Junior to Senior with David Guttman

Talking Points: The disadvantage that Juniors developers have Focus on the actual goal Take your career to the next level Quotable Quotes: "Through mentorship programs and developer events that I run, I recognize that the biggest disadvantage that Juniors developers have is not technical expertise" "Tools, libraries, technologies, frameworks, languages, they all change so fast" "The disadvantage that Juniors devs have is that they don't know how more Senior engineers and managers think" "That's really what I hope [the how] these interviews have given you, a window into the minds of tech leads, hiring managers, and CTOs" "Over the previous something 60 episodes we've also covered some specific techniques you could put into practice to immediately be seen and treated as more senior by recruiters, hiring managers and teammates" "I also hope that if you've taken away nothing else is that your ability to code and create software is only valuable if you're using it to help others or make them more productive" "Look past your tools, your editor, your programming language, and whatever framework is popular by the time you are listening to this" "It should be the actual goal or result that needs to be achieved, that's what should've kept in your mind" "Often the best solution involves no code at all" "Thanks for listening, I hope you take your career to the next level, and let me know how it goes" Notes: David Guttman twittertwitter.com/davidguttmanJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: Open-source contributions Working with workflows Promoting open-source projects Networking Founder's mindset Quotable Quotes: "Getting involved with open-source can definitely make your development more visible" - AP "A lot of the opportunities that I've had in my life often come down to networking, and open-source is no exception to that" – AP "I've always generally been a proponent of just being exposed to lots of different ways to thinking or ways of working, that makes you more adaptable" – AP "That was really kind of the start of it [open-source] for me, just having tools I was building and using myself" – AP  "[Canonical advice for getting started on open-source] Find a smallish but still used project, use it, try to use it in something, figure out where the gaps are in either documentation or tests or examples […] and do a small (as small as you can) PR" – DG "[Another approach] Trying to do your own project and see what it's like to sort of packaging all up and trying to have like a very complete but again small project that checks all the boxes" – DG "Go talk to people, go ask" – AP "It doesn't matter how busy a person is if you very genuinely just ask [to connect with them]" – AP "Think about who may be the dream person that you'd want to go to for advice and then just try it" – AP "I think that just about everyone should care about the other parts of the business where you work" – AP Notes: Scarfabout.scarf.shAvi Press websiteavi.pressAvi Press twittertwitter.com/avi_pressJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: How to find balance to avoid burning out Finding your career goal as a developer How to help others and learn while having fun Quotable Quotes: "You should be pushing yourself, you should be learning new things" [instead of relying on an employer] - DG "Choose projects that you find fun” [to make your leisure time, your learning time] – DG "I could use that knowledge [how to push myself the right way, how to find motivation..] in helping other people, making them grow as well" - JM "I think I need [to develop] the skills that a CTO, a founder has" [to level up] - JM "With power comes responsibility" - DG "I think that's my biggest fear, to be in the same place [without any advance] for a very long period of time, I mean time is very limited" - JM "My goal is to have some kind of positive impact [...] at least do something meaningful" - JM "The second you are dying, you could say like well I did something great in life, at least my life was useful" – JM "At the end of the day if you are not capable, you probably won't go too far with your mission, that's my main concern" - JM "I think open-source is an amazing place to start [to somehow collaborate with others and help, to learn, to clarify your route]" - JM "Leave the world a bit better than you found it" - JM "My motivation to start in tech was actually to tweak stuff" [on games] - JM "I remember those times [when learned to code as a child] with a smile on my face, it's like you're having so much fun and you're not being pressed by a timeline" - JM Notes: Jose Mendoza's websitejosebmendozam.comJose Mendoza's twittertwitter.com/JoseBMendozaMJs.lajs.laJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: Is it a problem if you personal GitHub is not showing a lot of activity? / Is it OK to have a basic portfolio site that has the basics? / How can you show that you are capable? How can you stand out from other people? How do I provide value to a company if I do not currently know all the in demand frameworks? How do you make an employer trust you enough so that they take a chance on hiring you? Quotable Quotes: "You don't need a GitHub that shows lots of activity" "When a Hiring Manager is looking at you, you want them to get as good of an idea of what to expect, if you were on the job, as possible" "If you have it on display, they [Hiring Managers] don't need to wonder if you are capable of it" "You have more control [with a portfolio site] over what you want them [Hiring Managers] to see" "You can be as creative as you want, and as distinctive and memorable as you want" "The more clearly you show the value that you can bring if somebody hires you, the better" "What really matters to a lot of companies is the value that their product, service or platform is providing to their users" "Provide to them [companies] the things that help them make more money, save money or save time" "One of the things that we are good at as engineers is learning new things, none of us were born knowing React or NodeJs or Vue or anything like that" "Prove that you are not gonna cost more trouble than help you're gonna provide" "Control that first impression of you [...] Demonstrate that you're capable in solving their problems, saving them time, helping them make more money" "As an Engineering Manager what you are worried about more than anything else is that this person won't be able to do the work and in particular that they are going to be more