Career Hacks for Software Engineers

How people in the technology industry can get paid better and get their dream job by learning from my career mistakes.
Presented at The University of Edinburgh Artificial Intelligence and Computing Society and TechMeetup Edinburgh in 2014.

Transcript

1. Career Hacks for Software Engineers Mike McQuaid
2. career ! “an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress”
3. hack ! “a strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one's time and daily activities in a more efficient way”
4. career ! “move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way”
5. hack ! “a person who does dull routine work”
6. why us?
7. who the hell are you?
8. Mike McQuaid @MikeMcQuaid mike@mikemcquaid.com Software Engineer
9. Mike McQuaid Made lots of career mistakes so you don’t have to
11. UoE 2003-2007 Computer Science & Management Science
14. Fail ! Not getting good enough at Counterstrike to go professional
15. Fail ! Not getting good enough at Counterstrike to go professional Being lazy
16. Fail ! Studying Business Studies
17. Fail ! Studying Business Studies (just because it was easy)
18. Summer 2006
20. 2007-8
21. Fail ! Applying to work for huge company
22. Fail ! Applying to work for huge company Accepting first job you applied for
23. Win ! When you hate your job get another job you don’t hate
24. Win ! When you hate your job get another job you don’t hate (yet)
26. Fail ! Being negative about your employer’s products in a blog post
27. Fail ! Not working for a software company
28. 2008-9
29. Win ! Contribute to open-source software
30. Win ! Work for a software company
31. Win ! When you hate your job get another job you don’t hate
32. Win ! When you hate your job get another job you don’t hate (yet)
33. Fail ! Telling a future employer how much your previous employer paid you
34. Fail ! Not knowing how much you are worth
36. Fail ! Expecting work/life balance as first employee
37. Fail ! Expecting work/life balance as first employee at a startup
38. Fail ! Expecting work/life balance as first employee at a startup in London
39. 2009-12
40. Win ! When you hate your job get another job you don’t hate
41. Win ! Apply for your dream job
42. Win ! Apply for your dream job (multiple times)
43. Win ! Keep your cost of living low compared to your pay
44. Win ! Ask for pay rises
45. Fail ! Thinking a software consulting company is a software company
46. Fail ! Specialising in a niche technology
47. 2012-13
48. Win ! Work out how much you are worth and ask for it
49. Win ! Learning that programming is 95% the same regardless of language
50. 2013-?
51. Win ! Apply for your dream job (multiple times)
52. Win ! Work out how much you are worth and ask for it
53. Fail? ! Stay in Edinburgh forever? Write a book? Make drastic changes to a popular open-source project?
54. Win? ! Stay in Edinburgh forever? Write a book? Make drastic changes to a popular open-source project?
55. why did you do this?
57. http://blog.codinghorror.com http://joelonsoftware.com http://randsinrepose.com http://thedailywtf.com
58. older engineers !
59. older engineers (and younger engineers)
60. older engineers (and younger engineers) (and peer engineers)
61. …what?