Latinos Who Tech

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Thriving as an Introvert: Dushka Zapata, Writer and Executive Communications @ Zendesk Aug 26, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, I spoke with Dushka Zapata, Executive Communications at Zendesk, writer, and author of seven books. We spoke about writing as a part of her life and how she captures ideas to do so, her work at Zendesk, Quora and her seven books, the process she goes through to write a book, and her encouraging words to audience.
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Connect with Dushka vía :
* Linkedin: Dushka Zapata * Quora: Dushka Zapata
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Mentioned resources:
* Edelman* Zendesk* Dushka’s seven books: How to be ferociously happy – Amateur – A Spectacular Catastrophe – Your Seat Cushion is a Flotation Device – Someone Destroyed My Rocket Ship – How to Build a Pillow Fort – You belong everywhere * Quora
Timestamps:
* 01:45 – Welcoming Dushka Zapata* 01:56 – How Duska got to San Francisco* 02:57 – The way in which Duska brings her whole self to work* 03:54 – Writing as a part of Dushka’s life* 05:04 – How Dushka captures the ideas she writes about and her seven books* 07:38 – About Dushka’s work at Zendesk* 08:43 – How Dushka would coach an executive who wants to give a speech* 10:55 – How Dushka personally gets prepared to give a speech * 16:00 – The meaning of Quora according to Dushka* 16:23 – Dushka’s process when sitting down to write a book* 19:16 – To connect with Dushka* 19:41 – Last words to audience
Key Takeaways:
BRINGING WHOLE SELF TO WORK
To be able to take your whole self to work, --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/latinoswhotech/message

Life @ Facebook: Carlos Sarmiento, Software Engineer @ Facebook Aug 12, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, I spoke with Carlos Sarmiento, Software Engineer at Facebook. Originally from Venezuela, Carlos joined Facebook in 2017. We spoke about how he got to Facebook, the company’s recruiting events and engineering bootcamps, his day in the life as a software engineer, and all about referrals.
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Sign up to our monthly newsletter where we share networking strategies and other personal development tools: Here or at LatinosWhoTech.com
Connect with Carlos via linkedin:
Carlos Sarmiento
Want to help us grow? You can:
* Leave us an iTunes review* Send us a note with your thoughts at LatinosWhoTech@gmail.com* Share it with a friend!
Mentioned resources:
* Facebook Recruiting Event* Facebook Engineering Bootcamp* ERG (Employee Resource Group)* Latin@ – Facebook Diversity* Latin@ – Facebook Careers* PHP* Hack – programming language

Timestamps:
* 01:42 – Welcoming Carlos Sarmiento* 02:06 – About Carlos* 02:40 – Reaching Facebook: from Caracas to Facebook* 05:38 – About Facebook’s recruiting events* 08:28 – A Software Engineer at Facebook: The experience of a day in the life* 10:55 – About Facebook’s Engineering Bootcamps* 13:30 – Process to select a bootcamp* 15:18 – A story from Instagram Ads* 19:31 – How a referral works* 23:44 – Diversity at Facebook* 27:09 – Last words for audience
Key Takeaways:
Facebook Recruiting Events
A good way to select the best people for a company is through recruiting events. During these event recruiters give interviews to potential candidates, share with the community information and the experience of what it is like working at Facebook
The experience of a day in the life
Working in a team with a collaborative process has better results when looking for a high impact.
Having a mentor helps somebody ramp up and succeed in a company
Facebook engineering bootcamp
Any engineer that wants to work at Facebook, has to go through a bootcamp. Bootcamps are great onboarding programs. They are opportunities for working right away, learning everything about the company and having a senior engineer mentor through the whole process
Fix and Learn!
Everybody at Facebook roll in the same direction, so if somebody fails or makes a mistake, the whole team takes responsibility, --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/latinoswhotech/message

