Keeping your skills sharp in an ever changing industry

Given at the first NIdevConf 2017 on the 10th June.

Our industry evolves at breakneck speed. Being a developer is rewarding but keeping up with the latest technologies, techniques and tools is a constant struggle.

I share my experience of Continuous Learning, and failing to learn!, over the last seventeen years, discussing what I have done wrong, and what I have done right.

Transcript

1. Keeping your skills sharp in
   an ever changing industry Stephen McCullough
   

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2. Who am I?
   • Stephen McCullough
   
   • Lead Engineer @ ShopKeep
   
   • @swmcc on most interwebs
   
   • Co-organiser of:
   
   • Belfast Ruby
   
   • pyBelfast
   
   • Belfast Elixir
   
   • I will *try* and behave
   

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3. Disclaimer on the talk!!
   

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4. “Sharpen” v “Hone”
   • I picked the title carefully believe it or not…
   • Why?
   • Honing - You “hone” a knife that’s already sharp to
   make it sharper.
   • Sharpen - You “sharpen” a knife that’s dull or partially
   dull.
   

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5. -Stephen McCullough - Linkedin Intro
   “I have over seventeen years experience in
   web to database integration and transaction
   based web application development. I am an
   innovative self-starter, motivated by new
   challenges and an accomplished team leader
   with a professional and dynamic approach to
   the industry.”
   

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6. Really?? Over seventeen years of experience??
   • No!
   • Not even close! - Ten years at most!
   • Spent many years doing the same thing over and over
   again.
   • Dulling/blunting my skills overtime.
   • Not everyday is a school day.
   • Not growing as a developer.
   

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7. 10th January 2000
   • 17 years, 5 months and 1 day
   have passed since the 10th of
   January, 2000.
   
   • Music #1 - I Have A Dream /
   Seasons In The Sun - Westlife
   
   • Movie #1 - Stuart Little
   
   • Bill Clinton was US President
   
   • Tony Blair was UK Prime
   minister
   
   • I had *hair* and a *waist*
   
   • I started work at BlackStar.co.uk
   

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8. Timeline of the jobs I have had
   • 2000
   • BlackStar (programmer)
   • 2001-2002
   • Bytel (programmer/sys admin)
   • 2002 - 2007
   • BlackStar (programmer)
   

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9. Timeline of the jobs I have had (part 2)
   • 2007 - 2008
   • Maildistiller (programmer)
   • 2009
   • RehabStudio (programmer)
   • 2009 - 2012
   • Tascomi (programmer)
   

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10. Timeline of the jobs I have had (part 3)
    • 2012 - 2013
    • RepKnight (programmer)
    • 2013 - 2015
    • MissionIQ (programmer)
    • 2015 - current
    • ShopKeep (programmer)
    

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11. My Career Map
    • 2000 - 2004
    
    • Learning my craft (programming)
    
    • 2004 - 2008
    
    • Staying afloat
    
    • 2009
    
    • A bit of learning
    
    • 2009 - 2012
    
    • Stayling afloat
    
    • 2012+
    
    • Sharpening and now learning
    

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12. Learning your craft
    • Easy to learn at the start of a job/career
    • Everything is new
    • Through mistakes
    • Through mentorship
    • Honeymoon period
    • Wanting to prove yourself
    

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13. Staying afloat
    • Nothing is new anymore
    • You can do your job/tasks at break neck speed
    • Mentorship is no longer required
    • Mistakes are rare
    • Easily rectified and known
    • No longer feel the need to prove yourself
    

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14. A bit of learning
    • Event Driven Learning (EDL)
    • Not a nice situation to be in
    • Highly stressed
    • Not enjoyable
    • Means to an end
    • No endorphins to be found here
    • Diservice to your current company/colleagues
    

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15. Sharpening now learning
    • A ‘watershed’ moment
    • Thursday night in early 2012
    • Past colleagues started talking about their jobs
    • Words I never head of before
    • node / backbone / redis
    • A ‘watershed’ moment turned into a ‘oh moment’
    

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16. How to sharpen?
    • Where did I start?
    
    • Basically read everything
    
    • Podcasts
    
    • Youtube videos
    
    • Code katas
    
    • Github/Gitlab stalking
    
    • Local community meetups
    

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17. Consume content
    • Most of it is free and there is so much out there.
    • Blogs
    • Podcasts
    • Talks
    • Slack Channels
    • IRC rooms
    

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18. Geek Crushes
    • Having a geek crush is an excellent way of learning.
    • Katrina Owen (github)
    • Paddy Carrey
    

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19. Geek Crushes (cont’d)
    • Steve Rushe
    • ?????
    

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20. How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
    • Code Katas
    • Sound awful but are actually very helpful
    • My kata of choice is the ordinal one. 1st 22nd etc
    • Yes it is very simple but helps me concentrate
    • Anyone that takes pride in their craft practises in some
    degree
    

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21. Peer Review
    • Really the only way to get better
    • Codeschool
    • Pluralsight
    • They will only teach *how* to programme
    • Peer review is essential to being a better developer
    • Can be daunting but there are nice people out there
    

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22. How to start
    • Open Source Contributions
    • Excellent way of learning
    • Passion is essential
    • Start an app with friends
    • Excellent way of learning
    • Passion is essential
    • Emulate peer review
    • http://exercism.io/
    

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23. Local User Groups
    • Belfast has lots of user groups
    • USE THEM!
    • Get involved!
    • Local companies wanting to do good
    • Vibrant development community
    • Get involved!
    

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24. Find a place that cares
    • I currently work for ShopKeep
    • They actually care!
    

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25. Here it comes
    • If you care what others think then
    you’ll never really learn
    
    • People that aren’t worth
    thinking about
    
    • “I’ll let my work do the
    talking!”
    
    • “Oh you must think highly of
    yourself!”
    
    • “You like to show off!”
    
    • “I’m a better developer and
    don’t feel the need to”
    
    • ITS YOU THAT IS IN CHARGE!
    

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26. –@swmcc
    “That’s it. FIN!”
    

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