taylor desseyn

guidance counselor 2.0 · episode 415

doing the job before you get the job w/ jason torres

feb 12, 2025 · 29 min · with jason torres · hosted by taylor desseyn

key takeaways

  • do the work before you get the job. earn your position through initiative, learning, and proving your value consistently.
  • build genuine relationships intentionally. follow people aligned with your goals, engage authentically, and help others without expecting immediate returns.
  • adapt your communication style to read people quickly. disarm interviewers by making conversations comfortable and leading with questions.
  • when rejected, change your approach instead of repeating the same thing. level up skills that are blocking you from moving forward.
  • find your why and keep going. rejection will pile up, but refocusing on family or personal reasons helps you pick yourself back up.

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about this episode

building real skills and community before landing your first tech job, using soft skills from other careers to stand out.

full transcript

auto-generated from the audio, so expect a few typos. the audio is the source of truth.

post our our link too in our um the friend zone uh yeah where the hell is the link just just post I guess your I guess here just here I'll post it good morning everybody good morning what up just post just post my YouTube do I even have good morning everybody hot mess this morning hot mess hash hot Ms um I don't have Discord on my uh laptop right now so you're okay cool all right well I'll just we are doing great that's my bad what did you do I I like did a factory reset the thing was acting up so I was like all

right start from scratch again yes as conversation last week yeah good morning please say hey we'd love to hear from you uh it' be great um uh let me see I'm checking all the platforms I send out the text nope haven't sent out the text yet gonna do that now send anyway send it now we're getting there we're getting there going do that you know uh I got some coffee beans for espresso that are half CF they actually sell half CF frothy monkey in Nashville why though shout out for well you know you can't have too much anxiety in one day um all right y'all

say hey would love to hear from you Josh my guy what's going on it's good to see you big dog former guest of the show um so so at least we know we're good on YouTube let me check link real quick good morning good morning please say hey we'd love to hear from you this is going to be uh a great conversation um sweet what's going on it's good to see you Kelly good morning friends good morning good morning welcome all right it looks like I'm oh what up Dev my Croc go Dev it's good to see you my guy from Kansas City is that

what you said that's where you're at devb Kansas City or Tulsa it was like some like random place in the midwest Ricardo's good to see you Katie good to see you decaf is I'm telling you all right listen hot take here listen I love the hair on the back of my neck standing up as much as the next person but I think it is a superpower if you can go decaf so I'm pulling myself back I went all caffeine and I'm pulling myself back right now a little bit if you can if you can just drink decaf and and be normal that's a superpower that's

a superpow okay which I'll allow it I'll allow it everybody's got their own things I appreciate it you know my thing is is I call how much you want to play with the devil how much how much you want to play with the devil today right you want to go full anxiety or half anxiety caffeine is anxiety uh it's good to see you for me it's I gotta eat something I can have I can have my coffee in the morning but I gotta have sustenance or I'm like jittery I get I fast no no I fast I fast so um so I that's what I'm

saying I fast and drink caffeine at the same time uh every place in Kanas random place I have no doubt um Vlad it's good to see you freaking Taylor again yes hello it's me welcome uh it's great to see y'all this morning uh there are dudes that drink I don't understand this like the folks who drink like Celsius and stuff I so one of my line mates we we we took my hockey team to Pittsburgh and one of my Lin mates my my defensive partner drank a Celsius every morning on an empty stomach I'm like Jesus dude also if you didn't see it um uh