Transforming Lives Through Learning: Angela Romero, Principal Manager @ Coursera Jul 29, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, I spoke with Angela Romero, Principal Manager at Coursera. We spoke about her experience working in a PR agency, cold calling and her role in sales at Google, Duolingo as a startup with an e-learning environment giving people practical and fun learning opportunities through technology and access to better jobs, all about Coursera, and the importance of Employee Resource Groups in working environments.
Latinos Who Tech is brought to you by Audible. Go to www.audibletrial.com/latinos to claim your free audiobook!
Sign up to our monthly newsletter where we share networking strategies and other personal development tools: Here or at LatinosWhoTech.com
Connect with Angela via linkedin:
Angela Romero
Want to help us grow? You can:
* Leave us an iTunes review* Send us a note with your thoughts at LatinosWhoTech@gmail.com* Share it with a friend
Mentioned resources:
* Coursera* FleishmanHillard* AI For Everyone – One of Angela’s favourite short digestible language course about AI and how it is going to transform the world* Learning How to Learn – Another favourite short course at Coursera with powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects* You Tube Red (You Tube Premium) – watch and listen without announcements * Duolingo* Hola, Latino ERG (Employee Resource Group) – Diversity and inclusion group* USP, FIA, UNICAMP, and Insper – Coursera expanded in Brazil with 25 courses from these top universities * Self-Driving Program from University of Toronto– top program at Coursera launched by Angela
Time Stamps:
* 01:43 – Welcoming Angela Romero
* 02:00 – About Angela and Coursera
* 02:53 – Angela’s favourite course or specialization
* 03:52 – Angela’s favourite learning technique
* 05:25 – How Angela gets to Coursera
* 07:55 – What is it like to work in a PR agency
* 08:41 – When Angela realized she wanted to switch into sales
* 10:38 – Role at Google in sales
* 11:01 – Good at cold calling
* 13:35 – How Angela would write a perfect pitch email
* 17:17 – What is the perfect phone call
* 20:10 – Switching from Google to Duolingo, a startup e-learning environment
* 23:04 – What Angela was most proud of at Duolingo
* 26:34 – Why Coursera?
* 32:10 – Principal Manager at Coursera. What does a Principal Manager do?
* 34:14 – Coursera’s challenges for the next two quarters
* 35:29 – Wanting to get into the e-learning industry… What kind of opportunities can I get at Coursera? Where will I be needed the most?
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/latinoswhotech/message

How to Become a Product Manager without a Tech Background: Erika Torres, PhD Jul 15, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, I spoke with Erika Torres, PhD., a Product Manager and Social Scientist, Marketing Officer at Prospanica Sillicon Valley. Erika has a PhD. in Clinical Psychology from Alliant International University. We spoke about her path to a PhD, her work as a professor and in hospitals, the 100 career discovery interviews she had for breaking into tech, and what would she do differently if she would have to do her career discovery journey all over again.
Latinos Who Tech is brought to you by Audible. Go to www.audibletrial.com/latinos to claim your free audiobook!
Sign up to our monthly newsletter where we share networking strategies and other personal development tools: Here or at LatinosWhoTech.com
Connect with her via linkedin:
* Erica Torres

Want to help us grow? You can:
* Leave us an iTunes review* Send us a note with your thoughts at LatinosWhoTech@gmail.com* Share it with a friend
Mentioned resources:
* The Lean Startup (The Lean Startup process and Customer Discovery Process)- book by Eric Ries* UCSF* NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health)* SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) – data analysis tool* SQL (Structured Query Language) – to handle data analysis tasks.* Python* Slack – networking tool* Latino ERG – Latino employee resource group
Show Notes:
* 01:45 – Welcoming Erica Torres* 02:10 – About Erica and her journey in Silicon Valley
DISCOVERING PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Erica is a tracked psychologist fascinated about Tech, people, what inspires them and what gets in their way. She joined the National Institute of Mental Health Program for diverse first generation college students to help her get to Grad school and do an intensive fellowship research at UCSF. Beaten by the system, she started digging into Tech, having her first introduction back at Undergrad school working on an online smoking cessation program, and approaching over 100 people through career discovery interviews, choosing to do Product Management.
* 06:57 – With a PhD, almost four years as a professor. What was it like?
A PROFESSOR DISCOVERING AREA OF INTEREST
Erica was a professor for more than three years, and loved it. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/latinoswhotech/message

