Secret Life of the Full Time Web Developer (what they don’t tell you in tutorials)

A peek into the average day of the average web developer after settling into a new company and a new skill set.

Transcript

1. Secret Life of the Full Time Web Developer
   (what they don’t tell you in tutorials)
   Rails Girls Atlanta
   July 29, 2015
   Pamela O. Vickers / @pwnela
   

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2. So you want to be a web developer, huh?
   

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3. tutorials
   

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4. project euler
   

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5. exercism.io
   

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6. hackathons
   

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7. meetups
   

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8. tech404.io
   

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10. interviews
    

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11. code samples
    

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12. pairing interviews
    

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13. offers
    

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14. counter offers
    

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16. internship
    

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17. apprenticeship
    

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18. full time junior developer
    

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19. full time senior developer
    

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20. Congrats!
    

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22. Celebrate!
    

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24. …now what?
    

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26. settle in
    

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27. sink or swim
    sink and swim
    

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28. ✨✨✨✨
    

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29. So how does an average day look and
    feel once you’re able to tread water?
    

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33. ****don’t do this, even though I do it
    

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36. rebase on master
    

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37. rebase on master
    (that means my git history now looks like
    I was working on master all along!)
    

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38. run my full test suite
    

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39. aka, MORE internet
    

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41. “RUNNING THE SPECS”
    TEST SUITE!
    

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42. *yes, that might mean your tests are too slow
    

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43. **no, we’re not going to talk about that
    today
    

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44. From this point, we might have two paths:
    

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45. 1) Did the tests pass?
    

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46. 2) Did the tests fail?
    

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47. Let’s follow both paths.
    

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49. Instead of freaking out immediately
    (easy to do),
    let’s look at common culprits
    

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50. (this checklist will vary,
    depending on your project)
    

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51. my checklist?
    

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52. Why are my tests failing?
    • did I run migrations?
    • did I “prepare” my test db after?
    • are there new environment variables that I am missing?
    • have I restarted my server recently?
    

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53. good news:
    there are usually error messages.
    

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54. even better news:
    you can read these error messages!
    

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55. trust your instincts; read the error messages;
    if you still have failures…then what?
    

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56. to the Slack!
    

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58. you might work on this the rest of the day!
    yay!
    

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59. OR it might be something obvious! whoops!
    

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60. don’t spin your wheels too long; maybe it is
    something quick to fix that someone else knows
    

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61. reminder:
    READ THE ERROR MESSAGE
    
    
    

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62. what if the tests pass?
    

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63. congrats, back to work on
    *that thing* you were working on…
    

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64. now what was it again….?
    

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65. warning: brain farts happen
    

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67. Be like Hansel and Gretel
    

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69. 
    • Leave yourself a failing or pending test that asserts what you
    need to build or fix next
    

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71. 
    • Leave yourself a failing or pending test that asserts what you
    need to build or fix next
    • Leave a comment on your pull request, last commit, or Pivotal
    Tracker (story tracking tool) about what you’ve done and have
    left to do
    

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73. 
    • Leave yourself a failing or pending test that asserts what you need
    to build or fix next
    • Leave a comment on your pull request, last commit, Pivotal
    Tracker (story tracking tool) about what you’ve done and have left
    to do
    • Leave a WIP commit as a little message to yourself containing
    whatever loose ends
    

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75. 
    • Leave yourself a failing or pending test that asserts what you need to
    build or fix next
    • Leave a comment on your pull request, last commit, Pivotal Tracker
    (story tracking tool) about what you’ve done and have left to do
    • Leave a WIP commit, as a little message all to yourself containing
    whatever loose ends
    • ??????????????????
    

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76. So, now you’re coding.
    

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78. exciting, right?
    

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83. but then…
    

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87. rinse, repeat
    

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89. remember what we did
    when the specs were failing?
    

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90. basically that.
    

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94. (screenhero)
    

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99. it ain’t easy!
    

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100. but that’s what they’re paying you for!
     

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101. post breakthrough:
     

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102. clean it up
     

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103. push it to github
     (or wherever)
     

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104. (probably) create a pull request
     

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105. ask for code reviews from your team mates
     

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106. brace yourself; comments are coming
     

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109. coffee
     

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110. looking at / applying / dealing with
     code changes
     

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111. writing / fixing your own code
     

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112. getting blocked & unblocked
     (repeatedly)
     

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113. asking for help and feedback
     from teammates or mentors
     

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114. always learning
     new things / approaches
     

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115. yep… that’s about it
     

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116. does this sound familiar?
     

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117. The daily life of a developer?
     

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118. troubleshooting,
     communicating,
     creating
     

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123. ❔❔
     

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124. Thanks!
     

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125. Links
     • tech404.io (#beginners_and_mentors, #all-the-nerdy-
     ladies, #rails-bridge-atl, #rails-hartl-tutorial, many
     others!)
     • screenhero.com (great for screen sharing)
     • google.com
     • stackoverflow.com
     • giphy.com
     • melissa.holmes.io/speaking.html (for talk on Pry)
     

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