Trisha Gee, Java Developer @ MongoDB

#YOW13

Career Advice for Programmers

@trisha_gee

About Me1998 - 2000 Undergraduate @ Ford Motor Company

2001 Graduated (Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence)

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... Java Developer / Evangelist @ MongoDB Inc

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Photo courtesy of @sufw

> What about you?

You Own Your Career

Manage Your Career

• Requirements: What do you want?

• Implementation: How do you get it?

• Iterate: What’s next?

You Own Your Career

> What do you want?

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Developer Seeks Next Step5 years commercial Java experience

Primarily web (JSP / Servlets)

HTML / CSS / JavaScript

Usability & User Experience

Some exposure to “Agile”

Some team leading

Manufacturing, Education, Ad Serving

Identify Your Values

> How do you get it?

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Visibility

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skuds/

Internal Visibility

• High visibility project

• In house extra-curricular activities

• Brown bags/internal user groups

• Update the wiki

• Introduce/manage a process/tech

• The Pub

External Visibility• Work for a well known company

• Publicly visible projects

• StackOverflow

• Github / open source

• Blogging

• User Groups

• Conferences

• Write a book

Getting what you want

Senior Developer Wants More

7 years Java

Front- and Back-end

Most recently Financial Markets

Waterfall & Agile

Some team lead experience

It’s all about the People

Experienced Consultant & Blogger Given a Shove

10 years Java experience

Consultant & Developer

Range of domains

Experience of Agile & Continuous Delivery

Tech blogger

Leader in a London User Group

Staying ahead of the curve

Staying ahead of the curve• Conferences

• StackOverflow

• Google Reader. Oh, wait...

• Use Twitter for Good

• Mailing lists

• Join a User Group. Or more than one.

• Hack days

• Books

• http://is.gd/stayingAhead

Remember

• Be Different

• Ask For What You Want

• Remember What’s Important

> What’s next?

When do you leave?

Finding your perfect match

• Job websites

• Recruitment agents

• Friends

• User groups

• Conferences

• Stalk your heroes

• The reader is very busy

• Stand out

• You are more than a list of technologies

• http://is.gd/cvAdvice

Your CV / résumé

Interviews

• Do your homework

• Interview them

• Be yourself

• http://is.gd/HireEd

Saying yes...

Ex-Consultant Needs a Job

8 years Java experience

Mostly back-end

Financial Markets consultant

...during the credit crunch

...or no

Apprentice Seeks Mastery

3 years Java experience

JSP / Servlets, HTML, JavaScript

XML / XSLT

Mentor to experienced developers cross-training into Java

Some exposure to Good Practice

What’s the worst that could happen?

What happened to those developers?

• 5 years experience wanting the Next New Thing?

• 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

> In Summary?

1. Do Your Homework

2. Be Yourself

3. Do Not Be Afraid

4. It’s Up To You

#YOW13

Questions?

@trisha_gee

trisha_gee@mongodb.com

Choose your own adventure• Investing

• What do you want?

• Bootstrapping

• Staying Technical

• Switching Roles

• Other Skills

• Staying ahead of the curve

• Relocation

• Work / Life Balance

• Being Different

• Staying Put• Visibility (pt 1)

• Getting what you want

• Getting promoted

• Salary negotiation

• When to leave?

•Moving On• Visibility (pt 2)

• Finding your perfect match

• CVs / resumes

• Interviews

• Salary negotiation

• Acceptance

• What could possibly go wrong?

What did I miss?

Resources

• Conferences

• User Groups

• Books

• Mentors

• Blogs

• Stack Overflow

• Twitter

Bootstrapping

• Internships / sponsorship

• Third year project

• Pet projects / open source

• Make your CV special

• See: Moving On

Switching Roles

Staying Technical

Important Skills

• Research Skills

• Scientific Method

• Asking Questions

• Listening and Learning

• Interpersonal Skills

• English

What about...?

• Relocation

• Work / Life Balance

• Being Different

Getting Promoted

• See: Visibility Part 1

• Know the system

• Keep records

• Pick your friends wisely

Salary negotiation(Part 1)

Salary negotiation(Part 2)