disruptive than they are helpful" "You just need to make them [Hiring Managers] very confident that you can come in, do the work that they need done, do the technical work, that you won't require a lot of baby sitting" "You won't be distracting the manager a lot with questions or complains or whatever. You are actually capable of taking directions and doing the work, that you are not going to disrupt the rest of the team and that you are gonna be generally a nice person and ideally fun to be around, adding to the culture" "One of the worst things that you can do is to get stuck on an issue for too long and not let anyone know" "Before you ask any particular question take at least 15 minutes to try whatever you can to solve it and document what you tried and what the responses were" "Remember that how you say things matters just as much as what you say" Notes: Junior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: How could you become a successful developer Approaching mistakes Choosing a supportive environment Contributing to open-source Techniques to prevent mistakes Quotable Quotes: "Finding what you're great at" [to become successful] – JD "It's not all about just engineering" [but working with people, different teams] – JD "You're gonna fail and you're gonna screw up, sometimes big time" [Junior devs] – JD "From a management point of view, it really shouldn't be about the individual developer who makes the mistake and causes an outage, it should be more about the system that allows it to happen" – DG "Start contributing to open-source and get in some of your patches merged into the main branch and you'll be surprised how many recruiters try to hit you up on LinkedIn" – JD "Finding little tiny things that could be fixed so you get that adrenaline rush" [when starting to contribute to open-source projects] – JD "You gotta understand, maintainers are dealing with so much" [don't take things personal] – JD "You're able to move up because you learn from the past" – JD Notes: First Timers Onlywww.firsttimersonly.comStudy: A Simple Surgery Checklist Saves Livescontent.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1871759,00.htmlJustin Dorfman Websitewww.justindorfman.comJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: Importance of networking Communication Managing teams How to ask questions Understanding the approaches Daily habits Accountability Quotable Quotes: "I think both of them are essential for people coming out of bootcamps or colleges" [networking and communication] - AH "It's a huge advantage to have a conversation with somebody like that, in an informal setting before you head down the formal path of applying" - DG "Networking isn't about just getting a job, it's about making connections, it's about making meaningful relationships with people" - AH "If I wasn't a tech lead, if I was just an individual contributor, getting contacts, understanding the roles of my team-mates and communicating with my manager would be a primary focus for me" - AH "Focus on the process, on giving people contacts to the process and also being in a constant level of upwards optimization or efficiency" - AH "If you were in a 1 on 1 with me and there's an issue that you wanted to talk about, you have to think about what is the issue, what have I done to try to solve it, who I've talked to, what does the issue do, how does it affect the environment that we're in and is there time limit to this?" - AH "They are never going to get stronger if you keep lifting the weights for them" - DG "The ideal [question] is one that promotes confidence in your understanding about the issue" - AH "State the issue in a comprehensive way and list the things that you've tried in order to figure it out" - AH "Any question that you have is [a good opportunity] to show that you understand what the question actually is" - AH "To see somebody come in with 'everything is good' is not a good sign" - AH "Lead by example" - AH "I like to see developers create a plan for the day and that plan includes all of the different tasks that they are going to do" - AH "Owning your mistakes and learning from them is key" - AH "You just can't get better without making mistakes" - DG "Ask questions until you don't have to ask questions anymore" - AH "Skill does not come from ego, it comes from the work that you put in" - AH Notes: The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forevergoodreads.com/book/show/29342515-the-coaching-habitTime Boxingen.wikipedia.org/wiki/TimeboxingPomodoro methoden.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_TechniqueJs.lacontribute.js.la/speakJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: Difference between Senior and Junior engineer Ways to gain experience quickly Career paths 10x engineers Setting up the right mindset Quotable Quotes: "You can have one year of experience five times or you can actually have five years of experience" - ST "The more Junior somebody is, the more obsessed they are with their code following some sort of textbook perfection" - ST "The more Senior people tend to focus on is delivering value" - ST "The real art of engineering, specially in software, is how you respond to those evolving requirements, that's where most of the experience comes from" - ST "Going to a product-focused startup is a really good way to rapidly learn a lot of things" - ST "The actual titles aren't that important, they don't translate that well between different companies" - ST "At some point you become so good that writing the code yourself is a waste of your time" - ST "It doesn't matter how good of an engineer or a coder you are, a team of five people is always going to outcode you no matter what" - ST "Figuring out ways to get the same benefit without building the feature" - DG "Find people who have done that and talk to them" - ST "Having much more the consultant mindset rather than an employee mindset" - DG "If you are a developer, you have a superpower" - DG Notes:Swizec's bloghttps://swizec.com/Swizec's twitterhttps://twitter.com/SwizecSenior mindsethttps://seniormindset.com/So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Lovehttps://www.calnewport.com/books/so-good/Junior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: Building tools developers use Learning a new codebase The viability of open source careers What makes a good team member Avoiding burn out Quotable Quotes: “Every line of code you change is going to have an impact somewhere and it's going to impact someone.” - JS “The amount of