Career Hacks for Software Engineers

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Career Hacks for Software Engineers Mike McQuaid

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career ! “an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress”

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hack ! “a strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one's time and daily activities in a more efficient way”

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career ! “move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way”

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hack ! “a person who does dull routine work”

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why us?

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who the hell are you?

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Mike McQuaid @MikeMcQuaid mike@mikemcquaid.com Software Engineer

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Mike McQuaid Made lots of career mistakes so you don’t have to

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UoE 2003-2007 Computer Science & Management Science

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Fail ! Not getting good enough at Counterstrike to go professional

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Fail ! Not getting good enough at Counterstrike to go professional Being lazy

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Fail ! Studying Business Studies

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Fail ! Studying Business Studies (just because it was easy)

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Summer 2006

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2007-8

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Fail ! Applying to work for huge company

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Fail ! Applying to work for huge company Accepting first job you applied for

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Win ! When you hate your job get another job you don’t hate

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Win ! When you hate your job get another job you don’t hate (yet)

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Fail ! Being negative about your employer’s products in a blog post

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Fail ! Not working for a software company

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2008-9

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Win ! Contribute to open-source software

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Win ! Work for a software company

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Win ! When you hate your job get another job you don’t hate

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Win ! When you hate your job get another job you don’t hate (yet)

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Fail ! Telling a future employer how much your previous employer paid you

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Fail ! Not knowing how much you are worth

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Fail ! Expecting work/life balance as first employee

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Fail ! Expecting work/life balance as first employee at a startup

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Fail ! Expecting work/life balance as first employee at a startup in London

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2009-12

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Win ! When you hate your job get another job you don’t hate

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Win ! Apply for your dream job

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Win ! Apply for your dream job (multiple times)

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Win ! Keep your cost of living low compared to your pay

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Win ! Ask for pay rises

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Fail ! Thinking a software consulting company is a software company

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Fail ! Specialising in a niche technology

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2012-13

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Win ! Work out how much you are worth and ask for it

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Win ! Learning that programming is 95% the same regardless of language

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2013-?

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Win ! Apply for your dream job (multiple times)

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Win ! Work out how much you are worth and ask for it

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Fail? ! Stay in Edinburgh forever? Write a book? Make drastic changes to a popular open-source project?

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Win? ! Stay in Edinburgh forever? Write a book? Make drastic changes to a popular open-source project?

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why did you do this?

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http://blog.codinghorror.com http://joelonsoftware.com http://randsinrepose.com http://thedailywtf.com