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The Happy Engineer | Career Success for Engineering Leadership

Advertise on podcast: The Happy Engineer | Career Success for Engineering Leadership

Rating
★★★★★
5
from
104 reviews
This podcast has
230 episodes
Language
English
Publisher
Zach White
Explicit
No
Date created
2021/07/14
Latest episode
2026/10/09
Average duration
45 min.
Release period
11 days

Description

The Happy Engineer helps engineering leaders reach the next level without suffering burnout - because success without fulfillment is failure. You will discover how to redefine work/life balance and lead with purpose, while accelerating your next promotion. Bring a growth mindset, engineers... It's time for personal development before technical development, emotional intelligence (EQ) before IQ, and coaching to crush your comfort zone! If you find yourself asking questions like these, then this show is for you: * How do I decide between a technical career path or management? Can I ever go back? * How do I reignite passion and purpose in my engineering career (or just stop dreading Monday)? * Why am I not getting promoted to Manager / Director / VP (and my peers are)? * How can I increase my salary and total compensation faster? * What should I do if I want to change discipline, industry, or even leave engineering? * What does it take to move from engineering to entrepreneurship? * WHY AM I SO UNHAPPY??? Your host, Zach White, knows how frustrating building your engineering career can be. As an engineer himself, he climbed the corporate ladder. He's seen (and survived) it all. He's felt stuck, been burned out from 80-hour weeks, suffered under a bad boss, and had his career plan thwarted multiple times by corporate reorgs. You know the worst part? He lived below his full potential. Ultimately Zach found incredible success in his career, but it was not without trials, failure, and a rock-bottom experience with burnout. Each week, the former engineering leader, now turned CEO and sought-after Lifestyle Engineering Coach, will help you create an action plan to level up your career while designing a life you love. Enjoy inspiring conversations with experts from all corners of industry and life. Learn how to overcome any career obstacle you face. Get off the road to burnout. Build your career. Balance your life. BE HAPPY!

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Check latest episodes from The Happy Engineer | Career Success for Engineering Leadership podcast


Forget Networking. Build Your Career Crew. | Ep. 229
2026/10/09
If networking as an engineering manager feels like a second job with no payoff, the size of your network isn't the problem. Who's in your boat is.   I'd much prefer you WATCH this one on YouTube. I break out the whiteboard, and engineers love a whiteboard more than free pizza   Which seats in your boat are sitting empty right now? Grab the Career Crew Map (at no cost)   Ready to build your whole promotion plan, not just the crew? Start here.    ————————————   I have over 1,600 contacts in my phone.   The number that turned my career around was one.   You've probably got plenty of people too. A boss who rates you well. A spouse who believes in you. And you're still doing the hardest parts of your career alone.   Picture your career as a life raft, rowing toward the land you want to reach. How fast you get there has less to do with how hard you paddle, and everything to do with who else is in the boat — and which way they're rowing.   Most engineering leaders are in one of four rafts:   Empty. You know lots of people. None are in your boat. Riding. People who care about you, sitting there. Not rowing. Resisting. People rowing you back out to sea, toward the complaining and the blaming. Rowing. A crew pulling toward your land.   I lived the first three in my career.   Valedictorian, full ride to Purdue, leadership track at Whirlpool. The smartest guy in the room doesn't ask for help, so I didn't.   Then everyone said "network," so I filled the boat with coffee chats. More weight. Nobody rowing.   Then my marriage fell apart, and the people around me were saying the company doesn't care.   Coming out of my divorce, I hired my first coach. I emptied the boat and said, "You and me. Let's figure this out."   That's when the promotions started coming easily.   Your network cheers for you. Your crew rows.   In this episode:   — The four kinds of life raft engineering leaders get stuck in, and how to tell which one you're in — Why a boat full of people who care about you can be harder to row than an empty one — The five seats to fill in your raft: peers, breadth builders, mentors, sponsors and a coach — The line between a mentor and a sponsor, and what a coach does that neither of them can — Why being an introvert is an advantage here, not an excuse — How a CEO client got a yes from the one former leader he was sure would say no — The five-step Career Crew Map, and the one move to make this week   Also — childhood is a cruise ship. Lido deck, waterslides, someone else steering. Then you get kicked off into a life raft that, in my drawing, looks a lot like a donut.   