knowledge you have...will never define you, it's how you apply it, it's how you recover from mistakes.” - JS “[How to learn faster] Figuring out what you don't know and knowing how to quickly identify the gaps in your own knowledge.” - JS “I don't mind helping...but I also want to see you putting in the effort yourself to figure it out.” - JS “[Learning new code bases] I fiddle and break things, and then figure out what broke.” - JS “If you're just spending all your time looking at code and thinking about code, you will burn out very quickly.” - JS “The people that I enjoy working with the most take a very humble approach to the code they write.” - JS Notes:James' Twitter https://twitter.com/jasnell James' Githubhttps://github.com/jasnellJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: Figuring out your career path Learning to code Working in a team setting The skill of communicating What makes a good engineer Quotable Quotes: “Handoff your code so that somebody else can maintain it.” - GC “I strongly encourage all junior engineers to work in at least a mid-sized to a large-sized company.” - GC “One key skillset an engineer must have is communication.” - GC “The easiest way to do that [align yourself to the priority of the company] is align yourself with the bug priority list.” - GC “You don't want engineers who become complacent, they produce so many bugs.” - GC “That's very important, that you're always learning.” - GC “You should always be assessing yourself.” - GC Notes:Gene's LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/genechuangGene's Githubhttps://github.com/genechuangGene's Organizationhttps://www.ctoslackers.comJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: Code as a means to an end Focusing on the business problem Building business value The alignment of goals within an organization Not being afraid to ask stupid questions Quotable Quotes: “In our culture, we build businesses...we happen to use code most of the time.” - SP “Do you want to succeed or have fun?” - SP “Culture is what you do, not what you say you do.” - SP “Make sure you really understand the problem [that your team is] trying to solve.” - SP “The best people are completely willing to ask stupid questions all the time.” - SP “I think that the biggest mistake of junior engineers is being intimidated [to ask questions].”  - SP “Good [or bad] ideas can come from anywhere [from junior or senior].”  - SP Notes:Seth's LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/sethpurcellSeth's Company Siteconstructor.devJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: Putting yourself in the user's shoes Doing your work and asking questions Interview preparation  Culture fit Quotable Quotes: “We don't want somebody that is just a doer without asking questions.” - ND “I want people to always be wanting to improve themselves and challenge themselves.” - ND “Be willing to...say, "I think this can be done better", but you don't want to dig in so hard that it becomes negative energy.” - ND “If I'm looking at developer candidates...I'm looking for…do they care about what we're doing? Are they interested in the work.'” - ND “[preparing for interviews] Do a deep dive on this company and understand what they're about.” - ND “Even if they might not have a job posting...reach out and say…”I would love to talk.” - ND “If you've spent the time to care about the company, there's more conversation [in an interview].” - ND Notes:Nick's Company Site:funkhaus.usNick's LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/nicholasdiesJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: Building products people use Getting a job you can be great at Be in places where luck can happen to you How to know if you are providing value Quotable Quotes: “If you're not providing value in your ecosystem, interacting with this person is not a good use of time or money.” - DS “If you're aligned with your managers, then you'll tend to produce value for them.” - DS “If you don't fundamentally care about who you serve, you should consider whether that's the job you want.” - DS “You need to be where luck can happen to you.” - DS “Is the product, is the team better for me having been here?” - DS “Constantly refactor. Don't ask for permission to refactor.” - DS “A good engineer is refactoring a little bit along the way, all the time.” - DS Notes:David's CompanyInterna.comDavid's LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/davidsubarDavid's Twittertwitter.com/dsubarJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: The different stages of a developer Thinking about where you want to go Find what you enjoy doing early in your career Do you want to be a manager or a single contributor Learning from costly mistakes Quotable Quotes: “Where do you want to go?” - SD “You want to grow and you want to think, how did they get to where they're at and make that happen.” - SD “At the earliest start be picky about what you're trying to do.” - SD “My biggest thing that I can ask you is to be a problem solver.” - SD “Keep encouraging yourself to take little steps ahead.” - SD “Your skill level has nothing really to do with your degree.”  - SD "As early as you can try testing your own career with that kind of stuff [being a manager or single contributor], you'll find that way better." - SD Notes:Scott's Halloween Party:nohomonsterbash.comScotts LinkedIn:linkedin.com/in/deckeScott's Email:sdecker@nextstardigital.comJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking Points: Finding missing information quickly Not needing permission to pursue ideals Working well with a team Growing through community Not just being a pair of hands Quotable Quotes: “The worst thing that I think a developer can do is not surround themselves with tons of other developers.” - TB "It [NodeConf] really got me understanding how other programmers work and what they're doing.” - TB "To be a good engineer, you always have to be learning." - TB "Strike a balance, trust yourself. Do what you want and if that fails...try something else again." - TB "Being around people in your industry...it's gonna help you understand the greater picture." - TB “If you're always learning then the older you get, the more things you're going to be comfortable with.” - TB “How to talk to people and meet people, it's totally learnable.” - TB Notes:Tyler's business site:polycade.comTyler's LinkedIn:linkedin.com/in/tyler-bushnellPolycade's Instagram:instagram.com/polycadeJunior to Senior Communitycommunity.juniortosenior.io

