Peter Miller (software engineer)

Transcription

KINSEY ANN DURHAM: OK, I'm gonna go ahead and start. How's everybody doing today? AUDIENCE: We're good. K.A.D.: Good? Having a good conference? Thank you all for coming. I'm Kinsey. I'm an apprentice at ThoughtBot in the new Denver office, and today I'm going to be talking about becoming a software engineer: inspiring a new generation of developers. So if you were to tell me even a year ago that I would be standing up here speaking at RubyConf, I would have told you that you were crazy. I never dreamt or even thought it was possible to find such a yearning passion for writing code. I thought I wasn't smart enough, and I honestly build up building ba- grew up building Barbie's dreamhouse and not computers. I have been working in ad agencies since I was sixteen. I was an advertising major and I was good at it. And the thought of being a software engineer never crossed my mind. It honestly looked really boring and intimidating. My step-brother is a really awesome developer, and any time I heard him talk, it sounded like he was talking in an alien language. I never understood anything that he was saying. People are shocked and sometimes even blatantly negative when they hear about my new dreams of becoming a developer. Friends' jaws literally dropped when I told them that I was learning how to write code. I've also received comments that I'm too sociable and I'm the last person on Earth they thought would want to write code. That I should be in sales and also I don't think in a way that a developer should. I don't ever want to let these comments discourage me, although it's definitely easier said than done. There are definitely times when I want to give up and throw my computer out the door and go back to some of the mindless work I did in advertising. So the path to becoming a software engineer, in my mind, was straightforward and well-defined. You needed a computer, you needed a computer science degree, to have dropped out of your computer science degree to work for a company writing code, or have been a self-taught programmer who loon- learned to code at a very young age. Recently, the community has seen a rise in non-traditional paths to becoming a software engineer. These paths are the future to building a diverse community and training the next generation of developers. So today I'm here to argue that outreach programs, mentorship and apprentice programs are legitimate paths to becoming a software engineer. This path is begin, has been the beginning of my journey, making me see that what I thought was impossible was actually possible. So I first want to talk about outreach programs. Railsbridge is a great example of an outreach program that is working. So how many people have heard of Railsbridge? Wow. That's a lot. A lot. Awesome. How many people have volunteered, sponsored, or participated in a Railsbridge? Awesome. I can honestly tell you that a Railsbridge workshop changed my life. Railsbridge, for those of you who don't know even though most of you raised your hands, is an outreach program that puts on free weekend workshops where people learn from experienced Rails volunteers. So these workshop attract, workshops attract a lot of beginners, and in one day you get to build a basic Rails app and deploy it on Heroku. It planted a seed to a career that I had always dreamed of but hadn't yet realized. I not only met Jesse McAdam who would become one of my greatest mentors and influencers, but discovered a passion for writing Rails that I never would have discovered on my own. This is a Tweet that I Tweeted when I was at Railsbridge. I was so excited. Railsbridge taught me that writing code wasn't scary and in a few hours I deployed my first application to Heroku. I literally remember it like it was yesterday. I was yelling at my best friend who also was in the workshop at the top of my lungs that I was going to write code from now on. And Railsbridge was the beginning of my journey, where I learned that I could actually have a passion for writing code. So SarahMay and Sarah Allen started Railsbridge in 2009 when the San Francisco Ruby community was 98% male and 2% female. Since the program lowered the barrier to entry, they saw an increase of women attending the workshops. In one year, the Sarahs saw the female ratio increase from 2 to 18% thanks to Railsbridge efforts. And I am - yeah. So I am definitely not the only one who has pursued a career in web development thanks to Railsbridge. I want to share with you guys a few of the testimonials from various women who have attended the workshop and who are now full-time software engineers. So Rachel Meyers who is now a developer at GitHub said this about her experience at Railsbridge. I'm gonna let you guys read this, cause I don't want to just read off the slide. Laura Steadman, who is now a developer at QuickLab, said that attending Railsbridge was inspiring because of what she built that day. Or not because of what she built that day, but rather the sincere enthusiasm of the volunteers. She was amazed that people were giving up their weekends to volunteer at a workshop. Rita Vatshi who is now a developer outright stated this. So Railsbridge is not the only outreach program that is out there that has been successful. Rails Girls, Women who Code, Black Girls who Code are other great programs, all of which need sponsors, teachers, and volunteers on an ongoing basis. I'm currently the coordinator for the Denver women who code group, and it is truly amazing to see the impact that the group has had in the community in one year. The most popular meetups are typically ones that are geared towards beginners, so in them we have more experienced females develop- female developers come in to speak about how they got into programming, what resources are out there and advice to becoming a developer. So now that I've talked about outreach programs, I want to talk about mentorship. Mentorship is another important aspect to train the next generation of developers. Mentorship is beneficial to me because I look to my mentors not only for technical skills but for soft skills and support. Because, to go from attending a Railsbridge workshop to becoming a full-time software engineer is way more work than I ever expected. There are days when I come home in tears and I feel stupid and frustrated for not understanding basic concepts still. I'm not only learning how to write Ruby, Rails, testing frameworks, use get, but a completely new way of thinking. So Jesse who I mentioned earlier