Episode Information Show Notes In this episode of Career Downloads, host Manuel Martinez welcomes James Oravec, a Senior Manager for Software Engineering, who shares his inspiring journey through the tech industry. From his early days in tech support to building a successful e-commerce venture and eventually leading software engineering teams, James offers a wealth of insights for anyone navigating their career in technology. Key topics discussed: James’s introduction to technology and his first job in tech support The creation and growth of War Toys, James’s e-commerce business Innovative warehouse optimization techniques developed for e-commerce operations Transitioning from entrepreneurship to corporate software engineering roles The patent development process at IBM and the value of continuous learning Recent experiences with job searching in the current tech market James shares valuable lessons on perseverance, adaptability, and the importance of pursuing your passions in the tech industry. Whether you’re just starting your career or looking to advance to leadership roles, this episode offers practical advice and inspiration to help you succeed in the ever-evolving world of technology. Tune in to learn how James turned a $15/hour side hustle into a thriving business, developed creative solutions for e-commerce operations, and navigated the challenges of job searching in today’s competitive market. This episode is packed with actionable insights to help you take control of your tech career and achieve your professional goals. Transcription Manuel: Welcome everyone. So this is Career Downloads and my name is Manuel Martinez, where every episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a new guest to understand more about their career. So we’ll dive into their background and try to uncover any actionable items for you and really try to understand what the different guests have used, you know, different techniques, tips that they’ve used to manage their career. And for today’s episode, I have with me James Oravec and we’re going to dig into his background. So this is something that’s of interest to me. So he is on the software side. So software engineer, software developer, I spent most of my time on the infrastructure side. So I know a lot of infrastructure people, networking, storage, things of that nature. So again, I’m really excited and interested to get to know a little bit more about James. So welcome James. James: Thank you. Thanks for having me. Manuel: No, I appreciate you coming on. So one of the first things that I want to do is if you can just, and again, we don’t have to get into detail at this point, but if you can just tell me what your current role is now and just like a brief summary of what it is that you do, and then we’ll work our way, you know, to that point. James: Sure. So currently, I am a Senior Manager for Software Engineering, oversee a team of developers, overseeing a number of products, which we have to go through the normal release process cycles. And that’s everything from coding new features to fixing defects to security patches. And then outside of that, main goal is to wow our customers and give them something delightful to use. Manuel: That’s awesome. So now the next part that I want to get into is if you can just kind of give me a little bit of background about kind of where you grew up and eventually what got you interested into technology, like have you always had a passion for it? Again, we don’t have to go into detail, but just like a summary, you know, were you that kind of kid that, you know, had a computer at the age of five and that drove you or, you know, was it later on in life? James: Its’s an interesting question because there’s just so much that has transpired in maybe different directions I could have gone. So I’ll even go back to as far back as I remember. When I was a kid, like elementary school,