A programmer’s cycle And all the good stuff that’s coming <3 <3 <3 Vero Rebagliatte Rails Girls Montevideo 2014

Let’s get started!

First you get a mentor, and start learning as much as you can from him/her.

It’s like a game... you face challenges, you overcome them, that makes you feel good... You go through each level and keep getting better at it...

All of a sudden... boom! You get your superpowers! How can you use them? Which goals/objectives do you have?

Do you have something to say? If you want to be heard, now you have the means to get that info out there and make yourself heard.

Do you care about any causes? More women in programming, open data, better healthcare, education... you name it. You can be a useful resource in non profit organizations and help the causes you care about the most.

Ship it! Get it out there! You have the means to make it happen <3

But it’s not just responsibilities... you’ll get plenty of candy as well :)

You’ll get to travel a lot!

To have client meetings or just to get together with your team <3

To attend/speak at conferences!

To participate in hackatons! Lucía Escanellas (at the right) is traveling to Italy next month to attend a open data Hackaton. In the picture we were coding back in 2011 in the first DAL event in Uruguay.

We got first place on that one. Yay!!!

Another goodie, is to have the opportunity of working remotely...

Last year my team and I rented a place at La Pedrera, Rocha and worked from there during the summer. We were really focused at the picture...

In this one we weren’t that focused ;)

In any case, the most important bits I want you to get out of this talk, is that now you are holding a seed. And you will get to grant this superpower you’ve just earned to others as well :)

You can do this behind scenes helping in the organization of a conference.

Or in a more visible way... by speaking at one.

And there’s no excuses! No matter if you just started, no matter if your company can’t found your trip. Michelle Guido is a role model in that matter. She’s speaking about just this in her talk in RubyConf Uruguay next Saturday. Her talk is entitled: ‘it takes a village to make a programmer’ and will cover how the community has helped her even to get the founds to get here to give this talk to us. She’s a go getter, and that’s the right attitude!

Other ways to spread the seed is to get together people who share your passion and create connections between them! You can do this by hosting a meetup group...

...or by organizing a workshop, just like the one we are at now!

...and even at a lower scale, by picking someone and couching him/her. Dedicating some of your time to give back the love. That’s Antonella Clavero and me on the picture. We’ve done a front-end workshop with her and Rosina Navazas.

The workshop included 4 deliverables: 3 projects, and a portfolio one, showcasing the rest of them. Here’s Antonella’s: http://holahongo.com/

And here’s Rosina’s: http://rosinanabazas.com/ So proud of them!!!!!

So... you get to choose. Are you gonna be the sun shining for everyone?

Or are you gonna be a laser light, really specific focused on a few individuals? In any case you are doing good :) You get to share!

And all of a sudden, we are back when we started. It’s a full cycle. Now **you** are the one who will mentor someone and help him/her to get the cycle started all over again.

And here’s some good news... Your cycle begins today!!!! Make it a good one! Thanks so much <3