What could possibly go wrong? (GOTO Chicago)

At GOTO Chicago, I was given the chance to chat a bit about the presentation I was giving, which happens to be the same one I’m giving at a number of conferences this year (although of course I’m evolving it as I go along).

The presentation leaves very little time for anything other than coding, as it’s quite challenging to create a full app in 50 minutes, so it was great to have the chance to talk about the motivations for the demo

<div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden;"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sZee7lRAUF4&#34; style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border:0;" allowfullscreen title="YouTube Video">

The video of the actual talk is also available now:

<div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden;"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kmVnhyWqozA&#34; style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border:0;" allowfullscreen title="YouTube Video">

At the beginning it doesn’t clearly show the screen, but it does improve. You can see an earlier version from the Joy of Coding as well, so if something’s not clear on one of the videos, hopefully it’s better in the other.

The code for the Chicago version is on Github, and if you look through the history you can see how it builds up, the same as it does in the demo.

Career Advice for Programmers (YOW 2013)

Since I have a tendency to bang on every now and again about how we, as developers, could do better in managing our careers (for example, by creating CVs that don't suck, and by staying ahead of the curve), Dave Thomas asked me to speak for a mere 50 minutes on the subject at GOTO Aarhus, a talk I wasn't enormously happy with as there was no way to cover a lifetime of hard-fought experience in such a short time. Dave seemed to like something in it though, as he gave me the opportunity to present the topic again at YOW last December, and this time I think I managed to distill the important points into the (still ridiculously short) time allotted.

Please give me any feedback you have.

I recognise there are many many more topics I could cover, so I'd better start making a list. Suggestions?

First presentation at the Virtual JUG!

Yesterday I had the privilege of presenting the very first session for vJUG, a new virtual Java User Group that allows us to span geographies when sharing talks and stories. I'm really interested in the vJUG idea, especially now I'm not in London - if we can find good ways to share knowledge without having to travel, that will help us reach people who don't normally go to conferences or don't have a local user group to go to. Not to mention cutting travel costs and saving the environment.

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Life on both sides of the interview table

Trisha and Dan North presenting

InfoQ has posted the video of Dan North and I opining on the subject of hiring. Most of the talk is spent on how to be a good interviewer, and touches on how to market your company to prospective hires. We spend less time on how to do well as an interviewee, but in theory if you know what's going through the interviewer's mind, you should be in a much better position to take control of the interview and shine.

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