"Absence of Ego" is an innovative podcast series designed to guide listeners through the multifaceted journey of professional development and career transition. Hosted by Stephen, a seasoned career counselor, and Jamshid, a data scientist with a rich background in neuroscience, each episode delves into the psychological and practical aspects of making a career change, from understanding one's own value to mastering the art of the job search.
For more info, check out our website: https://www.careerthrivability.com/
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HOW NOT TO BE CONVINCING: A "mocking" interview performance.
Sunday, July 19, 2026 • Duration 27:04
We thought we would have some fun and hope to bring you a smile or two as you listen, as well. Jamshid plays a very poorly prepared alter ego as a candidate for data manager in this episode, and while some of his answers and comments may make you wince, we've actually heard real candidates make similar errors, especially during their first-ever industry job interviews. Stephen tries to redirect the exchange a few times in order to follow a more common HR script, but cooperation is not the key word for this hilarious (and at times, alarming) exchange. Tune in, sit back, and learn exactly how to not get the job!
As always, we welcome your own experiences, feedback and suggestions at: absence_of_ego@sustainable-outreach.com. You can also reach out to Jamshid or Stephen on LinkedIn, too.
Outro music: "Cloud Dancer " Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Showcase your whole self: why personality, workstyle and character do matter for the final choice of candidate.
Monday, February 9, 2026 • Duration 48:36
Our guest, Bertrand Willi, is a specialist in helping clients create positive work atmospheres in order to attract, retain and co-develop talented professionals at all levels. Most recently, as the facility manager for the Swiss Federal Railway system, he also manages a very large time across language, culture and ethnic origins, from technicians to sales and marketing roles. He gives us an insider's view of how in the final selection, often it comes down to the soft skills and potential for growth of the person who is chosen for the job, with the hard skills more important at the initial stages of selection. Once you have been invited for the interview cycle, both you and the company should be confident you could do the job, but are the position, the team and the company values the best fit for you, and vice versa?
As always, we welcome your own experiences, feedback and suggestions at: absence_of_ego@sustainable-outreach.com. You can also reach out to Jamshid or Stephen on LinkedIn, too.
Theme music: Inside You - Leva (https://open.spotify.com/artist/4XWZhZ32YrVV5lvpF7cr1E?si=tnbSklR7SJyPNKiHP4MbHA)
Resilience reprised: further insights into improving your strength of character - Part 2
Saturday, August 31, 2024 • Duration 45:08
As a follow-up to our exciting and insightful exchange with fellow career change enthusiast, Gary Anello, we delve into the workings of your mind during stressful periods of your life, with a view towards monitoring tendencies and seeking to focus on positive outcomes. Find out why tough times tend to generate heavy negative feelings and discover how you can work to change that as you move forward towards your next success.
Resilience: Redefining and reenforcing your ability to bounce back - Part 1
Monday, July 15, 2024 • Duration 47:17
Redefining and reenforcing your resilience. A central component to surviving life's up's and down's, resilience is key to dealing with long-term job searches, being rejected even when we are the "perfect candidate," and not receiving the recognition we deserve. Our special guest, Gary Anello, delves into the makeup, and strengthening, of resilience in today's episode. The good news is that we can all build a stronger base for responding to life's unfair twists and turns.
Outro music: "Cloud Dancer " Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
Consolidating Confidence : Your Hidden Traits and Interpersonal Skills - Part 3
Friday, May 31, 2024 • Duration 38:55
Emotional intelligence, or EQ, can be summed up in one phrase; self awareness added to empathy for others. In this episode, we explore the key role your personality, work habits and values play in making you a successful team member and future leader. These unseen and unmeasurable qualities differentiate effective and esteemed colleagues and managers over those petty bosses who focus only on themselves. We underline the critical importance that self-reflection, regulating our impulses and resilience play in improving our EQ.
3- Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
4- Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2002). Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
5- Morrell, M., & Capparell, S. (2001). Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer. New York, NY: Viking Penguin.