I I'm I'm I'm dropping my hockey Vlog now I am documenting uh my 24 game League going through our lower a our team's been promoted twice you could think of this like Ted lasso we've been promoted a few times um so I'm gonna document it uh so I just Dro vog one y'all go like it on my Twitter one coffee in the morning one coffee after lunch I love it yeah you got always got two coffees whenever I get coffees you have one for the moment because I suck it down and then one to sip on for the rest of the day all right enough

be R my mouth uh good morning welcome to guidance C 2.0 say hey we'd love to hear from you again this is a networking platform I always say this to guests are secondary don't mean that mean but what I'm saying is a networking show right say hey would love to hear from you I would DM every single person on the show and just don't be weird just say hey hey it was great to see you it was great to see you I'll just say that right um uh I Kelly was Kelly messaged me she she's in the comments she's like I've never she goes I've

already had so many amazing conversations with your community so again I appreciate you a ton few announcements here real quick before we get Jason starting to Yap uh first off the friend zone uh I launch it with Kelly Von Jason is obviously uh a very much of a part of it um it's just a really Community to not go through the job search alone so go check that out it's great if you want the the lives have been buggy if you want to be notified every time I go live text 6152 35565 text live this is my number believe it or not this is me

um and uh I text every single morning who the guest is what we're talking about also dad's and Tech uh we have a Discord launch too um I'll throw it up in the chat after after the live we have about 66 dads uh in the uh Discord right now um and I'm working on a Nashville dads and Tech Meetup so if you are a dad if you're an aspiring Dad if you're a current dad or you're an old dad and your kids are out of the house we still love to have you as well so uh go s up in the Meetup I'll post the

Discord links uh let's see we got a lot of comments here guest or secondary again it's all out of love it's all out of love what's up it's good to see you Brian former guest of the show as well usually get three to five cups of coffee I love coffee too glad same and then our dear friend Mark the man Texon toson whatever he's great love this guy AB to death all right uh let's let's yeah uh we have more comments okay we gotta get going Jason let's give the people what they want who are you uh what what what what do you what you

what do you what do you do and we'll go from there you know hey hey everybody you know it's Jason you know who I am the it's your boy Jason it's your boy Jason so I took this off the arm I got on e of those arms and now I can't stop holding it even though it works just fine there why why do I do that I don't know it's just forc to have it I don't know anyway uh host the tech commute I am a former filmmaker I spent 15 years in the film industry as most of you know but uh I I decided

why not go from one really hard industry to get into and go to another one and here I am welcome to Tech spent the last couple years diving into coding and software development started leaning more into to the the people side of it um I found community building and just like my soft skills were were a strength that I didn't want to not capitalize on so I've been leading more towards developer advocacy education stuff and talking and building and that's that's where we are today and I I'm so great to see so many friends in the chat up I know I see my buddy Josh

and Lawrence come on we love to have you I will post the link to our Discord in the comments after our show T it's good to see you I can I get a legalized PHP hat I've been talking about PHP for years now by the way I need a legalized PHP hat somebody get me a legalized PHP hat I'll send you a link I bought this I did not get this given to me and I love it it's a very nice dad hat I love it I love Dad hats I want all the dad hats yeah all right so you know one of the reasons

why I want to bring Jason on aside from him just being a a dear friend is you know one of the things I've admired about Jason is is is is his building public his constantly putting himself out there and without even really having a job in Tech right I mean you're still in the search for your first job in Tech and it's one of these things where I feel like in today's world that it's a lot of I want this job I it needs to be given to me but I I've heard a lot of people lately a lot of podcast Tik toks I listen

to and we're in a world now where and where you got to get the you got to do the job before you get the job and I want to applaud you Jason I think you have done the job before you've gotten the job for a long time now talk about your motivation for that though because it is really hard to pick yourself up the mat time and time again and keep putting yourself out there without a job uh yeah that's I I like that you brought up the I I think our society right now especially has like I don't know kind of this undeserved sense

of entitlement if that kind of makes sense um and I don't think I don't think that that's Tech specific I just think again that this is something that our our culture is we're so driven by now we want it now we want it as fast as possible it's how we uh ingest our media and we take everything we want it as fast as possible and I I think it's come to the point where people just unconsciously uh expect it and that's not how it works especially when it comes to wanting to be able to get a job or or do something so um I I

