It's the last episode of 2025, and we're ending things off in style with guest Cortney Nickerson! Like many of our guests, Cortney didn't start out in tech. In fact, she grew up mostly techless. But in her first tech job, armed with curiosity and supported by coworkers who were willing to teach her, she fell in love with tech. Turns out she's pretty damn good at it, too! Learn about Cortney's tech journey, navigating motherhood and tech, coping with imposter syndrome, and her reflections on being selected as a Keynote Speaker for KubeCon China! Also learn Cortney's awesome takes on why she prefers tabs over spaces, and why QAs are the unsung heroes of tech.

Do you have to be superhuman to have invisibility as your superpower? Not according to Deana Solis! Superpowers come from recognizing what your vulnerability is, and Deana's superpower is about quietly taking things in, and acting on what she's learned. Don't let it it fool you, though, because being a fly on the wall isn't the same as not speaking up when appropriate. We talk about this and much more, as Deana opens up about mentorship, FinOps, career pivots, and being disproportionately surrounded by lefties!

Lisa-Marie Namphy eats, breathes, and sleeps tech. Even though she didn't start off in tech (fun fact - she's an English major), as a Bay Area native, her path to tech was inevitable. Catch Lisa's journey, cool facts about the Argo project, what it's like to co-run KubeCrash, her love for end user stories, and more!

Oh, were we doing a podcast? This conversation with Colleen Coll was so much fun that it felt like two gals having a casual coffee chat. She started out with a degree in journalism, and found her way into tech as a storyteller. She's a speechwriter, event planner, tech content writer, and most recently, video producer, a skill she picked up when she decided to upskill after being laid off. What can't she do?? Come join us and learn about Colleen's awesome journey, and pick up some spicy takes along the way! 🌶️

Chill vibes? Capybara lover? Networking guru? That’s Duffie Cooley! Come geek out with us as Duffie talks about his tech journey, the importance of seeing problems from different perspectives, and how living with dyslexia hasn’t stopped him from kicking ass. 

Mandy Moore can often be found working behind the scenes as a podcast producer and social media manager. This time, we put her in front of the mic, as she talks about how saying “yes” and betting on herself put her on her current career path. And she hasn’t looked back. Plus, learn what it takes to put a podcast together. Hint: it’s not as easy as it looks!

Before getting bitten by the tech bug, Kat Cosgrove (she/they) worked as a bartender and in a video rental store dishing out horror movie recommendations (a job which she loved, BTW). Now she’s a prominent figure in the Kubernetes community, and is kicking ass in her current role as head of DevRel at Minimus. Learn about Kat’s favourite type of horror movie, her accidental journey to Kubernetes girlbossness, and get some spicy takes on Kubernetes adoption… all in our Season 3 opener.

It's our last episode of the season, before we go on summer break, and we've saved the best for last, as Denise Yu geeks out with Adriana Villela. Denise shares amazing tech career bits of wisdom, ranging from the importance of job-hopping to help you find your career fit, to managing burnout, talking about mental health as a tech leader, and some dos and don'ts when transitioning from IC to management.

How do you naviagate the tech world as a non-techie? How do you manage change across an organization when it's shoved down your throat? How do you learn how to advocate for yourself? This week's guest, Angela Blake, geeks out with Adriana about all these things and more!

What if we told you that there is an entire world out there beyond our tech bubble that could benefit from the power of Observability? Would you believe us? In this live episode of Geeking Out, host Adriana Villela, chats with past guests Tim Banks, and Marino Wijay, about using Observability beyond the traditional confines of tech.

DEI programs might be on the chopping block, but we need them now, more than ever. In this episode of Geeking Out, Eromosele Akhigbe talks about how Outreachy, an internship program that supports diversity in open source and open science helped him fall in love with Go and OpenTelemetry. He also talks about the importance of diversity in tech and building a tech community in Africa.

Adriana geeks out with On-Call Me Maybe alumna, Parveen Khan. Parveen talks about the importance of always asking questions, and how making connections leads to thought-provoking conversations and learning new perspectives. She also shares some tips on connecting with folks in a meaningful and thoughtful way on LinkedIn. Finally, Paveen talks about transitioning from individual contributor as a consultant, to a leadership position in a non-consulting role: ✅ How her previous experience has helped her transition successfully into her new role ✅ How to delegate ✅ How to influence change in a thoughtful and effective manner

With KubeCon EU 2025 about a week away, it's only fitting for Adriana to geek out with Taylor Dolezal, formerly of the CNCF. Adriana and Taylor talk about the power and importance of the community, both in the tech world, with folks coming together for conferences such as KubeCon and Open Source Summit, and also non-tech communities, with folks coming together to support each other in the wake of disaster, following the recent southern California wildfires.

We just celebrated International Women’s Day, which makes it so fitting that Adriana geeks out with Mariana Carvalho, a woman in tech whose mission is to empower other women in tech! Mariana talks about how embracing unexpected opportunities help shape your path, by sharing how she started with a marketing degree, got an MBA, and then wound up with a Master's in Computer Science, which jumpstarted her career in tech. Mariana's passion for tech led her to start the Women in Tech publication on Medium, and her mission to share "the knowledge and wisdom of STEM leaders and trailblazers who are a reference and inspiration in career and life" through her podcast, "The Timeless Technology Podcast".

Adriana geeks out with Autumn Nash about her journey from artist to badass engineer. Autumn and Adriana discuss the struggles and joys of motherhood, and the challenges of being a working mom in tech. They also talk about the importance of representation, and of using privilege to bring light to issues in tech, and to help close those gaps. Autumn also has a new podcast, hosted alongside Justin Garrison, called Fork Around and Find Out: https://fafo.fm.

It’s never too late to reinvent yourself. And reinvent herself is exactly what Whitney Lee did. You might have never guessed that Whitney has been in tech for less than a decade, because she’s made SUCH a huge impact in our industry. Learn about Whitney’s career pivot from photograph to tech, and how she’s found immense success in the cloud native space thanks to encouragement from her son, mad skillz, and the power of community!

Adriana geeks out with Austin Emmons of Embrace Mobile. Austin talks about how Embrace made the shift from closed-source to open source Android and iOS SDKs built on top of OpenTelemetry, and how it led to his involvement in various OpenTelemetry SIGs, including the OTel Swift SIG and the OTel Semantic Conventions SIG. He also discusses how Embrace now uses OpenTelemetry internally to help with their own troubleshooting (i.e. "dogfooding").

Hey fellow geeks! A quick programming note. Starting in january 2025, we'll be dropping new episodes of Geeking Out every two weeks instead of once a week. Our next episode will be out on January 28th. peace out and geek out!

We are starting out 2025 as Adriana geeks out with guest Aicha Laafia. Aicha may have *only* been working in tech for 3 years, but she has made a huge impact. Aicha talks about her love of Java and developing sustainable applications. She also talks about diving head-first into unknown technologies, and how that has made her a better techie. Finally, Aicha talks very candidly about the mental toll of being laid off, and how to cope with this challenging situation.

It's our final episode of 2024, and Adriana geeks out with fellow CNCF Ambassador, Michael Levan. Michael talks about the importance of having purpose, embracing challenges, and how that played a part in him leaving the world of Kubernetes for the world of security. He also shares his thoughts on hardest part about security is not security, and it's not what you might think it is! Finally, Michael wraps up with tech career advice. We'll be back in mid-January 2025 with all-new episodes!