Summer Special: Life @ LinkedIn: Ismael Verduzco III, Social Media Lead @ LinkedIn Jul 08, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, I spoke with Ismael Verduzco III, aka DJ Ish, Social Marketing Lead at LinkedIn. Ish graduated from the University of California, Merced with a B.S. in Management. We spoke about life at LinkedIn, how he found his way into tech and his role as a Social Media Lead.
Latinos Who Tech is brought to you by Audible. Go to www.audibletrial.com/latinos to claim your free audiobook!
Sign up to our monthly newsletter where we share networking strategies and other personal development tools: Here or at LatinosWhoTech.com
Connect with Ish via linkedin, Instagram and Twitter:
* Ismael Verduzco III* Djishh – Instagram* Ish@Djishh – Twitter

Show Notes:
* 01:16 – Welcoming Ismael Verduzco III* 01:19 – About Ish* 02:18 – About going to school in University of California; from urban area to the countryside* 03:08 – Things Ish does in his free time* 03:38 – Social media expert at Linkedin, fitness enthusiasm and DJ engagement – How does he organize himself with so many things to do* 05:47 – Time of relax – Downtime* 09:24 – How Ish got to Linkedin* 15:57 – Role description* 17:14 – Process for making content* 19:13 – What makes a good headline for Linkedin* 21:55 – The project Ish is proudest of* 25:39 – 60 MM Latinos in the USA but only 3% are in Tech. What can companies do better to bring diverse talent in. Ish’s viewpoint * 27:03 – What is life at Linkedin like* 28:40 – Next play/challenges as a Social Media Lead* 29: 45- Next Play Concept* 30:28 – What does Ish likes best of Linkedin besides their people* 31:48 – Last words for audience
About the episode:
Linkedin has grown in the past 5 years, and in 2016 was acquired by Microsoft. They started off with 6000 employees and today have doubled. One of them is Ish, a Dj and fitness enthusiast, working as the Social Media Marketing Lead of Talent Solutions, one of their four business brand channels, finding different content to inform HR managers, recruiters and talented professionals on latest recruiting trends.
Ish was born in Southern California, and graduated from University of California, Merced with a B.S. in Management, --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/latinoswhotech/message

The Way of the PhD: Liliana de la Paz, PhD, Research Scientist from Gilead Life Sciences Jul 01, 2019

Show notes

Everyday 1 billion people take at least one pill that was manufactured by Gilead Sciences. A company devoted to manufacture antiviral drugs that treat HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and influenza.
One of the many researchers at Gilead Sciences is Liliana de la Paz, PhD. A Bay Area native with Mexican roots. She has the unique distinction of being the first ever Latina to graduate from Stanford University with a PhD in Chemical Engineering.
Liliana is used to being one of the few women in the room and sometimes the only Latina. From her undergrad days at Berkeley where she majored in Chemical Engineering to her Stanford lab where she spent 6 years researching protein engineering, all the way to her current role developing the next generation of antiviral drugs.
We talked about her experience going to school at Berkeley as a first generation student attending college and the first in her family to become an engineer. We went deep into understanding what imposter syndrome is, how it manifests itself and how she deals with it. Full disclaimer: You never fully overcome it, you just learn to manage it better.
Latinos Who Tech is brought to you by Audible. Go to www.audibletrial.com/latinos to claim your free audiobook!
Sign up to our monthly newsletter where we share networking strategies and other personal development tools: Here or at LatinosWhoTech.com

