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Building Dev Skills While Staying at Your Current Job

Lena Morita
September 18, 2018

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!

Lena Morita

September 18, 2018
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Transcript

  1. Building Dev Skills While
    Staying at Your Current Job
    Tips for Career Changers

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  2. Who am I?

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  3. @mirka
    Lena Morita
    ● Former designer
    ● Director for Women Who Code
    Tokyo
    ● JavaScript Developer at
    Automattic

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  4. We’re hiring!

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  5. How I got here

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  6. @mirka
    Editorial Design
    UI/UX Design
    Development
    2007 2018
    What I was paid to do

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  7. @mirka
    Editorial Design
    Development (for fun!)
    UI/UX Design
    Development
    2007 2018
    What I was actually doing

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  8. Let’s talk money

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  9. @mirka
    Earning power
    Skill
    Compensation

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  10. @mirka
    Earning power
    Skill
    Compensation

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  11. @mirka
    Changing careers
    Skill
    &
    Comp
    Time
    Old career

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  12. @mirka
    Changing careers
    Skill
    &
    Comp
    Time
    Old career
    New
    career

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  13. @mirka
    Changing careers
    Skill
    &
    Comp
    Time
    Old career
    New
    career

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  15. How to transition
    smoothly?

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  16. Build up as much
    skill/experience
    before leaving your
    old career.

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  17. @mirka
    Enter at a higher level
    Skill
    &
    Comp
    Time
    Old career New
    career
    Prepare!

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  18. But how?

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  19. @mirka
    Learning checklist
    ● Read books/documentation
    ● Work through tutorials

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  20. @mirka
    Learning checklist
    ● Read books/documentation
    ● Work through tutorials
    ● “Real” experience

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  21. @mirka
    Learning checklist
    ● Read books/documentation
    ● Work through tutorials
    ● “Real” experience
    What do I build?
    How do I find the time?

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  22. Solve problems
    you actually have

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  23. Look for problems in
    your everyday life
    (and work!)

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  24. @mirka
    Everyday problems
    ● Repetitive actions
    ● Bad user interfaces
    ● Mentally-draining tasks

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  25. @mirka
    Maintenance
    ● Versioning (git, svn)
    ● Readable code
    ● Manageable structure

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  26. Some ideas

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  27. @mirka
    App scripting
    ● Google Apps Script
    ● Excel macros
    ● Apps you use for work

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  28. @mirka
    AppleScript or JXA
    ● Control scriptable Mac
    applications
    ● Automate tasks for work

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  29. @mirka
    Regular Expressions
    ● Master text manipulation
    ● Get your job done faster
    (?<=\.) {2,}(?=[A-Z])

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  30. @mirka
    Regular Expressions
    ● Master text manipulation
    ● Get your job done faster
    (?<=\.) {2,}(?=[A-Z])

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  31. @mirka
    Browser scripting
    ● Write scripts to alter the looks or
    behavior of websites
    ● Peek under the hood
    ● Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey
    ● Build a browser extension

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  32. Conclusion

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  33. Gain experience
    while making
    your life easier.

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  34. Thank you and good luck!

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