How to become a Badass Hacker (RUTM Edition)

These are my slides from the Rutgers Tech Meetup in February 2014. One of my personal missions is to help Rutgers hackers acquire the tools, skills, and connections that they need to be awesome (or at least substantially badass). These are some of the things I learned along the way that might help someone get there.

Transcript

1. How to become a Badass Hacker by @SwiftAlphaOne
2. Note: Not Ryan Gosling. @SwiftAlphaOne
3. Help Rutgers hackers acquire the tools, skills, & connections that they need to be AWESOME. (or at least substantially badass)
4. Go to hackathons #1. and Tech events
6. 0 30 60 90 Q4/2011 Q1/2012 Q2/2012 Q3/2012 Q4/2012 Q1/2013 Q2/2013 Q3/2013 Hacker League Powered Hackathons
7. Why do the hackers go to hackathons?
8. Learning (81%) Prizes (13%) Building (44%) 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% Jobs (10%) Fun (22%) Swag (11%) Networking (71%)
9. There’s almost always a happening near you.
11. Work on Things #2.you care about
12. When I review potential candidates, the first thing I look for is open source.
13. Contribute? Where do you
14. Surround yourself #3.with smart people
15. Find a local hacker community. If one doesn’t exist, start it.
17. Read about tech #4.every single day
18. I’ve learned more random, useful tibits on Hacker News & Reddit than I did in class & work combined.
19. Learn to avoid the spam.
20. My Favorites Here are some of
21. Setup and update #5.your personal site
23. You mean to tell me that you’re a programmer and you can’t throw together some html & css for a personal website?
24. Write as often #6.as you can manage
25. blogging Platforms There are lots of great
26. “The truth is, nobody really reads your blog at first. You can always go back, delete whatever you want, and nobody will notice .” - Steve Klabnik
27. learn how to #7. play the jobs game
28. If you’re still finding gigs at career fairs and on jobs boards, you’re wasting your most valuable resource.
29. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know - My Mom ” “
30. Your resume is a tool. Highlight the things you want an interviewer to ask you about.
32. wrong!
33. Thanks I’m @SwiftAlphaOne on Twitter.