Building a career in tech
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A summary of the different kinds of tech companies there are, what it's like to work in each, and then a summary of the soft skills needed to thrive and build a career in tech gathered over the last 22 years.
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Building a career in tech
- 1. Building a Career in Tech (Coding Optional) Kevin Lawver - kevin@lawver.net
- 5. Rails Machine 2012 - 2014
- 7. Let’s not talk about technology.
- 8. Let’s talk about companies
- 10. Big Companies with Technology
- 16. “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”
- 17. Be the problem solver.
- 18. Jump in the deep end.
- 19. Share everything
- 20. Teamwork
- 21. “Creativity and ego cannot go together. If you free yourself from the comparing and jealous mind, your creativity opens up endlessly.” Jeong Kwan (Chef's Life season 3, episode 1)
- 22. Every role has value
- 23. Be Optimistic
- 24. Stop! Collaborate & Listen!
- 25. Communication
- 26. Lexicon
- 28. Keep Swimming
- 29. Pay it Forward
- 31. have some!
- 32. Balance
- 33. AND REMEMBER …
- 36. Thank you! • @kplawver • kevin@lawver.net • lawver.net • kevinlawver.com
- 37. Credits • All photos taken by be and licensed under Creative Commons • And most of them from work or volunteer things! • Be the awesome you want to see in the world “borrowed” from http://rockpapercynic.com
Editor's Notes
- And now, a very brief bio:
- started after freshman year of college, never went back. went from tech support to Systems Architect Lots of standards work and speaking at conferences. built a reputation as troublemaker, problem solver and guerrilla
- First startup experience Chief Architect => CTO => Interim CEO => Acquisition => Bye, girl, bye Lots of fun with ruby and music science.
- President & Magical Scaling Unicorn First operations role, first real experience contributing to open source software other than using and bug reports. First lifestyle company experience
- Started as “Yoda”, now CTO Awesome team based in Brooklyn, remote leadership is weird.
- I'm not going to spend much time on technology - because that changes all the time. Let's talk about what it takes for you to thrive in a technology company.
- There are more types and roles in those types of companies than we can go over here, but I want to call out the differences in a few.
- Lots of process, meetings and bureaucracy Easy to get lost in the system Easy to compartmentalize and let your skill set calcify, or end up with a skill set that doesn't meet any other company's needs (because you will get laid off at some point). Soft skills become more important than hard skills. A guerrilla spirit goes a long way. Lots of opportunities for standards work, big hard problems and working at huge scale. Lots of layers of decision makers make it hard to feel ownership over the products you work on. Lots of opportunities to try on different roles within the same company!
- You're always going to be an appendage If your skills are 10 year out of date, this is a good place for you. You'll probably never work on the latest/greatest technology. Your bosses will have no idea what you do. You’re always a candidate to get out sourced to a country that can do it cheaper.
- Usually a great work environment, as long as the owner’s lifestyle matches up with yours. Easy to get complacent and let your skills get stale. Usually small enough that you can learn all parts of the business. Risk of ownership suddenly changing their lifestyle, which will seriously impact yours.
- Great if you like learning under fire Great if you have a hero complex Great if you get bored easily Not great if you like sleep or time off or your family. Not great if you don’t work well under pressure. Great way for technical talent to learn about the business side. Probably better to do this early in your career when you can afford the risk.
- Lots of people are competent, but they don’t get outside their little boxes and explore. Don’t be a Milton. It’s about creativity and constantly learning new things and finding ways to apply them to your work. Don’t be stagnant!!
- Learn to say this and then follow through on it.
- Build a reputation as someone who solves problems. No one ever got fired for being too awesome.
- Take on the big challenges. Don’t play it too safe. But, be somewhat safe. Crocodiles have lots of teeth.
- It's not what you know, it's how you use it. Use your powers for awesomeness. Share everything. Knowledge is only valuable when it spreads. Be passionate about what you do. If you’re not passionate, find something else to do!
- You have to know yourself: your strengths and weaknesses, and what you need to work on. Check your ego. If you’re an extrovert, make room for other people to speak. If you’re an introvert, work on public speaking. And remember that great ideas can come from anywhere and anyone and just because we think a “leader” looks and acts a certain way that THAT’S HOW YOU HAVE TO DO IT. Because it isn’t. We need to get away from the bully boss, the over 6’ white guy in an open collared shirt and blazer as our ideal of leadership, because there are other ways to do it. Be aware of your biases and work to overcome them or you will limit your opportunities, potential and life experiences. Be AWESOME.
- Technology is not the end all be all of the project. It's just a piece. Without good requirements, good design and good marketing, all that technology is useless.
- - Be the optimistic developer. The farther down the product lifecycle you are, the more cynical and pessimistic you tend to get. Don't fall into that trap. - Be the Golden Rule - make things easier on everyone else on the team by meeting them where they are and being awesome. - Don't get married to a single solution or jump to conclusions. To quote the ancient philosopher, Vanilla Ice... NEXT SLIDE
- Learn to write clearly, succinctly, without emotion and without the possibility of misinterpretation. Don’t bring problems without also suggesting a possible solution. Learn to be diplomatic.
- Learn everyone else's lexicon. If you're talking to a designer, know what kerning and whitespace are. If you're talking to the product person, know what their goals are and be able to explain tradeoffs in terms they'll understand (money and time). This is REALLY important!!
- The possibilities are endless. Development - you like writing code and solving problems. QA - you like finding bugs and being an advocate for the end user. Ops - you like not sleeping and being the hero. Product management - You love data, analysis and finding solutions and getting everyone to row in the same direction to make it happen. Project management - You have to care - about quality, about your team, about your product and make sure everyone has what they need to get things done on time. Management - you like leadership and diplomacy. And paperwork. And meetings.
- Practice the Golden Rule on yourself: do something every day that will make life easier for Future You. Always be learning - even if you don't get a chance to play with the latest technology, pay attention. Seek out people smarter than you and learn everything you can from them! Always be playing - it's a lot more fun for everyone that works with you if you have fun with your job. Always find a way to "level up" on every project.
- Remember that in order to teach someone something, you only need to know one thing. Support inclusion & diversity: Monocultural teams stagnate easily and miss opportunities. The more diversity, the more solutions, the faster/better the progress and eventual product! Advocate for doing the right thing in your company and in your community. You won’t always win, but it never hurts to speak up (diplomatically, of course).
- Find your place: Work somewhere they value your talents and support your career goals.
- Oh yeah, have some career goals. What kinds of things excite you? Find a place that lets you work on those.
- Balance is important. Have something outside of technology that makes you happy. Make time to get outside of the technology bubble and see the world (even better if work pays for that).