guess I'm still old school in that sense where I I have to work for something my my background in film I started knowing absolutely nothing you know I had always been in theater and drama club so I I understood the basics I understood the nuances and I always had a really creative like thought process and wanting to get into a career that had that so I started I was right at the bottom production assistant on a feature film and I just started learning you just start absorbing everything and you you learn and you earn it right so you start I'm G up to quick I

feel it's that way with trade jobs and when I say trade jobs I just mean anything maybe outside of tech right but like especially the film like uh one of my wife's friends her husband had it works like rigging I guess on huge films and he's like known for it in Atlanta and so but like it sounds like in those type of Industries and even trade Smith Industries apprenticeships you got to just do the do the job and show up before you can get the job and that's just not the way the vibe is Tech it you know the thing is it is it i

s but it isn't it's the people that are coming in expect it but the people that are in it that that are the seniors and the people that have the years of experience know and those are the people that have to sort of step up and show the way you know when I started I was a production assistant um every set has like key Pas key Pas delegate to the Pas you know again there's the hierarchy and I think understanding the hierarchy helps you understand the process that you have to go through knowing your role on the totem pole and I think just the knowing

your role in general um understanding what the expectations are as a productionist assistant you're you're the peon you're doing every you're doing whatever you're told to do sure that's that's it and then taking that initiative and knowing okay I have to learn to do this before I can do this and then earning that space so I went from so you kind of took that mentality and applied it to what you're doing now ex oh yeah for sure I I never would look at a role and just expect that I should have it because I don't I always feel like I have to earn something so

that's I think why I try to work really hard as well I think work ethics have kind of shifted a little bit too where again there isn't as much work ethic because people expect that they should just get things and not earn the things so you know and you still see it and I think that's why the people that are up in that 1% of the all like highly successful efficient productive people are the ones that have that work ethic and that diligence and they know that they have to earn those things um and that's yeah so I went from production assistant um I worked

my ass off and again the other part that is a huge component of that is the networking side is the is the talking so I I started discussing different things and and showing that I was eager to learn with a lot of the camera department and a lot of the production team so I I built a really good report with one of the ass ociate producers and then the production took some time off because it it was an indie film I think we had like A1 a.

half million doll budget but we had to raise half of it so there was six months off and in that time I reached out to that associate producer and said look I'm really wanting to continue along this path do you have anything that you're working on now that maybe I could just Shadow you like you know come hang out do the work do the work um we did a couple more projects together and then we got back to set and a couple of the people that were on the project couldn't come back so there was a role in the production team that was available I

had shown the initiative I had earned that spot and there we are so I got the associate producer role started networking from there and even like I brought people in to invest in the film um and again showing your value and earning the position and that was it that from there I almost never I don't even think I had a resume in film you know you have an IMDb that puts your credits on there sure yeah yeah you know from there it's just all about who you know and yeah so let me ask you this and Josh comes in here says I love love the

theater film progression detect so many similarities in in the creative space if you've done the work to get the gig putting yourself out there to get the job Cakewalk you know I think a lot of people in Tech struggle to put things out there I think a lot of people on this chat do a little a pretty good job of building public obviously very familiar with a lot of these names what I mean you came from a place I mean like I I mean I guess film I mean you're not building in public film necessarily so so like you're in Tech where did this like

what's the origin story for you to put out there because again I mean listen I want to I want to give your flowers here like you did a conference to raise money for a a a dude's wife and how much money did you raise like $112,000 yeah I think it was like ye ah about 12 yep that's insan I've never done that I've never done that right like that is I mean that nobody has done that right and so like and you don't even have a job and so like like for my thing is is like what what made you like what did you see

what did You observe to start going from zero to one on the internet for for Tech yeah that that's a really great question I think I think as far as like in in Rel to the the conference and this just goes back to like earning it right like building the building the network around you and building the relationships and proving to them that you're I'll quote The Bachelor you're here for the right reasons you know like I don't have any I've never watched a bachelor but sure I trust you yeah you know they're they're not there to actually find a relationship like they're they're not

