Inspiring Curiosity with Chris Huie

Chris Huie shares his unique career path that found him with a passion for teaching, supporting, and inspiring the community through technology and computer science.

• From accounting to tech evangelist
• Leveraging tech in non-tech career
• Importance of technology acceptance
• Progression of knowledge to youth
• The new way of learning
• Inspiring community through technology and computer science
• Bridging skills and background to your next position
• Analyzing the impact of a business decision beyond finances
• Importance of being curious

Chris's LinkedIn Profile
Data Dorks Video Series
Fee-Only Financial Planner Fort Collins, CO

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

What you find is like just learning is that way. Like everything, there's so much coming at you. There's so much information out there in every field, right? And there's so much unique things that I think if you truly have a curiosity inside of you, which is the most probably powerful tool when it comes to learning, because if you're curious, you'll go, you'll go find your answers. And but the beauty right now is those answers are so close. So uh even if we just like inspire curiosity in people.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

This is Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp where I help tech professionals in their 20s and 30s balance a great life today without sacrificing their future possibilities. I'm your host, Lucas Caceres, certified financial planner and founder of Level Up Financial Planning, where I help educate, coach, and build strategies with my clients to help them take their financial confidence to the next level. Here's an important compliance disclosure. This podcast is for informational purposes only and are not to be considered recommendations. It is recommended you consult your trusted financial professional before implementing any information obtained from the Techie Personal Finance Boot Camp. Welcome to your techie personal finance bootcamp. I'm really excited today. I have Chris Huey. I met Chris actually back at a networking event, and it was actually a conference in San Francisco. And neither Chris nor myself are live in San Francisco, so it was pretty cool that we met up there. We since connected on LinkedIn, and he's always sharing great content. He's always supporting people within his community. Thanks for coming on the show, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yeah, no, thank you for having me. Excited to be here. And uh yeah, I didn't even remember that it was in San Francisco. That's that's funny. Um that was the only time I'd ever been to San Francisco, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Yeah, yeah, same here. It was uh TechCrunch Disrupts 2018. And so I I think 2019 is actually going on like this week or next week or something. So it was exactly a year ago almost, which is kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Oh, that's crazy. I haven't even thought about it.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, so share with everyone. I know you have a unique background and a unique past. Feel free to give us like the high overview highlights of what your career has looked like so far, and we'll definitely dive into some of those things more in depth as the show goes on.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah, I mean, so so my uh background kind of started closer actually to the finance side. So got a degree in finance, graduated around 2008-ish. So you can imagine, oddly enough, it was uh actually mathematical finance, so closer to uh what we now would call like quantitative uh engineering. There was even like financial engineering was a thing for a little bit. Um but it was essentially I would I I kind of majored in high frequency trading, a lot of the traditional business stuff. But luckily, like I had two Python classes, and uh that was kind of where my first uh foray into, I guess, programming uh really kicked off. Uh, fast forward to kind of going into you know the corporate world and definitely didn't want to live in New York, and it was really hard right then to be that kind of guy. Um you were not you were not a popular guy because there was a lot of distrust around quantitative engineering at that time. There was a lot of people that blamed um specifically for high leverages and and the market situation. So, you know, went into staff accounting, uh, and that's when I realized I guess that's when I really found more of my affinity for tech, because uh you realize how short the accounting like road to climb up is, right? Like the you your boss is the controller, or you know, maybe two more steps in and you're kind of the CFO at the top. So people stay in in those type of roles for a long time, whether it's accounts receivable, accounts