The right crew keeps the boat moving even on the days your own oar is out of the water.   If you're new here, binge the channel.   If you just realized your boat is emptier than you thought, download the Career Crew Map.   If you want to reach director and beyond without doing all the heavy lifting yourself...   Watch the Director Promotion Plan here.   ————————————   Free download — The Career Crew Map    Use it the moment you think "yeah, I've got people." Real names in real seats show you who's rowing, who's riding, and which seats are empty. ————————————   I'm Zach White, founder of Oasis of Courage.   Mechanical engineering degrees from Purdue and Michigan. Former engineering leader at Whirlpool. Since 2019 I've coached 300+ engineering leaders at 200+ companies — big tech to rust belt, and everything in between.   You shouldn't have to sacrifice your life to reach your potential at work.   ————————————   And if you want to see our Promotion Plan — how we help engineering leaders put the right people in the boat and grow into director-level scope, without handing over their nights and weekends to do it...   Watch here
You Never Practice the Skills That Get You Promoted | MIT's Mark Herschberg | Ep. 228
2026/10/02
Director by 35 was the plan. Now every missed milestone feels like proof that something's wrong with you. Map your path to Director https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrRe3O8KHSQ Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SWNwlHy9w5c I asked MIT engineer and CTO Mark Herschberg how often a project ends up exactly the way it was planned on day one. His answer was near zero. Scope shifts, a CEO changes direction six months in, and sometimes the whole thing gets cancelled because there's better ROI somewhere else. Nobody calls that team failures, but when your career plan slips, you call yourself one. A career plan should work like a project plan. It's clear for the next few weeks, fuzzy further out, and adjusted as you learn. A missed milestone is often a trade-off you made on purpose, like refusing to spend three years kissing the ring of a boss you couldn't stand. Most of Mark's career-planning questions aren't about work at all. They're about family, where you want to live, and the impact you want to have. In this episode: why a master's degree won't get you promoted, how ten minutes of negotiating can be worth $40,000, how to build a peer group that practices leadership the way athletes scrimmage, and the fantasy chess question that helps you work backward from where you want to be. Optimize for life happiness, not job titles. New here? Follow the show. Find out what's holding back your next move  Zach White is a mechanical engineer from Purdue who led engineering teams at Whirlpool before founding Oasis of Courage. He's coached hundreds of engineering leaders toward growth, clarity, and more happiness in their careers. His work is built on one belief: you shouldn't have to sacrifice your life to reach your potential.
You Don't Have to Live at Work to Become a Director of Engineering | Ep 227
2026/09/25
Your boss's hours are real. That they're what got him promoted is the part you guessed.   Built on a whiteboard. Watch it.   Jeff was the guy you call when something breaks. He stopped answering his phone, stopped accepting same-day meetings, and told his boss he was declining a $20,000 project so he could put the hours into a multi-million-dollar proposal. He started in March. He was a director of engineering that August.   You look one or two levels up the org chart and you see the 10pm Slack, the weekend work, the calendar with no white space left in it. Then you draw a conclusion, and it sends you one of two ways. Either you start paying a price nobody ever asked you for, or you quietly stop wanting the job.   Same misread, opposite casualties.   In this episode: the two columns drawn out on the whiteboard, the two ways engineering leaders misread the org chart and what each misread costs, both of Jeff's boundary rules, and why a company that genuinely rewards heroic hours still isn't proof that overwork works.   Go sort your list.   New here? Follow the show. Ready to build the whole plan → Book your Career Growth Audit.   Zach White is the founder of Oasis of Courage. Engineering degrees from Purdue and Michigan, former engineering leader at Whirlpool, 300+ engineering leaders coached since 2019. You shouldn't have to sacrifice your life to reach your potential at work.