Talking points: Be creative as a developer Setting yourself apart Choosing the right technology The freedom of JavaScript Finding your niche Solve problems that free up time Quotable Quotes: “You should probably go down the road of the thing that's going to give you the most return.” - DB “It's very hard to find someone that can do that [be an illustrator] and also write code.” - DB “You should really not just reach for the latest and greatest thing because you saw it on hacker news” - DB “Learn something as deep as you can.” - DB “If you enjoy the design stuff that I've been talking about then absolutely focus on JavaScript, animations, and CSS.” - DB “It's very rare that you will change languages in your career” - DB “So it comes down to, what do you enjoy doing?” - DB Notes: Funkhaus websitefunkhaus.usFunkhaus Githubgithub.com/funkhausDrew's emaildrew@funkhaus.us

Talking Points:  Making your boss look good How to use your skills and passions Knowing the pros & cons of tools Understanding risk Focusing on the outcome Quotable Quotes:  “If you want to advance your career...figure out how to make your boss look good.” “He [Jonathan's senior colleague] thought about the outcome. What are you really trying to accomplish here?” “When...they understand a little bit about business outcomes, I'm like, oh, this person is smart, they get it.” “The world doesn't owe you a handsome income for engaging in your favorite activities.” “Back when you had an actual paper book you'd go way deeper into individual things.” “You keep your eyes on the outcome...then you can get there with minimal detours.” “...the new shiny tool, you want to talk to your friends about it, but your boss doesn't care about that.” Notes:Jonathan's Twitterhttps://twitter.com/jonathanstark

Talking Points The complexity of mentorship Surround yourself with good people The hiring process Kind honesty Culture fit Quotable Quotes “I think it's much more important that you have a values fit.” - EH “From a kind place, tell the truth to people.” - EH “Always think about the client, put yourself in the client's shoes.” - EH “We're taught that when you're a candidate you can't address certain issues.” - EH “Judging...the ability to do a job from the interview process is such a tricky proposition.” - EH “When people are happy, everything is happier.” - EH “Make sure that you're not feeling things too deeply[in the interview].” - EH NotesErick's Twitterlinkedin.com/in/erickherringCTO atvynyl.com