payable, um, all of those. So it's really it was really hard for me to differentiate myself being hungry, um, also being somewhat unique. So I you really found me pushing uh Excel, pushing SQL, pushing uh more the technical side of my skills, and just so happened everything ended up in the back of uh ERP systems, right? In the back of databases. And uh I happened to be the guy that could pull stuff out of the databases, but also model. And at that time, you you essentially needed two of those people. You needed the business intelligence guy to say, hey, this is what's in our database, this is um how we're we can put this together, and then you needed the the financial person to kind of take that data and model it. So for a large part of my career, I just kind of killed that um and said, hey, I'll do both. Just give me uh access to your database, get out of my way, and and kind of made my way uh all the way up to pretty much director of finance at some point. Uh yeah, director this the CFO for a company called She Knows Media. And uh a lot of that wasn't because of my financial uh ability, my CPA ability, it was directly because I was able to unravel things out of the database. Uh they specifically put their financial statements in the database, so I was uh very uh important at that time, but that was uh kind of how I made more of my uh traditional um I I guess career path. And then three-ish years ago, galvanize, before anyone knew what galvanize was, uh oddly enough, there was a time where I lived in uh Colorado for about six months. And yeah, galvanize was always was there, and uh it was really a weird time in my life where I was debating on do I want to be an engineer? Because I had the skills, but like I was never called like a web developer, and it was so much cooler at that time and uh getting paid really well. Um, not like I wasn't, but it was a very like sexy thing to do, and so there was a point where I was debating like, because I could definitely like code at that point, so I was like, maybe I should just uh jump out of the finance role and just be a developer, and I was uh kind of questioning that, and so I got to see the very first galvanized graduation, oddly enough, because it was uh it was the only program uh out there. There was very few out of San Francisco, right? San Francisco had the maybe the only two or three at that time. This was a while ago when uh like dev boot camp was the first one or something.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Uh so I was it's pretty interesting background as far as how the like this whole industry that's becoming pretty big is not that old at all, and and and it's creating a lot of opportunities and there's a lot of unknowns as far as what the future holds for like how many like students are are actually needed, and are there gonna be too many juniors and and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yeah, I mean, and there's all like we can talk about uh education for days. That is uh now my specialty. But yeah, so kind of fast forward that will get us into education and kind of I guess my foray into education is uh the GM of a company called Galvanize, which we've already talked about, but uh for anyone that's not familiar, it's essentially a giant nerd castle. So on one side it's co-working space, where uh you know various companies in the local Phoenix one, there's Google, there's Banner Health, there's McKesson, all the way to you know, your sole entrepreneurs. So pretty good swath of technical-esque companies and and uh agile type companies. Then we do uh education in web development uh and data science, and then essentially what wrapped everything together was an ecosystem, a community that whether that was teaching the community, whether that was hosting events or providing space for uh the community come together, because the whole model only works with the idea of community and taking students next to business people next to just the general tech um ecosystem kind of meshed it all together. But uh the GM approached me and said, Hey, do you want to run around Phoenix and essentially build the tech community? Uh it was tech evangelist, no one knew what that was in Phoenix. That's a pretty rare term uh outside of San Francisco. So yeah, I was for the last uh two and a half years up until about three months ago, uh no longer with galvanize, but uh for about two and a half years I was uh allowed to run around all of Phoenix from uh the middle schools to the high schools to the universities to uh working with a lot of the different companies and uh just just anything that was tech, anything that uh I could help people get into the tech field uh and also like trying to spark the enthusiasm in people because there's dope stuff that's happening right now. So for sure.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