Key Takeaways:
* On being the only Latina in the room:* “My attitude is that if I am here, I am here to play.”* It’s important to stay positive and to avoid falling trap of the victim mentality. If you are called into a meeting is because your opinion is valued* To overcome imposter syndrome, keep a record of all your KUDOS and achievements handy in your email or notes app. I keep all my presentation review notes and thank you emails I’ve received from others to remind me that I am good at what I do* It’s OK to feel nervous before doing a presentation, you feel nervous because you want it to come out well* Imposter syndrome is the feeling that you are not the right person for a job or a project and that other people are going to “find out” that you are not qualified for it. * “Go to your TA’s office hours. They are probably more scared from you than you from them”* You never really “overcome” imposter syndrome. You learn to manage it better* The more you grow into an organization and take bigger projects, the more important is to be self- aware of your imposter syndrome* Ignorance is bliss! Since Liliana was a first generation student, her parents didn’t put pressure on her to attend college or had a 12 year plan for her career. Her parents supported her and told her she could transfer to a less demanding school than Berkeley anytime. * Motivation is BS. You have to show up and do the work whether you feel motivated to do it or not. * Art Tatum story- as a young blind kid, Art was obsessed with playing the piano and would learn how to play songs by ear. He would often listen to the radio and piano roll recordings to discover new tunes. In one occasion he heard a tune that was original... --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/latinoswhotech/message

A Framework to find your Dream Job in Tech: From interview to salary negotiation feat. Juan Lopez Marcano, Software Engineer @ Uber Jun 17, 2019

Show notes

In this episode I spoke with Juan Lopez Marcano, Software Engineer at Uber. Juan has been at Fortune 100 companies, startups and Silicon Valley Unicorns like Uber. In this conversation we spoke about his strategy, the in-demand skills he has developed, how he preps for technical interviews, salary negotiation techniques and the 3M framework to define whether an opportunity is for you or not.
One of the most interesting takeaways from this conversation was the 3 Ms framework Juan uses to evaluate career opportunities. 1st M stands for Making: What are you building?, What kind of technologies are you using? What is the purpose behind it? ,the 2nd M stands for Management: What is your Boss like? What is the Team like? Is it a healthy environment where you can thrive? And the 3rd M stands for Money: Are you being compensated fairly for your effort? Does your compensation track the market? What other perks besides Money does your company offer?
Join in as we cover the taboo of talking about salaries, how to overcome the fear of negotiating and strategies that Juan has used to be successful at technical interviews and finding the right job for his skills.
Latinos Who Tech is brought to you by Audible. Go to www.audibletrial.com/latinos to claim your free audiobook!
Sign up to our monthly newsletter where we share networking strategies and other personal development tools: Here or at LatinosWhoTech.com

Podcast Show notes:
* 01:15 – Welcoming Juan López Marcano* 01:30 – About Juan in Silicon Valley and his thoughts on salaries, compensations, and underpaid vicious cycle “The taboo talking about salaries”
ABOUT JUAN AND THE TABOO OF TALKING ABOUT SALARIES
Juan started his professional journey at Intel. Once he had finished his internship, he received a return offer from the manager, and after having gone through salary negotiations and playing it risky he started his new role as a Software Manager. There is a taboo in Silicon Valley’s hispanic community about salaries and how much they get paid. They create a vicious cycle where they are underpaid and get used to it, either because they are afraid or feel uncomfortable talking about it. Nobody should be frightened. Juan talks about salaries with most non hispanic friends and they both know how much money each other makes, it is the only way to make sure they do not get underpaid. “Don’t be the first person making money in your team, be number two. Number one will get laid off if there is a budget cut”
* 05:26 – Juan’s risky salary request when getting a return offer from manager at Intel* 10:56 – Jumping from Intel to number 43 startup at Cloudminds – Approaching job search process and process meeting 3 Ms * 14:52 – Interview process at different companies while having a full time job
INTERVIEWS AND THEIR PROCESS WHILE HAVING A FULLTIME JOB
With a fulltime job at Intel, Juan was going through interviews with Cloudminds, Magically and Facebook in search of a strong management team and leadership. All companies used coding interviews that consisted in a phone s... --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/latinoswhotech/message

