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Career Advice for Programmers
Trisha Gee shares career advice for programmers, emphasizing the importance of owning and managing one's career through clear goals and visibility, both internal and external. She highlights essential skills needed for growth, including research, interpersonal skills, and active participation in the community. Ultimately, the guidance encourages professionals to continually learn and adapt while remaining true to themselves.
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Career Advice for Programmers
- 1. — Trisha Gee (@trisha_gee) Developer& Technical Advocate, JetBrains Career Advice for Programmers
- 2. Or: The Stuffthat No-One Tells You
- 3. About Me • 1998- 2000 Undergraduate @ Ford Motor Company • 2001 Graduated (Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence) • 2001 - 2002 Web Engineer @ Common Purpose • 2002 - 2004 Analyst Developer @ Ford Motor Company • 2004 - 2005 Java / Web Developer @ Touch Clarity • 2005 Business Engineer @ Credit card company • 2006 - 2008 Principal Consultant @ Evolution / Detica • 2008 Java Developer @ well known media firm • 2009 - 2012 Java Developer @ LMAX Financial Exchange • 2011 Principal Consultant @ ThoughtWorks • 2012 - 2014 Java Developer / Evangelist @ MongoDB Inc • 2015… Developer Advocate @ JetBrains
- 5.
- 6. • History –London was sort of shit in 2000 https://flic.kr/p/FBQQ
- 7.
- 8. You Own YourCareer
- 9. Manage Your Career •Requirements: What do you want? • Implementation: How do you get it? • Iterate: What’s next?
- 10. You Own YourCareer
- 11. > What do youwant?
- 12. • Insert Picture/Table/ChartHere (but if picture doesn’t have a background, be sure to remove gray background, border, and shadow!)
- 16. Developer Seeks NextStep 5 years Java experience JSP, Servlets, HTML, JavaScript Usability & User Experience Some exposure to “Agile” Some team leading Manufacturing, Education, Ad Serving
- 17.
- 19.
- 20. > How do youget it?
- 21.
- 22. Internal Visibility • Highvisibility project • In house extra-curricular activities • Brown bags/internal user groups • Update the wiki • Introduce/manage a process/tech • The Pub
- 23. External Visibility • Workfor a well known company • Publicly visible projects • StackOverflow • Github / open source • Blogging • User Groups • Conferences • Write a book
- 24. Be Your OwnChampion
- 25. Senior Developer Needsto Grow 7 years Java Front- and Back-end Most recently Financial Markets Some team lead experience
- 26.
- 27. It’s all aboutthe People
- 28. Experienced Consultant &Blogger Given a Shove 10 years Java experience Consultant & Developer Range of domains Tech blogger Leader in a London User Group
- 29.
- 30. Staying ahead ofthe curve
- 31. Staying ahead ofthe curve • Conferences • StackOverflow • Google Reader. Oh, wait... • Twitter • Mailing lists • Join a User Group. Or more than one. • Hack days • Books • http://bit.ly/2qaIjTk (Staying Ahead of the Curve) • http://bit.ly/buzz-pc (Becoming Fully Buzz Word Compliant)
- 32. Important Skills • ResearchSkills • Scientific Method • Asking Questions • Listening and Learning • Interpersonal Skills • English
- 33.
- 34. When do youleave?
- 35. Finding your perfectmatch • Job websites • Recruitment agents • Friends • User groups • Conferences • Stalk your heroes • Sometimes, they find you.
- 36. Your CV /résumé • The reader is very busy • Stand out • Get a native to check the language • You are more than a list of technologies • http://bit.ly/cvAdvice
- 37. Interviews • Do yourhomework • Interview them • Be yourself • http://bit.ly/hireEdu
- 38.
- 39. Ex-Consultant Needs aJob 8 years Java experience Mostly back-end Financial Markets consultant ...during the credit crunch
- 40.
- 41.
- 42. Apprentice Seeks Mastery 3years Java experience JSP / Servlets, HTML, JavaScript XML / XSLT Mentor to experienced developers cross- training into Java Some exposure to Good Practice
- 43.
- 44. What’s the worstthat could happen?
- 45. What happened atthe end of the story? • 5 years experience wanting the Next New Thing? • Changed job in 3 months • Consultant who needed a job? • Changed job in 3 months • Java developer with 10 years experience? • Now “famous” Java Champion
- 46.
- 47. 1. Do YourHomework
- 48.
- 49. 3. Do NotBe Afraid
- 50. 4. It’s UpTo You
- 51.
- 52. What about...? • Relocation •Work / Life Balance • Being Different
Editor's Notes
- #3 This is not necessarily How To Get A Kick Ass Job Right Now This is how to level up It’s a long game
- #5 Currently doing exactly what I want to do And worked deliberately to get this job - Coding - Speaking / travelling - Blogging - Plus real variability - distributed - wanted someone who wanted to hire ME And working remotely
- #8 How many years experience? 0,2,5,10,20? Any graduates? Developer/architect/tech lead Going to ask for advice off you guys Are you going to pass on the advice to someone else? Is anyone NOT from Seville? Anyone NOT from the south? Anyone NOT from Spain?