Why Winning Never Feels Like Enough: The Runner-Up Mindset with James Reid | Ep 226
2026/09/18
You can win every category on paper and still feel like you're losing your own life. That's not humility talking. That's a mindset J.R. calls the Runner-Up — and it nearly cost him everything. Stuck at Engineering Manager with no clear path to Director? Get the free Director Promotion Roadmap → https://lifestyleengineering.oasisofcourage.com/director-promotion-roadmap Watch the full conversation → https://youtu.be/vKgeFK9I2Yk James Reid had the job every ambitious guy said he wanted — one of the biggest sports agencies in the world, a growing family, a career on the rise. He also got off every flight and drove straight to the liquor store, because the version of himself everyone admired was quietly wrecking his marriage and his health. It took a high-speed car accident he and his wife barely walked away from to make him stop. The pattern underneath it has a name: "When I ___, then I'll ___." It feels like ambition. It's actually a drug — a way to keep pushing the life you actually want just out of reach, because chasing it stays safer than building it. J.R.'s spent two decades since helping athletes and executives close that gap, and the results aren't soft: one client hitting .143 in his arbitration year turned it around to .300 in two weeks without touching his swing. In this episode: what the Runner-Up Mindset actually costs you long before you notice it, why J.R. asked a slumping professional athlete "why are you even playing" instead of fixing his mechanics, the difference between chasing a result and building a lifestyle, and the one mirror question J.R. still asks himself every single morning. Stop waiting for the number to change your life. Go find your own blank. New here? Follow the show. Ready to build the whole plan → https://calendly.com/oaco-client-success-team/career-clarity-call Zach White is the founder of Oasis of Courage. Engineering degrees from Purdue and Michigan, former engineering leader at Whirlpool, 300+ engineering leaders coached since 2019. You shouldn't have to sacrifice your life to reach your potential at work. Also in Season 2: How to Get Promoted from Engineering Manager to Director · Why Great Engineers Get Passed Over for Promotion · How Engineering Managers Get Promoted Without Bragging
Bored at Work but Exhausted? That's Still Burnout | Ep 225
2026/09/10
Bored at work but exhausted? It isn't your workload. Your growth curve flattened, and the flat spot is what's draining you. Not sure if you've outgrown the role, the company, or the entire direction of your engineering career? Grab the Next Move Experiment → https://toolkit.oasisofcourage.com/boredom Built on a whiteboard. Watch it → https://youtu.be/UcpXMSioj-o Chris had ten years at the same company, good pay, good life, no crisis — just a plan to ride it out four more years and retire. Two and a half months later he'd left the job, moved across the country to be closer to family, and started as an engineering director. Nothing had to break first. He simply got clear on what he actually wanted. Every role demands a certain level of skill. Your capability climbs fast to meet it at first, then you get good at the job and the new inputs stop. The curve flattens. Stay there long enough and it pulls you back down. That's still burnout. It just didn't come from doing too much. In this episode: how to tell depletion apart from being stuck (they feel identical and need opposite responses), why a flat growth curve can drain more energy than a heavy workload, the push-or-pivot question that decides whether you go inside your company or out of it, and three experiments to get real evidence before you make a giant career decision. Go run your next move. New here? Follow the show. Ready to build the whole plan → https://calendly.com/oaco-client-success-team/career-clarity-call Zach White is the founder of Oasis of Courage. Engineering degrees from Purdue and Michigan, former engineering leader at Whirlpool, 300+ engineering leaders coached since 2019. You shouldn't have to sacrifice your life to reach your potential at work. Also in Season 2: How to Get Promoted from Engineering Manager to Director · Why Great Engineers Get Passed Over for Promotion · How Engineering Managers Get Promoted Without Bragging
How Engineering Managers Get Promoted Without Bragging | Ep 224
2026/08/31
Self-promotion makes most engineers cringe. You don't need a personality transplant — you need fifteen minutes and a better question.   The three-step script, including the exact questions to use → https://toolkit.oasisofcourage.com/ninja   Built on a whiteboard. Watch it → https://youtu.be/3vzy_sBler4   A project I was on went sideways, and we pulled it back. After it landed I booked fifteen minutes with a cross-functional director and asked how I could have made the impact bigger. A few weeks later he offered me a senior manager role in another factory he ran.   I never bragged. I asked. That's the whole move, and I call it the Ninja Brag.   Book a 15-minute one-on-one with someone who influences your next move. Present the win in the context of the bigger objective. Ask for advice on how you could have multiplied the impact.   The fix isn't to get louder. It's to change what the conversation is for. No victory lap, just visibility that arrived honestly.   In this episode: the three-step sequence, why asking for feedback is the least awkward way to create visibility, the exact questions to use, who to run this with, why fifteen minutes and not sixty, and the one version of this conversation you should never run.   Go ninja brag on your wins.   New here? Follow the show. Ready to build the whole plan → https://calendly.com/oaco-client-success-team/career-clarity-call   Zach White is the founder of Oasis of Courage. Engineering degrees from Purdue and Michigan, former engineering leader at Whirlpool, 300+ engineering leaders coached since 2019. You shouldn't have to sacrifice your life to reach your potential at work.   Also in Season 2: Why Great Engineers Get Passed Over for Promotion · How to Get Promoted from Engineering Manager to Director