Talking Points: Communicating well The cycle of learning new things When to prioritize performance Clean code Empathy for the user Quotable Quotes: “This is a new challenge and it's hard. It becomes a lot shorter. - P “I think people optimize for what's going to look pretty...vs. what's going to look like a real instrument” - P “You're still keeping performance in mind, but you're not being hyper about it.” - P “There's also the speed of how the user perceives it. The perception of speed.” - P “Sometimes going too hard in the weeds makes code pretty gnarly.” - P  “...if you make something easier, fundamentally you have exponentially more people doing that.” - P “Kinopio is, I guess, what I like to call a spatial thinking tool for new ideas and hard problems.” - P Notes: Pirijan's Website:pketh.org Pirijan's project:kinopio.club 

Talking Points: Watching mentors solve problems Version control Humble communication Self-evaluation Constrained creativity Quotable Quotes: “You have a big story[frequent Git commits]...that's what gets published, is a story.” - JH “You can always improve communication.” - JH “If somebody has that[holier than thou attitude], that would probably be like a big red flag.” - JH “Nobody knows anything at the start of this stuff, so we all learned.” - JH “You should know why you're participating in that company, on that project.” - JH “Every night or every week...ask yourself ‘How am I doing? Where am I going?" - JH “One week I worked on a Saturday because I felt like I hadn't met a goal...I got chewed out for it in the best way possible.” - JH Notes:Justin's Twitterhttps://twitter.com/justinprojectsJustin's Latest Project24hourhomepage.com

Talking Points: Developer advocacy Write good documentation Confusing the solution with the problem Define clear goals Learning with joy Quotable Quotes: "Does this solve a problem that everybody agrees is an actual problem?" - EM "Whenever you've run into problems, it's probably a goal problem." - EM "When you don't know what you want a function to do it can be really hard to write that function." - EM "A lot of people just don't like to close off possibilities so they want to do everything all at once." - EM "You can't ever make yourself irreplaceable, you can only make yourself a single point of failure." - EM "You really have to practice being okay with feeling dumb." - EM "You should always be looking to figure out how you can bring other people into your circle instead of keeping people out." - EM Notes:Erin's Website:erinmckean.comErin's non-profit organization:wordnik.comErin's Twitter:twitter.com/emckeanErin's GitHub:github.com/emckean

Talking Points: Maintaining GitHub's official JavaScript SDK Making users and developers life's easier Being a valuable asset to your manager and team Growth through communication You are entitled to mentorship Quotable Quotes: "I would say you are entitled to mentoring." - GM "You [Junior dev] have a unique perspective that I lost a long time ago" - GM "It's an easy sell. If you say I can automate this with two hours of work." - GM "Writing skills are so important besides the coding aspect itself." - GM "Maybe you're out of university or boot camp or a career change, you still have to great perspective." - GM "When you do any kind of interview, a question I would definitely ask is, what is your mentorship program?" - GM "When you look over the shoulder of a more experienced developer, you will have so many points where you will be like...how did you do that?" - GM Notes: octokit.js - GitHub's official JS SDK for their platform APIs: github.com/octokit/octokit.js/A Twitter account tweeting issues for first-time contributors:twitter.com/first_tmrs_onlyA complete backend for your apps:hood.ieHood.ie's GitHub:github.com/hoodiehqA whole community about landing open source contributions by @bdougie:opensauced.pizzaGregor's Twitter: twitter.com/gr2mGregor's Githubgithub.com/gr2mGregor's Helpdesk Show:github.com/gr2m/helpdesk

Talking Points: Take advantage of your soft skills Spot job postings scams Mandatory things to expect in an interview Apply to roles above your skill level Set yourself apart as a junior developer Quotable Quotes: In the first line [tell me about yourself question], have something that grabs their attention. - TJ You're making these assumptions without actually putting yourself out there and giving yourself a chance. - TJ What the companies don't do is they don't tell job seekers that, we're actually only expecting you to have experience with 30 to 50% of this stuff. - TJ Statistically, you actually only need to hit 50% of the requirements on the job description. - TJ One of the biggest mistakes entry-level people do is they fall into the practice problem loop. - TJ One of my favorite groups for students to go to is Hack for LA. - TJ One of my favorite questions to wrap up an interview is...do you have any hesitations about moving forward with me. - TJ Notes:TJ's LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tj-kinion/TJ on Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX3slV5agPg

