The business of finding a better job, with Career Karma CEO Ruben Harris
It’s an interesting time to talk to someone in the business of helping people get new jobs — we’re still fully in the middle of the pandemic-driven Great Resignation, and a record 4.5 million people quit their jobs in November 2021, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. But that’s exactly what Career Karma and CEO Ruben Harris are doing.
Links:
Career Karma
A record 4.5 million workers quit their jobs in November
Breaking Into Startups
AT&T’s $1 billion gambit: Retraining nearly half its workforce for jobs of the future
Making uncommon knowledge common
The Great Resignation is accelerating
How an Excel TickToker manifested her way to making six figures a day
Launch House
Transcript:
https://www.theverge.com/e/22674665
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, Jackie McDermott, and Liam James. It was edited by Callie Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andrew Marino and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
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The Hustler's Guide to Elder Care
This is the next cycle (Q1 2020) of Hustlin' Tech, a podcast series (from the a16z Podcast) about technology platforms that create opportunities for people. Recorded right before the coronavirus pandemic, these next 3 episodes touch on many things that are top of mind right now: from the profession of nursing; to taking care of the elderly; to fighting bureaucracy to get money and time back (and to get help delaying utility bills and rent payments that are eligible for an extension or waiver of late fees due to the coronavirus crisis).
Episode #5, “The Hustler’s Guide to Taking Care of Old Folks” features:
Seth Sternberg, CEO and co-founder of Honor, a home care company and national network of local home care agencies that brings high-touch, personalized care to elders while also scaling workforce management; matching special needs, skills, and unique demands; and offering tools that help caregivers with jobs and more.
Samantha Ludwig, a care professional who has always had a job thanks to Honor (and who journeyed from abroad as a foreign nurse);
...both interviewed by Ben Horowitz and Shaka Senghor.
You can find the first cycle of this series (Q4 2019) -- including more about the what and the why -- here.
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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How to futureproof your tech career with Ruben Harris
On this episode Abadesi talks to Ruben Harris, founder and CEO of Career Karma. They help match you to the best coding bootcamp for you and publish a directory of over 450 bootcamps.
In this episode they talk about...
How he broke into tech and how Career Karma is helping people get into the industry
“There are currently about 50,000 people graduating from four year universities every year [in software engineering] and about 40,000 people graduating from bootcamps. There are about half a million open jobs for software engineers. In the next five years there will be about 400,000 people graduating from four year universities and 1.4 million open jobs — so about a million people have to get jobs outside of college.”
Ruben talked about his hustler’s approach to getting into investment banking after having graduated from a small school. He applied the same approach to getting into tech and talks about what he wishes others knew about the industry knowing what he knows now. He explains what Career Karma is doing to help more people get into the industry and talks about the transparency they are providing in the bootcamp landscape. He also talks about some of the benefits of downloading their app, like coaching, mentorship, and motivation.
How to level up your career
“As a software engineer and really anybody in general, you really want to think of time as your most precious commodity. Whether you’re exploring college or online courses or bootcamps, you want to factor in the time that it takes you to complete the program, so that whatever time you’re investing now creates more time for you in the future.”
Ruben says that most people who are in software engineering now are actually self-taught. He talks about how software engineering is analogous to the music industry in that most musicians are not classically trained either, yet the music industry is accepting of most people, regardless of what their background is like, if they can do the work. He explains how people who are already working can increase their earning power by enrolling in a program that provides them with a credential, without having to go back to school.
What makes a good software engineer
“The ability to communicate is underrated — being able to communicate what you want, what you need help with, what your value is, the way that you talk to yourself, the way that you talk in a corporate environment, the way that you communicate with others, the way that you express your emotions, the way that you express how you feel.
He breaks down what makes people in the Career Karma community successful, talks about the importance of passion, and why it’s important to treat your work like play. He also talks about the perception of hiring managers and why presenting yourself in the best possible light is an important piece of the puzzle.
The importance of humility
“Humility matters. There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance and I think confidence is extremely important, but you can be humble and confident at the same time.”
Ruben talks about confidence and humility, and why it’s important to get the balance between them right. He says that it’s like playing the cello, where a good musician can move a room to applause even while playing very quietly, while beginner musicians want to play as loud as they can all the time. He also talks about authenticity and one of his favorite books of all time: The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance.
“If you think about most people who go to work, they have masks on. If they go home and are a different person, they were pretending to be a different person to get the job. What would the workplace feel like if everybody came to work with their mask off?”
We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. 😸
S10:E3 - How do you prepare for bootcamp and break into tech? (Ruben Harris)
We chat with Ruben Harris, CEO of Career Karma, and a man with bit of an unconventional background. He’s worked as an event organizer for athletes and celebrities, an investment banker, and professional cellist. We chat with him about how he broke into the startup world, his advice for people trying to do the same, and his app, Career Karma, a resource for people trying to find a coding community and preparing themselves for bootcamps.