Leadership at Scale: Amir Abou Baker, Head of Global Markets @ WhatsApp Jun 04, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Hugo welcomes Amir Abou Baker, an American Lebanese-Puerto Rican Industrial Engineer with a masters in Engineering Management and Business Strategy working at WhatsApp Inc., as the Head of Global Markets. He is a technology and operations executive with skills in retail, operational transformations and scaling strategy for global operations that has travelled a lot and worked and led teams overseas. Amir shares his exceptional labour journey at Accenture, GE, Google, Oscar Insurance, TaskRabbit and Whatsapp, transitioning from one to another into different fields.
Tune in as they talk about his reason for this transitioning from one field to another, the GE’s OMLP rotational program Amir went through to build leadership and functional skills and focus on operations in Media & Entertainment for NBCUniversal where his first project was managing Highlights at the Beijing Olympics Highlights Factory, his operation management and retail skills at Google, his member services at Oscar Insurance, directing Global Operations at TaskRabbit and what they are, and his role at Whatsapp.

Show notes:
* 01:15 – Welcoming Amir* 01:26 – About Amir* 02:16 – Why Industrial Engineering* 02:57 – “Engineers make things, industrial engineers make things better” Operation mentality leading into personal life* 05:35 – About GE and why operations* 07:12 – Work at NBCUniversal – First project Highlights at the Beijing Olympics Highlights Factory
SETTING A PROCESS FOR HIGHLIGHT CLIPS AT BEIJING OLYMPICS
Universal has between 2 and 5 OMLPs, so the projects they worked on were the most strategic in the company. Amir’s first project was the Beijing Olympics managing the highlights factory, where he would get a request from the director, give it to the shot pickers that would put together and edit highlight clips, and then ship them off to the different work stream. The Olympics lasted 16 days and on the first day they set a process of seven steps to cut a clip and get it to the profit partner. They started making daily improvements, and the process evolved taking every day less time to develop a clip. First day they took 1 hour, and by the end of day 14, it took them only 20 minutes to get a request, cut a clip and get it to the profit partner
* 09:37 – Feeling about making decisions on highlights* 10:22 – GE’s OMLP Rotation program – Process to ramp-up quickly* 12:09 – Same process for Google and WhatsApp?* 13:04 – When leading, meeting every single team member across different geographies?* 15:26 – Transition between industries – From GE to Google
TRANSITION FROM ENTERTAINMENT TO TECH, A NEW FRONTIER
While finishing GE rotational program and being the manager of strategy and operations at Universal Studios Sound Department in Los Angeles, everybody was starting to talk about a fast growing Google in Bay Area of San Francisco. Went online and randomly applied for a job in strategy operations in Google with success. A new frontier in Tech.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/latinoswhotech/message

Living For The Mission: Rocio Mendez, Industrial Engineer @ Tesla May 20, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Hugo welcomes Rocio Mendez, a Mexican American industrial engineer at Tesla. Rocio was fascinated by engineering early on and earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Industrial Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. #GoMustangs! Rocio shares her journey from her first job at Covidien, a medical device company that was acquired by Medtronic in 2015, to her current role at Tesla as an Industrial Engineering Manager. Join in as they talk about the Tesla culture, the importance of building relationships with cross functional teams, the challenge of being a woman in manufacturing engineering and what it’s like to work with Elon.