Talking Points: Creating Open Source Software Why Bootstrap was created The development scene in the early 2000s What you should know to learn quickly Quotable Quotes: (Why bootstrap was created) "I just wanted to create a toolkit internally to make it so that my peers on my team could create these tools in a beautiful way." - JT "I don't have a traditional computer science background. I studied literature in school. When I moved into the industry, I felt like I had a ton to learn, obviously not writing code, except for some basic HTML and CSS." - JT "Getting a job at a startup as a designer, then being frustrated no one could build my designs, learning CSS, JavaScript and really leaning on open source libraries like jQuery...I just got so much from that." -  - JT "For every project like that (Bootstrap), I wrote a hundred thousand other things, or I had a hundred dumb conversations with friends where we paired on something over a beer and nothing really came of it." - JT "I don't even know what the quote is. It's something like hard work beats talent when talent is lazy or some #!&$, but basically just outwork everyone." - JT "A lot of the ways that I think bootstrap is so special is that it taught so many people how to code, more than a style guide that helps you with that." - JT "You have to work past the insecurity of failing to some extent because learning is hard and software is hard." - JT Notes:Jacob's Twitterhttps://twitter.com/fatJacob's Bloghttp://byfat.xxx

Talking Points: Entrepreneurship  What Sam learned working at Google, Uber, and Wealthfront Determining what tech stack to use Learning from your mistakes Practicing for interviews Quotable Quotes: “There's actually a talk online, I believe it was from an engineer from Etsy called 'Choose Boring Technology.'” - SS “The most important lessons I've learned...are about being pragmatic in your choices of technology that you use to solve your problem.” - SS “The main motivating principle throughout my career has been one of increasing optionality, of adding skills and experiences that brought in the possibility of what I'll be able to do in the future.” - SS “If you go to work at a place like Google, if you're thoughtful about what you do and the way you approach your work, you have the ability to be successful at a large company.” - SS “Always be thinking, what is the business product purpose of the tech, the technology that you're working on, and try to avoid getting swept away in the tech side of things.” - SS “People now that are graduating from boot camps to the extent that you can, it's really important to try to find a company that understands what it's like to get a new graduate from a boot camp.” - SS “The best way that you can practice for an interview is to do more interviews and expect the first 10, 20, or 5 to go very poorly and eventually you build up that skill set.” - SS Notes:Sam’s Business Websitehttps://www.trivvy.co/Choosing Boring Technology Articlehttp://boringtechnology.club/

Talking Points: Community activities in the software community Receiving while giving to the community What Tracy looks for in a junior dev Be authentic in interviews Being intentional for what position you really want Speaking up when you are failing Quotable Quotes: "How do I become the best developer? How do I build the best product? You ask the people who created them and it's just like, look, I was just trying to solve one problem." - TL "I would encourage everyone to just do what they want, you know, what they are passionate about, cause that's also where sustainable things happen." - TL "I think anything you do out in the community is really generally just beneficial for your career." - TL "You don't have to be a senior developer to want to teach and learn and, you know, be humble." - TL "Be really intentional about the things that you do accept doing and make sure to push back where you need to because developing your skills as a developer if that's your desire is really important to continue to do." - TL "A junior developer will find a problem and maybe they'll spend eight hours on it and that was like a 10-minute fix. If you don't speak up, you're not going to learn as fast." - TL "So I think also, probably as a junior, asking how to fish and learning how to fish, not just getting the answer, is going to be really important." - TL Notes:Tracy's Business Websitelabs.thisdot.coTracy’s Twittertwitter.com/ladyleetTracy's Emailtracy@thisdot.co

