Started in-tech-la-nov-21

Getting Started in Tech
November 2017
CrossCamp.us Events
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Hey everyone!
Good evening. Thanks for joining us tonight. Before we get started I was to let you all know that you can ﬁnd a url for the slides from tonight's
discussion on the little slips of paper on the table and in the back towards the snacks. Please do help yourselves to snacks. No one ever eats.
The restrooms are right outside near the staircase in case you need them.
Speaker notes

Instructors
Noel Duarte
New Markets Manager, Thinkful
Out in Tech Digital Corps
Michael Cruz
Software Developer, ZBrains
Thinkful mentor
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Before we get started I thought it'd be best to share with you a little bit about Michael and myself.
I'm____
Michael____
Speaker notes

About Thinkful
Thinkful helps people become developers or data scientists
through 1-on-1 mentorship and project-based learning
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Michael and I both help aspiring web developers and data scientists start their careers in tech through the education they receive at Thinkful.
Thinkful, as you might have seen online is an immersive programming, well, program that teaches full-stack web development and data science.
I can talk more about Thinkful later, but now on to you...
Speaker notes

About you
What's your name?
What brought you here today?
What is your programming experience?
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I'd love to learn a little more about you guys. So can we go around the room and can everyone give us your name, why you’re attending this event
tonight?
Great, thanks everyone. Alrighty, let's get started..
Speaker notes

What is "tech"?
Tech isn’t just one industry anymore — it’s the new business
model. Every company is now a tech company.
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First let's begin by looking at the deﬁnition of tech through a new lens:
Tech isn’t just one industry. While before it may have been that companies could operate without a technology department or some online presence,
that is no longer the case.
Tech is a business model: whether a company is selling software as a product or it's using it in internally to optimize operations, many major
companies are using technology to grow.
Speaker notes

"Software is Eating the World"
“More and more major businesses and
industries are being run on software and
delivered as online services — from
movies to agriculture to national defense.
Many of the winners are Silicon Valley-style
entrepreneurial technology companies that
are invading and overturning established
industry structures. Over the next 10 years,
I expect many more industries to be
disrupted by software, with new world-
beating Silicon Valley companies doing the
disruption in more cases than not.”
- Marc Andreeson, WSJ, 2011
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Does everyone know who Marc Andreessen is?
Marc Andreessen co-founded Netscape in 1994 and has since then become one of Silicon Valley's most successful investors. In many ways, it's
Marc Andreessen's profession to know about how tech evolves.
And he put it perfectly in this quote in the WSJ.I’ll just read this blurb to you really quickly. (read blurb).
To summarize: in order to continue to be competitive, all companies must have a tech aspect to them.
Speaker notes

Largest in their areas - all tech based companies
Retail / Entertainment
Transportation Media
Entertainment
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These are just a few examples of areas of commerce in which a company that is primarily tech has dominated the industry.
Uber is an interesting example, because though technically a private company many of us I think could consider Uber, speciﬁcally Uber Pool, a
public means of transportation, right?
The trend continues:
The largest retailer is amazon, an online website.
Facebook and Google dominate social media _and_ advertising.
And Netﬂix is predicted to reach 100 million subscribers in the USA before the end of 2017.
Speaker notes

Goldman Sachs
Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman
Sachs
“Goldman Sachs is a Technology Firm”
9,000 out of 33,000 employees are on
tech team
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Those are some rather obvious examples of tech, but what about other industries?
Even the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, admits that his company is a tech company, even though their primary market is investment
banking.
Speaker notes

The good news
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics + White House
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What’s fantastic about this is that it means there are tons of new job openings in IT.
And while previously these positions would’ve been ﬁlled by CS grads, according to a study by the bureau of labor statistics, in 2020, there simply
won’t be enough CS grads to ﬁll all the available positions.
Even if you narrow the growth of computing jobs down to web development (which is Thinkful's expertise):
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 27% growth in the employment of web developers by 2024.
Speaker notes

The implications for jobs
Increased demand in for technical skills
Creation of new “software plus” jobs
Diffusion of tech organizational culture, roles, and processes
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It also means that there will be an increase in demand for a lot of positions in companies to have technical skills involved in their duties.
These are called software plus jobs. They are a diffusion of purely tech roles into other aspects of the business.
Speaker notes

One such process — career trajectory
Junior sales
Account
executive
Sales
Manager
VP Sales
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A career trajectory you are probably used to may look something like this. This is the possible upward movement of someone who joins a sales
team.
They start out in junior role, with experience move up to something like an executive before moving into a manager role. And then once they get
really good at their job, move into some kind of VP role.
Speaker notes