there to be genuine and authentic and I think people see through that so I spent a whole lot of time like proving that the work that I'm doing is to build a career and help other people so when I needed help and that goes back to like the whole talk that I did at that conference of like earning the relationships that you have so when you do need something you've you've put the work in for it um it was everybody jumped the opportunity but yeah but I'm trying to get you more go granular here man go more Gran you're still high level did you see

a post did you like I want to get in into Tech and I see like people talking about Twitter some go on Twitter like I want to hear that oh yeah okay no no no I I got you I got you so uh the origin story of tech for me as far as like why I wanted to get into it I have a neighbor like two houses up we have this little private drive that's right next to us and the guy that's at the end is an operations manager for a laser qualimetrics company like they do laser Metrology and U measuring systems I don't even

know I don't even know those words yeah it's it's it's a wild thing like they have this giant microscope uh which I've used at a at a company that I was at um that can quality control different systems down to like millimeter measurements um he said he had brought up he's like look I know that you're looking for work we have these um application engineer positions that are available they're building out the software that runs some of the the equipment that they have but it's python right there there there was the opening so I actually when I started looking into this stuff was looking into

uh becoming a python developer so I started because of your next door neighbor who did laser thing ofama jiggers and you just yeah you were like hey this sounds interesting I'm gonna pursue it yep so I started researching that I started looking into some uh some courses online yada yada yada it didn't I didn't love it um and at that point I came across I believe some sort of a Reddit that had pointed to 100 devs Leon's cohort and boot camp and stuff so I jumped into the Discord and started going through 100 devs and I really liked you know just the the M Stack

is what they teach there I started building and building but one of the first things that Leon says to do is get your ass onto Twitter and Linkedin that's like within the first four classes for the record right which everyone should everybody yes you definitely do um but so and I wasn't even on I didn't have any socials when I left the film industry I got rid of everything just because I wanted to have like a clean break because it's like a drug for me if I'm being honest like what what is film film making creatively like building things like the the feeling of rapping

a film and then seeing what you've made like it's it's addicting and anybody that's been on a film set or just like around that environment and that buzz and that energy and I I felt that again when I did like my first hello world when I built my first thing and got to see that instant like result on a screen so I see a lot of parallels there but that's that's wh at it was Leon says get out there because this is going to be more important than any technology you're ever going to learn is is building those relationships we're going to clip that that

was good that was good right there that's a good one uh good sound B yes so so that's that's where it was that's so all right so you just created an X account yep and you were like who did you start following you didn't Tak no no and that actually like how did that happen because your algo I'm sure was nuts when you first joined it was it was so Yan and that's the thing like it was all over the place and because I didn't know anybody and Dev can attest this like I ran into some problems with some larger influencer accounts I'll I'll leave

it at that he knows the backstory but it it was more of a misunderstanding but I didn't know who people were like I wasn't targeting anyone like I'm just a so you're out here just picking fights with like not in you know you had no idea who they were I didn't know who these people were but you know why fights it wasn't fight I wasn't trying to pick I just I live by a certain set of values and if there's something that's said especially about a certain situation like I'm going to defend somebody and again without context to that it's kind of hard to understand

but it wasn't directed towards the person that said it specifically because of who they were like I would have said it to anybody to defend anybody like that's just how I was raised if someone's getting picked on I'm going to I'm going to say something so that's what it was but I again didn't know who anybody was it happens everything's been squashed at this point I would like to point that out however uh at the time I don't know who anybody is I started following Leon that was the first person I started to follow and then I kind of just built out from there followed

a bunch of people that were in the hund devs Discord and started to connect with people that were right around similar stage i n the the cohort that I was MH and uh like I don't even remember when you and I started interacting but I started to follow people that I just I relate to um I don't follow a ton of people but everybody that I do is very intentional like I don't follow any celebrities I don't follow artist musician like it's my goal is to keep the path exactly to what it was intended to be and that's to expand a network of people that