- #9 You don’t work for a company that manages you Whoever you are You manage your career This is no different from any other development activity
- #11 - would you trust someone else? - Let your passions guide you - You job is just a step on your career path - Your goals can change - progressing your career vs changing roles
- #12 Not “I want to be an architect in 5 years time”
- #13 Money, riches... A yacht like Larry Ellison
- #14 For you it might be to provide for your family Or spend more time with them
- #15 Reunite families in war torn countries Facebook means we can talk to people from school Make things cheaper and easier
- #16 It’s fine if you don’t know what you want For me, it was always about not locking myself down About having the widest variety of options open Which meant getting experience in a range of domains My VALUES are growth, learning, variety ...and money. Enough money.
- #17 Egg - Finance - Business Analysis
- #19 It’s fine if you don’t know what you want But you need to have something to guide you You might still get there without the values & principles, but it will take you longer
- #20 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Michael Nygard: Values - communication, collaboration, etc - Kevlin Henney - Principles - From Jeff Hawkins’ Keynote: Live Better, Learn More - Scott Hanselman - Not to be poor It’s almost definitely not “to learn Spring” Job vs Career career options & future
- #21 This is not going to be about the technical skills you need to acquire Being good at what you do is not enough
- #22 Developers hate to hear this - I hated being told this at Ford It’s not enough to be good at your job It’s political But no-one sees you behind that computer It gets you what you want (the projects you want) - circular - better projects is better visibility and better people It gets you promoted
- #23 STORY: telling your minion at Detica about this Get to know people outside your team So many activities: - women in IT - graduate rotations - brown bags (presenting, setting up, or showing videos) - internal user groups - weekly e-mails of events - even updating the wiki - say “yes” - setting standards - community involvement (painting fences etc)
- #24 STORY: FordJourney ... you do the things you love, and someone who loves that stuff will find you. We get asked this all the time in the LJC STORY: Mongo we hire people in the community, at the very least I look for this on your CV STORY: I’ve recruited people through the LJC STORY: This is how I got this job
- #25 Be cheeky - ask for it Find out who to talk to STORY: Getting the NYC gig
- #26 Happy with my technical skills Happy with my career new found freedom Moving to New York
- #28 People who have impacted my career Find role models from everywhere Talk to people about your goals Webber: Your Mates’ mates’ are where your next job comes from
- #29 Starting to feel reasonably mature, confident Getting a handle on what I’m good at and interested in Story o how you got presenting
- #31 If you don’t keep reading though you’ll end up doing the same job forever - maybe that’s OK, or maybe you’re stagnating or limiting yourself
- #32 Don’t Panic STORY: MongoDB Community Support - answer questions on your own subject STORY: Never needed Hibernate Twitter is a way to surf the tide and dip in when you need to You don’t need everything
- #33 Patience and practice Sad but true STORY: live in Spain What do you mean interpersonal skills, and why?
- #34 Maybe someone will come to you and hire you for the Best Job Ever Maybe you’re very successful in your own company
- #35 First: talk to your company Don’t get desperate!!! “It depends” When I stop learning - Left Ford to stay technical - Left one of my favourite jobs because I did not have the knowledge to fix their problems. Also because of external pressure
- #36 It’s like dating. Online dating is fine too. Your Mates’ mates’ are where your next job comes from STORY: ThoughtWorks at QCon I’m going to assume you’ve covered visibility, asked for what you want, moved internally You can wait for them to come to you... STORY: before Mongo, was asked to be a senior techy at two different startups All companies are not created equal It’s like dating same job title is not the same job what’s important to you? ** Hunt down companies with the same values as you consultant vs contractor vs permie software firm vs IT department *Patience - STORY: Google and UBS approaching me too late
- #37 I’ve read a lot of CVs - Customise your cover letter - First page is most important - Spelling, punctuation and grammar! - Evidence required: “Good interpersonal skills” - Cater for search engines but don’t pander to them STORY: how I screened CVs everywhere
- #38 Dan and I did a whole talk on this one topic I’ve interviewed for a number of companies ask to see their office and meet the team see the code if they turn you down, you probably don’t want to work there Try and relax
- #39 - does it meet your requirements? - what does your gut say? Figure out your values and find out theirs match on this, not on “will I learn hibernate” or “is it the best paid”
- #40 STORY: Sky weighing up pros and cons
- #42 - Why wouldn’t you? (BRENT)
- #43 STORY: accepting TC over XBridge (money vs a CEO who was weird about women) Identify shitty jobs
- #45 Don’t burn your bridges! Went back to LMAX Went back to Ford
- #46 STORY: Media job was a terrible choice, but I ended up being in the right place for Tradefair STORY: Credit Card job gave me that step into Finance
- #48 3. Work out who you are - what you’re good at - what you enjoy - where you want to go - tinkerer vs do-er vs team player don’t have to have all the answers and you probably won’t know this right away 1. Work out what is out there 2. Work out what you’re worth
- #49 - in the company, if you’re you around people they’ll like you - in interview/CV this is what I want to see - find jobs that suit you Pick based on your values I never wanted to lock myself down I wanted my future open I enjoy technical stuff I love to learn off people
- #50 Embrace change - Moving to TW was the best thing that happened to my career There is an undo. You can even go back It’s not your current job or this new one it’s this new one or that one or another or the one that hasn’t come by yet It’s just a job. It’s not marriage If only you could shop around, like seeing multiple people at once
- #51 OK four is not a trendy number But this is the take away pointu Only you are going to be able to look after you
- #53 Relocation: Darren @ Ford; Me in NYC; Isra to London Work/life balance: understand where you are now in life and the trade offs. put it into your criteria Family: STORY of the guy at Ford who gave it all up to be with his son. Dress code: Gerry Weddle at Ford * Being a woman in IT Being different gets you noticed