Show Links
Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor)
Mary Meeker's Internet Trends
Benedict Evans Newsletter
Powderkeg Podcast
The Learn to Code With Me Podcast
Naval Podcast
Breaking Into Startups
Breaking Into Startups
Y Combinator
Career Karma
StrictlyVC
Social Capital Snippets
The freeCodeCamp Podcast
Software Engineering Daily
Jocko Podcast
#21DayCkChallenge
App Academy
Ruben Harris
Ruben is the CEO of Career Karma and Co-Host of the Breaking Into Startups Podcast. His mission is to help blue collar workers get white collar jobs in less than 12 months, starting with people that want to become software engineers through coding bootcamps. He shares the stories on the Breaking Into Startups Podcast and before this he worked in Admissions at AltSchool, building out two-sided marketplaces for vocational training (nurses) at Honor, and workforce development with government during his time at Hustle. Prior to his work in tech, he was an investment banker for 3 years and he has been playing the cello for more than 25 years.
20VC: 3 Questions Founders Must Stress Test VCs with, What Separates the Good From The Great VCs & Why 80% of VC Detract Value From Board Meetings with Seth Sternberg, Founder & CEO @ Honor
Seth Sternberg is the Founder & CEO @ Honor, the startup that provides homecare your family will love. To date Seth has raised over $60m in funding with Honor from the likes of Thrive Capital, a16z, Homebrew and 8VC. Prior to Honor, Seth was the Co-founder & CEO of Meebo, a web communications platform backed by the likes of Sequoia, Khosla and True Ventures. Meebo reached $50M in revenue and close to half of the US internet population before being acquired by Google for $100M in 2012. At Google, Seth became a Product Director working on the Google+ Platform and GoogleX. Seth is also a prolific angel investor with a portfolio including the likes of Fitbit and Gusto to name a few.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Seth made his way into the world of startups with the founding of Sequoia backed, Meebo? How did he transition from social network to homecare provision?
2.) From his experience with Meebo, what are the biggest elements Seth has done differently with the building of Honor? What was successful the first time that he has carried with him to Honor? How does Seth approach the hiring process fundamentally differently the 2nd time around?
3.) Seth has worked with the likes of Sequoia, Khosla, Thrive and more, what are the commonalities that make the best VCs so special? Where does Seth believe VCs can add true value? Where do many seriously detract value? Why does Seth believe that 80% of VCs are actually detrimental to board meetings?
4.) What 3 questions must all founders ask when considering to take on a new investor? What is that investor-founder assessment structure? When there is a disagreement with investors, how does Seth approach this? What is the best method for doing this in as fast and efficient method as possible?
5.) Would Seth agree with David Barrett @ Expensify that we are going through a wave of founders creating companies for the quick flip? How does Seth's 20-year time horizon with Honor affect how he both thinks about hiring and individual scaling within the firm? Why is he so jealous of Google and Facebook with regards to this?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Seth's Fave Book: The Firm
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Seth on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
We also speak about Movidiam – as brands turn to smarter ways of creating video and digital content, the Movidiam platform offers faster turnarounds whilst maintaining or improving quality. They're already working with some of the biggest, most innovative companies to help compare teams and freelancers across the global curated network of creative talent. Producers and marketers looking for the best creatives can get a shortlist from Movidiam's account managers in hours – tailored to their project's needs. Submit a brief or check out the platform at Movidiam.com.
a16z Podcast: The Realities of Aging / When Healthcare Is Local
As people live longer, aging is more top of mind than ever. This is especially true for the "sandwich generation" wedged between caring for aging parents as well as young children at the same time.
The fact is, the 65+ year old population (but don't you dare homogenize a multi-decade age group!) will double over just the next 15-20 years. So how does this fit into our current healthcare system? How does it fit current retail experiences, like for buying adult diapers? What are the design challenges when you're optimizing for screen-less interaction and data collection in a home environment? And finally, where do providers and payers come in?
Honor's head of design Renato Valdés Olmos and head of health system integration Kelsey Mallard join this episode of the a16z Podcast to talk about all this and more. This all goes beyond discussions about fighting age with tech though -- it's about the realities of aging and caregiving, from the very mundane (going to the bathroom, for instance) to the very profound (staying in one's home, church, and community). That's why all "healthcare is local" ... or should be.
The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.
Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Episode 77: Ruben Harris
Ruben Harris runs partnerships at Honor and is on the front lines of the diversity in tech movement. in this episode we talk about how he broke into tech, how he moved from Atlanta to SF and built a network from scratch, how before that he taught himself to be an investment banker, how he built a personal board of advisors, and more. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @RubenHarris Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg