Do you know how to remain a programmer? To avoid being “promoted” into positions away from technology and code? Did they teach you at university that you need social skills to be a good developer? What other skills do you need that aren't technical? Did you know that all development roles are not created equal? Is it true that moving jobs a lot is a Bad Thing? In this session, Trisha Gee (Java Champion, 2015 MongoDB Master, 2016/2014/2012 JavaOne Rock Star & Technical Advocate for JetBrains) will share some lessons she learnt the hard way over nearly twenty years of managing her career as a Java developer. She'll talk about what's really important to developers when thinking about their careers, and give you tools for working out what your next steps are. If nothing else, you’ll get to laugh at the (many) mistakes I’ve made in my search for The Perfect Job.
12. • Insert Picture/Table/Chart Here (but if picture doesn’t have a background, be sure to
remove gray background, border, and shadow!)
16. Developer Seeks Next Step
5 years Java experience
JSP, Servlets, HTML, JavaScript
Usability & User Experience
Some exposure to “Agile”
Some team leading
Manufacturing, Education, Ad Serving
22. 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
23. External Visibility
• Work for a well known company
• Publicly visible projects
• StackOverflow
• Github / open source
• Blogging
• User Groups
• Conferences
• Write a book
28. Experienced Consultant & Blogger Given a
Shove
10 years Java experience
Consultant & Developer
Range of domains
Tech blogger
Leader in a London User Group
31. Staying ahead of the 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
• Research Skills
• Scientific Method
• Asking Questions
• Listening and Learning
• Interpersonal Skills
• English
35. Finding your perfect match
• 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 your homework
• Interview them
• Be yourself
• http://bit.ly/hireEdu
42. 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
45. What happened at the 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
This is not necessarily How To Get A Kick Ass Job Right Now
This is how to level up
It’s a long game
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
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?
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
- 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
Not “I want to be an architect in 5 years time”
Money, riches...
A yacht like Larry Ellison
For you it might be to provide for your family
Or spend more time with them
Reunite families in war torn countries
Facebook means we can talk to people from school
Make things cheaper and easier
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.
Egg
- Finance
- Business Analysis
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
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
This is not going to be about the technical skills you need to acquire
Being good at what you do is not enough
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
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)
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
Be cheeky - ask for it
Find out who to talk to
STORY: Getting the NYC gig
Happy with my technical skills
Happy with my career
new found freedom
Moving to New York
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
Starting to feel reasonably mature, confident
Getting a handle on what I’m good at and interested in
Story o how you got presenting
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
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
Patience and practice
Sad but true
STORY: live in Spain
What do you mean interpersonal skills, and why?
Maybe someone will come to you and hire you for the Best Job Ever
Maybe you’re very successful in your own company
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
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
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
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
- 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”
STORY: Sky weighing up pros and cons
- Why wouldn’t you? (BRENT)
STORY: accepting TC over XBridge
(money vs a CEO who was weird about women)
Identify shitty jobs
Don’t burn your bridges!
Went back to LMAX
Went back to Ford
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
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
- 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
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
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
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