In “tech” career trajectories are varied
Front End Developer
Back End Developer
Full Stack Developer
QA Developer
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Working in tech is a little different. A junior developer can move into several different kinds of roles.
Someone who is senior could have the same title, but just move responsibility with more compensation.
Movement is more so changing job responsibilities and gaining responsibility.
Speaker notes

Manager / team lead
Reliability Engineer
Growth Hacker
Product Developer
Dev Ops
Architect
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Front End Developer
Back End Developer
QA Developer
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From these roles, devs can move into a variety of roles.
Speaker notes

Front End Developer
Back End Developer
QA Developer
Manager / team lead
Reliability Engineer
Growth Hacker
Product Developer
Dev Ops
Architect
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But what’s important to note is that you can really go anywhere from anywhere. It's a lot more based on your ambition and what you’re interested in
learning.
Speaker notes

Common ﬁrst jobs
Front End Developer
Back End Developer
QA Developer
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Your typical ﬁrst jobs as a developer are usually working on areas of a web application or conducting testing on that application.
Speaker notes

Front end developer
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The ﬁrst, and my favorite, is a Front end developer. The front end dev is responsible for writing the code that manages what the user see and
interacts with on a web application. You probably use something like this everyday. Anytime you go to facebook or google or check your email,
you’re interacting with the UI of a web application, something a front end dev made. A Front end developer primarily uses HTML, the structure and
content of a web page, CSS, which provides the styling and makes the website look like it does, and javascript to provide functionality to the
application. Additionally, the front end developer might use a framework to structure the web page like react, or might use other libraries to create
what he or she needs.
Speaker notes

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Back end developer
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A backend developer is responsible for managing servers, databases, and providing the functionality that gives the application the bulk of its
resourcefulness. For example, a backend developer at facebook might be responsible for managing the databases that hold all the posts you make
or they might work on the server that provides the communication between users for messaging. A back end developer can use a variety of
languages to be effective, choosing which one depends on the type of work the dev is doing.
Speaker notes

Full stack developer
+
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A full stack developer is going to be responsible for aspects of both the front and back end of the application.
Speaker notes

QA Developer
Write software tests and conduct manual tests to catch bugs
before they’re shipped
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The last typical ﬁrst job is a QA developer. These guys are responsible for testing out code or applications for bugs or writing tests to ensure that the
applications work consistently.
Speaker notes

Next step: Senior Developer
Everything that came before with the ability to estimate your
work accurately, handle challenging problems with less
support, and add support for junior colleagues
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Following one of these roles, a developer could move into a mid or senior level role. This role is probably similar what they were doing before, but
with more responsibility or other coders or they may be confronted with more challenging problems on a consistent basis.
Speaker notes

Coding plus Roles
Coding + Product = Product Manager
Coding + Marketing = Growth Hacker
Coding + Sales = Sales Engineer
Coding + Data = Data Scientist
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More experienced devs may also end up in roles that are not explicitly coding. These Coding plus roles involve coding, but are also focused on
another aspect of the business model.
Speaker notes

Product Manager (Coding + Product)
Skills & Tools
Customer research
Customer development
User stories
Wireframes
Project management
Analytics
Turn business goals into product requirements. Work with
designers & developers to deliver — measure success
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A developer who also focuses on the construction of the product is a product manager. They might supervise other coders as well as be instrumental
in every part of the creation of the product. They’re probably very focused on how the user will interact with the product, and help create ways to
analyze that data.
Speaker notes

Growth Hacker (Coding + Marketing)
Skills & Tools
Rapid prototyping
Analytics
Communication
Design & implement experiments to drive customer
acquisition and engagement
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A developer who also focuses on marketing is a growth hacker. They design applications to drive customer acquisition and engagement. They could
have tools that provide analysis on how users are interacting with the application and create new iterations to improve use.
Speaker notes

Sales Engineer (Coding + Sales)
Skills & Tools
Customer Support
Communication
Sell complex technical product by helping customer
understand how it works and how they’ll use it
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A sales engineer needs the coding or programming expertise in order to be effective at selling their product. They could also be part of a customer
support team, using their expertise to assist users in interfacing with the product.
Speaker notes

Data Scientist (Coding + Data)
Skills & Tools
Curiosity
Statistics
Analytics
Machine Learning
Use statistics and programming to ﬁnd valuable insights
from extremely large datasets
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Finally, a data scientist will use code to gather and analyze data to then draw conclusions and make business decisions.
Speaker notes