That's awesome. And so that's uh another kind of term that I've seen on your LinkedIn, I believe, is like community builder. So that's kind of rogue tech evangelist and uh community builder, those things kind of all go together.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yeah, I mean, I mean that's the the unique thing is that I have a technical background, and I guess that is where I find a lot of my enthusiasm, and that's um, I guess where I'm able to talk to a lot of people about how I feel because it really relates to tech, whether it's collaboration, whether it's just wanting to live in a world of skills-based economies, right, where there's less place to insert bias, and you kind of find that. So I've always having a technical background, it's always fueled me. Um, especially on the data science side, that's more where my passion is, and there's so much cool stuff, whether you're you're uh self-driving cars, computer vision, all of that stuff is so exciting, and that's um my wheelhouse and and kind of what fuels me. But a lot of it goes to me just saying, I don't care if uh you become a developer, I don't care if you become an engineer, whatever, but this is a skill like you need you need this as a skill because it helps your other skills, it empowers your other skills, uh your other abilities to to kind of learn coding or how to think like that. So uh that's always just one message.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Uh yeah, you you saw that firsthand in your CPA career. So were you actually a CPA?

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Never, never CPA. Um, weirdly enough, I am a CPA hit right now. Um they never would have let me like hung out with them when I was on the financial analyst side. But uh now I actually talk to the Arizona CPAs probably once or twice a year. I'm actually going out to Florida in like two months to go uh to a conference down there and and uh talk to a group of CPAs. So uh it's it's that background has helped me, I guess, relate to more people. Like that's the biggest thing with technology is how do you relate with more people? And yeah, for me, like I was like like what I usually talk to CPAs about is like Excel and Python, Python being the main coding language, aren't too far. Like the concepts um aren't too crazy. Let's take a cell, like you didn't name it A1A2A3, I didn't name it A1A2A3. Um and it if you're like an Excel power user, you can actually go into the set like the top left-hand corner where it says A1A2A3 and just type my cell. Um, and then you can go equals my cell and it references what was A1 or whatever that cell was. Um so you say, well, take that idea, that's a variable, right? It changes. Well, this is how you do it in Python, but you don't have like a visual interface, so you have to name it uh really efficiently because it's not somewhere on your spreadsheet, it's somewhere on your hard drive, and that's a little harder to find. So you need to have specific names, but um, there's so many things that that relates to. So I think that started me in the foray of just saying, how many ways can I connect coding to other people's backgrounds, even?

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Um awesome. Yeah, and that helps me out like a lot too, because I use Excel pretty heavily, and and I've seen just different tutorials and like things that you put out even. I saw uh you used to put out videos when you were with Galvine as for like the data dorks. I was like, oh, like this stuff is definitely helpful as far as helping me understand how things work, but yeah, tiny into Excel, if if a lot of stuff, if that's kind of like that basic level, it definitely gives me a little bit more confidence that I know some entry-level type coding skills.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah, I mean it's it's really just a way to think. So uh I think that's the biggest thing that I try to fight is um no matter how old you are, right? Young or old, uh it it helps keep your mind sharp and it helps change the pathways in your mind. So if you are older, like you want different neural paths sometimes, right? Like that's that's a different activity. If you're younger, it's really easy. So why not have this skill that uh can supercharge your other ones, you know, for for relatively inexpensive in the world of your time, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah, well, and there's so many ways too. Like you don't have to go through galvanize, there's so many free like YouTube videos, all these different resources. And yeah, like you said, everything's easier early on in life, and that's why my company specifically tries to help people in their 20s and 30s before they start to develop these bad habits, or it's just a little bit tougher to learn. Like you can always learn new things, it just your mind puts up a fight, it makes you think that you're gonna die because you're trying to initiate some change. And and so I've actually seen you talk to a bunch of different kinds of age groups, and some of them are very young. Is that kind of one of the main purposes why you like getting in front of those crowds?

SPEAKER_01 13:59

I I mean, I think it's more mentality. Um, it has nothing to do, like it probably seems aged. Like, I I think the groups of people are probably generally younger, but I get to talk to you know all sorts of individuals. Uh the the thing really is I think I resonate more with with younger people or um the things that I talk about when it comes to technology and what is essentially like adapt adapting to the world around you, right? And um, I feel like that the younger you go, the more that is becoming the identity. And the older you go pushing against change and things that are happening, sometimes, and this is I will be the first to tell you this is overgeneralized, but but true, it's true to a fault, right? Because the older we get, and I'll say probably when I get older, I'll probably be in the same thing, but it's I don't want the world to change as much. And I think right now is such a time where it's changing so much faster, and we're seeing it, it feels like, and you're starting to see those those huge discrepancies, right? Where we have self-driving cars, and how do I go explain to somebody in in maybe a rural area or um a country that doesn't have that? Like that's a very significant difference, right? And we're we're just really starting to see these significant differences. So I think that's why I probably find myself in more crowds of uh younger individuals, but also like I think the biggest thing is sharing with everybody because we're all gonna live in this world, and we've as technologists, we need to not candy coat. I don't want to say candy coat, we need to not abstract everything at the top because uh everyone needs to be comfortable in this world, right? Um, there's a lot of people that aren't comfortable with self-driving cars, and and they shouldn't be because we haven't gone out of our ways to explain how it works at kind of even a conceptual level to make the general population accept something that is gonna impact their lives. And that's I I think that's a technology like person and and communities like role in you know all of that. So at the same time, I try to find those people that will let me in um and share that too.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

