Career Advice for Programmers (2023)

Do you know how to avoid being “promoted” to a position that doesn’t involve technology and code? Did your university program teach you the social skills you need to be a good developer? Or the other “nontechnical” skills that are required? Did you know that all development roles are not created equal? Is it true that moving jobs a lot is a bad thing? Join Trisha Gee to hear some lessons she learned the hard way over 20+ years as a Java developer. You’ll discover what's really important when planning your career as a developer and get tools for working out your next steps. If nothing else, you’ll get to laugh at the (many) mistakes Trisha’s made in her search for the “Perfect Job.”

Trisha is a software engineer, Java Champion and author. Trisha has developed Java applications for a range of industries of all sizes, including finance, manufacturing and non-profit, and she's a lead developer advocate at Gradle. She has expertise in Java high-performance systems and dabbles with Open Source development. Trisha’s exceptionally passionate about sharing things that help real developers. That might be: getting them up to speed on the latest version of Java; teaching them tips and tricks to improve their productivity; or promoting healthy technical communities across the globe. Trisha values helping all developers level up their career and skills at every step of their journey.

Transcript

3. •Lead Developer Advocate •Java Champion •20+ years Java experience •…and author
6. The Computer Boys Take Over – Nathan L. Ensmenger Hans Albert Rhee, Office Automation in a Social Perspective, 1968
7. The Computer Boys Take Over – Nathan L. Ensmenger
8. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/in-head-hunting-big-data-may-not-be-such-a-big-deal.html Laszlo Bock, Google's SVP of people operations
10. • Use your hands on Java Development experience to work on both new and greenfield projects. • Improve the quality of services by using up-to-date technology. • Bridge gaps in the business by applying your own knowledge and skills to our Cloud-Native microservice architecture. • Collaborate with multiple Stakeholders to ensure that all parties are kept up to date. • Minimum 7 years experience on Java • In-depth understanding of Spring Security, Spring Cloud, Spring Data and Spring Boot. • Communication skills to: • Direct and develop a team of junior technicians • Keep the CTO regularly updated. • Must have experience with Kafka and an understanding of Docker and Kubernetes. • Must have exposure to Cloud platforms, preferably AWS.
12. No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering, 1986 Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
18. AKA Googling
19. And listen to the answers!
20. If you don’t love learning you’re Doomed
21. Talking to computers is the easy bit
22. And open minded
23. Hypothesise, experiment, draw conclusions
24. And time management
25. Specifically reading
26. I guess
27. • http://bit.ly/buzz-pc (Becoming Fully Buzz Word Compliant) • http://bit.ly/2qaIjTk (Staying Ahead of the Curve) • Join a User Group
34. Your portfolio makes you look good at the things you are good at
36. Know what it is
37. Know your place in it
39. • • •
40. • • •
41. I have no idea what I’m doing!
42. I’m good at what I do
43. “It depends”
48. • Insert Picture/Table/Chart Here (but if picture doesn’t have a background, be sure to remove gray background, border, and shadow!)
53. Goal: Be Employable
54. Goal: Be Doing What You Want
55. Goal: <insert your goal here>
58. • Referrals • Job specifications • CVs • Recruitment agents • Phone screens • Technical tests • Interviews • Your Portfolio
59. Get past the machines
60. Appeal to the humans
61. http://bit.ly/cvAdvice
62. https://oreil.ly/2NDJDKt https://oreil.ly/2CNqdyx
63. http://bit.ly/hireEdu
65. • Work for a high profile project or company • User Group Member • Twitter / Mastodon • StackOverflow • Github / Open Source • Blog • Conference Presentations • Book Author
73. • Do you have formal evaluations? • How do promotions / pay rises / bonuses work? • How much leeway do you have for implementing changes off-book? • How much freedom do you have for training/reading/experimenting? • How are decisions made? How does information flow? Is the pub the best way to find out what’s going on? • Should you schedule one on ones with your boss? • Who really has influence?
76. Perform to metrics
77. And sponsor others
78. • High visibility project • Introduce/manage a process/tech • Brown bags/internal user groups • Documentation • Make changes internally • In house extra-curricular activities • Go to the pub
80. If you perform non-code activities too well, you may be moved away from the code