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From Acorns to Raspberries

From Acorns to Raspberries

A hitchhiker’s guide to a career in software

Ben Nuttall

October 26, 2021
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  1. @ben_nuttall
    From Acorns to Raspberries
    A hitchhiker’s guide to a career in software

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  2. @ben_nuttall
    Ben Nuttall

    Senior Software Engineer, BBC
    News Labs

    Former Community Manager at
    Raspberry Pi

    From Sheffield

    Based in Cambridgeshire

    bennuttall.com

    twitter.com/ben_nuttall

    github.com/bennuttall

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  3. @ben_nuttall
    The Programming generational gap

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  4. @ben_nuttall
    Acorn computer

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  5. @ben_nuttall
    BBC Micro

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  6. @ben_nuttall
    Age of Empires

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  7. @ben_nuttall
    The family PC

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  8. @ben_nuttall
    ICT at school

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  9. @ben_nuttall
    Making websites with HTML, CSS and...
    MS Paint

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  10. @ben_nuttall
    Linux CD in the post

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  11. @ben_nuttall
    MATLAB & Java at Uni

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  12. @ben_nuttall
    Back to websites

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  13. @ben_nuttall
    Community

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  14. @ben_nuttall
    Open Source

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  15. @ben_nuttall
    App Start

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  16. @ben_nuttall
    10 years later: #1 on Hacker News
    https://bennuttall.com/the-surreal-experience-of-my-first-developer-job/
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28058816

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  17. @ben_nuttall
    Raspberry Pi

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  18. @ben_nuttall
    Raspberry Jam

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  19. @ben_nuttall
    Raspberry Pi Community

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  20. @ben_nuttall
    Raspberry Pi Foundation

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  21. @ben_nuttall
    Development & outreach

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  22. @ben_nuttall
    Community manager

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  23. @ben_nuttall
    GPIO Zero

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  24. @ben_nuttall
    piwheels

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  25. @ben_nuttall
    Space technician

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  26. @ben_nuttall
    BBC News Labs

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  27. @ben_nuttall
    Radio 4 Today programme

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  28. @ben_nuttall
    Radio 4 Today programme

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  29. @ben_nuttall
    Image search prototype

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  30. @ben_nuttall
    Finding your niche vs finding your breadth
    Web / software
    development
    Education /
    Outreach
    Programme management /
    Community management

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  31. @ben_nuttall
    Tools

    Languages & language-specific tools & frameworks

    Personal & collaborative developer tools

    Version control, IDEs, testing, CLI tools

    Distribution

    PyPI, npm, apt, rpm, snap

    Documentation

    Markdown, ReST, sphinx, readthedocs, graphviz

    DevOps / APIs / Cloud services

    Linux, AWS, GCP, SaaS

    Databases

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  32. @ben_nuttall
    Soft skills

    Communication

    Documentation

    Collaboration

    Ideation

    Scoping

    Estimation

    Prioritisation

    Marketing

    Writing tutorials

    Writing articles

    Producing / presenting video
    tutorials

    Explaining concepts

    Training & mentoring

    Presenting

    Feedback

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  33. @ben_nuttall
    Career paths

    Senior/Principal engineer

    Disciplines e.g. Front-end, back-end, ML/AI, data science

    Production vs prototype

    Testing & QA

    Team lead

    Technical Architect

    DevOps / Cloud

    Developer advocate / Developer relations

    Project manager / Product owner

    People manager

    Training

    Consulting

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  34. @ben_nuttall
    10 years in webdev
    2010

    HTML

    CSS

    JavaScript/jQuery

    Back-end language / framework

    SQL database
    2020

    2010

    HTML, Web components, VDOM

    CSS, Sass, Tailwind

    NodeJS, Webpack, Express, npm

    React, Redux, Bootstrap

    SQL or NoSQL database

    AWS

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  35. @ben_nuttall
    AWS

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  36. @ben_nuttall
    Community

    Open source projects

    Community events

    Conferences

    Barcamps

    Online communities

    Online learning resources

    Social media

    Coding challenges

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  37. @ben_nuttall
    From Acorns to Raspberries
    A hitchhiker’s guide to a career in software

    View Slide