Why Great Engineers Get Passed Over for Promotion | Ep 223
2026/08/31
It's almost never the work. Great engineers get passed over for promotion because they're all results and no reputation.   Steal 200 ways to get known for the work you're already doing → https://toolkit.oasisofcourage.com/reach   Built on a whiteboard. Watch it → https://youtu.be/pqVQgAwoz1k   Your work does not speak for itself. It never has, and it never will.   Reputation = Results × Reach. Results are the impact you create. Reach is the number of people who can explain your value when you're not in the room.   It multiplies, which is what makes it brutal. Nine parts results and one part reach gives you nine. Five and five gives you twenty-five. And world-class results times no reach still equals nothing.   Curtis was a senior software engineer at NASA Ames, already performing at a high level and afraid of another PIP. He didn't get better at his job. He got better at giving his managers clear information about what he was contributing. Best review of his career, new machine learning work, an award for a proposal. The results were already there.   In this episode: why my work speaks for itself is the most expensive belief in engineering, the equation and why it multiplies instead of adds, more vs better vs different, what reach actually means, which handful of people matter more than everyone else combined, and how to talk about your contribution without it feeling like self-promotion.   You built the results. Now go build the reach.   New here? Follow the show. Ready to build the whole plan → https://calendly.com/oaco-client-success-team/career-clarity-call   Zach White is the founder of Oasis of Courage. Engineering degrees from Purdue and Michigan, former engineering leader at Whirlpool, 300+ engineering leaders coached since 2019. You shouldn't have to sacrifice your life to reach your potential at work.   Also in Season 2: How Engineering Managers Get Promoted Without Bragging · How to Get Promoted from Engineering Manager to Director
How to Get Promoted from Engineering Manager to Director | Ep 222
2026/08/31
Most engineering managers waiting on a director promotion aren't underperforming. They're in the wrong conversation — one of three.   Find out which one your boss thinks you're in → https://toolkit.oasisofcourage.com/climb   Built on a whiteboard. Watch it → https://youtu.be/SLxrWes0bWE   Strong performance is not what moves you to director. It's what keeps you exactly where you are. Promotion starts the moment you and your boss are looking at the same rung, and most engineering managers have no idea their boss is looking at a different one.   Three phases, and only one of them is a promotion conversation:   New to role — reach break-even. Stable and growing — close the gap to the next level. Promotion ready — turn the conversation from effort to evidence.   Chris wasn't underperforming. He was trapped in phase 2, running phase 2 conversations. He changed the question, and went from manager to director in a couple of months.   In this episode: the three phases and how to tell which one you're in, why an exceeds rating can quietly trap you, what break-even actually means, how to find out where your boss has you without making it awkward, and the question that keeps capable engineering managers stuck for years.   Calibrate before you climb.   New here? Follow the show. Ready to build the whole plan → https://calendly.com/oaco-client-success-team/career-clarity-call   Zach White is the founder of Oasis of Courage. Engineering degrees from Purdue and Michigan, former engineering leader at Whirlpool, 300+ engineering leaders coached since 2019. You shouldn't have to sacrifice your life to reach your potential at work.   Also in Season 2: Why Great Engineers Get Passed Over for Promotion · How Engineering Managers Get Promoted Without Bragging
You're Not Chasing a Promotion. You're Chasing Proof That You're Enough
2026/08/11
👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ You know what to do. You just can't get yourself to do it. That gap isn't a discipline problem — it's a belief problem hiding in your unconscious. Zach sits down with Tim Shurr, a hypnotist and mindset expert with 34 years and 15,000+ sessions helping people rewire the beliefs that quietly run their careers. They dig into why smart, hardworking engineering leaders get stuck chasing promotions, working harder and harder, and still hitting the same ceiling — and what actually creates lasting change. If you've been passed over, burned out, or told to "work on your executive presence" with no real path forward, this one's for you. You'll learn: • Why more effort and more hours won't close the gap between where you are and where you want to be • How unconscious beliefs shape decisions up to 7 seconds before you're aware of them — and how to upgrade them • The one question to ask yourself when you feel stuck, and how to get past the surface answers • Why your biggest breakthroughs are hidden in the places you don't want to go 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗼 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿? Get the free Director Promotion Roadmap and discover the 5 critical gaps keeping you from getting promoted— and exactly how to close them. https://lifestyleengineering.oasisofcourage.com/director-promotion-roadmap 👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ
You Outworked Everyone. It's the Reason You're Stuck.
