Jim Hirschauer: Hello and
welcome to ShipTalk.
I'm Jim Hirschauer your host for
today.
ShipTalk is a DevOps podcast
brought to you by Harness, the
software delivery platform.
Normally on the show we have a
featured guest that I get the
pleasure of interviewing.
Today's show is gonna be a
little bit different.
You see, I attended the WTF is
SRE conference a couple of weeks
ago, and I got to interview a
bunch of amazing people who were
all speakers at that conference.
So today's show will feature
many different guests and I'll
provide some commentary of my
own.
I'd like to start off the show
by saying that it just felt
amazing to be at a live
in-person event again.
The pandemic just sucked for so
many different reasons, but one
of the worst parts about it, in
my opinion, was the lack of
in-person, human interaction.
Seeing two dimensional images of
people on a video conference
call is just not a good
substitute for getting to
interact with someone in
three-dimensional real life.
I know I missed this part of
life tremendously, and I'm sure
I'm not alone in this feeling.
During my interviews, I asked
all the speakers what their
favorite part about the WTF is
SRE conference was.
Let's listen to the answers.
What's been your favorite thing
about the WTF is SRE Conference
so far?
My favorite thing about the WTF
conference is the people, the
conversations that we're having.
I love from a logistics
perspective, I love that after
every talk, there's a 15 minute
break so we can all connect with
each other.
It's so good to be.
In person, finally, for the
first in-person, WTF is SRE.
My first thing would be the
people that I met with.
I already know some of them, but
actually like via Slack and via
GitHub, just like with GitHub.
And so seeing them especially in
person and then have to say like
hi or have nice conversation was
like really great.
I know quite a lot of people at
this conference, so it's just
great to catch up with people
and hear what they're saying and
see old friends and make, make
new friends.
I think the people, I mean from
the organizers to the speakers,
to the attendees, I've just been
having the best conversations
and building camaraderie.
It's the community really.
Wow.
Almost every single person said
it was all about the people.
It's all about the people.
In every company we work for,
it's all about the people.
Our direct manager can make or
break our entire work
experience, our coworkers within
our team and across the
organization.
They can create a feeling of joy
or dread.
It's all about the people.
At my company, one of our
corporate values is"remember the
human".
Those three little words hold a
tremendous amount of power, but
without putting those into
practice, they're just three
meaningless words.
At my company there's many
people working to turn those
words into actions, but what are
some ways that you can make
those words a reality?
Here's some suggestions.
Set aside time to genuinely
interact with your coworkers.
I am a fully remote employee,
but I've built some incredible
relationships by having short
but meaningful conversations
with my coworkers when we jump
on conference calls.
One way to kickstart this
process is to schedule 30 minute
calls with important coworkers
just to share a beverage
together(I personally love
coffee) and then talk to each
other about non-work stuff.
Get to know each other.
If you've never done this
before, you'll be amazed at how
well it works.
If you're not sure what to talk
about, just go ahead and ask
ChatGPT to put together a list
of questions and then you won't
feel like you're not prepared.
Another important thing is to
just recognize each other and
cheer each other on.
When something good happens.
Reach out.
Be happy for your coworker who
got that promotion.
Celebrate that fantastic work
that someone delivered.
Be supportive of each other.
Just in general.
This next one's just really
important.
Always assume positive intent.
Now, this one, it can be a
little bit tricky because it
doesn't mean that you should be
blind to the fact that some
people are only looking out for
themselves.
But instead, you should assume
that even if someone messed up,
they didn't intend to.
They're almost certainly trying
to do something with the best of
intentions.
This philosophy, it's at the
core of the SRE practice of
blameless post-mortems.
Don't blame or point fingers
when something goes wrong.
Instead, identify the root cause
of the issue and make the
corrections required to avoid
the situation going forward.
Assume positive intent.
I bet that's exactly how you
want to be treated.
And here's a tip for those
conference organizers out there.
Be sure to plan a lot of breaks
at your next conference.
Give people the opportunity to
interact with each other.
