The Agile Career Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In this episode, Martin Wachters joins me. We talk about how a hobby can turn into a full-time career. We also cover the importance of other skills and interests that can make this a reality.

Martin is the founder of Muziekles Amsterdam, a Netherlands-based music school. He also has several published online courses and resources to help beginners and more experienced students learn and improve the guitar and piano.
 

Key Takeaways

• If you are not in your ideal career, don't think that the experience or skills you learn are wasted
• You may not always land in your dream career, but often something closely related that you might not have initially considered
• It takes courage to quit the comfortable and move into the unknown
• Bringing together areas of interest such as (in Martin's case) music, teaching, entrepreneurship, and technology can create a niche
• Don't cater to everyone; pick a niche
• Start small by not committing to something big before you have tested the idea
• Be willing to think again, as you won't always be right
• Once you create your core offering or service, you can grow an ecosystem of businesses or services around this

Resources
Martin recommended the following books:

• Unleash the Power Within: Personal Coaching to Transform Your Life by Tony Robbins 
• Start With Why by Simon Sinek
• Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant

Connect with Martin
Listeners can learn more about and connect with Martin by visiting:

• The Muziekles Amsterdam website
• His LinkedIn
• The Guitar Game website
• The Piano Game website

In this episode, Sonja Price joins me. We talk about making your career work for you. This means thinking about the guidance and finesse you will need, and what the decision criteria are for choosing what you do in your career. Very importantly, we talk about getting paid what you are worth.

Sonja is a career strategist and founder of Dynamo Careers. She is passionate about empowering professionals to accelerate their career success, to become financially free, and to make a positive impact around the world.

Key Takeaways

• Does your work, work for you? Are you getting the most out of your current role?
• Taking on a role at a small organisation can provide big opportunities for learning and growth
• Don't be afraid to re-invent your career. Multiple times if you have to
• A side hustle is a great way to soft start your new or changed career
• Pay attention to where you are at the moment, what skills you already have, and which you need to learn
• Create opportunities and even craft your ideal role
• Instead of a stretch goal, set yourself a stretch role
• Don't underestimate the value of building relationships and developing your social capital
• Having valuable skills (and knowing what these are) makes a big difference
• Use a combination of clarity and research to determine what you want from your career
• To get there, understand whether incremental adjustments or big jumps would work best
• Don't hesitate to seek help if you are stuck

Resources 

We discussed the following resources on the show:

• Does your work = work for you? https://dynamocareers.com/quiz
• How much more could you earn in your lifetime? https://dynamocareers.com/calculator
• Helping people everywhere find a job and company they love - https://www.glassdoor.co.uk
• Salary insights with https://www.payscale.com
• Make fair pay a reality https://www.salary.com

Connect with Sonja

Listeners can learn more about and connect with Sonja by visiting her website or LinkedIn.

In this episode, Tom Rees joins me, and we talk about significant career shifts. Tom is a medical doctor with the NHS and before that was a professional rugby player, playing for both London Wasps and England. Tom shares how he got started with the sport and ended up as a professional rugby player and goes on to talk about how an injury ended his sports career, how he dealt with it, and how he moved on to a new career.

Key Takeaways

• Luck sometimes plays a part in success but working hard, brings that luck
• Success is not an overnight thing. Small achievements, wins, and skills snowball and bring more success
• Having someone not making you do anything, but encouraging you to try everything is important. This could be a parent, a coach, or a mentor 
• Take ownership of what is going on with your job or career
• It is the hard work away from the pitch that leads to success
• Expose yourself to those who are more skilled or experienced and learn from them
• Get comfortable making mistakes and pushing beyond where you think your limits are
• Take in advice from other people and use the bits that work for you
• You don't need to make a massive impact on the world, just improve a little bit of the world around you
• Don't define yourself by your job
• Lean on friends, family and colleagues during tough times
• Understand that things that have made you successful to this point and then apply to other areas
• Listen to the episode for more gems of wisdom!

Recommended Reading

Tom recommended the following books:

• Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice by Matthew Syed
• Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande
• The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
• Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

Find Out More About Tom

You can find out more about Tom by visiting his Wikipedia page. See Tom in action here and here.

In this episode, Eldon Davis joins me where we talk about recruitment and job seeking. Rather than approaching this from a job seekers perspective, we switch contexts and talk about this from a recruiters perspective. Eldon spent 18 years in talent acquisition roles. He talks about how he brought together several interests to shape his career. Eldon also shares some tips for job seekers and career changers and talks about how he is now in a career transition, mentoring and coaching others.

