Welcome to episode 130 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we share part 2 of our interview with Jon Towles in which we discuss support and advocacy for neurodiversity and some tips for pursuing a career in mobility.
Original Recording Date: 06-08-2021
Jon Towles started in IT around the age of 29 and has been through many places in the mobility industry. He’s also become an advocate for neurodiversity. Catch part 1 of our interview with him in Episode 129.
Topics – Advocacy and Support for Neurodiversity, Mobility Career Path, Closing Thoughts
3:22 – Transparency, Understanding, and Advocacy

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Jon is up front with potential employers about his ADHD but shares the strengths of having it with the employer (high output, for example).

* People usually don’t believe how productive Jon can be.
* Take whatever it is that is you, own it, be comfortable in your own skin, and use that to create a strategic advantage.
* You’re going to mess up, but the good should outweigh the bad.
* Jon spends so much time trying to eliminate symptoms. Listen to the stories of his struggle in meetings.

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Those who know Jon know exactly what he is.

* He likes to ask questions and try to understand why people think something I is a good idea, even if it is a bad idea.
* Jon used to sit on architecture review boards and would research technology he hadn’t previously heard about. He wants to understand how something works from the device to the back end.
* Blanket statements like "it doesn’t work" make Jon want to see the logs so he can understand what is happening.

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If John shares his diagnosis with an interviewer or hiring manager and they are not good with it, he would not want to be at that company.

* He prefers to be transparent.
* Listen to Jon’s story about being at MIT and the lack of transparency from others.
* In the context of technology capabilities, if you choose to trust someone without testing on your own and something goes wrong, it’s on you because you decided to trust that person.
* One of Jon’s favorite things to do on calls with vendor technical support is to ask why, but this question seems to upset people.

* Nick shares some insight from a training he attended on asking why vs. how or what and the impact on the hearer’s defensiveness.

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If you find someone with the right mind, even if they are inexperienced, you can really develop them.

* Jon gives the analogy of watching The Good Doctor. The protagonist can visualize everything needed when performing surgery.
* Jon feels like he goes through a similar process to make sense of other people’s ideas.
* Being good at what you do and honest about the things you know and don’t know helps build trust with those who lean on you for help.
* John makes the point we’re really talking about learning and teaching as evidence of having learned something. Explaining the why behind our reasoning helps others understand how we conduct the trouble...