Show notes:
* 01:15 – Welcoming Rocio Mendez* 02:16 – About Rocio* 06:17 – What it is like working in an operations team* 08:06 – How Rocio got to Tesla: First time at the factory floor* 12:33 – What makes Tesla a great choice for an industrial or mechanical engineer * 15:30 – Rocio’s day to day, previous role and how she got prepared to do what she is doing now at Tesla* 21:32 – Strategies Rocio uses when developing her team* 25:30 – Meeting and working with Elon Musk* 27:53 – The Mission; Rocio’s favorite part of working at Tesla* 30:33 – Challenge of being a woman in a manufacturing environment* 34:13 – Rocio’s feeling about engineering mentality leading into personal life* 43:11 – Rocio’s parting words to latinos in STEM
Key Takeaways:
* “Coming down to common ground with people who have different mindsets is very important in any management”* “Important to market yourself and tell people what you are all about” * “Manufacturing experience is a plus when looking for a job at Tesla”* “To be an engineer you have to be on the sharp floor to understand what it is all about”* Need to be aligned in order to go the same direction; building relationships with cross functional teams* “What do you need from me, and what do I need from you”* Be straightforward when something is not working out right to find a solution* “You need to be empathetic to be a leader”* Having a mentor during your career is important when taking on new roles
Mentioned resources:
* Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future – Book recommended by Rocio* XCase CD Comic – webcomic designed by Randall Munroe’s, a physics that worked in Nasa* Cal Poly – University where Rocio finished her masters degree
Connect with her via linkedin:
* Rocio Mendez
Want to help us grow? You can:
* Leave us an iTunes review* Send us a note with your thoughts at

To MBA or NOT to MBA: Roxana Ruvalcaba, Operations Finance Specialist @ Intel Corporation Apr 22, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Hugo welcomes Roxana Ruvalcaba, a Mexican-American industrial engineer born in LA, working as an operations finance specialist at Intel Corporation. Roxana went to Berkeley University to study industry engineering and operations research, and at the time, had her first exposure to business school in an intense summer venture at Harvard Business School. Once graduated, she joined the Pacific Gas and Electric Company through the Energy Procurement Rotational Program. Dive in as they talk about her decision to apply to an MBA while living at home and having a fulltime job, the programs and processes she went through and the experience she had being a mexican-american female engineer.
Show notes:
* 00:18 – Welcoming Roxana Ruvalcaba* 00:30 – About Roxana * 03:03 – About Yale and people who attend their Pre-MBA Programs* 03:57 – Programs and application process for business school* 09:56 – About MLT program (Management Leadership for Tomorrow) and what comes next* 12:32 – Balancing full time work and MLT* 13:36 – Why UCLA?* 13:50 – Applying to an MBA through consortium program and what it is* 18:59 – UCLA and MBA experience* 23:57 – MBA internship at google and what it was like working there* 25:45 – Two things to be considered in any MBA program* 28:09 – Mexican-American, female and engineer getting in MBA. Different experience to others?* 29:29 – Job searching process. Balancing between MBA classes and interviewing for companies* 33:00 – Roxana’s parting words for the audience
Key Takeaways:
* Taking time off and focussing on course leads to a better outcome* Depending on the style of studying, taking on a tutor will attend personal needs and be more intensive * “Having solid foundation in finance will help no matter what she decided to do after; it is important to know how to manage a company”* “Even though you are not prepared,do it, you will learn later on”* “GMAT good for five years, so if you have time, get it out of the way; there are ways of funding”* “Doing an MBA is a great. You gain a lot of personal and career experience”
Mentioned resources:
* MLT Program (Management Leadership for tomorrow) – programs that start in college to help set milestones to apply and get ready for an MBA program* GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) to gain entrance into an MBA program* Manhattan Prep > GMAT Prep courses
Connect with her via linkedin:
* Roxana Ruvalcaba
Want to help us grow? You can:
* Leave us an iTunes review* Send us a note with your thoughts at LatinosWhoTech@gmail.com* Share it with a friend
Who is Hugo Castellanos? Find out about him on linkedinThanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this or comment on the show, please join us on LatinosWhoTech or go to Conexiones
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/latinoswhotech/message

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