I went to a meetup today for Austin tech folks. The meetup was really fun, I was
exposed to more of the Austin tech scene, and the person in charge of
Austin Digital Jobs, Lani Rosales, was there. It was nice to see her
in person, because I always see her posts and the posts from members
of her Facebook group in my news feed, and the content is always high
quality, tech-related/job-related content. I'm thankful for how much
she contributes to the Austin scene.
In addition to Lani Rosales, there were
representatives from OnPrem (Jessica Chavez), IBM (Anna McCormick),
Agile Velocity (Brett Simon), and Luna Data Solutions (Lucas
Mitchell), for example. I found out that Lani is also in charge of a
website, www.theamericangenius.com, which is a website for
entrepreneurs. I'll have to check it out.
The speakers emphasized over and over
how big a factor personality-fit is in the hiring process, and also,
once on the job. You have to be able to get along with your
teammates, so no throwing bottles at the wall when some code wasn't
able to be rolled out when needed, and you have to be able to deal
with the firm executives, who may have type A personalities, according
to the speaker.
Luna Data Solutions has 195 different
clients in Austin, and some of those clients need remote work done.
The speaker mentioned that when analyzing candidates, github
accounts are looked at to see how active the candidate is, and also
social media (such as linked in), to see how active we are in the
tech scene.
Two of the speakers mentioned that the
application process includes homework assignments that test how good
you are at understanding a problem and using available resources to
come up with a solution. One of the speakers mentioned not to be
negative when you are rejected (common sense, but yeah, don't burn
bridges). One speaker mentioned how a recruiter is able to influence
whether you are hired or not, but does not actually make
the call. The person with the money gets to decide who gets hired.
One of the speakers mentioned that his
two best hires were a high school grad and a PhD, and that software
development is a meritocracy, you will get paid what you are worth
based on how much work you've put in. Another speaker mentioned that
some corporations do look for a degree. Another speaker (Dylan Tano, Keystoke) mentioned that as long as the
person knows his stuff, that's what's important. That said, the
person needs to be able to sell themselves to others, people need to
have confidence that you know your stuff. Another speaker mentioned
that recruiters really look at what work you've done and who/what
organization can vouch for your skills. Github or a personal website
are both good at selling yourself.
One of the speakers mentioned that
Google Hangouts is used as part of the interview process. A speaker
mentioned, regarding code tests/assignment, "Did you run your
unit tests? If not, that's a problem!" I haven't studied testing yet, so I'm not familiar with how to do it, although I know that you're supposed to. Another speaker
mentioned that a resume will not get you a job, it will be one piece,
out of several, that can open a door to the interview. That speaker
mentioned that as a candidate, you should know the realities of the
job, so that you are not a bad fit for the actual job if you get it.
Another speaker mentioned that you've
got to have an online presence, and if you don't, your resume may be
automatically tossed out. Another speaker, regarding advice for
transitioning from non-tech to tech, said that you really have to be
intellectually curious about the subject matter you're intending to work on. Two of the speakers had bachelor's degrees in English. One
of them said you have to be willing to work on your own, at home, on
projects you care about. You've got to be passionate about this.
You have to be passionate, especially anyone that's making the
transition from a non-technical skill set to a technical skill set, because they've got a lot of ground to make up. Instead of trying to become an employee of the company,
try to sell your skills to the company, for example, if you were an
accountant before you learned to code, sell that part of you. Speak
to the "why" aspect of why you should be hired.
Another speaker mentioned Austin has a
very rich design community, and that they're looking for people that
know other people, in person. This can be done via attending meetups
and via other digital/design community events. Also, it's important
to note that not a single web developer in the U.S.A. has a bachelor's degree in
web development.
Another recruiter mentioned that it's
o.k. to ask for things from other people, in regards to networking.
She believes that the Austin community is very generous with
networking opportunities. We have to continue to learn, so if we want
to be in this field we have to be passionate about learning. A
speaker mentioned that every Friday at her company they allocate 4
hours to presentations/learning activities, for example, one engineer
may make a presentation for the company on a new JavaScript
framework, and every employee will be upbeat about it, and you should too if you want to work there. One of the speakers mentioned we should always be working
on our own projects, and to definitely consider starting your own startup, or several startups. A speaker mentioned that mistakes happen,
to not lose your cool whenever you crash things, which you will, especially as a junior dev.
In regards to breadth versus depth, the
speakers felt you should simply represent what you're good at. If
you can do everything, awesome, present yourself as a full stack
developer. If you're a specialist at one technology, then make sure
to highlight that on your resume. One speaker mentioned initial
interviews tend to be 60/40 personality fit/technical expertise,
while the later, 2nd, 3rd, 4th interviews (which often have tests)
are then more technical. Several speakers mentioned, "Are you
curious? Do you want to learn? What type of technologies do you not
know that you want to learn? Will you be a good fit?" If
someone on the inside speaks for you from within the organization,
then that speaks for your culture fit and can fast forward you to the
technical section. Also, in contrast to the other speakers, a speaker from a big company, IBM, mentioned that
they look at your technical competences first, before you can even get an interview.
Many of the companies are small groups,
so that's why personal fit is so important. One speaker mentioned
that the members of the team do a survival style vote on new
candidates. Another speaker mentioned she wants developers to be
humble and nice, especially around non-developers such as herself
and clients.
The threshold of skill level for entry
level positions. One speaker (Lucas) said they have a team of three
developers that did nothing but HTML for three months, and then they
plan on keeping two of the developers at the end of those three
months. A speaker said a new hire's code was not super good, but his
code documentation was AMAZING, and that was why he was hired. She
said that was super important because it let everyone know that he
cared about communicating with other team members, about making sure
other team members understood why he did what he did.
Total Treehouse Points: 5,385
Treehouse Points by Subject Matter (Miscellaneous not included):
HTML: 663
CSS: 1,599
Design: 1,193
Development Tools: 747
Javascript: 1,120
Treehouse Ranking (%): "You have more total points than 94% of all students."
Treehouse Badge(s) Earned Today:
Treehouse Courses Completed:
How to Make a Website
HTML
CSS Foundations
CSS Layout Techniques
Aesthetic Foundations
Design Foundations
Adobe Photoshop Foundations
Adobe Illustrator Foundations (66% complete, switched focus from web design to web dev)
Git Basics
Introduction to Programming
Javascript Basics
Codecademy (& other) Courses Completed:
HTML and CSS (Codecademy)
Design Foundations
Adobe Photoshop Foundations
Adobe Illustrator Foundations (66% complete, switched focus from web design to web dev)
Git Basics
Introduction to Programming
Javascript Basics
Codecademy (& other) Courses Completed:
HTML and CSS (Codecademy)
Books Read or in Progress:
Completed: "Head First HTML and CSS," by E. Robson & E. Freeman
In Progress: "Eloquent JavaScript," by Marijn Haverbeke (On pg 27)
In Progress: "Head First Javascript," by Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Robson (On pg 56)
In Progress: "A Smarter Way to Learn Javascript," by Mark Myers (on pg 199)
My Progress on The Odin Project:
1. Introduction to Web Development 100% Complete
2. Web Development 101 33% Complete
3. Ruby Programming 0% Complete
4. Ruby on Rails 0% Complete
5. HTML5 and CSS3 0% Complete
6. Javascript and JQuery 0% Complete
7. Getting Hired as a Web Developer 0% Complete
Hours Spent Coding Today: 2
Total Hours Coding: 597
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