No, yeah, I think that would actually be a really great thing to speak to some of the older uh age type people too, and because really one of the biggest difficulties for a lot of people as they age is the loss of different abilities, um, feeling lonely. And some of those things is because they're not able to drive themselves, they don't feel safe driving themselves in self-driving cars and AI could potentially fix that. So that could allow their value of their life kind of in that tail end when normally they'd be more house bound, uh a lot more restricted. These things are the things that are could potentially change like the last 20-30 years of their life and make it so much better than if they were just kind of stuck at home. And there's even like on the medical front, too, and and that's I'm sure gets a little bit more complicated and there's more delays there because of all the compliance and and regulatory issues um from the medical standpoint, but there's a huge epidemic that's gonna be getting larger and larger where people are needing long-term care assistance and it's super expensive. If you if someone needed like full-blown round-the-care coverage and and needs, it's like a hundred thousand dollars like here in Colorado. And so if you think that there's some technology inventions that could be implemented where we can drastically reduce that cost, that's gonna be a huge benefit uh for people later on in their lives as well. So I think they hopefully they'll start to come around to these things when they see that there is gonna be a direct value correlation to what their life could potentially look like.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Yeah, and again, it's gonna be it's gonna be such a like rocky road. Um probably along this uh because right, like we were predicated by Terminator. We were, you know, uh we have Elon Musk uh, you know, saying crazy things out there sometimes. So it's it it it's gonna be a push, but uh again, like the things that we'll see in in my lifetime and in your lifetime are gonna be incredible. Uh just specifically at the heart of a lot of the things that I'm passionate about and and you probably find me sharing more often is neural networks, um, which aren't even a it's not new, it's not uh some crazy invention that we just came up with. Um it's actually from the 90s. Uh we just now have the computing power, the data, the resources, and and the investment into to really take these to a next level where we're we're creating a lot of things. And whether it's on the medical side, whether it's on the self-driving car, whether it's on improvement, whether it's the recommender system that lives in the middle of my i my iPhone, right? And every iPhone, yeah, uh every Netflix uh movie that I'm suggested, every YouTube video, like every every algorithm that surrounds me, right? These recommender systems, um, it's making life more unique to me. Yeah. And and I think that that that's that's super powerful, and that's that's one of the many crazy things, right, that we're we're gonna see uh over the next several years. Um and even even we're we're really reinvigoring our reinvigorating our look at space. Um I never grew up with a lot of space um things it felt like or space missions that were of significance. And right now, there's a lot of cool things that people are doing. And um there's even a couple weeks ago, uh, I think they're trying to figure out a way to slingshot around one planet to go out to a further planet, I think Neptune or something. But the crazy thing is, yeah, that was never like in my like wheelhouse at all. Like that's the stuff, like you were around it, but it wasn't it wasn't as real to excite people. And I feel like you're starting to see that with a lot of the the students, right? They're they're starting to get excited by the technology, the the robots that they get to play with, the um, you know, the world that has just been attuned to them. Um they're they're getting excited about that, and they're taking that uh to the place where I get to see, you know, these 15-year-old like computer vision experts all the time now in some of our local high schools. So I think that's that's the other side is I I accepted a while ago that the next generation is just gonna be able to do dope things and that they'll make mistakes like we all will. I'll make mistakes, we're all gonna do that. But that just progression of knowledge is some of the things we're doing, like I can't even dream of. I couldn't think about having that ability so young. Uh, and there's not just a couple of them, there's several of them. Yeah, um, but that's that's the exciting thing is uh how can I just like high-five you and get out of your way and just watch it too.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Um that's that's a unique aspect too, because a lot of these kids are just coming up thinking like they're seeing all the things that we've experienced in the last 10 years or so, technology-wise, and like, oh, that's cool. They just think that's normal. But to us, like the cell phone is something that was like a Star Trek type thing as far as all the different futures, all as powerful as they are. Like a lot of the stuff that we think about, we always thought it wasn't possible, and we just like to dream about it through these sci-fi movies and whatnot. But just how rapidly things have changed and how crazy technology, how powerful it really is, is showing the youth and younger people that really there's not too many things that. Can't exist anymore where before it's like, oh no, that's not practical. No, that's that's not possible. You shouldn't have this dream because it's not going to be a reality. But I think this generation is growing up in the time where there's a lot more possibility people are saying and actually believing that you can be and do anything you want. And just yeah, technology, even just from a standpoint of me being able to launch my own financial planning company, like that's not something I would have been able to do 10 years ago because the resources I would have needed would have been astronomical as far as the cost. And now with Zoom and all these crazy things, like I'm able to be competitive with the biggest financial companies in the world. And it's crazy to think that just over a few years that it's possible. And this is kind of the world that that the youth are coming up in. And so it I can definitely see where you get excited about all the crazy things they can think about because you know from your experience that these things could very well be possible. And if it's not this kid, it's the one next to them. Like they they can collaborate, they can team up. There's a lot of different cool things that are gonna be coming out in the future.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Yeah, 100%. I tell people all the time that uh if anyone tells you that there's something that isn't possible right now, like they have no clue. Uh, because there's so many things that like I can tell you is on the reasonable side, right? Like, we're not turning into different animals. I think one of my friends called me and she said she wanted to be a glow bug at some point. So I was like, ugh, you win on that one. But there's so much that is possible that's that's gonna be possible, and and even just kind of to your business and and even to the way we learn, like you have to understand that memorization is so pointless now because I can look everything up and and I don't think we've fully grasped that the way that we are learning is so it it's it's almost as you need it now. And engineers kind of benefit from this because we've always lived in a world of like whatever the next thing is, like this is the process of I have to go learn something new and implement it.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

