A liberal arts or service sector background might seem irrelevant for coding; what does the humanities have to do with hashes? What do cocktails have to do with CSS? In fact, non-technical backgrounds point to secret superpowers that are increasingly valuable for technical positions.

1. @hilarysk
Beer, Bylines & Booleans
Exploring the secret superpowers
of non-CS techies

2. @hilarysk
Hilary Stohs-Krause
Full-stack developer at Ten Forward
Consulting in Madison, WI
Tweet intersectional feminism, puns
and tech at @hilarysk
Once played the "jug" in a U.S.
national jug band competition
@hilarysk

3. @hilarysk
Why am I qualified to talk about this?

4. @hilarysk
Most relevant
Bartender, server
Journalist
Least relevant
Kite repairer
Movie theater
concessions

5. @hilarysk
Why did I move to tech?
Better wages
Flexibility
In-demand industry

6. @hilarysk
FACT:
There are not enough
tech workers.

7. @hilarysk
5

8. @hilarysk
80,000 unfilled tech jobs
through 2022 (U.S.)6
Demand for 216,000 tech
workers by 2021
(Canada)7

9. @hilarysk
4

10. @hilarysk
We couldn’t hire all
computer science grads
even if we wanted to.

11. @hilarysk
Enter bootcamps.

12. @hilarysk
1,000%
bootcamp growth since 20121
1 in 10Canadian devs with bootcamp experience8
20,000bootcamp grads in 20189

13. @hilarysk
3

14. @hilarysk
84%

15. @hilarysk
Who are
bootcamp grads?

16. @hilarysk
30 years old 6 years’ work
experience
Bachelor of
arts

17. @hilarysk
While only 18% of C.S.
graduates are women ...
… 45% of bootcamp grads
are women or gender nb.

18. @hilarysk
Bootcamp != C.S. degree
But still have much to offer.

19. @hilarysk
Five key lessons

20. @hilarysk
LESSON 1
Your perspective has
value

21. @hilarysk
Alexandra Millatmal
WEB DEVELOPER, Carbon Five
Former journalist; studied political
science, gender studies & religion
Something that I strongly believe, and I think lots
of companies are coming around to, is that there is
value in the person who is programming.
“

22. @hilarysk
Journalism
▧ Identify problems and solutions
▧ Access to different resources
▧ Understand needs of distinct
communities
Our experience matters

23. @hilarysk
Liberal arts
▧ Exposed to wide variety of cultures
and viewpoints
▧ Critical thinking skills
▧ Creative approaches to
problem-solving
Our experience matters

24. @hilarysk
LESSON 2
Everything is a draft

25. @hilarysk
Charielle McMullan
WEB DEVELOPER, Ten Forward
Consulting
Graduated with a degree in Chinese
Language & Literature
My experience learning Chinese taught me that …
sometimes you have to be comfortable being
uncomfortable, and most importantly, not give up
when the code or the character doesn't quite fit.
“

26. @hilarysk
Liberal arts
Papers, anyone?
The art of refactoring
Service sector
Table of seven
Out of special
Not vegan
Overcooked
Kid spills soda
Restaurant on fire

27. @hilarysk
Service (and retail) are
basically constant
refactoring: not just of a
table’s ticket, but also
expectations.

28. @hilarysk

29. @hilarysk

30. @hilarysk

31. @hilarysk
LESSON 3
Delegate to meet
deadlines

32. @hilarysk
Andrew Ek
SENIOR SOFTWARE ENG., PaymentSpring
Former English teacher and nonprofit
administrator
Being a teacher makes it much easier for me to talk with
other people, particularly the non-technical folks.
I do a lot of teaching and coaching around how to use
our product … and I try to do it in a way that leaves
everyone feeling competent, confident, and cared for.
“

33. @hilarysk
Service sector
▧ Host
▧ Bartender
▧ Cook
▧ Busser
Delegation
Educator
▧ Administrators
▧ Student teachers
▧ Unruly pupils
▧ Parents

34. @hilarysk
Delegation
Tech
▧ Project manager
▧ Designer
▧ Coder
▧ QA
▧ Data architect

35. @hilarysk
Not always a ton that juniors
can do by themselves
And yet ...

36. @hilarysk
LESSON 4
Feedback is a feature (not
a bug)

37. @hilarysk
Jacob K.
DEVELOPER, NetSPI
Ph.D in philosophy
Most of the [philosophy] courses that I took and
taught focused heavily on group discussion.
These communication skills have been essential to
my work as a developer. Without them, I would
have missed countless opportunities to learn and
grow from the feedback of my coworkers.
“

38. @hilarysk
Learning to navigate
and be receptive to
critical feedback is
crucial for
programming.

39. @hilarysk
Liberal arts
▧ Papers
▧ Group discussion
Feedback loops
Service sector
▧ Pretty much
everyone
▧ Pretty much all the
time

40. @hilarysk
Tech
▧ Code review
▧ Demo for client or
manager
▧ QA analysis
▧ User response
Feedback loops

41. @hilarysk
LESSON 5
Empathy is everything

42. @hilarysk
We are not our users.
Bootcamp grads are more likely to
already grasp this concept.

43. @hilarysk
43%
women and nonbinary1
6 years
Non-programming work experience1
38%people of color1

44. @hilarysk
Ensuring success

45. @hilarysk
Some best practices
Mentorship Structure
Hire in
pairs

46. @hilarysk
Set clear expectations.
(See tinyurl.com/ten-forward-ranks for
how we did this at Ten Forward.)

47. @hilarysk
Be patient.
Foster environment where
questions are encouraged.

48. @hilarysk
And, because it bears
frequent repeating ...

49. @hilarysk
Empathy is everything.
Help the folks you work with (or hire!)
to help you.

50. @hilarysk
Citations
1. https://www.coursereport.com/reports/2017-coding-bootcamp-
market-size-research
2. https://www.nap.edu/read/24926/chapter/1
3. http://blog.indeed.com/2017/05/02/what-employers-think-about
-coding-bootcamp/
4. https://danwang.co/why-so-few-computer-science-majors/
5. https://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/180053-computing-is-th
e-safe-stem-career-choice-today/fulltext
6. https://www.appliancedesign.com/articles/96020-study-us-dema
nd-for-skilled-tech-workers-rises-while-optimism-for-finding-tale
nt-shrinks
7. https://business.financialpost.com/technology/the-digital-econo
my-has-created-a-demand-for-216000-more-tech-workers-repor
t-finds
8. https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/11/21/1655160/
0/en/Survey-of-tech-professionals-shows-new-forms-of-educatio
n-are-helping-address-Canada-s-skills-gap.html
9. https://www.coursereport.com/reports/2018-coding-bootcamp-
market-size-research

51. @hilarysk
Thanks!