343: Make Sure Your Customers Are Your Kind Of People and Always Empower Others with Alexander Embiricos

In this week's show, Phil talks to Alexander Embiricos, cofounder and CEO of Remotion, a virtual office that brings hybrid teams to life. Before starting Remotion, he was a Product Manager at Dropbox, as well as having studied Computer Science at Stanford. Alexander talks about the value in identifying a customer base that you can relate to on a personal level. He also discusses the value in empowering others.   KEY TAKEAWAYS:   TOP CAREER TIP In your job, make sure that the people you deal with – your customer base – are the kinds of people that you enjoy talking to.   WORST CAREER MOMENT While working for Dropbox, Alexander realized that he did not have the sufficient manpower to meet an important deadline. He ended up performing the work himself, but was advised that this was not the point of project managing.   CAREER HIGHLIGHT A video call with a customer, which resulted in Alexander being told how useful the Remotion tool had been to their way of working.   THE FUTURE OF CAREERS IN I.T Seeing how the community is able to build upon the work of others, iterating products and services, and pushing to see what is possible.   THE REVEAL What first attracted you to a career in I.T.? – Being able to build upon other people's work. What's the best career advice you received? –Make sure that you enjoy talking to the people you have to talk to. What's the worst career advice you received? – Focus on what will get your promoted, and not what the customer needs. What would you do if you started your career now? – Become an engineer instead of a product manager. What are your current career objectives? – How to distribute products more effectively, and how to be a better manager. What's your number one non-technical skill? – Being curious about what other people think or are interested in. How do you keep your own career energized? – The feeling of creating something and delivering it. What do you do away from technology? – Sports and time with friends.   FINAL CAREER TIP Always do your best to empower others so that they can solve problems for themselves.   BEST MOMENTS (8:57) – Alexander – "Choose a target audience and make sure that, even when things are going horribly, that you'll feel energized about the conversation" (9:51) – Alexander - "Instead of focusing on what you're going to build, focus on who you are going to build for" (18:10) – Alexander – "In IT, it is much easier to build upon the work of others" (21:50)– Phil – "Everyone is different, so the way you deal with one person will be different to another"   ABOUT THE HOST – PHIL BURGESS Phil Burgess is an independent IT consultant who has spent the last 20 years helping organizations to design, develop, and implement software solutions.  Phil has always had an interest in helping others to develop and advance their careers.  And in 2017 Phil started the I.T. Career Energizer podcast to try to help as many people as possible to learn from the career advice and experiences of those that have been, and still are, on that same career journey.   CONTACT THE HOST – PHIL BURGESS Phil can be contacted through the following Social Media platforms: Twitter: https://twitter.com/_PhilBurgess LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/philburgess Instagram: https://instagram.com/_philburgess Website: https://itcareerenergizer.com/contact Phil is also reachable by email at [email protected] and via the podcast's website, https://itcareerenergizer.com Join the I.T. Career Energizer Community on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/ITCareerEnergizer   ABOUT THE GUEST – ALEXANDER EMBIRICOS Alexander Embiricos is the cofounder and CEO of Remotion, a virtual office that brings hybrid teams to life. Before starting Remotion, he was a Product Manager at Dropbox, as well as having studied Computer Science at Stanford.   CONTACT THE GUEST – ALEXANDER EMBIRICOS Twitter: https://twitter.com/embirico LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/embirico/ Website: https://www.remotion.com/