But what you find is like just learning is that way. Like everything, there's so much coming at you, there's so much information out there in every field, right? And there's so much unique things that I think if you truly have a curiosity inside of you, which is the most probably powerful tool when it comes to learning, because if you're curious, you'll go, you'll go find your answers. And but the beauty right now is those answers are so close. So uh even if we just like inspiring curiosity in people, like you have to understand like the the endless bottom of them searching for their passions, whether it be in finance, whether it be in technology, whether it be in English, whether it be in art, you know, whatever it is, it's at the it's at their fingertips. Uh, and my my friend's like three-year-old son proves me uh less intelligent than him every day because he can't talk or he can't like type anything, but he can get his iPad and like hold down Siri and say whale and go like find his favorite whale videos.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Yeah, that's insane.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

It's just uh like as you need learning at three is is kind of just this world though that uh we're in and kind of we're all we're gonna be in for the foreseeable future, but that's that's a unique like place that especially for people that are learning, like I can't imagine that power and capabilities, but also like there's definitely risks there. Uh but yeah, it's so unique, right? It's it's so unique because we uh we grew up in a world where you had to memorize things, and now anyone that's memorizing them like that's the most ridiculous thing ever. Um just because it's not it's not as realistic anymore, it's not uh it's not as helpful as a resource, and and I think that's helped with the kind of financial industry too, like because before you could only work with people if you had X amount of dollars, and otherwise you just didn't have access to a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

You couldn't even buy stocks like 20, 30 years ago without calling up some old school broker dude that wants to sell you something and he's gonna charge you a bunch of money to do it. Then um, I don't know what the first one was, but they allowed you to start trading online, and so everyone could just have access to it. If you had like $100, the fees were reasonable enough where you could actually go and do those types of things. And so it's crazy like how different those things end up working out. So one thing right now, you're not with galvanize, and it's been a couple weeks since I checked in with you. What's are you in a position right now? Or and if not, what do you kind of envision that kind of perfect next opportunity, knowing what all of your skills, background, and experiences are?

