Reaching professional excellence in Tech
Lessons learned
Nov 2016
... so far
Have you ever heard about a person that get graduated and don't know what to do next?
What about a person that really hates Mondays? For going to work or to the University?
And what about a person that constantly complains about his/her current job or financial status?
How many mediocre people or underachievers do you know at work or university?
Are they the Majority? Why is that?
Those are the questions that motivated me to prepare this talk
A bit about me
Jhon Jairo Roa Acuña
Technical Team Lead @
Our platform unleashes the power and uniqueness of small business data to streamline and automate activities that are too costly and time consuming to execute by conventional means.
Universidad Distrital - Electronic Engineering - Drop Out
Universidad Distrital - "Computer Science" - Drop Out
Universidad EAN - "Computer Science" - postponed
Formal Education
3+ years as Technical Team Lead
5+ years as a Software Developer
28 years Old
Coding since I was 15
9 companies
+20 software projects
Python Medellín Meetup Co-organizer
+800 Members
Monthly events
~50 people per event
Created 13 months ago
PyLadies Medellín
Co-organizer
+25 Students
Weekly classes
Created 10 months ago
+110 Members
PyCon Colombia 2017
co-organizer
First national Python event in Colombia
10 - 11 February 2017
+200 expected people
Scipy 2017 Latin America
Colombia Ambassador
Fifth annual Scientific Computing with Python conference
May 2017
La Havana, Cuba
Python relevance
Website dev
GUI dev
Networking
System Programming
Sys Admin Automating
Data Analysis
Machine Learning
Web Scraping
Scientific & Numeric Processing
Robotics
WHY do I do what I do?
I F**KING LOVE WHAT I DO
A bit about LendingFront
Lending and loan management process powered by business data
Our platform unleashes the power and uniqueness of small business data to streamline and automate activities that are too costly and time consuming to execute by conventional means.
We love python :)
We're always looking for amazing talented and passionate people
Contact john@lendingfront.com
let's cut to the chase
Tips to become a an excellent
professional in Tech
But not that fast!! :P
Important disclaimer
I'm not excellent
I'm so far from being excellent
There are a lot of things that I can improve
And THAT'S precisely what keeps my heart beating :D
Tips to become a an excellent
professional in Tech
Two parts
Rational
Emotional
Rational
Find a Mentor
Point to top people
Want to be an excellent developer?
Contact people that is excellent: Ie, Try contacting somebody from Google / Facebook / Amazon
How?
There are also amazing tech professionals in Colombia
Point to the leaders
- Colombia dev
- Ruby meetups organizers in Colombia
- Bigdata meetups organizers in Colombia
- Python meetups organizers in Colombia
- Java meetups organizers in Colombia
- PHP meetups organizers in Colombia
- Robotics meetups organizers in Colombia
- Go meetups organizers in Colombia
Want international leaders?
- Ruby meetups organizers in US, Latam, Europe, etc
- Bigdata meetups organizers in US, Latam, Europe, etc
- Python meetups organizers in US, Latam, Europe, etc
- Java meetups organizers in US, Latam, Europe, etc
- PHP meetups organizers in US, Latam, Europe, etc
- Robotics meetups organizers in US, Latam, Europe, etc
- Go meetups organizers in US, Latam, Europe, etc
Want international leaders?
Want international leaders?
What is the worst that could happen?
They might simply not reply your message
It's ok
Move forward :D
Github account
Github account
- Create a github account
- Try new technologies and share what you did
- Contribute to open source software project of your preference
Top Python Open Source projects
Join a community
There is no meetup group in my city :(
That's great: Create one!!!
Popayán has no python meetup yet
#justsayin
Become a Self-Taught Master
Prioritize what you are learning
Don't learn: "Because I might need it in the future"
Learn because you need to solve a question or a situation today, next week, next month, on the next three months.
Take action towards your schooling education
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid....”
... The question I have for you at this point of our journey together is, “What is your genius?” - Albert Einstein
Your income is defined by how valuable you are to the marketplace, not by the titles you have.
Titles are means to an end, not an end in itself
Taking titles as ends: this is the reason people is completely lost when they graduate
Example of "end" in the software industry: Know how to build a web application
Online Courses
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Work hard, smart and with discipline
Work hard: do more than the average people
smart: have a plan and prioritize
discipline: do it for a sustained period of time.
Master your craft
Read a lot
But, use your time wisely
What is this?
What is this?
"What is Hack? Hack is a programming language for HHVM. Hack reconciles the fast development cycle of a dynamically typed language with the discipline provided by static typing, while adding many features commonly found in other modern programming languages."
Do you feel smart just because you read?
Do you feel smart just because you read?
Seriously, how is that different from this?
How is that information helping me to become an excellent professional?
"The middle class reads novels, tabloids, and entertainment magazines."
Rich people would rather be educated than entertained.
