Episodes 27
Avg. Duration 33m
Activity Dormant
Since May 2024
Latest Episode Aug 2025

Publishing Details

Schedule
Every 2 Weeks
Format
Episodic
Consistency
100%
Hosting
feeds.transistor.fm

About This Podcast

Is bringing up your software engineering salary a dating red flag? How do you strike a balance between career ambition and incendiary burnout? Is it ever okay to hold your code hostage in escrow? Navigating a career in tech raises a lot of tricky questions that aren’t exactly appropriate for the daily stand-up. So let’s take this off the VPN. In this new podcast from Jellyfish, work besties Jasmine and Allison scour the internet to find the real questions engineers and developers are whispering over drinks and posting about anonymously. Together, they’ll tackle the most troubling of inquiries with authenticity, humor, and absolutely no holding back.

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Recent Episodes

Show me “code nerd” in the job requirements

Aug 27, 2025 23m

Is passion really a must to succeed in the tech world?Grace, a coding apprentice, gets called out for not being “passionate enough” about her work. But what does “passionate enough” look like and is…

Simon says, "let AI do it all"

Aug 13, 2025 30m

What happens when our most senior engineer stops writing code altogether and lets AI handle everything? Well, you can expect projects and productivity to go out the window. Meet Simon, who is about…

This FAANG ruined my family

Jul 30, 2025 24m

Imagine sibling rivalry at its finest, but now dip it into tech.Meet Julian and Ava, two Ivy League computer science students with very different career paths. One’s endlessly stacking internships at…

Great at code, dating not so much

Jul 16, 2025 21m

A date so bad, it felt like a work meeting? Yeah, that happened.Meet Rochelle, who thought she was going on a quirky first date with a software engineer - until an 8-minute voice memo, an unhinged…

You said to use AI, you didn’t say to use it well

Jul 02, 2025 26m

Ever looked at a pull request and thought…welp. Meet Raj, a tech lead just trying to do his job, until his team is buried under an avalanche of AI-generated chaos. We’re talking 10,000-line PRs,…

No senior, no safety net

Jun 18, 2025 25m

David, a junior engineer at a fintech company, is instantly zapped into a project that quickly becomes a memorable early dev experience (both technically and interpersonally). He’s tasked with…

When asking ‘why?’ gets you fired

Jun 04, 2025 33m

Avery lands a senior role at, let’s just call the company Seat Snag, with a big paycheck and high expectations. But when his questions about company processes start raising eyebrows, ish hits the…

Security panic at the disco

May 21, 2025 32m

Sometimes getting random DMs in your online community doesn’t always work out like you want it to.  Picture this, you're Aubrey, a cybersecurity pro thriving in a fast-paced tech scene. Everything’s…

Oh, now it’s urgent? Cute.

May 07, 2025 25m

Imagine you’re our good friend Logan (aka the Wolverine) and work is steady – yay!  When all of a sudden a “low priority” side project made it to the CEO’s radar…bummer. Chaos begins, stress rises,…

Espionage was not in the job description

Apr 23, 2025 37m

Lily’s onboarding plan? Hit the ground running. Bart’s plan? Monitor her calendar like it’s a live-action thriller. From week one, it’s all tension, mixed signals, and a staff engineer just trying to…

Her majesty, the principal engineer

Apr 09, 2025 40m

While Jasmine is enjoying her office sauna, our friend, “Hank” is ready to burn bridges. So the heat is high across the board, but while one situation has vacation vibes, the other is centered around…

If you want to escalate, we can escalate

Mar 26, 2025 28m

Jasmine bought a sauna and “Deb” lost her job. One of those stories is relaxing—the other, not so much. This week, Allison brings a tale straight from the tech trenches: a PM asks for a little backup…

10x engineer or 10x scammer?

Mar 12, 2025 35m

Escalations, stress, and a side of existential crisis—just another day in tech. Ever wondered how to handle high-stakes incidents, and then realized just how much of IT work can be automated? This…

The feature that ruined my life

Feb 12, 2025 31m

New year, same chaos. Allison and Jasmine are back with a tech industry tale that has it all:  job-hopping, fake demos, impossible deadlines, and promotions sliding into the void. From conference…

The dev who saved Christmas

Dec 23, 2024 31m

Is it really the Holiday Season in Tech without some year-end chaos? In this episode of Off the VPN, we get into a caroling mood and talk about the festive quirks of the Tech industry while we Make…

We need to talk about 2024

Dec 11, 2024 42m

The year in tech, decoded and all wrapped up! Today’s episode looks back and closes the book on 2024 with special guest Patrick Austin, Founding Editor at IT Brew. From the disruption of Artificial…

You’re not doing networking wrong

Nov 27, 2024 42m

There’s a new era of networking in tech, and it’s not all polished LinkedIn posts, Zoom mixers, or networking events. Today’s episode of Off The VPN discusses the modern rules of tech networking with…

Some teams can't be saved

Nov 13, 2024 36m

Ever feel like you’re the only one actually working? Or that your “team-building” aren’t exactly inspiring team spirit? On this episode of Off the VPN, Allison and Jasmine run through the good, the…

GenAI Ghost Stories

Oct 30, 2024 35m

There’s something spooky on the horizon, and we’re not talking about ghosts and goblins. AI is changing the future of software development. And while change is scary, AI could be more about treats…

Stand ups and other useless meetings

Oct 16, 2024 37m

Are we the only ones sitting in way too many meetings or what? How’s any work supposed to be done if we’re chit-chatting away on daily stand-ups? In this episode of Off the VPN, Allison and Jasmine…

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Off the VPN have?

Off the VPN has published 27 episodes since May 2024, covering topics in Business, Careers.

Is Off the VPN still active?

Off the VPN is currently dormant with new episodes every 2 weeks. Average episode length is 33m.

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