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Yeah, so not I'm just kind of running around doing what I always do right now, which is community stuff. But yes, I do need to uh find it. Turn that off. Uh it doesn't turn off, right? Even if we want to. Like the community doesn't stop, and and quite frankly, I needed something to do regardless. Uh so I I I've kind of taken the last few months to figure out like what I want um and what that position would be. So um I'm gonna start looking. There's there's an interesting opportunity that's kind of uh come my way for me to make my own um role. So yeah, uh I'm gonna need support from uh a couple of the communities, uh companies and and organizations, but the hope for me is always to to be able to teach, support, and inspire the the the community through through technology and computer science. That that's the hope, the dream, um, and what I'm really good at. There's not a lot of those jobs running around. Uh and there's even less in terms of just Phoenix.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Um and I I don't know. There's been a couple things that kind of came around, like, hey, would you do this state? Would you do and I would, but uh for whatever reason, maybe they don't want to like pull me fully out of Phoenix, or maybe just uh it just doesn't work or whatever, but it hasn't panned out. So um I I would say that's the dream job is at least being able to work with the community and support the community in some way. Um doesn't have to be all the time. I can do uh traditional engineering work on the side too, if that's neat. Um but but if if I can't find something or make something along those lines happen, then it's it's it's gonna be probably back on the um data science side, some some type of analyst or researcher or um that that kind of what I'd I'd say, right, that curiosity. I curiosity fuels me. And uh it's different because people have offered me web development jobs, and I'm not that great of a web developer. I'm I'm capable, but not uh I wouldn't employ me as a web developer. Maybe that's because I know where I'm not good, uh, but I can I can build websites in React or whatever, but it's it's hacky. The problem is that I just I don't I don't have the same affinity to build as I do to search for answers. And and that's what I always found is the I get asked the question all the time what's the difference between software engineering um and your web development and data science, and like that's what it really is, is at the heart, uh whether you are somebody that likes to create and build in your head and you want to see that come to life, like software engineering is your wheelhouse. If you want to build a bit a business, right, software engineering is your wheelhouse. Yeah. If you're curious for answers and you have a desire to find something, right? Whether it's uh looking at numbers and and wanting answers, whether it's having a theory and wanting to disprove or prove it, right? It goes back to true curiosity, though, about something. Um I I I attuned to that. Uh so usually you'll find me closer to that uh probably in the working space. So if somebody wants to throw uh something along those lines, that's probably where I'll end up if if I can't carve out my own road in uh in Phoenix. But uh wherever it is, I'll I'll probably uh have fun doing it regardless. Because I I've I've had the pleasure of have of having a lot of people that support me over the years here. So even if I don't uh get to do all the community stuff that I used to, uh the community itself is real, and um even if I was just holding it for somebody else, like it's a good community, and and I'm excited for whoever that is. Because we're getting to the place where we need it. You know, Phoenix's a big place.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

And it's growing rapidly as far as the well, just in general, but then also the tech focus as well.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Yeah, I mean, there's definitely tech focus, there's definitely there's there's a lot of benefits here uh of uh just cost of living, uh relatively spread outness, um, and just you know, outside of it being hot for three or four months, it's beautiful the other eight, right? So uh there's a lot there and the the city's making a large investment, right? They're they're really going after these tech companies and saying, why not Phoenix? Like there's there's uh enough people, and and I think the biggest thing that's ever missing in that conversation is usually how do we showcase the tech talent. And and we're getting to a place where we're having a lot of those great things, where we're having a bunch of different hackathons, we're having uh different giant graduating classes, different startups that uh people are kind of creating and and building, um, large meetups, large conferences, what have you, even like specific industries that you'll find are are really prevalent here. Um there's a lot of ed tech stuff specifically in Phoenix and and just different stuff like that. But uh that's it's a it's a fun place to be right now.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

