Building Dev Skills While Staying at Your Current Job

Want to transition smoothly into a tech role? Here are some tips for the risk-averse who are interested in switching careers, but can't just drop everything and leave!

Transcript

1. Building Dev Skills While Staying at Your Current Job Tips for Career Changers
2. Who am I?
3. @mirka Lena Morita • Former designer • Director for Women Who Code Tokyo • JavaScript Developer at Automattic
4. We’re hiring!
5. How I got here
6. @mirka Editorial Design UI/UX Design Development 2007 2018 What I was paid to do
7. @mirka Editorial Design Development (for fun!) UI/UX Design Development 2007 2018 What I was actually doing
8. Let’s talk money
9. @mirka Earning power Skill Compensation
10. @mirka Earning power Skill Compensation
11. @mirka Changing careers Skill & Comp Time Old career
12. @mirka Changing careers Skill & Comp Time Old career New career
13. @mirka Changing careers Skill & Comp Time Old career New career
15. How to transition smoothly?
16. Build up as much skill/experience before leaving your old career.
17. @mirka Enter at a higher level Skill & Comp Time Old career New career Prepare!
18. But how?
19. @mirka Learning checklist • Read books/documentation • Work through tutorials
20. @mirka Learning checklist • Read books/documentation • Work through tutorials • “Real” experience
21. @mirka Learning checklist • Read books/documentation • Work through tutorials • “Real” experience What do I build? How do I find the time?
22. Solve problems you actually have
23. Look for problems in your everyday life (and work!)
24. @mirka Everyday problems • Repetitive actions • Bad user interfaces • Mentally-draining tasks
25. @mirka Maintenance • Versioning (git, svn) • Readable code • Manageable structure
26. Some ideas
27. @mirka App scripting • Google Apps Script • Excel macros • Apps you use for work
28. @mirka AppleScript or JXA • Control scriptable Mac applications • Automate tasks for work
29. @mirka Regular Expressions • Master text manipulation • Get your job done faster (?<=\.) {2,}(?=[A-Z])
30. @mirka Regular Expressions • Master text manipulation • Get your job done faster (?<=\.) {2,}(?=[A-Z])
31. @mirka Browser scripting • Write scripts to alter the looks or behavior of websites • Peek under the hood • Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey • Build a browser extension
32. Conclusion
33. Gain experience while making your life easier.
34. Thank you and good luck!