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Life inUptime
Career stories from the engineers, IT leaders, and technologists who build and run the internet.
Career signal from outages, mentors, pivots, and the real network floor.
Latest episode
Justin Ryburn – The Road More Traveled with a Field CTO
Kevin and Alexis welcome Justin Ryburn, VP of Global Solution Engineering and Field CTO at Kentik, to discuss the realities of traveling for technical work. Justin explains the nuances of his role, which balances executi…
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The show is a career map, not a lecture.
Latest
Justin Ryburn – The Road More Traveled with a Field CTO
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Common paths
First jobsCareer pivotsCerts and studyMentorsOutagesLeadership
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21
Justin Ryburn – The Road More Traveled with a Field CTO
Kevin and Alexis welcome Justin Ryburn, VP of Global Solution Engineering and Field CTO at Kentik, to discuss the realities of traveling for technical work. Justin explains the nuances of his role, which balances executi…
Aug 27, 2026
20
Ricki Cook: Reaching the Top and Walking Away
What do you do when you get your dream job and it’s not as fulfilling as you thought it would be? Ricki Cook speaks with Alexis and Kevin about navigating between career achievement and personal satisfaction. Ricki discu…
Aug 13, 2026
19
Jason Gooley: The Godfather of Programmability
Jason Gooley is a longtime member of the Cisco community and author of the latest edition of the CCNA book. Jason joins the show to share his unconventional path from a challenging childhood to technical evangelist and a…
Jul 30, 2026
18
Why You Should Attend Tech Conferences
Alexis and Kevin talk about their experiences attending Cisco Live alongside return guest Melina Bertholf. They offer different perspectives about the event while highlighting the importance of building professional rela…
Jul 16, 2026
The format
Human stories from technical people.
Life in Uptime goes beyond the config and the command line. Alexis and Kevin ask how people actually got here, what changed them, and what listeners can use.
The break in
First job, lucky break, bad decision, and the moment the path started to make sense.
The turning point
Outages, mentors, layoffs, pivots, and weird assignments that changed the work.
The useful part
Specific lessons for building a tech career without pretending there is one correct path.
Be part of it
Your path into tech probably helps someone else.
Non-traditional background? Interesting problems? Hard lessons from the field? Bring the story.