Understand the Fundamentals Stay Curious and Never Give Up with Tobias Macey

Phil’s guest on this episode of the IT Career Energizer podcast is Tobias Macey. He currently manages and leads the Technical Operations Team at MIT Open Learning where he designs and builds cloud infrastructure to power online access to education for the global MIT community. He also owns and operates Boundless Notions where he offers design, review, and implementation advice on data infrastructure and cloud automation.  And he’s the host of the weekly Python Podcast and the Data Engineering Podcast. In this episode, Phil and Tobias Macey discuss some of the assets MIT offers free of charge to the global community, including Open Courseware and the Open edXplatform. They talk about how knowing the fundamentals makes it easier to learn the latest tech. Tobias also talks about the advancements in the ability to gain insights in real-time from data and how data engineering will be the biggest driver for our global economy.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: (5.06) TOP CAREER TIP Make sure that you are always learning. But, also have a deep understanding of the fundamentals. Those are the things that never change and will make learning new techologies far easier. They are the foundations on which most new tech is built.   (7.44) WORST CAREER MOMENT Practically everyone that has ever worked in operations will have at one stage taken down the production system. Tobias shares an example of when he did exactly that and what the fallout from that was. As well as how he fixed it.   That particular mistake taught him to put in place strong guardrails. It also taught him not to panic when things go wrong. Worrying gets you nowhere.   (10.15) CAREER HIGHLIGHT Having the opportunity to run his podcasts and ask the industry's innovators interesting questions. In the podcast, Tobias shares the story of how he got started and how you can potentially do something similar.   (13.16) THE FUTURE OF CAREERS IN I.T As our economy and the world around us becomes increasingly digitized, the number of opportunities for everyone increases. Tobias is excited by the fact that it is now far easier for people to self-actualize and get involved in changing things.   Tobias also talks about the advancements in our ability to gain insights from data and do so in real-time. As well as how data engineering is set to drastically change the way the world works.   (16.04) THE REVEAL What first attracted you to a career in I.T.? – Initially Tobias wanted to be a physicist, but the opportunities were limited, so he tried IT instead. What’s the best career advice you received? – Put yourself out there, speak to people, and build a network. What’s the worst career advice you received? – What would you do if you started your career now? – Tobias would start by using free courses to learn the basics, then dive in and push himself to build something. What are your current career objectives? – Building out a viable data platform that provides clean data for analysis. As well as keeping his podcast going. What’s your number one non-technical skill? – Being good at self-directed learning and knowing what questions to ask and how to ask them. How do you keep your own career energized? – Keeping an eye on other areas of the industry and running his podcast. What do you do away from technology? – Tobias enjoys spending time with his family. Right now, he is getting his kids into board games and dungeons and dragons.   (22.24) FINAL CAREER TIP Stay curious. Treat challenges as if they are puzzles, especially the more difficult ones. There is always an answer, you just need to keep at it to find the answers and solve the puzzle.   BEST MOMENTS (4.50) – Tobias - “Always be polite to people. You never know when they might be able to help you out, in the future.” (5.06) – Tobias - “Make sure that you are constantly learning and know the fundamentals, the things that never change.” (0.00) – Tobias - “When things go wrong, don´t panic. Accept the fact that a mistake was made and do what is necessary to resolve it.” (11.43) – Tobias - “If there is something that you want, don´t wait for someone else to do it. Step up and be the one to provide it.” (20.31) – Tobias - “Learn to ask open-ended questions, you will be surprised by how much more you will learn by doing so.”   ABOUT THE HOST – PHIL BURGESS Phil Burgess is an independent IT consultant who has spent the last 20 years helping organizations to design, develop, and implement software solutions.  Phil has always had an interest in helping others to develop and advance their careers.  And in 2017 Phil started the I.T. Career Energizer podcast to try to help as many people as possible to learn from the career advice and experiences of those that have been, and still are, on that same career journey.   CONTACT THE HOST– PHIL BURGESS Phil can be contacted through the following Social Media platforms:   Twitter: https://twitter.com/philtechcareer LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/philburgess Facebook: https://facebook.com/philtechcareer Instagram: https://instagram.com/philtechcareer Website: https://itcareerenergizer.com/contact   Phil is also reachable by email at phil@itcareerenergizer.com and via the podcast’s website, https://itcareerenergizer.com Join the I.T. Career Energizer Community on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/ITCareerEnergizer   ABOUT THE GUEST – TOBIAS MACEY Tobias Macey currently manages and leads the Technical Operations Team at MIT Open Learning where he designs and builds cloud infrastructure to power online access to education for the global MIT community.   He also owns and operates Boundless Notions where he offers design, review, and implementation advice on data infrastructure and cloud automation.  And he’s the host of the weekly Python Podcast.   CONTACT THE GUEST – TOBIAS MACEY Tobias Macey can be contacted through the following Social Media platforms:   Twitter: https://twitter.com/TobiasMacey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmacey/ Website: https://www.boundlessnotions.com