1.
How to get your second job
Hacking your way into a career in software

2.
A career in software

3.
A Job vs Career
• A job is something you do for money.
• A career is what you’d rather do for money

4.
You are the sole
motivator of your career

5.
• Schools are responsible for certifying a standard
set of skills
• Employers selfishly lead you towards skills they
need
• Mentors will push you in the direction they think you
should go

6.
If your career isn’t going
where you like, it’s your
responsibility to fix it

7.
All job interviews are trying
to answer three questions:
• Can you do the work?
• Are you excited about the work?
• Do we want to work with you?

8.
You get your first job…
• It’s mostly luck
• You are a risk
• Expect a big reality check

9.
For your next job…
• You want to have more control
• You want to be an asset
• You want to describe the arc of your career

10.
To hack the career you want:
• Find a focus
• Learn the craft
• Become valuable

11.
Finding a focus

12.
Why focus?
• You can’t be good at everything
• Focus leads to satisfaction
• Focus helps you chart a course and stay on it

13.
Lifestyle focus

14.
Industry focus

15.
Technology focus

16.
Cultural focus

17.
Track focus

18.
• Engineering
• Architecture
• Quality Assurance
• Operations
• Management

19.
Focus means ignoring things that matter
and concentrating on things that matter
more
• Focus too tightly and you may find it difficult to
move forward
• Focus too loosely and you won’t move at all

20.
Learn the craft

21.
“As aspiring Software Craftsmen we are raising the bar of professional software development by practicing it and helping
others learn the craft. Through this work we have come to value:
Not only working software,
but also well-crafted software
Not only responding to change,
but also steadily adding value
Not only individuals and interactions,
but also a community of professionals
Not only customer collaboration,
but also productive partnerships
That is, in pursuit of the items on the left we have found the items on the right to be indispensable.”

22.
Software craftsmanship is
building stuff you want to work
on with people want to work with

23.
Everybody starts as
an apprentice

24.
Apprenticeship
Patterns
http://is.gd/apprenticeshippatterns

25.
“Expose/Confront your
Ignorance”

26.
“Be the worst”

27.
“Learn how you fail”

28.
How to learn a craft
• Build a lot of things and throw out the ones you
aren’t proud of
• Find information sources you can trust in a medium
you prefer
• Build a dialog with people you respect
• Ask high leverage questions

29.
Become Valuable

30.
Be disciplined

31.
Be honest

32.
Merge with the culture

33.
Deliver what’s
needed
Not merely what’s asked for

34.
Learn to communicate
with non-engineers

35.
Don’t be a DIVA

36.
Let your enthusiasm
spill over

37.
Hacking a brilliant
career

38.
• Find a focus
• Learn the craft
• Become valuable

39.
We would love it if you’d
build part of your career
at CommerceHub
http://commercehub.com/careers

40.
@DataMiller
@CommerceHub