Talking Points:  Overcoming intimidation when using new technology The great aspects of the software community Choosing the right people to work with Qualities of a good team member Quotable Quotes: “Almost every problem is something that anyone really can solve and can understand if they spend enough time trying to really dive into the issue.” - ND “I heard recently, sort of like the key to productivity is the yin and yang of motivation, that energy, and discipline to stick with it when you don't have that.” - DG (Overcome intimidation) “Really looking at the technology that you're trying to learn...attacking at a hello world level and then start adding on.” - ND “I don't think I've ever been in any industry where there is such a vibrant and helpful community out there where people are doing stuff like meetups, where you can literally go and learn” “Read books, blog posts, and videos on how to communicate better and you'll learn a lot. I still do that, I'm still learning a lot and I have a long way to go.” - ND “You didn't need to get permission to do this, right? There's nothing stopping anyone from doing what you did...you came up with a project that you wanted to do and you started building it.” - DG “Doing everything you can to find out if it's going to be a good fit or not because the worst thing in the world is moving your entire career into a team and then having a negative consequence.” - ND “I think the number one quality is an eagerness to learn and communication. Those two things together seem to be really important.” - ND “I think the best indicator of someone being successful on a team is their willingness and their eagerness to learn new things, how quickly and how good they are at learning.” - ND Notes:Nader's Twitter https://twitter.com/dabit3Nader's Youtube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7mca3O0DmdSG2Cr80sOD7gNader's Dev.tohttps://dev.to/dabit3

Talking Points:  Jim’s side projects  Early programming languages Programming for Disney Managing projects with a team How to utilize frameworks Making projects successful  Psychological safety Asking questions as a dev in the workplace Quotable quotes: “It was like pure creativity. You could imagine things and then get immediate feedback, that thing you imagined was made real.” - JB “I learned by making mistakes.” - JB “I discovered that fairly early on that every time I wrote a program to do X, I would get super interested in X.” - JB “One of the things I think I learned from Kevin (Jim’s past roommate) was just to be fearless, was just to try things.” - JB “I've seen some things (frameworks) that seem sensible and good that everyone talks about, but they come and go over time.” - JB “I experienced this many times: I'll ask a really obvious, stupid question and I will hear audible sighs around me because the people are relieved that someone finally asked it.” -JB “One thing for sure is if people are afraid to express their opinion, if there's just a lot of head nodding and ascent and not a lot of frank discussion, that's usually a bad sign.” - JB “You don't get very many superpowers as you get older, you mostly lose them, but one of the ones you gain is not giving a f$#%.” - JB Notes: krazydad.com/about

Talking Points:  Pushing beyond your limits Abstraction of Professions Junior Dev Traits Forest vs Trees Looking Under the hood Working with non-technical people Communication  Quotable Quotes “How do we make this possible? How do we achieve this?” - TM “There’s an aspect to be sure that you have the right person for the job.” - TM  “You don’t need to be a full-stack jack of all trades master of none.” TM  “The FE bar just keeps getting raised.” TM “You need to have people that can solve the problems that are not in the box.” - TM “Squarespace, Wix, other online editors are a fix for simple problems.” DG “I look for someone who is humble and hungry.” TM “[Junior Devs] may not know that you could just look under the hood.” - TM “Communication and knowing your audience is so important for a junior engineer.” - TM NotesKleykley.co

Talking Points: Community Building Hireable Traits Value of Production Environment Experience Non-traditional Work Experiences Getting Paid to Learn Utilizing Experience to Grow Your Career Quotable Quotes: “QA has been a great way to get started [in tech.]” - MP “Now is the best time to be a part of large group projects.” - MP “There’s a creative revival coming out of post-COVID life.” - MP “I saw [freelancing] as an opportunity to inject new ideas and tools into the space.” - MP “I was able to get paid to learn.” - MP “You have a lot of power, probably a lot more than you know.” - MP “When you think you have 10% left, you have 90% left” - MP “As you get experience you’re delivering smaller and smaller commits.” - MP “To show what you’re thinking, show something that’s broken.” - MP Notes:CRASH spacecrashspace.orgMatt's Websitetouchtech.io

Talking Points: The transition from full-time software engineer to full-time educator How teaching solidifies understanding Involvement in the open-source community avoid losing touch with the newest tech Going beyond following tutorials Ways to get exposure to different problems Importance of motivation Being flexible in project scoping Practice Interview skills by interviewing Importance of blogging Quotable Quotes: “Sharing my knowledge is a great way to solidify my understanding” - KCD “I quote Ashley Williams ‘Teaching is nature’s way of showing you how sloppy your understanding is.’ ” - KCD “Anytime I run into a situation where - it works this way, doesn’t work that way - and I don’t know why, I have to figure out why.” - KCD “I find that the best way to gain experience as a developer is by exposing yourself to problems” - KCD “You need to do something that will motivate you and would be exciting” - KCD “It’s a marathon, not a sprint” - DG “The cost for everybody else in the world for you to publish a new blog post is zero” - KCD “You can’t control your luck, but you can increase the number of situations where you’re lucky” - KCD Notes:Kent’s LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentcdodds/Kent’s Website:https://kentcdodds.com/KCD Community on Discordhttps://kentcdodds.com/discord/Kent’s Github:https://github.com/kentcdodds/Testing Javascript Website:https://testingjavascript.com/Epic React Website:https://epicreact.dev/