are are like myself that I that I find to be atable to um and that's that's how it's that's how it's been and I just started kind of going from there that's awesome that's awesome I love that I don't think I and I didn't know that about you either about like how did you even get into Tech so what's um you know obviously you've done a lot of interviewing yeah you know I haven't quite landed a job yet hopefully soon hopefully what I mean what's what's what's been man I mean what what's some advice for people right because I I interview people all the time

who found jobs you haven't found a job yet you're definitely doing some interviewing so I mean it's not all it's not all rainbows and sunshines at the moment right obviously soon so like you know talk about maybe some things that haven't gone well or have gone well all right um I mean let's go let's go with the shorter list which is the have gone Wells sure like is there anything that you find that's working let's just say that yeah I I mean honestly for me and obviously you know that I also real quick real quick I just got an update that we're having issues streaming

trouble streaming to LinkedIn so oh if you are if if you are on my LinkedIn I'm gonna go ahead and comment real quick let's so let's talk about the good there are people watching obviously on other PL uh let's let's talk about the good if you are watching right now um I'm going to throw up a banner right now um but yeah talk about maybe like what's what's worked well is the good which you know and I'll I'll put an aside to this like I'm no t at this point in my life as extroverted as I used to be I think I just understand that

it's part of the process like I can consciously turn that on or off but for the most part I'm pretty lowkey um I have had great success with just putting myself out there talking like being extroverted being the person initiate so when I'm in a conversation with like a recruiter or even just that first round of interviews I I I'm very forthcoming iy I try to almost lead the conversation like I'll ask questions I'll drive the conversation sometimes there's been points where like they get so distracted I mean I had an hour and 20 minute conversation I don't think we even like I don't even

think she asked me any questions till about 40 minutes in because we we just we built this Rapport before we even before we even like you know talked about anything right oh hi dude hey hey again there you go we have back in live yeah hey can you go back down okay I'll be out in a minute um so that's that's worked really well for me personally um is again just like kind of breaking down that wall and making it feel comfortable for both of us um well and and I think you're and and and to be totally Frank with you I think you're great

at it I think you're great at it wonderful no and that comes again from from the film background like I didn't have time to cultivate relationships on the fly like my role was very intentional and quick like I have to perhaps find a location because we're about to do a company move in an hour and I have to take 30 or 40 people to another location and the location says you guys can't film here I have to on the Fly find the next location and seamlessly make it so everything moves so we don't lose time because time's money right um so you have to be

able to read a person quick and adapt and like find how they so and so you're saying you pull that from your pth into the interview space got yeah yeah so understanding if somebody's a little bit more reserved racial oh yeah there you go quick exactly exactly and that's it's the exact same thing here you know at the end of the day you're still talking to just another person so if you're reset like interpreting or understanding or decoding the best ways to effectively communicate with them like it automatically disarms them and that's that's always been my advantage and that's and that's where I again a

I think you do great and and I think B that's what I preach like if you can disarm the interviewer as fast as humanly possible in the conversation even if you rejected because you've been mean let's just say it you're still looking for a job you've been rejected so it doesn't always work but at least it makes the experience easier yes and then I guess to go back to the negative Parts sure like I can very easily get through the soft skill side of it it's always been oh well you don't have enough experience like we're looking for somebody that's got five years of uh

PHP or this or that you know um so usually it comes down to something like that um and that's that's always been what it is so I've been trying to ultimately find ways to level myself up to kind of De drisk myself in that sort of an environment uh I joined a cohort that shashi's been running called grid iron Survivor which again he's doing as B essentially a simulation of how an org runs teams um okay giving us uh which it's just me and a bunch of just me it it's me and a bunch of other Junior devs that are looking for roles and giving

us the opportunity to work in that sort of an environment so that we can we can say we've done that um which again huge shout out to Shashi for giving us that opportunity 100% but yeah it's and honestly it's the picking yourself back up part you know like rejections tough period how have you dealt with rejection you and I I mean for those of you who did not know Jason has helped me with my content over the last little bit um you know helping with YouTube and stuff oh dang that was great um so so J ason Jason's been helping with content I've obviously been