In today's episode, we come back in detail on how to manage the "Imposter Syndrome" which Jamshid introduced in our first episode. Many listeners asked for practical tips, and boy does he give you a long list of those in some detail! In addition, we'll talk about another mental game our brain loves to play called the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which can swing us too far the other way, making us falsely overconfident. We will delve into different areas of perception that affect everyone, positive or negative, and how to cope with these. The unifying messages are about reinforcing your self-knowledge, taking in feedback while gauging its usefulness, and achieving a realistic and honest sense of self. This should prepare you for more effective interactions throughout your career evolution.
4- Christian, Brian. "Chapter 9: Uncertainty." In: "The Alignment Problem: How Can Machines Learn Human Values," Brian Christian, Atlantic Books, 2020.
Music:
Theme music: Inside You - Leva ()
Boosting Confidence - Part 1
Season 1 · Episode 1
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 • Duration 40:30
It's crazy how stress can kill our confidence, especially during a professional transition! Tune in to find out how you can achieve your career goals by understanding how your mind works during the process. Bonus points for boosting your self-esteem along the way!
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
"Cloud Dancer " Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Swimming with sharks: interviewing is not for the faint-hearted!
Friday, December 19, 2025 • Duration 01:05:10
In this episode, we are again fortunate to have as our special guest Ms. Natalya Izergina, Senior Talent Acquisition Partner for CS Behring, doing what she knows best: interviewing kindly but persistently our second guest (and willing sacrificial lamb), Ms. Regina Fakhretdinova, a gifted mathematician about to finish her PhD in Mechanics. Luckily for her, Regina has a natural sense of calm, but as you will hear, it would still have been much less stressful if she had known how to prepare better for typical HR questions. Once again, you will enjoy the lively exchange and feedback from three perspectives on how to succeed in those nerve-wracking job interviews with non-specialists. You will also learn a lot about certain kinds of important analytical processes in the oil and gas sector as a bonus.
Remember to share the link with friends and colleagues, and we love to hear from you about your own experiences. In fact, we may even invite you to be a guest on a future episode! Write to us at: absence_of_ego@sustainable-outreach.com
Two special guests put theory into practice in a genuine exchange between a real candidate and a very experienced recruiter. While we always delve into the mind games we have to face in different professional situations, and there are many in the interview cycles of recruitment, for the next two episodes we are fortunate to share with you "live" exchanges to both underline successful strategies and illustrate areas to focus on improving. Our special guest, Natalya Izergina, who brings more than 20 years' recruitment practice to the role play, is the Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at CSL Behring, a life sciences company, and in today's exercise, her willing "victim" is Andrei Variu, an astrophysicist cum data enthusiast who is currently making the transition from academia to industry, so the opportunity to have an exchange with a recruiter on the kind of HR questions which drive techies mad (like, "tell me about yourself") was too good to pass up. As a monitored exercise, he received feedback not only from Natalya but also from Jamshid and Stephen. We hope this and the next simulation will help you in your own job interview preparation. Let us know what you think and share any examples from your own experience of best practices and what to avoid at: absence_of_ego@sustainable-outreach.com
Even for very experienced candidates with several professional transitions to their credit, the job interview cycle can be grueling, sometimes horribly so. At the very least, given that one normally applies for a variety of positions during a given period, they demand a significant amount of time and energy. We continue to explore what goes on in our psyche during this process and suggest ways to improve your confidence before, during and after each interview or related step in the recruitment process. Being a bit nervous is a good thing as it provides an adrenaline buzz you can use to your advantage, but thorough preparation and a few tricks to slow down the exchange will also help you proceed in a more confident manner.
Remember that you can contact us at absence_of_ego@sustainable-outreach.com with your feedback and suggestions. If you like the episode, why not follow us, too?
https://ikigaitest.com/ (free test to identify what you are best at, most passionate about, and where and how you can find ways to be remunerated for doing this)
Impostor Syndrome:
Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The Impostor Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241–247. Easy summary: APA article on Impostor Phenomenon
Dunning–Kruger Effect:
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1121–1134.
erkes, R. M., & Dodson, J. D. (1908). The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit-formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18(5), 459–482. Easy summary: Verywell Mind – Yerkes–Dodson Law
Amygdala and Threat Response:
LeDoux, J. E. (2000). Emotion Circuits in the Brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23, 155–184.
Outro music: "Cloud Dancer " Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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