Upgrade to Pro — share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …

Sustainable Career Development: Advancing While...

Sustainable Career Development: Advancing While Still Having Free Time

In this talk, we'll examine the pressure in the tech industry to participate in work-related extracurriculars like side projects and meetups. We'll analyze where these expectations come from, what they're actually getting at, and talk about ideas for progressing in our careers without losing sight of the things in life that make us happy outside of work.

Noelle Daley

June 22, 2016
Tweet

More Decks by Noelle Daley

Other Decks in Programming

Transcript

  1. Sustainable Career Development: Advancing While Still Having Free Time Noelle

    Daley | @elnoelle Open Source Bridge 2016 | https://goo.gl/Ms5Onc
  2. What are we going to talk about? 1. Pressure to

    participate in work-related extracurriculars 2. What that pressure is actually getting at 3. How we can advance our careers without giving up our free time
  3. What are we going to talk about? People who care

    deeply about their work, but don’t want to lose sight of other hobbies or priorities.
  4. Hi!

  5. Goals 1. Acknowledge pressure in the industry to do outside

    work 2. Know that you’re not alone 3. Practical ideas for advancing your career
  6. What is “pressure”? Pressure: feeling of obligation to participate in

    work-related activities outside of working hours
  7. What kinds of activities? • Attending meetups or conferences •

    Reading technical blogs or books • Side projects • Public speaking
  8. Motivations 1. Keeping up with coworkers 2. Keeping up with

    the industry 3. Learning opportunities 4. General curiosity
  9. “ “… worried that I'll fall behind in the eyes

    of management if I don't devote personal time to advancing my technical skills.”
  10. “ “The need to stay up to date with the

    fast pace of technology.” “Staying relevant; adding or maintaining skills.”
  11. “ “Would like to improve my career in ways that

    are not open to me within my day job. Seeking these opportunities outside of work are my only avenue at this moment.”
  12. “ “I feel like I need to participate in these

    activities in order to… set myself up for success in the industry, but I mainly do it because I genuinely enjoy it.”
  13. When we expect people to use their leisure time for

    career development, we’re systematically excluding those without the privilege of time or energy.
  14. “ “trying to live up to [the culture’s expectations] may

    lead to drug use, workaholism, heroism, alcoholism.” Shanley Kane, “10x Engineer”
  15. “ dichotomy between amazing and terrible can “lead people to

    think they must think about programming every waking moment of their life” Jacob Kaplan-Moss, PyCon 2015 Keynote
  16. Why things are the way they are 1. Passion rhetoric

    2. Side projects 3. Github as a resume
  17. “ “If I fail to put [code] ahead of friends

    and family… am I failing to give the team my 100%?” Avdi Grimm, “The Moderately Enthusiastic Programmer”
  18. “ “the industry’s emphasis on [side projects] inherently disadvantages people

    who cannot regularly work on them.” Terri Burns, “Side Project Culture: Opportunities and Obstacles for Marginalized People in Tech”
  19. • How do you manage your time? • How do

    you communicate? • How do you collaborate with others? • How well do you meet deadlines? • How do you handle conflict? • How do you make decisions? • What do you do when you get stuck?
  20. Kwu’s Guide to Learning 1. Have a general sense of

    the direction you want your career to go in 2. Figure out the ONE thing you can do that will have the most impact 3. Decide how to measure progress 4. Figure out what the most effective way for you to progress 5. Evaluate if method is useful 6. Rinse & repeat
  21. Summary • This industry expects a lot of us •

    There are many different factors for this • You can advance your career without succumbing to pressure by optimizing the time you have at work and changing the way you think • You are not alone!
  22. Credits & Related Reading • http://allmalepanels.tumblr.com/ • Juliana Arrighi, “Finding

    Your Own Learning Path”, https://goo.gl/rin3Fj • Terri Burns, “Side Project Culture: Opportunities and Obstacles for Marginalized People in Tech”, https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/side-project-culture- opportunities-and-obstacles-for-marginalized-people-in-tech • Avdi Grimm, “The Moderately Enthusiastic Programmer”, devblog.avdi. org/2014/01/31/the-moderately-enthusiastic-programmer/ • Lara Hogan, “The Importance of Donuts”, http://larahogan.me/donuts/ • http://www.babevibes.com/the-pep-talk-generator/ • Shanley Kane, “10x Engineer”, Your Startup is Broken: Inside The Toxic Heart of Tech Culture • Jacob Kaplan-Moss, PyCon 2015 Keynote, https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=hIJdFxYlEKE • Katherine Wu, “Continuing Education at Work”, https://speakerdeck. com/kwugirl/continuing-education-at-work-self-dot-conference