[6] Prior to joining Yahoo!, Zawodny worked for about two years at the Marathon Oil Company in Findlay, Ohio, in their Information Technology Services.

[5][6] Zawodny received a BS in Computer Science from Bowling Green State University[7] with a minor in Astronomy.

[8] Zawodny also writes a monthly column for Linux Magazine and speaks at numerous conferences about MySQL, Yahoo!, and open source.

[10] On May 24, 2003, he declared that Google's PageRank algorithm is no longer viable, due to bloggers and SEOs learning to game the system.

[11] Zawodny predicted on January 9, 2006, that "2006 will be the year in which once great Slashdot dies", its method of using an editorial staff losing out to increasingly popular community-driven competitors such as Digg and reddit.

's enterprise instant messenger as a "freaking money pit" and a product "customers don't want".