talking to him about his job search journey and the rejections you know Jason obviously full transparency you know you you've you've had to tell me um you know you basically had to tell me like hey you know I need a day you won't hear from me I need to regroup H how have you taken time to regroup how do you regroup from obviously trying to pull yourself off the mat every single time um I don't think that there's any amount of negative like information or anything any sort of a negative experience has a negative effect on you when it starts to pile up I I

don't think that there's any easy way to to get over no it's yeah it's man it's been it's been a challenge I I think the best way to not give up on something is to find a reason to keep going ah you know I love that like Jack you saw Jack was just here like my my my family is the reason that I I keep going like I don't make cry this morning don't make me cry this morning dude I'm really good at making people cry so heads up uh what was I going to say yeah my why will always outweigh the what so yeah

I just keep pushing like does it suck yeah like you know I've texted you before like it's depressing and it to just keep getting beat down and beat down uh it's hard to keep getting back up but I yeah I refocus and re approach it and I think the other thing too is you have to change what you're doing like don't expect a different result by doing the same thing thank you yes you know absolutely absolutely gotta pivot pivot I've lost roles because of X I can't expect to not change X and then not which I feel I feel like is a little bit of

a problem right I think people are like you know I'm just going to keep doing the same thing and hopefully something Falls and in this market that's just not the case no no and I was just talking to somebody last uh two weeks ago I think and especially now with the way the market is like some of the roles people are expecting a lo t more so you know they they want a a senior engineer with 11 years experience and knows this and knows that and can do this and do that and if you don't have those things you can't you also can't fault yourself

for not knowing those things yeah go learn them absolutely figure out ways to add to your your repertoire your tool belt so that that's not an issue but if we don't adapt you know it's you got to be able to make the changes yep 100% 100% so as we wrap up here and again Jason thank you again for coming on I mean obviously the the the conversation the the chat's great Mark coming in you know Jason is a shin example of pure resiliance I agree I agree I mean there again it is I I totally agree with that um let's let's kind of Rapid Fire

questions as we wrap um oh hold on um is so I added this question recently and it is what did you want to do in grade school growing up and do you think you'd be good at it now I would absolutely not no that's not true I would be good at it uh sorry my mic's down here and now I want to do no you're fine you're fine you're fine I I actually wanted to be in the FBI really yeah and I went to school when I started when I like went to college I actually was going for polyi because I was going that route

I was thinking something in law uh or or the FBI and I think I would very good be very good at that so yeah I love that I love that um if you had uh let's see here if I if if if any Frameworks Tech Trends things you're tinkering with right now that you like Yes actually a couple um I mean I'm I'm a huge laral Stan right now so I've been building a ton with that but I have been working with 11 Labs uh AI which is um generative voice so and I I sent you a snippet of it you can take a video

and run it through the system and it can give you subtitles close captioning and voiceovers everything uh in 27 different languages and also yes I'm also a huge angular fan um it can uh do it in the person's voice so I I I took a snippet of one of Tayl or's talks and I switched it I did the audio in Spanish and uh it sounds just like you dude and it's kind of crazy it kind of it definitely startled me uh a little bit um so um I love that that up we got I gotta find it yeah last question as we wrap up here

and again thank you'all for hanging out with us go follow Jason on Twitter um go join the friend zone he he is in there with us as well doing a great job of engaging um and Jason best of luck on your job search man hopefully you find something very soon um uh what would be so if you could go back to Young Jason um and give him one piece of career advice what what what what would it be uh don't don't give up yeah I think a lot of people just give up yeah it's the easiest thing to do just don't just up absolutely absolutely

legalize PHP there you go cool all right y'all I got a bounce I got a meeting now y'all have a great one Jason thank you my friend stay on back this backstage so I can say bye to you but y'all have a great one go follow Jason I'm off tomorrow um I got I I got some things I gotta knock out so this is the last guidance CER 2.0 of the week we'll see y'all next week with an action packed uh action-packed week youall have a good

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