Small, smaller, huge - a perspective

At Scottish Ruby Conference 2014, I had the opportunity to present my journey through tech and show people that it is all a matter of perspective and that opportunities are for us to cease

Transcript

1. Eva Barabas ! How to make your life difficult in three easy steps :) SMALL, SMALLER, HUGE - A PERSPECTIVE
2. 1. The beginning SMALL ๏ First (co)-lightning talk was in 2012 at ScotRuby which was my first conference ( it was about teaching Ruby and it took about a minute) ๏ I was working for @epigenesys, a 9 person crew comprising of 6(ish) devs where full stack development was combined with mentoring and training students
3. 1. The beginning SMALL ๏ Coming from a traditional schooling background intertwined with some DBA experience in quite a corporate environment, I wasn’t quite ready for what opportunities the Ruby community and a small company had to offer
4. 2. Opportunities SMALL ๏ Attending and (co)-facilitating coderetreats ๏ Startup Weekend ๏ Sheffield Ruby User Group
5. 2. Opportunities SMALL EXTRA ๏ British Computing Society - South Yorkshire Branch ๏ Volunteering to teach a young offender how to code (a @yoomee initiatice)
6. 3. The transition THE TRANSITION ๏ After more than 2 happy years at @epigenesys I decided I wanted to do something else, so I started looking for new opportunities in Manchester ๏ If I learned anything, it is that the way you learn about a place is through the community around it
7. 3. The transition SMALLER ๏ Found Ian Moss from 196Destinations.com and worked with him on his pre-seed startup where I got hands on experience about startup life/freelancing ๏ Put myself out there by giving a lightning talk about mentoring at North West Ruby User group and Thoughworks International Women’s Day event
8. 4. The decision SMALLER ๏ Made sure that I would have similar values with any future employer as coming from a social enterprise like @epigensys meant I wanted to continue using my skills for good ๏ Chose 3 organisations which cared about social justice, social good or just putting the users first and applied for jobs with them
9. 4. The decision THE CHOICE ;) ๏ Not wanting to give up some of my “extracurricular” activities in Sheffield as well as choosing to challenge myself I took the role of Senior Software Developer at NHS Choices, part of HSCIC (Health and Social Care Information Centre), a government agency.
10. 5. Huge HUGE (NHS CHOICES) ๏ Mixed .NET / Ruby team focusing on building RESTful API services and clients ๏ Uses startupy tools and processes in a not so startupy environment (kanban, github, open source) ๏ We are currently 2 Rubyists and one of them is me :)
11. 5. Huge HUGE ๏ Have been with them for a month now and met some amazing people which I will get to share my knowledge with (Front End team, testing team) ๏ Got to be involved in the NHS.net beta platform and done a campaign for Be Clear On Cancer and look forward to more
12. 5. Huge HUGE OPPORTUNITIES ๏ Met the Leeds Web Development Group and hope to meet the Leeds Ruby Thing people in the near future ๏ Will get more involved in the Health 2.0 Manchester group
13. 6. The conclusion CONCLUSION ๏ It is all about perspective ๏ Small, smaller, huge are relative (6 devs - small, 2 devs/one-man-band - smaller, 2 Ruby devs - huge ;;) ) ๏ You make your own opportunities!
14. 6. The conclusion CONCLUSION (2) ๏ Follow your beliefs and values ๏ Work Hard ๏ Get involved and put yourself out there ๏ Challenge yourself
15. The awesome THANKS FOR LISTENING ๏ NHS Choices are hiring a Senior Ruby Developer in Leeds (sean.craig@nhs.net) so come and work with me :) ๏ Have some suggestions? Chat to me on twitter @b_seven_e