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

As given to the Ladies of Tech Talent South meetup
April 21, 2016

Transcript

1. Secret Life of the Full Time Web Developer
   (what they don’t tell you in tutorials)
   Ladies of TTS
   April 21, 2016
   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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9. AlltheNerdyLadies.slack.com
   

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11. interviews
    

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12. code samples
    

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13. pairing interviews
    

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14. offers
    

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15. counter offers
    

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17. internship
    

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18. apprenticeship
    

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19. full time junior developer
    

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20. full time senior developer
    

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21. Congrats!
    

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24. Celebrate!
    

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27. …now what?
    

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30. settle in
    

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31. sink or swim
    

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32. sink and swim
    

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33. ✨✨✨✨
    

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

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

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46. rebase on master
    

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

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48. run my full test suite
    

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49. aka, MORE internet
    

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54. “RUNNING THE SPECS”
    TEST SUITE!
    

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

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

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

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58. 1) Did the tests pass?
    

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59. 2) Did the tests fail?
    

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60. Let’s follow both paths.
    

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

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

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64. my checklist?
    

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65. 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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66. good news:
    there are usually error messages.
    

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

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

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69. to the Slack!
    

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

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72. OR it might be something obvious! whoops!
    

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

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74. reminder:
    READ THE ERROR MESSAGE
    
    
    

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75. reminder:
    READ THE ERROR MESSAGE
    
    
    

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76. what if the tests pass?
    

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

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78. now what was it again….?
    

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79. warning: brain farts happen
    

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82. Be like Hansel and Gretel
    

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85. 
    • Leave yourself a failing or pending test that asserts what you
    need to build or fix next
    

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87. 
    • 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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89. 
    • 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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91. 
    • 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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92. So, now you’re coding.
    

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94. exciting, right?
    

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103. but then…
     

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110. rinse, repeat
     

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

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114. basically that.
     

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119. (screenhero)
     

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127. it ain’t easy!
     

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

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129. post breakthrough:
     

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130. clean it up
     

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131. push it to github
     (or wherever)
     

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132. (probably) create a pull request
     

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133. ask for code reviews from your team mates
     

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134. brace yourself; comments are coming
     

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138. coffee
     

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139. coffee
     

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140. looking at / applying / dealing with
     code changes
     

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141. writing / fixing your own code
     

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142. getting blocked & unblocked
     (repeatedly)
     

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143. asking for help and feedback
     from teammates or mentors
     

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144. always learning
     new things / approaches
     

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145. yep… that’s about it
     

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146. does this sound familiar?
     

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147. The daily life of a developer?
     

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148. troubleshooting,
     communicating,
     creating
     

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153. ❔❔
     

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154. Thanks!
     

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155. Links
     • tech404.io (#beginners_and_mentors, #all-the-nerdy-
     ladies, #rails-bridge-atl, #rails-hartl-tutorial, many others!)
     • allthenerdyladies.slack.com (ask Megan!)
     • 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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