Key Takeaways

• Be prepared and planned for chance meetings and networking opportunities
• Don't underestimate the power of networking
• Seek first to understand and then be understood
• It is important to understand and demonstrate the difference between features and benefits
• Always keep your skills current
• Identify your limiting beliefs as the first step to overcome them
• Share your knowledge with others
• When looking for new roles, do your research and homework about these roles
• Network and connect with others in similar roles that you are looking for
• Be resilient because you will get turned down at some stage
• Plan and organise your day
• Practise gratitude and positive affirmations

Resources

Eldon referenced the following resources:

• Neil Rackam and SPIN Selling
• Mark Walmsley and recruitment
• Brian Tracy
• Tony Robbins

Recommended Reading

Eldon recommends the following books:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
• Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
• S.U.M.O (Shut Up, Move On): The Straight-Talking Guide to Succeeding in Life by Paul McGee

Connect with Eldon

Listeners can find out more about Eldon and connect with him on LinkedIn

In this episode, Felix Wong joins me, and we talk about education, building communities, and passion projects. Felix is APAC Head of Growth at AngelHub, bringing investors and entrepreneurs together. He has an entrepreneurial background which is well suited for his role as well as several side-hustles or passion projects that he is working on. He is very active in the No Code community and sees these tools and platforms as excellent resources to help entrepreneurs realise their goals. In the show, Felix shares how he builds skills, both for himself and others. He also talks about how important it has been for him to allow more people to experience entrepreneurship.

Key Takeaways

• Finding your tribe or building your tribe is very important in helping you on your learning journey
• There are many learning resources available, and when it comes to technology, Codeacademy and YouTube are great places to start
• Community building is important because it allows you to build your profile whilst contributing
• Storytelling is an excellent transferable skill to work on
• Giving people access to knowledge is important. The beauty of education should not be underestimated
• Keeping a career "scoresheet" and reviewing this every quarter is a powerful way of managing your career goals and progression. Set yourself goals on working in different roles, verticals, and organisation size/maturities
• In addition to your main role, always be looking for problems and how these could be solved, as a side hustle
• Use no code tools to quickly translate your ideas to reality and then test them
• No matter how senior you are, you need to always be learning
• Create a routine that will enable your learning goals. 
• Compound your learning experience by making notes of your learnings and the sources of information you've used. Connect with the authors and build your network

Resources Mentioned

Felix mentioned the following resources:

• Codecademy
• YouTube
• Notion

Recommended Reading

Felix recommends What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture by Ben Horowitz

Connecting With Felix

Listeners can learn more about Felix and connect with him by visiting:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram

Today is World Mental Health Day, and in this episode, I focus on mental health and wellbeing. The world is going through an extremely turbulent time and it is taking its toll on people lives, relationships, and careers. In the episode, I reflect on Episode 3 and the insight that David Beeney shared. In summary, be kinder to others and to yourself. I also share some tips and thoughts to help in these times.

Key Takeaways

• Focus on the present. You cannot control the future
• Talk to people you trust
• Don’t rely on social media or speculation for your news or facts
• Reach out to friends on Skype, Zoom, telephone, and social media. Keep connecting with others
• If you are stuck at home – plan your day and have a routine, as if things were normal
• Keep exercising, even if it is only for a walk
• Relax and take time to reflect. Especially on the good things and things you can be grateful for
• Make sure you get enough, good quality sleep
• Talk to your kids. Remember this is just a blip for many adults, for many kids this is a defining moment.
• Remember, this affects everyone – you are not alone
• Practise kindness and consideration to others 

Resources Mentioned
I spoke about the following resources in the episode:

• Mind, the mental health charity
• The Mental Health Foundation, preventing poor mental health
• Samaritans, dealing with crises and helping prevent them
• The Agile Career Podcast Episode 3, interview with David Beeney

In this episode, I talk about the three things that you can do to get promoted or to progress your career. Obviously, there are many things that you can do, and I have taken my experience and the experiences of many others and distilled these down to three key themes. What are they? Let's take a look.

1. Solution Orientation 
2. Responsibility
3. Putting your hand up

Easy, right? Take a listen to the episode and hear more!

In this episode, I am joined by Anita Toth who traded her career as a university researcher for a career of self-employment. After completing both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, Anita took on a job at the university. After 16 years, the role was made redundant and Anita needed an alternative. In this show, Anita shares how she applied for over 20 jobs before starting on her own. She shares how she used the skills - especially those she had developed by running several side hustles - to start her new career, the challenges she faced, and ultimately, how she found her niche.  