No, yeah. I've I've been there a few times for different conferences and it's never been at the peak heat, and I'm like, man, this this doesn't seem too bad. I I love the mountains and where I'm at in Colorado, but yeah, that's definitely a place I want to be able to visit and and get to more often once I have a little bit more free time to do those types of things. Uh, I'm super excited about where you do end up because I think regardless of what that is, obviously most things want to have like a defined box, and and that's one of the tricky parts with finding an opportunity initially is because it's like, oh, well, you're gonna confine me to this, but usually after you kind of show that you're uh valuable in that one aspect, and and like you said, that community aspect, you don't really turn off, you can still do things after hours uh and and things like that. So you'll be able to still keep a lot of that component. You just might not get paid uh for it like how you were uh with galvanize. But it it's cool too that you've been keeping up with that stuff anyways, and so yeah, it does kind of just prove it's something that you really enjoy doing. And once you kind of show that you're able to hold your own on whatever that kind of initial position is, you'll start to have be able to flex your muscles and show them those other capabilities, kind of like what you did when you went through uh that kind of finance career progression. Like, yeah, I I came in here, I'm I can do this well enough to get in the door, but this is where I think I add more value, and then all of a sudden you kind of shut up where where it made sense for you to be. And then obviously you just kind of came to a realization like, you know what, I'm I'm probably gonna be best used in a different role altogether, in a whole different uh kind of career at that point, which is a lot more common. I'm sure a lot of the listeners of the show probably have made a career transition at least once already, and it's super common uh by anyone that reaches like their 40s that they're gonna make a career change by then.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Yeah, and I mean I think that's the that's the unique thing that I've always kind of approached things with, which I'd say is an engineering mindset, but um I don't know, I don't know if it's fully an engineering mindset or just kind of a being accepting for new things, but really I I like different jobs and kind of the different areas, like you look at it, whether this is the more marketing side right now, more the tech side, uh more the you know, finance side, what what have you, like they all intro they all introduce new unique opportunities, but that's that's part of the fun, is that you can explore these and you know go into different fields and they all they all relate in some way, right? Like maybe maybe it's uh not the next job, and uh maybe it's the job after that, I I don't know, but there is jobs to bring all of your skills together, and even if there isn't, there's a lot of times where I know I can make my own. Like I could go um if I you know, maybe go like extend the data dork series, which I've I've long thought about just kind of doing that stuff. Uh and I think that that I will always think that that approach to stuff is unique and there will always be a community for uh you know financial people transitioning into Python people or um you know what have you, but that's just one example. But I think there's for everybody there's a place to bridge. Because I saw it all the time at Galvanize, right? Like, because most students come to Galvanize with a different background.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Whether it's car mechanic, whether it's um help desk, Amazon factory worker, chef, uh counter uh person, right, behind the deli counter. Yep, whatever it is, you take that passion, you take that education, you take that work ethic, you take the dislike for that job, whatever it is. And that right, that carries you to the next one. And that uh if that's what's fueling your engine, like that's fine. Um, because you the more you get to the other side, the more you'll feel comfortable about the things you learned and uh that you didn't like, uh right, like whatever it is, it all it all commingles in a beautiful way. I can't I can't tell you how many students got to bridge the two, whether it was insurance, finance, and and they've just found either car companies, if they were mechanics, you know, went went to in the other side of insurance on the tech side uh when they were previously, you know, teaching series 63 or series 7 tests, and and now they uh have the tech skills. So they're like, well, I'm gonna go work uh you know for state farm, all state whatever. Um, and taking that expertise, which serves them, right? There's there's not a lot of tech people that have the knowledge of the product and the understanding of that stuff. So I think that there's so much opportunity uh with that, at least on on the tech side, but but on everything, right? Whether it's me me on the finance to to to different different roles, it it it bridges gaps and it gives you a different confidence. That's probably why uh business people probably don't like to talk to me as much because I understand the finance side, I usually just don't care. Um that's that's the that's the hardest thing for a lot of people is that uh I understand that revenue and that is how businesses work. It's just I've seen a lot of different sides, and I've kind of come to the realization that there's a lot there and and that we all probably think this there's more to every decision than just the financial impact.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Exactly. Yeah, that's that's a perfect kind of close to the show. Is that and I try to make sure people understand that too, is the financial right way. Like, there's typically this is the way that you'll get the most amount of money or the most amount of return, but that's not necessarily the way to go. I would say a majority of the time it's not the way to go because there's so many other factors that you need to to weigh in to make sure that you're kind of living your best life today, and and obviously we don't want to be out of control, but yeah, it's like the financial right answer is very rarely the one that we implement just because it's not it's not fun enough, it's not it feels too stiff and too rigid. So I I I can see and I agree, like most people do not like dealing with the financial side of the rigidness of of what the numbers look and what they try to tell you that you should do sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Yeah, especially on the per the personal side of right, it it goes to risk and what you can handle. On the business side, that is the that's just the like de facto, like this is uh this is what I can show everybody, but uh at the end of the day, right? It's just it's communication. You uh every uh every business person has uh made decisions for the long term that did not uh directly finance was not the best right then, but for the long term, right? Um so like I that's that's that's more of the conversation, right? Is all the things that go into it, whether it's the the perception, the the financial, the comfort, right? Whether you can sleep at night. Um exactly, yeah. Like that's definitely on the personal side is uh the monetary, right, is one thing, but like the risk and the uh can you handle if this if this is gone, like what is that feel like? If that if that's stressful for you, it's not worth it. Like your health um it is more, it's gonna cost me more to like you know pay for whatever the health problems of you constantly stressing about this and uh all the cold sore breathe of medicine you gotta go buy because that stuff's not cheap, right? Um like uh what whatever that is, like how do we uh make you comfortable? Because that's the biggest thing. It's not just uh that you know, just one metric, it's it's all of them.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Yeah, yeah. And it just kind of comes down to just making sure that you're having a little bit more confidence than what you had the day before, and and yeah, not being reckless and having that understanding and that knowing as far as if you know what you need to know and then you make a certain decision, then that's that's good for you. But putting your head down in the sand and ignoring the stuff outright, then that's that's probably not a good position to be in. So the target audience for my show are tech professionals in their 20s and 30s, so kind of early to mid-career. What would be like the one takeaway or tip that you'd want to give them kind of just based off of everything you've experienced so far?