is one of my greatest mentors has opened doors to me that I didn't even know existed. She's truly humble about all the work that she's doing and bringing diversity into the industry, but she really is making a difference. She works tirelessly on top of her job and managing her family to reach out through organizations. It's like Dev Chicks and Railsbridge. And I even hear her talking about how she wants to open a beginning to code school in her house on the weekend. Jesse and one other mentor in particular have been there for me, to pick me back up when I'm feeling frustrated and that I cannot continue, and they remind me of how far I've come in a year and how hard it truly is to understand this stuff. no matter how busy they are, they are always there to listen to me and help me when I get stuck on a problem and am floundering. So they give me the encouragement that I sometimes desperately need. So mentoring is also beneficial to my mentors. My mentors constantly tell me how mentoring ultimately makes them a better developer, because it solidifies an understanding of the content being taught. John Fully, who's a developer at Pivotal Labs told me that mentoring elevates you from thinking you know to actually knowing you know or not knowing at all. Mentoring not only provides countless and necessary benefits to the mentee, but to the mentor perspectively. So even advanced developers can learn new things by having to explain it in a way that a beginner can understand it. So I recently came for- full-circle in the Railsbridge community and was a TA for one of the workshops in Colorado, and teaching basic Ruby conference- concepts was really frightening because I kept questioning myself, and I went back, you know, and did more research and made sure that I actually understood what I was telling people. So I really did learn a lot that day. Maybe even more than when I was doing the Railsbridge workshop. So I really think that mentorship is worth your time. How many people here have been mentored by somebody? Quite a few. And did it help you in advancing your career? Yes. Cool. And how many people here have been a mentor to somebody? Wow. That's a lot of hands. That's awesome. I want to encourage everyone to be a mentor if you have time, resources, and the patience to do so. Mentoring is a really hard thing to do and it definitely isn't for everyone. It requires a lot of time and patience. I'm really inspired because I've met a lot of people here this weekend who are mentors and, or, or making the effort to become a great mentor. So thanks to all of you who I've talked to you about this and your efforts are truly making a difference. Now I want to switch gears and talk about what it means to be a great mentor. I've had so many great mentors this past year and would love to share with you some of the qualities that I thought they all shared. Ally talked about this in her lightning talk yesterday and she gave a lot of great advice as well. So if you were gifted in explaining concepts, complex concepts simply, you would be a great mentor. The greatest mentors that I have had were able to take an abstract concept and make it really concrete to me. Emily Saffo, who presented yesterday, she gave an awesome talk in Paris at a conference about concurrency in Ruby. And she gave a really simple analogy to explain threading, and it, she compared it with an orchestra, and I thought it was a really awesome metaphor, and she took this complex thing and really broke it down into something simple that I could understand. Last night, Steve Harms who presented here at RubyConf yesterday gave us a Star Wars example that was, that made it easy for us to understand the topic he was talking about in regards to object-oriented programming. It's really important to try and explain these things in a simple manner that anyone can understand, at least at first, to get the concept through. And you know some con- some concepts are complex and can't really be boiled down to something simple. But one technique that one of my mentors does with me is ask me, if I had no idea what any of this was, how would you explain to me what I was doing? It was really challenging and hard for me to do that. It is, once again, beneficial to the mentor to have to explain things in a simple way. Awareness. Awareness of both yourself and your mentee. Mentors who are unaware of the fact that they are coming off as discouraging could ruin or completely dissuade a beginners' passion for the craft. It is important to be aware of signs of frustration, language that is discouraging, and body language when mentoring an apprentice developer. Great mentors that I have had have also been very aware of my learning styles. The same mentor that would, that would ask me to explain things back to him asked me on the first day of being my mentor what my learning style was. I wasn't even aware of the best ways that I learned, but we were able to up, discover that together, and use those, and practice how I learned best. I really excelled during my apprenticeship with this mentor because we were both aware of my learning habits, my way of thinking and learning. I learned that drawing things on the white board, drawing them out was really helpful to me. And I also discovered a lot of the time I need to sle- I needed to sleep on what I had learned. Then the next day I was able to get it. Also on this note, getting to know your mentee is invaluable. Knowing what makes them tick, how they learn, how they think, and how they approach problems can make for a more productive mentorship. Patience is also very important. It's also, it's important for the mentor and the mentee. If you're an impatient person, it might not be best for you to be a mentor. When a beginner is learning to code, you may have to explain things multiple times until they get it. Things move at a slow pace, and it is important to make sure that you're being patient and understanding when working with your mentee. Patience is also a skill that I have to learn. One of the things that I struggle with is when I see an error message or there's a bug, I angrily switch from the failing test back to them without taking my time to read the error message. So writing code and mentoring are similar. Heh. I see people nodding. Writing code and mentoring are similar in that it ta- requires a lot of patience. So I've learned a lot in that aspect as well. Weekly retrospectives are also very important in a formal mentorship. Once a week, take time and sit down with your mentee. Discuss what