Steve Siebold
Entertainment is fun, and some little times is necessary to clear your mind, that's fine but .... how often are you doing it?
- Daily novel?
- Netflix marathons?
- Walking dead, GOT
Excellence requires discipline!!
“If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.” – Jim Rohn
Educate yourself instead of entertaining yourself with useless information !!!
Books I just finished
"I'm so busy"
No, it's about prioritizing and being disciplined
How ?
When ?
While I take out my cute niece :)
- 30 min morning
- 30 min evening
1 hour/day of reading listening books
- Happy dog
- A bit less ignorant Uncle
When ?
while flying
Commuting
Working out
Not everything is available in audobooks
PDF books I just finished
Focus !
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” - Steve Jobs
Work on your personal branding
Publish videos
Create your own blog
Write some articles
Write some code
Github (again)
Connect with people with common interests
Meetup.com (again)
Update your LinkedIn profile
Keep updated about trends and news
NodeJs(Javascript) vs Tornado (Python)
Latest topics (Python)
Latest topics (Python)
Latest topics
Latest topics
Go
Lua
Dart
Rust
Swift
Hack
Haskell
Erlang
Elixir
Scala
Closure
Julia
Not only read about IT, read about the market
Identify the actual pain points of your company's clients
Software development is not about amazing technical practices
Software development is 100% about solving problems.
...is 100% about solving clients problems.
...is 100% about solving society problems.
...is 100% about solving world problems.
amazing technical practices are key to software development
but is not it's ultimate PURPOSE
Not only read about IT, read about management and metodologies
Stop thinking about ultimate standards with an squared approach
PMI, ITIL, CobIT, CMMI
When you pour water into a tea pot, it becomes the tea pot.Be water my friend. - Bruce Lee
Management 3.0
Surround yourself with great people
"Good people hire people better than themselves. So A players hire A+ players. But others hire below their skills to make themselves look good. So B players hire C players. C players hire D players, etc." - Guy Kawasaki
“Make sure you’re hiring only A-players. Hire a few B-players, he said, and they hire B’s and C’s, and pretty soon the whole operation is going to pot.” – Steve Jobs
“If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself.” – Jim Rohn
Always ask for feedback
And much better if is not sugar coated
Positive feedback will make you feel fine :)
That's good and also important
but...
NEGATIVE feedback
Is KEY to identify what you should work on!!!
Don't worry when you ALWAYS receive negative feedback
That means that you should work harder!!!
Now...
Worry when you ALWAYS receive positive feedback
That might mean that there is no room to grow...
And might be time for a change...
to keep growing
"If you are the smartest person in the room you're in the wrong room"
Compare yourself to the excellent people
people say...
“Comparisons are odious”
I would rather say...
“Comparisons are great to grow”
Because it will show you what is missing to reach your goal
What does "being excellent" means?
It's all about doing comparison and identify the best
Spend your money wisely
What if you stop liking you job?
...and you haven't saved any money
...or you have to make the monthly payment of your beautiful car
...or make the mortgage payments
You might have to keep working for money
So....
Imagine yourself in two situations....
crappy job with big bucks vs amazing job with 'just fine' money
Disclaimer
This doesn't mean you have to work for cheap
This means: take a job because you love the challenge...
That's way different
... if there are also good bucks
AMAZING!!!
... if the pay is 'just fine'
Good
Excellence won't come if you focus on offers that mean big bucks
Excellence comes if you focus on offers that mean big challenges
Become a mentor
Be open to help people that want to grow and ask you for advise
Don't look for a new job , look for your next obsession
- John Roa
Emotional
"Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” - Victor Hugo
Sorry Vic, I'm not quite convinced.
"Ideas Are Cheap — Execution is Worth Millions. The difference between dreamers and winners."
How about....
"Nothing is more powerful than a human being with purpose"
PURPOSE
PURPOSE leads to ACTION
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
- Mark Twain
YOU MUST FIND YOUR WHY!!!!!
This might help
Yes, is available via audible :3
Interrupt your game of thrones reading for a week and give Simon a try ;)
Game of thrones can wait
Your life purpose CAN'T
Remember our initial questions?
Have you ever heard about a person that get graduated and don't know what to do next? Why is that?
What about a person that really hates Mondays or going to work or to the University? Why is that?
And what about a person that constantly complains about his/her current job or financial status? Why is that?
How many mediocre people or underachievers do you know at work or university?
Are they the Majority? Why is that?
Simple
They haven't found their PURPOSE
You will never reach your full potential until you find what you love !!!
GO FIND IT !
MOTIVATION
It all comes to ONE single rule
- Others aren’t willing to keep writing
- Others aren’t willing to keep learning
- Others aren’t willing to look foolish
- Others aren’t willing to think bigger
- Others aren’t willing to give more
- Others aren’t willing to get up earlier
- Others aren’t willing to ask for help
- Others aren’t willing to test and track