming up quite a bit, to continue to work from home because of health or childcare concerns with the virus when your company wants you to come back to the office. Many companies a...

Deep listening affects every area of your life, including creating stronger relationships at work and at home. Our guest, Oscar Trimboli, is a former technology exec who has dedicated his life to helping over 10M people become deep listeners. Growing up an immigrant, Oscar had to learn how to listen to different languages by paying attention to body language and other ways to understand what peopl...

We’re excited to talk in this episode about reverse management, or managing up. We’re going to get into it, and talk about how to work with a manager, how to talk with your manager, and how to excel even when your manager isn’t very good at managing... We discuss how sometimes people don’t manage up well because they don’t want to be a burden, but rule #1 is to communicate and sometimes over-commu...

We welcome Katrina Kibben in this episode of Real Job Talk to talk with us. We're always glad to find another Kat! Katrina is a writer and recruiting professional who has built Three Ears Media around her interests in communication and marketing to teach companies how to excel around employment branding, writing for recruiting, and representing themselves with authenticity. Katrina came into recru...

Jason Treu talks with Liz & Kat about building teams, trust, social wealth, and his game, Cards Against Mundanity. This week Liz and Kat welcome Jason Treu, author of the book Social Wealth , whose goal is to help teams get to know each other. He gives us his advixe to building a career with real connections, including telling us about his game that's designed to help you start making those co...

Can you find a "career peer" - a partner for deep work - at work? Emily Kurze and Nate Kartchner met at work and began to collaborate on projects, on personal and professional growth, and eventually came together with a business collaboration. They combine personal and business growth in their own podcast, Good. Working. Order. This week Emily Kurze and Nate Kartchner talk with Kat. Emily and Nate...

In this episode, Liz and Kat tackle some questions about communications with coworkers in this session with Vince Wood, a Houston-based IT professional and podcaster. Vince brought to the session a few questions and scenarios around effective communication within a team, taking into account their different and unique perspectives and experiences. We also talk about the general challenges of workin...

How does a tech company in San Francisco compete with Google & Facebook to get and keep the best talent? Kat and Liz talk with Scale Computing's Scott Loughmiller. This week we welcome Scott Loughmiller, the chief product officer and co-founder of Scale Computing. He is a serial start-up person who has focused his career on engineering management. He has worked with his co-founders at Scale se...

This week, we're doing a live career coaching session. We welcome Becky Elliott, a technologist and writer who is looking at what comes next in her career. The career coaching session was recorded live and unscripted, but this time we weren't talking about a book or specific topic - we were tackling a real person thinking out loud about where they are and where they want to go. We thank Becky for...

This week, we talk about working from home. A lot of people are suddenly working from home because of the current coronavirus pandemic. A lot of teams are suddenly 100% remote in cultures where this wasn't a normal pratice, and a lot of managers are suddenly trying to manage those teams. We're also sending our thoughts to those who are feeling displaced, uncertain, underemployed, or even unemploye...

This episode we welcome Adrienne Garland to RJT. Adrienne is the CEO of She Leads Media, building a community of women entrepreneurs, starting with a successful conference and now adding a new podcast network. Adrienne started her career in one of the most "corporate" parts of corporate America in investment banking and finance in the 1990s. She switched to marketing, media entertainment and techn...

This week we welcome Phil Strazzulla. Phil has an interesting journey as a startup CEO, speaker, educator, mentor, and investor. Phil always knew he wanted to go into business and be a CEO, but what happens when that career vision seems stalled out before you really get started? Phil started in college interning at a start-up, and always wanted to be an entrepreneur. He went into investment bankin...