Why I’m Starting Talke Tech…
“I can honestly say that I have never gone into any business purely to make money. If that is the sole motive then I believe you are better off not doing it. A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.”
-Richard Branson, Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way
I have spent a lot of time growing up trying to figure out what I want to be. In high school, I heard hedge fund managers made a lot of money and because being rich sounded convenient, I decided I would just do that. I eventually learned how many hours they work and as someone who needs their sleep, decided to go back to the drawing board.
In college I took interest in management consulting, real estate development, and other areas and similarly realized they either weren’t a good fit for me or the right opportunities never materialized. When I graduated, I took a financial analyst position at a company I had interned at. Throughout this process, I shifted my focus away from trying to eeny, meeny, miny, moe a job label and started paying attention to what I liked and disliked about each position and career path I exposed myself too.
While my first job was a great opportunity I learned a lot from, I eventually realized it was also not the right fit for me. I began to take an interest in the tech industry. In the years preceding this point, some things I discovered were I love to learn, wanted more of a creative outlet in my work, and wanted to be in an environment where the only thing limiting my career progression was my ability. Tech seemed like a promising fit.
I grew up part of the first Internet native generation so I turned to the place I knew best. I began doing online research on the industry, watched YouTube videos, read blog posts, and completed coding certifications. I uncovered two things during this process:
The tech industry is vast and deep and if you aren’t careful you can find yourself wading into water that you’ll drown in. The best resources come from those who are only a couple years ahead of you. They remember what it was like to be in your shoes but are also further enough ahead of you to serve as a guide through the forest.
There is a reason the Internet is so diverse and unique. It has discovered a dirty secret about humanity. There is no one size fits all. We all have different personalities and learning styles and the beauty of the Internet is that there are enough people to have something presented in a thousand different ways. There were voices in tech that I felt like were speaking directly to me and others that were so removed from my life experience I couldn’t even wrap my head around them. I learned an important lesson from this. “Be yourself - everyone else is taken”. Kevin Kelly has a great article surrounding this called “1000 True Fans”. The game isn’t about trying to appeal to everyone, it’s about putting yourself out there authentically and seeing who you resonate with.
This is why I wanted to start Talke Tech. To follow in the footsteps of the resources that were so impactful to me as I was making my way into solutions engineering and then product management, and to be the resource I wish I had when I was younger and couldn’t find an answer to something or the answers I found didn’t make sense to me.
One of my biggest advantages I find being in product management on the Database Tools at Oracle is that I don’t have a comp sci degree or formal education in tech. It has given me an appreciation for being able to explain things in as accessible terms as possible. There was also no formal learning process that I could now mark as over. This helped me to still see the magic and wonder in our industry. I became a student as an adult and believe the secret to my success and continuing it is always remaining a student.
With this blog my plan is to help you learn Oracle’s tech as easily as possible, share advice on navigating a career in your 20s, and talk about anything else I think might be fun and useful to people.
I don’t come to you claiming to be an expert, just someone trying to make their way through this weird adventure we call life and who wants to share the things I find cool along the way. I wrote another starting post called “The Importance of Doing Things You Aren’t Qualified For” tangential to this, that I highly believe in and recommend checking out.
At the end of the day my goal is to provide value to people and if each thing I create is useful to at least one person I’m happy. So let me know what you would like to see, correct me if you see any mistakes and please be patient as I’m learning along the way :)
I hope you stick around for the ride!
