your second job -- hacking your career
DESCRIPTION
Basic talk on how to turn an eagerness w/r/t software into a career in software. Mostly a jump-off for anecdotes that aren't included in the upload. Links: http://commercehub.com/careers http://is.gd/apprenticeshippatterns http://cleancoders.com http://martinfowler.comTRANSCRIPT
How to get your second jobHacking your way into a career in software
A career in software
A Job vs Career
• A job is something you do for money.
• A career is what you’d rather do for money
You are the sole motivator of your career
• Schools are responsible for certifying a standard set of skills
• Employers selfishly lead you towards skills they need
• Mentors will push you in the direction they think you should go
If your career isn’t going where you like, it’s your
responsibility to fix it
All job interviews are trying to answer three questions:
• Can you do the work?
• Are you excited about the work?
• Do we want to work with you?
You get your first job…
• It’s mostly luck
• You are a risk
• Expect a big reality check
For your next job…
• You want to have more control
• You want to be an asset
• You want to describe the arc of your career
To hack the career you want:
• Find a focus
• Learn the craft
• Become valuable
Finding a focus
Why focus?
• You can’t be good at everything
• Focus leads to satisfaction
• Focus helps you chart a course and stay on it
Lifestyle focus
Industry focus
Technology focus
Cultural focus
Track focus
• Engineering
• Architecture
• Quality Assurance
• Operations
• Management
Focus means ignoring things that matter and concentrating on things that matter
more
• Focus too tightly and you may find it difficult to move forward
• Focus too loosely and you won’t move at all
Learn the craft
“As aspiring Software Craftsmen we are raising the bar of professional software development by practicing it and helping others learn the craft. Through this work we have come to value:
Not only working software, but also well-crafted software
Not only responding to change, but also steadily adding value
Not only individuals and interactions, but also a community of professionals
Not only customer collaboration, but also productive partnerships
That is, in pursuit of the items on the left we have found the items on the right to be indispensable.”
Software craftsmanship is building stuff you want to work
on with people want to work with
Everybody starts as an apprentice
“Expose/Confront your Ignorance”
“Be the worst”
“Learn how you fail”
How to learn a craft• Build a lot of things and throw out the ones you
aren’t proud of
• Find information sources you can trust in a medium you prefer
• Build a dialog with people you respect
• Ask high leverage questions
Become Valuable
Be disciplined
Be honest
Merge with the culture
Deliver what’s needed
Not merely what’s asked for
Learn to communicate with non-engineers
Don’t be a DIVA
Let your enthusiasm spill over
Hacking a brilliant career
• Find a focus
• Learn the craft
• Become valuable
We would love it if you’d build part of your career
at CommerceHubhttp://commercehub.com/careers
@DataMiller @CommerceHub