Key Takeaways

• Never underestimate the power of having a mentor and building a long-term relationship with that mentor
• Good written and verbal communication skills are invaluable and will serve you well in whichever direction your career takes you
• Project management skills are a fantastic value-add to your transferable skills. Even if you are not a project manager
• When make making career choices and decisions, be clear on what you are looking for. Understand what makes you happy
• Side hustles are an excellent, low-risk way of building new skills and knowledge as well as testing business and career ideas
• Spending time with people and developing relationships is extremely important - find your community!
• Focus on growing your network, not by asking what people can do for you, but what you can do for them
• Identifying and understanding your core values will help guide you and help you make tough decisions
• Find your niche - something that you are good at, something you enjoy, and something that others will pay you for
• Use a coach to help you develop skills that you may be struggling with

Resources Mentioned
Anita spoke about several resources:

• The foundational guides and downloads available on Anita's website
• The Dream 100 concept by Russell Brunson. Russell Brunson shares more on his podcast and he covers this in his book, Traffic Secrets

Recommended Reading
Anita recommends reading Oh, The Places You'll Go! by Dr Seuss.

Connecting With Anita
Listeners can learn more about Anita and connect with her by visiting her website or LinkedIn page.

In this episode, I am going to provide a little "behind the scenes" view of the podcast. Quite a few listeners have been asking what it took to get the show running and what it takes every week to get each episode produced. I thought I would share some key points in this short episode. By no means is this a complete guide but hopefully, it will give you an idea of what is involved. 

Key Takeaways

• You'll need to choose a podcast platform to host your podcast on. This platform then distributes your podcast to all the popular listening platforms. I considered Soundcloud, Buzzsprout, and Audioboom, choosing Buzzsprout
• You'll need a decent microphone. I chose the Marantz Pod Pack 1 that included the condenser microphone, the cable, and boom arm
• You'll need some software to produce the podcast. I use GarageBand on Mac OS. Audacity is also an option for both Mac and Windows computers
• There are some optional extras that I use like Canva for producing promotional artwork and Buffer for scheduling social media posts

Resources Mentioned
These are the resources I spoke about in the episode:

• Soundcloud hosting platform
• Audioboom hosting platform
• Buzzsprout hosting platform. If you sign-up to a paid plan using this link you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card (after paying for the platform for at least two months) and I will receive a small commission (at no cost to you) that helps me run the podcast
• The Marantz Pod Pack 1 microphone
• The Buzzsprout blog
• Canva for creating the social media artwork
• https://buffer.com/Buffer to schedule the social media posts

In this episode, I am joined by Hanlie Smuts who is an associate professor at the University of Pretoria. Like many professionals, Hanlie completed her undergraduate degree before entering the corporate environment as a software developer. For many of us, this would have been the end of our academic career but Hanlie went on to complete both her Master's degree and her PhD whilst working fulltime jobs as a senior executive. Hanlie shares her story about how she didn't choose between the academic and corporate worlds, but instead, wove the two closely together. She shares how she applied learnings and skills gained in academia to her corporate career and vice-versa.

Key Takeaways

• Don't underestimate the importance of learning and never stop learning
• Even if your career is very technically focused, don't neglect engaging with people and building relationships and people skills
• Always consider the human factor when completing projects, building products, or just completing business as usual activities
• Try and immerse yourself into your surrounding working environment so that you can truly understand how the business you are in, works
• Always be professional and deliver quality work
• Delegation is an important transferable skill to develop. Start by trusting your team
• Always be open to opportunities
• Given the opportunity, try and understand all aspects and functional areas of the business that you work in
• Always build your network
• A skills bubble chart is a great tool to identify the skills you need to be successful in a role, highlight any gaps, and track your progress in developing those skills
• The ability to analyse data is an important transferable skill
• Building resilience will help see you through tough times
• Build your personal brand to ensure that your name is always top of mind when opportunities are being considered
• Frameworks are a great tool to help you get things done
• Don't forget about your family and other support structures. These are what allow and support you in achieving great things
• You can work smart by finding your work cadence. Understand what works for you, segment your time, and stick to the rules you set yourself

Connecting With Hanlie
Listeners can find out more about Hanlie and connect with her by visiting her:

• Website  
• LinkedIn profile
• Twitter account
• Instagram account