Talking Points: Comparison of PhD research vs starting a company Similarity of Entrepreneurship and starting an open source project Authentication vs Authorization The importance of software security The barrier of Information Security Threat Modeling Fun ways to learn more about cybersecurity Constant communication with tech lead Quotable Quotes: “Research is for 10 years’ time problems, not for today’s problems.” -SS “To be effective at any company of any size, collaboration and cooperation is going to be a huge piece.” - SS “Find something that is missing and go ahead and address it.” -SS “Asking ‘Why?’ a lot, can be very valuable.” - SS “You can never ask too many questions. You can never be too thoughtful about something.” -SS “Err on the side of communication, .... the other person always has less context or information than you assume.” -SS “When in doubt, communicate.” - SS Notes:Oso’s Website:osohq.comAuthorization Academy:osohq.com/developers/authorization-academySam’s LinkedIn:linkedin.com/in/samjsSam’s Github:github.com/samscott89Sam’s Twitter:twitter.com/samosososMatasano Crypto Challengescryptopals.comCapture the Flagctf.hacker101.com

David and Redbeard talk about developing your personal network through core communities, how teaching can improve your own knowledge, and that genuine conversation can lead to some amazing opportunities.

Take a journey with Scott Hanselman, Wes Bos, Sarah Drasner, Troy Hunt, and Kent C. Dodds as they answer questions about getting from Junior to Senior!

Take a journey with Scott Hanselman, Wes Bos, Sarah Drasner, Troy Hunt, and Kent C. Dodds as they answer questions about getting from Junior to Senior!

Take a journey with Scott Hanselman, Wes Bos, Sarah Drasner, Troy Hunt, and Kent C. Dodds as they answer questions about getting from Junior to Senior!

Aaron and David talk about the differences of confidence and arrogance, how constant collaboration saves projects, and the beginner mistakes all devs make.

Rand and David go through motivational mindsets of engineers, positive teamwork skills, and how to frame your career so it best works for you.

David and James have a lively discussion about the origins of a startup, the differences between corporate and startup life, managing your peer's expectations, and taking ownership of your work.

Daniel and David go on a journey discussing how to build your brand as a developer, aligning your intentions with your work, and the ever-evolving ecosystem of tech.

Lauren and David go in-depth about looking beyond code, how experience doesn't correlate to core skills, and how companies can use their hiring process to their advantage.

Keith and David discuss the power of attitude, how thinking like Product can help your career, and how a little more effort in communication can have a profound impact on building your network.

Dave brings up important aspects of career life in his discussion with David where he discusses the cultivation of skills, the importance of passion and persistence, and some fun stories on how not to do an interview.

Nate and David discuss misconceptions about blog posts, qualities of successful devs, as well as healthy habits to achieve your goals.

Amelia and David discuss their career growth paths and how they discovered the careers that work for them, as well as how to stand out from the crowd and find jobs that carry personal importance

Jay recounts his experiences of his early career life, how to deal with failure, and the importance of communication.

Hala and David discuss how to use fear for good, how to set attainable goals, and how to communicate effectively to boost your career.

Val and David reveal key skills that define a senior engineer, how to develop said skills, and how to overcome anxiety in public speaking.

John brings us through his history as a developer and touches on learning how to effectively communicate, discover your career path, and develop your community in tech.

Samy brings us on his journey from hacker to security engineer, passion for self projects, and networking at tech events.

Mike and David discuss in depth the pros and cons of being in Management vs. an Individual Contributor role, the positive traits of any successful dev, and how developers can keep pace with the rapid progress of technology.

Vinoj dives into his career path from Engineer to Manager, and provides us with valuable information regarding personal projects, hiring tactics, and the emerging reality of company-wide remote work.