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Trisha Gee, Java Developer @ MongoDB
#YOW13
Career Advice for Programmers
@trisha_gee
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About Me1998 - 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
linke
din.
com
/in/t
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agee
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Photo courtesy of @sufw
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> What about you?
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You Own Your Career
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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
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> What do you want?
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Insert Picture/Table/Chart Here (but if picture doesn’t have a background, be sure to remove gray background, border, and shadow!)
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Developer Seeks Next Step5 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?
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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/
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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
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External Visibility• Work for a well known company
• Publicly visible projects
• StackOverflow
• Github / open source
• Blogging
• User Groups
• Conferences
• Write a book
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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
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Staying ahead of the curve
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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
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Remember
• Be Different
• Ask For What You Want
• Remember What’s Important
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> What’s next?
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When do you leave?
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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
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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?
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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?
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1. Do Your Homework
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2. Be Yourself
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3. Do Not Be Afraid
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4. It’s Up To You
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Choose your own adventure• Investing
• What do you want?
• Bootstrapping
• Staying Technical
• Switching Roles
• Other Skills
• Staying ahead of the curve
• Relocation
• Work / Life 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?
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What did I miss?
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Resources
• Conferences
• User Groups
• Books
• Mentors
• Blogs
• Stack Overflow
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Bootstrapping
• Internships / sponsorship
• Third year project
• Pet projects / open source
• Make your CV special
• See: Moving On
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Switching Roles
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Staying Technical
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Important Skills
• Research Skills
• Scientific Method
• Asking Questions
• Listening and Learning
• Interpersonal Skills
• English
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What about...?
• Relocation
• Work / Life Balance
• Being Different
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Getting Promoted
• See: Visibility Part 1
• Know the system
• Keep records
• Pick your friends wisely
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Salary negotiation(Part 1)
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Salary negotiation(Part 2)