That's a major reason for them
attending in the first place.
You can even go so far as to try
and create those opportunities
for more interaction by planning
some activities that generate
real human interactions.
It's all about the people.
So let's get back to what our
speakers have to say.
I asked them all the same really
important question, and there
were a few common points
throughout all the responses.
See if you can spot them...
If you could give one piece of
advice to your past self when
you first started working, what
would it be?
More self-confidence.
Don't be afraid to ask
questions.
There are no stupid questions.
And then be more brave to try
things out.
Like in development
environments, things can go
wrong.
It's not a big deal.
You can do this.
It's going to be hard and you're
gonna learn over time and
whatever you're doing today is
wrong, and that's okay.
You're gonna get better and
you're gonna improve.
And just keep that mindset of
continuous improvement.
Find a good mentor.
I started my career without
mentorship and that's made me
learn too many things by my own
mistakes, which are always very
good lessons.
But if you learn too many of
those in that way, then it kinda
is not the most effective way to
learn.
So yeah, always look for mentors
in your, in your career who can
give you some good advice.
We are all human.
We make mistakes, so, Try to
take it simple in the end and
also try to overcome the
Imposter Syndrome.
Try to relax because, everything
is gonna be fine in the end.
Okay, here's what I picked up
on, across all of those great
responses.
First, learn from each other.
Find a mentor to help accelerate
your learning.
Look to your coworkers as
examples of what to do or maybe
what not to do.
Every single day we're presented
with opportunities to learn
either by experiencing for
ourselves or through others.
Embrace those opportunities.
Take the time to think about the
positives versus the negatives
from your interactions or
activities.
Embrace the positives and make
them part of your ongoing
behaviors and be keenly aware of
those negatives so that you
don't get tripped up by them in
the future.
Second, we are all human.
Expect that you're going to make
mistakes.
Here's the key, you have to make
sure you learn from those
mistakes and move on.
That's what we do.
We are all human.
And third, be confident in
yourself.
You're probably way more capable
than you give yourself credit
for.
Imposter Syndrome, it's a very
real thing, but I'm going to let
you in on a little secret.
Every person feels that way at
some point in their life.
Am I good enough?
Do I know enough?
What if I fail?
These are the questions that
will hold you back in life.
If you give them the power to
control you.
Don't give them that much power.
Stop questioning yourself.
Change the narrative in your own
mind.
I will succeed.
I don't know everything right
now, but I will learn and adapt
as I go.
Everyone is a first timer at
some point in their life.
You are not an imposter.
You're on a learning journey,
and you can do this.
When I did my first episode of
this podcast, I had absolutely
no idea what I was doing.
I thought to myself, Hmm, I'll
just figure it out along the way
and I'll do the best that I'm
capable of.
But that attitude is something
that I learned over a long
career, and I hope that by
sharing this information, I can
help at least one person
accelerate their career by
learning from my experience.
So listen, this episode of
ShipTalk, it's been pretty deep
compared to our normal, fun and
tech talk, but I thought it was
an important conversation to
have.
I'd still like to leave off on a
fun note.
So here's one last fun question
that I asked the speakers at WTF
is SRE conference...
You're on a deserted island and
you can only have one food for
the rest of your life.
What would that food be?
That's a very good question.
I would go with my Italian
heritage and pizza.
Definitely.
There you go.
I would go with Agliolio
Pepperocini Spaghetti.
I love that stuff.
I can eat any amount of it.
My first thought is to say
mangoes, cuz I love them, but I
don't know if mangoes are
versatile enough.
We'll stick with mangoes.
I don't think I could get sick
of'em.
You're gonna die of scurvy with
most of your choices there.
So I'll go for the scurvy and
I'll just say chocolate crispy
treats.
All right, well I hope you
enjoyed that and that's the show
for today folks.
To all of our listeners, if you
want to share your DevOps
stories as a guest speaker on
ShipTalk, please send an email
to podcast@shiptalk.io and we'll
get back to you.
That's all for now.
Until next time.