This talk discusses various career options for developers, including freelancing, finding a job, and taking time off from work. Freelancing has benefits like flexibility but can be unstable, while jobs provide stability but less flexibility. The speaker recommends networking at meetups, customizing LinkedIn profiles, contributing to open source projects, and setting a deadline if taking time off. Overall, the key is to keep learning and doing something.

1. This is a talk about life
By developers, for developers

2. Hi, I’m Tamara
➔ github.com/sofanisba
➔ linkedin.com/in/stefanovtamara
➔ tamarastefanovic.com
➔ @sofanisba
➔ meetup.com/Rails-Pub-Night
Former Philosopher / Bartender
(Slightly Less) Former Bitmaker
Current Developer

3. Whaddap
● Your past and who cares about
that
● Finding work and not work
● Freeform discussion of all the
other things you’ll ever see and
do

4. Who cares?
● Important to define your motivations when figuring out goals
● Past experiences define the present
● Having life experience sets you apart from the average fresh
CS grad

5. So what now
Here are your options:
● Freelance
● Find a J.O.B.
● Neither of the aboveFind work or something

6. Freelance
“Unstructured work, often done
outside the office on a piecemeal
basis. Irregular and often unpaid.”
- Urban Dictionary
“a euphemism for being
unemployed”
- also Urban Dictionary

7. Freelance::Pros
● Everyone needs a website!
● You need a portfolio and an opportunity to make things
● Work on lots of different types of projects
● Get a wider breadth of skills
● Because it’s hourly you can (sometimes) make more money

8. Freelance::Cons
● Takes time to build a portfolio and a client base
● Everyone needs a website, not necessarily a web app
● People have some really stupid app ideas
● Hard to find long term contracts, stability is tough
● Every client is a gamble
● No health benefits or other jobby perks

9. Find a Job
“Means by which at least 30% of your life is
stolen from you to enrich the owners of a
company making useless shit that some other
poor idiot in a job will buy.”
- More Urban Dictionary
“Something that's impossible to find because
everyone wants to only hire experienced
people even though you can't get experience
if no one will hire you, and they're too damned
lazy to train you.”
- UD4lyf

10. Job::Pros
● Stability
● Straightforward progression in your career
● Usually work on one set stack (gain expertise)
● You have coworkers

11. Job::Cons
● You’re locked in
● Politics; HR departments exist for a reason
● Less flexibility and time for personal projects
● Proprietary code is hard to show off
● You have coworkers

12. ● Check out some relevant websites
○ Upwork, tilr
● Build a portfolio site
● Ask your friends and family for leads
● Take it to the masses: twitter spam?!
● Incorporate yourself
● Network with other freelancers
Freelance::HowTo

13. Meetups < Job::HowTo
● Network with people of different experience levels
● Find friends who’ll help you out
● Learn tactics and listen to stories from others like you
● Keep up to date with new paradigms in the industry
Rails Girls
Rails Pub Night (holla)
Beerscript
EmberTO
Women Who Code TO
RubyBrigade

14. LinkedIn < Job::HowTo
● Make your profile interesting
● Tailor things to the job you want
● Have a solid, unique resume to send recruiters that fits on one
page
○ Pretty that sucker up
● Don’t be self deprecating; know your strengths
● Don’t waste your time on an obvious bad fit just because a
recruiter is pushing you
● Find people who work for good places and buy them coffee

15. OpenSource < Job::HowTo
● Gain valuable experience working with others
● Solve problems with tools you actually use
● Find a library you like and write tests for it
○ People love it when you write tests
● Help answer questions on GitHub issues or StackOverflow

16. Don’t look for
work?
But still keep working

17. Funemployment::Pros
● You probably deserve a break
● Give yourself time to work on personal projects
● Build a portfolio you feel confident about
● Have ample opportunity to do open source work, do community
things
*important caveat: set a deadline to your unemployment

18. Funemployment::Cons
● People need money to live
● Stack Overflow may not be enough of a
mentor for you
○ The point of this exercise is to learn
things
● Netflix is a thing

19. And?
● You’ll probably end up doing
some combo of those last three
things
● Takes time to figure out what’s
best for you
● Key takeaway: Keep doing
something
Don’t worry, there’s more

20. Then What?
So you have a job, big shot
● Figuring your shit out!
● Keep going to meetups!
● Imposter Syndrome!
● WTF startups!

21. Me again
➔ github.com/sofanisba
➔ linkedin.com/in/stefanovtamara
➔ tamarastefanovic.com
➔ @sofanisba
➔ meetup.com/Rails-Pub-Night
Ask me stuff