SLIDE 1 Trisha Gee, Java Developer @ MongoDB
#YOW13
Career Advice for Programmers
@trisha_gee
SLIDE 2 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... Java Developer / Evangelist @ MongoDB Inc
linkedin.com/in/trishagee
SLIDE 3 Photo courtesy of @sufw
SLIDE 4
> What about you?
SLIDE 5
You Own Your Career
SLIDE 6 Manage Your Career
- Requirements: What do you want?
- Implementation: How do you get it?
- Iterate: What’s next?
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You Own Your Career
SLIDE 8
> What do you want?
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Developer Seeks Next Step
5 years commercial Java experience Primarily web (JSP / Servlets) HTML / CSS / JavaScript Usability & User Experience Some exposure to “Agile” Some team leading Manufacturing, Education, Ad Serving
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Identify Your Values
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> How do you get it?
SLIDE 17 Insert Picture/Table/Chart Here (but if picture doesn’t have a background, be sure to remove gray background, border, and shadow!)
Visibility
http://www.flickr.com/photos/skuds/
SLIDE 18 Internal Visibility
- High visibility project
- In house extra-curricular activities
- Brown bags/internal user groups
- Update the wiki
- Introduce/manage a process/tech
- The Pub
SLIDE 19 External Visibility
- Work for a well known company
- Publicly visible projects
- StackOverflow
- Github / open source
- Blogging
- User Groups
- Conferences
- Write a book
SLIDE 20
Getting what you want
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Senior Developer Wants More
7 years Java Front- and Back-end Most recently Financial Markets Waterfall & Agile Some team lead experience
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It’s all about the People
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Experienced Consultant & Blogger Given a Shove
10 years Java experience Consultant & Developer Range of domains Experience of Agile & Continuous Delivery Tech blogger Leader in a London User Group
SLIDE 24
Staying ahead of the curve
SLIDE 25 Staying ahead of the curve
- Conferences
- StackOverflow
- Google Reader. Oh, wait...
- Use Twitter for Good
- Mailing lists
- Join a User Group. Or more than one.
- Hack days
- Books
- http://is.gd/stayingAhead
SLIDE 26 Remember
- Be Different
- Ask For What You Want
- Remember What’s Important
SLIDE 27
> What’s next?
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When do you leave?
SLIDE 29 Finding your perfect match
- Job websites
- Recruitment agents
- Friends
- User groups
- Conferences
- Stalk your heroes
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- The reader is very busy
- Stand out
- You are more than a list of technologies
- http://is.gd/cvAdvice
Your CV / résumé
SLIDE 31 Interviews
- Do your homework
- Interview them
- Be yourself
- http://is.gd/HireEd
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Saying yes...
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Ex-Consultant Needs a Job
8 years Java experience Mostly back-end Financial Markets consultant ...during the credit crunch
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...or no
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Apprentice Seeks Mastery
3 years Java experience JSP / Servlets, HTML, JavaScript XML / XSLT Mentor to experienced developers cross-training into Java Some exposure to Good Practice
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What’s the worst that could happen?
SLIDE 37 What happened to those developers?
- 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?
- Recruited (twice) to do Evangelism
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> In Summary?
SLIDE 43 #YOW13
Questions?
@trisha_gee trisha_gee@mongodb.com
SLIDE 44 Choose your own adventure
want?
- Bootstrapping
- Staying Technical
- Switching Roles
- Other Skills
- Staying ahead of
the curve
Balance
- Being Different
- Staying Put
- Visibility (pt 1)
- Getting what you
want
- Getting promoted
- Salary negotiation
- When to leave?
- Moving On
- Visibility (pt 2)
- Finding your
perfect match
- CVs / resumes
- Interviews
- Salary negotiation
- Acceptance
- What could
possibly go wrong?
SLIDE 45
What did I miss?
SLIDE 46 Resources
- Conferences
- User Groups
- Books
- Mentors
- Blogs
- Stack Overflow
- Twitter
SLIDE 47 Bootstrapping
- Internships / sponsorship
- Third year project
- Pet projects / open source
- Make your CV special
- See: Moving On
SLIDE 48
Switching Roles
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Staying Technical
SLIDE 50 Important Skills
- Research Skills
- Scientific Method
- Asking Questions
- Listening and Learning
- Interpersonal Skills
- English
SLIDE 51 What about...?
- Relocation
- Work / Life Balance
- Being Different
SLIDE 52 Getting Promoted
- See: Visibility Part 1
- Know the system
- Keep records
- Pick your friends wisely
SLIDE 53
Salary negotiation
(Part 1)
SLIDE 54
Salary negotiation
(Part 2)