How to get in the door?
Learn the skills
Build a portfolio of high quality work
Develop a relevant network
Prep for technical interviews
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With the massive shortage that I mentioned, the industry has changed to hiring based on skills, not necessarily on credentials. We at Thinkful
believe that anyone can learn how to code with a growth mindset.
There are a couple ways to go about learning the skills. Some developers are self-taught, using google to search for tutorials or using other free
online resources. Flexible bootcamps like Thinkful allow students to learn quickly while also keeping their full-time job. Developers can also learn
through a full-time bootcamp like general assembly or, obviously, get a computer science degree from a university.
Building a portfolio is what’s going to get you into that interview. A portfolio is proof that you have what it takes to create applications. A portfolio is
generally going to be a personal website with links to your applications that are hosted on Github. It also might be a good idea to try and ﬁnd contract
work to showcase on your portfolio, and have your work reviewed by professionals in the ﬁeld.
Speaker notes

Building your portfolio
Find a niche (based on your background)
Build a personal website
Get your portfolio on GitHub
Try and ﬁnd contract work
Have professionals guide & review your work
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The best way to break into tech is to ﬁrst learn the skills. Following that, make the ﬁrst steps toward proving that you can code by building a portfolio
of high quality work. Developing a network of people that can introduce you to opportunities is hugely important in the job search. But once you’re
sitting in front of the employer, they’re going to want to test your coding abilities with tech interviews.
Speaker notes

Networking the right way
80% of job openings are never advertised
120+ average applicants per job posted
At Thinkful, roughly 10-12% of cold applications yield a
phone screen
Source: Forbes
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I don’t think people put enough emphasis on networking and how important it is for the job search. Most job openings are never even advertised and
even when they are, there are dozens of applicants, and only a few actually make it to the interview process.
Speaker notes

Networking the right way
Cold applications are the least effective way of landing a job
Figure out what you want (size, industry, role, etc)
Reach out to someone that works at company
Ask them about their work, genuine interest, build a relationship
Eventually (1-2 months in), ask for referral
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So though they may be one of the methods, they are certainly not the best method for getting a job. A really excellent way of getting hired is to reach
out to others who have a similar job or work in a company you want to work for and talk to them. Build a relationship with them. And then later you
can use that relationship to try and ask for a referral.
Speaker notes

Tech recruiters
Tech recruiters serve as your agent
Can leverage their relationships to arrange interviews
They are incentivized to ﬁnd you a job
You might get less say in where, but are helpful
Can be great in getting you feedback
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Tech recruiters are also a common method of getting a job. They have their own contacts and can get you in front of hiring managers. They are also
incentivized to help you and can be great for providing feedback on ways to improve.
Speaker notes

Thinkful students ﬁnd jobs through connections
Out of 100 students, this
is the breakdown:
Application: 35%
Thinkful community intro: 20%
Existing employee referral: 15%
Networking: 20%
Cold contact from recruiter: 10%
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Most often Thinkful students ﬁnd jobs through connections of this manner, a lot of the time through a connect within Thinkful.
Speaker notes

The technical interview
Phone screen
Take home tech challenge
In-person interviews
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Once you’ve gotten in front of the hiring manager and they’re ready to interview, you’re probably going to have to complete some kind of technical
interview. This could be a phone screen, or a take-home challenge, or, they may ask you to come into the ofﬁce and do some kind of in person
interview, maybe by having you work on something with them.
Speaker notes

Resources
Prep sites (e.g. Interview Cake)
Books (e.g. Cracking the Coding Interview)
Mock interviews with technical friends
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There are a few resources that provide info on prepping for technical interviews. A really good way, however, is to practice interviewing with
someone who’s experienced with technical interviews.
Speaker notes

Ways to learn to code
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Thinkful graduates in LA...
80%as full-time developers/engineers
Ben Johnson
Link for the third party audit jobs report:
https://www.thinkful.com/bootcamp-jobs-stats
Software Engineer
Cody Berlin
Fullstack Developer
Mark Pinero
Frontend Developer
placed in tech careers
35
92%

Link for the third party audit jobs report:
https://www.thinkful.com/bootcamp-jobs-stats
...and around the country & world
36

Our students receive unprecedented support
Learning Mentor
Career MentorProgram Manager
Local Community
You
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Talk to one of us and email benjy@thinkful.com to learn more
Two-week course with 6 mentor sessions
for $50 ($750 value)
Start with HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Option to continue with full bootcamp
Financing & scholarships available
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Education Advisor
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