The talk I gave about how to get ahead in tech at YOW Brisbane

1. #YOW13
Career Advice for Programmers
Trisha Gee, Java Developer @ MongoDB
@trisha_gee

2. About Me
1998 - 2000 Undergraduate @ Ford Motor Company
2001 Graduated
2001 - 2002 Web Engineer @ Common Purpose
2002 - 2004 Analyst Developer @ Ford Motor Company
2004 - 2005 Java / Web Developer @ Touch Clarity
2005 Business Engineer @ Credit card company
2006 - 2008 Principal Consultant @ Evolution / Detica
2008 Java Developer @ well known media firm
2009 - 2012 Java Developer @ LMAX Financial Exchange
2011 Principal Consultant @ ThoughtWorks
2012 - present Java Developer / Evangelist @ MongoDB Inc

3. Photo courtesy of @sufw

4. > What about you?

5. You Own Your Career

6. Manage Your Career

7. Manage Your Career
• Requirements: What do you want?

8. Manage Your Career
• Requirements: What do you want?
• Implementation: How do you get it?

9. Manage Your Career
• Requirements: What do you want?
• Implementation: How do you get it?
• Iterate: What’s next?

10. You Own Your Career

11. > What do you want?

12. Insert Picture/Table/Chart Here (but if picture doesn’t
have a background, be sure to remove gray
background, border, and shadow!)

16. Developer Wants Domain
Experience
5 years commercial Java
experience
Primarily web (JSP / Servlets)
HTML / CSS / JavaScript
Some exposure to “Agile”
Manufacturing, Education, Ad
Serving

18. What do you want?

19. > How do you get it?

20. http://www.flickr.com/photos/skuds/
Insert Picture/Table/Chart Here (but if picture doesn’t
have a background, be sure to remove gray
background, border, and shadow!)
Visibility

21. Internal Visibility
• High visibility project
• In house extra-curricular activities
• Brown bags/internal user groups
• Update the wiki
• The Pub

22. External Visibility

23. External Visibility
• Work for a well known company
• Publicly visible projects

24. External Visibility
• Work for a well known company
• Publicly visible projects
• StackOverflow
• Github / open source
• Blogging
• User Groups

25. External Visibility
• Work for a well known company
• Publicly visible projects
• StackOverflow
• Github / open source
• Blogging
• User Groups
• Conferences
• Write a book

26. Getting what you want

27. Senior Developer Wants
More
7 years Java
Front- and Back-end
Most recently Financial Markets
Waterfall & Agile
Some team lead experience

28. It’s all about the People

29. Experienced Consultant &
Blogger Given a Shove
10 years Java experience
Consultant & Developer
Range of domains
Readership on a tech blog
Leadership position in a London
User Group

30. Staying ahead of the curve

31. Staying ahead of the curve
• Conferences
• StackOverflow
• Google Reader. Oh, wait...
• Use Twitter for Good
• Mailing lists
• Join a User Group
• Book recommendations
• http://is.gd/stayingAhead

32. Remember
• Be Different
• Ask For Things
• Remember What’s Important

33. > What’s next?

34. When do you leave?

35. Finding your perfect match
• Job websites
• Recruitment agents
• Friends
• User groups
• Conferences
• Stalk your heroes

36. Your CV / résumé
• The reader is very busy
• Stand out
• You are more than a list of technologies
• http://is.gd/cvAdvice

37. Interviews
• Do your homework
• Interview them
• Be yourself
• http://is.gd/HireEd

38. Saying yes...

39. Ex-Consultant Needs a
Job
8 years Java experience
Mostly back-end
Financial Markets consultant
...during the credit crunch

40. ...or no

41. Apprentice Seeks
3 years Java experience
Web & some back-end
Mentor to experienced developers
cross-training into Java
Some exposure to Good Practice

42. What’s the worst that could happen?

43. What happened to those
developers?

44. What happened to those
developers?
• 5 years experience wanting new domain
knowledge?

45. What happened to those
developers?
• 5 years experience wanting new domain
knowledge?
• Changed job in 3 months

46. What happened to those
developers?
• 5 years experience wanting new domain
knowledge?
• Changed job in 3 months
• Consultant who needed a job?

47. What happened to those
developers?
• 5 years experience wanting new domain
knowledge?
• Changed job in 3 months
• Consultant who needed a job?
• Changed job in 3 months

48. What happened to those
developers?
• 5 years experience wanting new domain
knowledge?
• Changed job in 3 months
• Consultant who needed a job?
• Changed job in 3 months
• Java developer with 10 years experience?

49. What happened to those
developers?
• 5 years experience wanting new domain
knowledge?
• Changed job in 3 months
• Consultant who needed a job?
• Changed job in 3 months
• Java developer with 10 years experience?
• Recruited (twice) to do Evangelism

50. > In Summary?

51. 1. Do Your Homework

52. 2. Be Yourself

53. 3. Do Not Be Afraid

54. 4. It’s Up To You

55. #YOW13
@trisha_gee
trisha_gee@mongodb.com
Questions?

56. Choose your own adventure
• Investing
•
•
•
•
•
•
What do you
want?
Bootstrapping
Staying Technical
Switching Roles
Other Skills
Staying ahead of
the curve
•
•
Relocation
•
Being Different
Work / Life
Balance
• Staying Put • Moving On
•
•
Visibility (pt 1)
•
•
•
Getting promoted
Getting what you
want
Salary negotiation
When to leave?
•
•
Visibility (pt 2)
•
•
•
•
•
CVs / resumes
Finding your
perfect match
Interviews
Salary negotiation
Acceptance
What could
possibly go
wrong?

57. What did I miss?

58. Resources
• Conferences
• User Groups
• Books
• Mentors
• Blogs
• Stack Overflow
• Twitter

59. Bootstrapping
• Internships / sponsorship
• Third year project
• Pet projects / open source
• Make your CV special
• See: Moving On

60. Switching Roles

61. Staying Technical

62. Important Skills
• Research Skills
• Scientific Method
• Asking Questions
• Listening and Learning
• Interpersonal Skills
• English

63. What about...?
• Relocation
• Work / Life Balance
• Being Different

64. Getting Promoted
• See: Visibility Part 1
• Know the system
• Keep records
• Pick your friends wisely

65. Salary negotiation
(Part 1)

66. Salary negotiation
(Part 2)