SPEAKER_01 41:14

So I'm gonna live in the world that I've probably already touched on a bunch of times, but it really is be curious. Like truly be curious, because there's no such thing as stopping to learn. Like it 20, 30, it doesn't matter. Like you can't, you can't stop learning things. And you shouldn't stop learning things. So I really encourage people to find out what they're curious about, and we all have it, right? There's there's something that we all want to know, or we we want to find answers to or know more about, um, if nothing else, right? I want to know more about uh you know, finance, what whatever it is, find that thing and spend some time at that. Uh just just make that a make that a habit. And and the more you spend time learning things, even though that's 15, 20 minutes a day, like it becomes a habit. And learning something every day for 20 minutes, you'll you'll realize how much that impacts your your your knowledge, the way you think about things, the way you think, the way you approach other people, because the more you learn about things, the more uh hopefully you see differing opinions or are things that don't um always align with you or that brings up something in your head that makes you question. So uh I think that's the biggest thing is just constantly spending time um searching for something, and and uh hopefully you'll find it. And if you don't, like that's part of the fun is the search.

SPEAKER_00 42:51

Yeah, that's awesome. And one one thing that you did too, and I'll just kind of mention this in case people end up wanting to connect with you on LinkedIn. But uh, I don't know if you saw do this, but you were like working on some AI for like some video game systems, it like some retro video games and trying to help them like play through the level and you were tracking their progress and stuff like that. But what you just described and just having fun and having those questions, like that's that's what life is all about, is just trying to have fun, and there's so many different ways you can do it. But one way for sure is just to turn your life into a game essentially by creating these challenges for yourself and and questioning things because yeah, a lot of times you'll find the answers and sometimes you won't. Uh sometimes you won't until years from now when some other stuff lines up for you. But yeah, that's awesome. Being curious to never stop learning, creating these habits, and then those things all just kind of compound. If you do that every day, you're gonna be infinitely smarter at the end of a year.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

Yeah, I mean, yeah, maybe smarter, but it's it's it's like that's the thing. Smart isn't it means very little, right? But uh what you'll be is an expert in what you were most curious about, right? It has nothing to do with uh like it can be something that relates to nothing, but yeah, if that's truly what you're curious about, you will search that answer and you will become a a subject matter expert in whatever that is, um, whether you want to or not, because uh again, it it's kind of that fuel. Like that's what makes me a uh weirdly a deep learning expert with video games, is because that was one of my weird passions. I was working on one uh all week. I finally got my Streets of Rage bot to get almost past the first level, which has taken me a long time. Um but again, like that's it, that's just one of the random curiosities, but it could be anything. It doesn't have to be technical, even.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

No, yeah, that's awesome. I really appreciate you coming on, Chris. And before we jump off, I'll just let people know if they did want to connect with you is the best way through LinkedIn?

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Uh LinkedIn is probably the easiest way. It's just Chris Huey. Um, there is like my tagline is Phoenix Technerd. I think it's LinkedIn slash N slash Phoenix Technerd. If you try that, if you just type in Chris Huey, hopefully I'm connected to enough people uh around you that I usually pop up at the top. If not, I'm one of the top three Chris Hueys. Um the other Chris Hueys are pretty legit, also. I'm I I try to uh also follow and connect with them and it's crazy. I've never heard of him. There's a couple, there's a couple, and some of them are super uh rock stars. Uh one of them is even computer uh researcher, I believe. Um yeah. I think he still is, but yeah, that's that's one thing. Uh Phoenix Tech Nerd pretty much anywhere else. Like Instagram, if you want to follow me, it's Phoenix Tech Nerd. Um pretty much everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

Yeah, I'll get all the links uh that I can find into the show notes. So yeah, in case you are having trouble finding the right Chris, I will make sure I have uh the correct one because I am connected. I I believe I'm only connected with one of them. So yeah, hopefully.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

Hopefully at least one.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

Perfect. Well, I appreciate you coming on today.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

Thank you for listening to Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp. Remember, if you like what you've been hearing, to subscribe, review, and share with your friends and colleagues. I'm also still taking suggestions for future episode topics and guests. If you want to take your connection to the show to the next level, you can find me on LinkedIn or on Facebook. Catch you next time on TechE Personal Finance Bootcamp.