2026/07/28
👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ Most engineering leaders assume rising up means compromising your time, your family, and eventually who you are. Erin Hatzikostas proves that's a lie — and the leaders who buck it get better results. Zach sits down with Erin, former CEO who tripled her company's earnings by refusing the "executive club" playbook. She unpacks the compromise calculation most leaders run when they get tapped for a bigger role, why working harder is actually the lazy way to lead, and how strategic authenticity (not just "being yourself") wins the talent war, closes better deals, and builds the kind of team where your job actually gets easier. You'll learn: Why working harder in a bigger role means you're leading worse — not more committed The "compromise calculation" that talks great leaders out of the next role, and how to break it How authenticity is an action verb, not a personality trait — and where to start (hint: your out-of-office) Why doing it your own way actually wins negotiations, keeps top talent, and makes leadership less exhausting 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗼 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿? Get the free Director Promotion Roadmap and discover the 5 critical gaps keeping you from getting promoted— and exactly how to close them. https://lifestyleengineering.oasisofcourage.com/director-promotion-roadmap 👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ
You're the Bottleneck in Your Own Career | $10B VP Casey Tubman
2026/07/14
👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free):  https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ Casey Tubman went from a $37K design engineer to VP of Engineering at Whirlpool, leading an 8–10 billion dollar global platform. His original career goal? Just make manager. In this conversation, Casey breaks down the actual moves that took him from CAD drafting on tractors to running one of Whirlpool's largest engineering organizations — including the mindset shifts most engineers wait too long to make. We dig into how he stepped sideways into marketing and sales without an obvious playbook, why he never felt "ready" for any of the jobs he took, and what he now sees senior leaders doing differently that engineers in the middle miss. You'll learn: • Why 40% ready is enough to say yes to the next role (and how waiting for 100% keeps you stuck) • The 30/60/90 framework Casey uses to ramp into a bigger role without a misstep • How killing meetings and enforcing pre-reads drove engagement up 10+ points on his team • The shift from 90% work / 10% people to the opposite — and when it has to happen 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗼 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿? Get the free Director Promotion Roadmap and discover the 5 critical gaps keeping you from getting promoted— and exactly how to close them. https://lifestyleengineering.oasisofcourage.com/director-promotion-roadmap 👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ
All Thrust, No Vector | Why Working Hard Isn't the Same as Moving Forward | Lt. Col. Waldo Waldman
2026/06/30
Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ Fear doesn't go away. You just learn to turn the volume up on what matters more. Zach sits down with former F-16 fighter pilot Lt. Col. Waldo Waldman to talk about flying 65 combat missions while battling claustrophobia, why courage isn't the absence of fear, and how engineering leaders build the kind of resilience that actually holds up under pressure. Waldo shares the "why before you fly," the trap of being all thrust and no vector, and why nobody great is doing it solo. You'll learn: Why "envisioning the victory" and knowing who you're flying for pulls you through fear faster than willpower How to tell the difference between real growth and just staying busy in your comfort zone Why courage is love in action — and how that reframes the hard calls you make as a leader The wingman principle: who you need in your cockpit before the missiles start flying 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗼 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿? Get the free Director Promotion Roadmap and discover the 5 critical gaps keeping you from getting promoted— and exactly how to close them. https://lifestyleengineering.oasisofcourage.com/director-promotion-roadmap 👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ
You Didn't Quit. But Part of You Did. | The 8 Stages of Alienation with Anton Gunn
2026/06/16
👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ Your best people are quietly checked out. And you might not even know it's happening. Zach sits down with leadership consultant Anton Gunn to unpack why injustice in the workplace—not discrimination, but the daily slights, the excluded emails, the teams nobody wants to join—is quietly destroying your culture and driving retention. Anton breaks down the Eight Stages of Alienation, why 95% of leaders either miss it or do nothing about it, and exactly what separates the 5% who actually fix it. You'll learn: - The Eight Stages of Alienation: how one act of disrespect escalates into the "8:59 employee" who mentally quit years ago - Why injustice is invisible to half of leaders—and how to actually see what's happening on your team - The three questions every person silently asks their leader (and why your actions matter more than your words) - How vulnerability and imperfection make you a stronger leader than any perfect script ever could 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗼 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿? Get the free Director Promotion Roadmap and discover the 5 critical gaps keeping you from getting promoted— and exactly how to close them. https://lifestyleengineering.oasisofcourage.com/director-promotion-roadmap 👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ
