Sara Packman - The Journey Over the Intermediate Gap

Congratulations on finishing your first tutorials or classes in python! In the parlance of the hero’s journey myth, you’ve had your ‘threshold moment”: you’ve started down a path that could lead to a long and fulfilling career. But the road to this glorious future is frustratingly obscured by a lack of guidance in the present. You know enough to realize that you don’t have all the skills you need yet, but it’s hard to know how to learn those skills, or even articulate what they are. There are no easy solutions to this problem. There are, however, a few fundamental things to know and advice to keep in mind. Drawing from my own experience and with input from others, I’ve compiled some helpful hints about the skills, tools, and guiding questions that will get you to mastery.

https://us.pycon.org/2018/schedule/presentation/108/

Transcript

1. The Journey Over the Intermediate Gap PyCon 2018
2. About Me @mssjpackman Graduated Hackbright Fall 2014 Software Engineer at Clover Health All-Purpose Nerd
3. First: The Hero’s Journey Ordinary World Special World THRESHOLD
4. First: The Hero’s Journey Ordinary World Special World THRESHOLD
5. First: The Hero’s Journey Ordinary World Special World THRESHOLD
6. First: The Hero’s Journey Ordinary World Special World THRESHOLD
7. Difficult to find materials for your level Consider: Django Girls Tutorial: • Install Python • This is your terminal • This is Django • Here’s some models • Here’s how to display the data • Go forth and build things!
8. Effective Python Functions are first-class objects in Python, meaning you can refer to them directly, assign them to variables, pass them as arguments to other functions, compare them in expressions and if statements, etc. -- Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python, by Brett Slatkin Page 32, Item 15
9. Effective Python Functions are first-class objects in Python, meaning you can refer to them directly, assign them to variables, pass them as arguments to other functions, compare them in expressions and if statements, etc. -- Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python, by Brett Slatkin Page 32, Item 15
10. Effective Python Functions are first-class objects in Python, meaning you can refer to them directly, assign them to variables, pass them as arguments to other functions, compare them in expressions and if statements, etc. -- Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python, by Brett Slatkin Page 32, Item 15
11. Effective Python Functions are first-class objects in Python, meaning you can refer to them directly, assign them to variables, pass them as arguments to other functions, compare them in expressions and if statements, etc. -- Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python, by Brett Slatkin Page 32, Item 15
12. Effective Python Functions are first-class objects in Python, meaning you can refer to them directly, assign them to variables, pass them as arguments to other functions, compare them in expressions and if statements, etc. -- Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python, by Brett Slatkin Page 32, Item 15
13. Effective Python Functions are first-class objects in Python, meaning you can refer to them directly, assign them to variables, pass them as arguments to other functions, compare them in expressions and if statements, etc. -- Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python, by Brett Slatkin Page 32, Item 15
14. Effective Python Functions are first-class objects in Python, meaning you can refer to them directly, assign them to variables, pass them as arguments to other functions, compare them in expressions and if statements, etc. -- Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python, by Brett Slatkin Page 32, Item 15
15. Everything feels like:
16. But you can get past this! How do I know? • I held an open space last year • I did it myself!
17. So how do you move forward from here?
18. 1. Step Over the Threshold
19. 2. Find your people
20. Who Are Mentors and Allies? People who are working in the same area as you (often, but not always with more experience) • Explain different technology disciplines • Help you get started on projects • Answers questions when you’re stuck
21. How do I find Mentors and Allies? • If you’re working, coworkers • Alumni associations • Community groups: PyLadies, Software/Data Carpentry • Domain centered groups, like ‘Programming for Historians’ • Open source projects
22. 3. Learn to work collaboratively
23. Working with others helps growth
24. CODE REVIEWS!
25. 4. Rely on the work of others (use libraries)
26. Use python’s ecosystem to move forward • The CSV module in the standard library takes care of parsing details • Requests takes care of HTTP details • There’s so many more in the standard library • And even more 3rd party packages
27. It’s not cheating, promise.
28. 5. Get to know your tooling
29. Tooling: time-consuming but worth it Some benefits of a well configured toolset: • Editor goodies! • Linters • Debuggers and REPLs
30. How to get there: IDE’s v. Text Editors Integrated Development Environments (IDE’s) Text Editors
31. 6. Study up
32. Books and MOOCs: Choose wisely Books can be a great supplement to learning through practical work • Pick books that match your learning style. • It’s okay to do things that seem too easy. • Go at your own pace, but don’t get bogged down
33. BUT WHAT DO I LEARN? Some concrete things that are always good to know: • Version control • Testing • Command line and shell navigation • Environment management tools like pyenv or conda.
34. The journey home (three parting thoughts)
35. To Summarize: • Step over the threshold • Find & rely upon your mentors and allies • Work collaboratively • Make use of libraries • Learn to use your tools • Study up, but choose carefully
36. Overarching Theme Little by little, one travels far -- Mexican proverb often misattributed to Gandalf
37. You Got This!
38. Thank You! @mssjpackman (come say hi at the job fair tomorrow!)