How to Design Your Ideal Engineering Career Path | Director of Engineering Matt Sevey
2026/06/02
👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ Burnout isn't always about doing too much. Sometimes it's doing the wrong work too well — and most engineers can't tell the difference until they're years deep. Zach sits down with Matt Sevey — mechanical engineer turned self-taught software developer, engineering manager, and founder of My Code Career — to unpack what it takes to realize you're in the wrong work and find the courage to change it. They get into the link nobody taught him between what he studied and a life he actually cared about, the 30+ "coffee chats" with total strangers that reframed his entire career, why we go to the people closest to us last, and the difference between managing your time and managing your energy. You'll learn: Why being good at your job can be the exact thing keeping you stuck — Matt was turning down promotions while pouring 20 hours a week into something else "just for fun" The one question that cuts through career confusion: "Am I doing the right type of engineering?" (and why it still applies even when you love what you do) How to run a cold "coffee chat" that builds your network without feeling like you're selling yourself Why the people closest to you are the last ones you ask for help — and what that fear is really costing you 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗼 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿? Get the free Director Promotion Roadmap and discover the 5 critical gaps keeping you from getting promoted— and exactly how to close them. https://lifestyleengineering.oasisofcourage.com/director-promotion-roadmap 👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ
The Conversation You're Avoiding | Lasting Happiness with Dr. Elia Gourgouris
2026/05/18
👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ ​ Happiness isn't a personality trait you were born with. It's a skillset you build — and most engineering leaders have never been taught how. ​ Zach sits down with Dr. Elia Gourgouris, "The Happiness Doctor," to unpack why so many high-achieving engineers stay stuck in their heads, carry around a hundred-pound backpack of resentment and regret, and confuse a full calendar with a meaningful life. They get into the brands we were given as kids, the micro habits that actually move the needle, and the three things the happiest people do differently when life gets hard. ​ You'll learn: • Why "happiness is a choice" is only half the story — and what the other half actually requires • The three things successful, happy people do differently with adversity (and why letting go is the one most leaders skip) • How to stop confusing "busy" with productive, and start leading yourself first • The simple daily practice that rewires gratitude into a real skill, not a slogan ​ 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗼 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿? Get the free Director Promotion Roadmap and discover the 5 critical gaps keeping you from getting promoted— and exactly how to close them. https://lifestyleengineering.oasisofcourage.com/director-promotion-roadmap ​ 👉 Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ

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5 out of 5
104 reviews
★★★★★
Andyrich.us 2024/12/28
Inspiring and educational
Just finished my first episode of The Happy Engineer. I learned a lot in this episode, and am ready to apply these things to my business. Keep it up!
★★★★★
lhn546 2024/10/29
Valuable and action insights!
Zach does a great job of providing valuable and actionable insights for a listeners. Great show for engineers and beyond.
★★★★★
Scarlette J. Rojas 2024/09/25
Scarlette J. Rojas
Zach was very knowledgeable and easy to talk to. The conversation flowed so well and I'd recommend him to any guest looking to have a strong flow and ...
★★★★★
Guillaume Wiatr 2024/09/25
Expanding the Definition of Success for Engineers
Zach’s podcast is a fantastic resource for engineers, and I really appreciate how he thinks outside the box for his audience. He brought me on with cu...
★★★★★
RobertJHunt2010 2024/09/23
Talking about Accountability
Zachary was a great host with great energy and wisdom. He asks great questions and made me feel very comfortable in the interview.
★★★★★
GoodMoodMatt 2024/07/18
Zach is the truth
Zach white is a happiness master, and he teaches all of us, engineers as well as non-engineers, how to live a life of fulfillment.
★★★★★
PeakPerformanceDoctor 2024/06/13
So impressed with the quality of this podcast!!
Got introduced to Zach by a common friend (Aaron Walker - thank you - and please do yourself a favor and check out his episode with Zach!) - and immed...
★★★★★
Matthias Merrill 2024/05/17
Amazing podcast
This podcast is excellent. It has not only given me peace of mind on several things, but has also given me a lot of practical advice that when applied...
★★★★★
Fire builder 2023/12/22
Firewalking 🔥👣 with Zach White
Was just interviewed by Master Host: Zach White of "The Happy Engineer Podcast. I knew when the mics went live that this would be an outstanding pod...
★★★★★
Lynn Gravatt 2023/11/07
Inspiring Leading Edge Guests!
I have been so inspired by the high caliber of guests on this podcast! Thank you to Zack for being a hub that brings together so much brilliance to H...
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