went well, what didn't go well, and what to improve on. These meetings were invaluable to me because I was able to focus on softer skills as well, and overall skills. I became aware of my impatience habit and areas that I needed to focus on the most, so that really helped me out. Pairing. I think pairing with my mentors has been the best thing for me from a technical standpoint. So it was definitely where I learned the most. Pairing on actual client projects and even on my own breakable toy was extremely helpful. Pairing is also great because you can speak remotely with a mentor. I was able to learn so much fun, more in a pairing situation than when trying to read the Ruby pickaxe book. I was able to constantly ask questions, drive, and really dive into learning the Ruby language and Rails framework. But the most important piece of advice that I can give to mentors is to have empathy. It is extremely discouraging to be told that this is easy and you should be getting this. It's really not easy, especially for someone who has never done this before. You know, how long have you been writing code? Something that was easy, that is easy to you now, is not gonna be easy for a beginner. Also, remember that your mentee might have a completely different way of thinking. It's important to put yourself in their shoes and remember what it was like to learn how to write code. So my incredible mentors and my experience Railsbridge has not only changed my life, but changed others around me in an almost verbal effect. These are my two best friends at another Railsbridge event that we did in Denver. We were all three advertising majors at CU. Emma, the blond one, she's now doing front-end development in San Francisco, and Terra, just, got accepted into an intense Ruby on Rails program in New York City. So Terra had a really great job and decided to quit her career to pursue a career as a developer, which I think is really cool. So intense Ruby on Rails training programs like GSchool, Dev BootCamp, are other great examples of alternative education options that I unfortunately don't have a lot of time to discuss today. I get to spend a lot of time around the G Schoolers and Galvanized because we work in the same place. It's amazing to see the applications that they build in a short amount of time. We can also relate to the struggles of learning Ruby together. I've also gotten to meet a, so many wonderful developers this weekend, who have come out programs like Flat Iron School, Bit Maker and Dev Boot Camp. Talking with all of them about their experiences has made me realize how these programs can really open doors for people who never thought it was possible to become a developer. And it is truly inspiring to see how passionate they are about the community and the craft of writing code. So now that I've talked about outreach programs and mentorship I want to talk about apprentice programs. Apprentice programs are intense training that you would not receive at a university, and apprentice programs can take a passionate learner and turn them into competent, reliable software engineers. I'm really, really fortunate because ThoughtBot accepted me into their apprentice program this past year. It is one of the most challenging things that I've ever done, but the amount that I have learned during my apprenticeship has been incredible. For those of you who don't know what ThoughtBot is, it's a consulting company that builds and designs web and mobile application. And they have a program specifically for apprentices called apprentice io. ThoughtBot's really passionate about the learning space and has a learn program where workshops are frequently taught. And twenty-five percent of the employees at ThoughtBot were apprentices at one time in the company. So a quarter of the company actually came through the apprentice program. And it is proved to, to be a great way for ThoughtBot to train and maintain budding talent. So Dan the CMO describes why the program was created in this quote, and once again I'm gonna let you guys read this. Chad, the CEO, stated, that everyone in the program who has been eligible to get a job afterward has gotten a job, with ThoughtBot or another employer. That's pretty impressive. ThoughtBot's apprentice program has given me the biggest push in achieving my dream. They believe that I can do it, they support me, and even are taking the time and money that it takes to train me. ThoughtBot rewards and supports its employees for engaging in mentoring programs and for participating in programs like Railsbridge. This is something that I think all companies should be doing. So the U.S. Department of Labor did a study on apprentice programs in the U.S., and apprentice program graduates have much higher earnings than those who did not. The study also showed that the social and overall benefits to the company that maintain these programs appear to be much larger than the cost. So over the career of an apprentice, the estimated benefits to the company exceeded the initial cost by more than $49,000. So apprentice programs are not only a legitimate path to becoming a developer, but it's a bridge for people coming out of these outreach programs that I spoke about earlier. Even after doing multiple Railsbridges and working tirelessly with many mentors, I wasn't ready to become a full-time software engineer managing large web applications. I needed something like the apprentice program to really jump off the deep-end into writing code. And apprentice programs create a structured environment where I can continue to learn best practices and become a developer that produces reliable and maintainable software. So there are many benefits to companies creating a formal or mentorship, formal apprentice or mentorship program. So if companies invest in apprentice and mentorship programs, there will be more highly-trained and prepared candidates out there. These companies can help other companies find, et cetera, find highly, find high quality candidates. CSR is also really important in our society. A study showed that 94% of consumers would be more loyal to the company if they have CSR initiative. 96% of people said that they would have a more positive image of the company. So CSR is clearly important and an all-around great way to give back to the community. So this is more specific to consulting companies, but a lot of times projects are lost due to a large price tag, and if companies take in an apprentices, they will be able to bill them at lower rates to projects that have a strict budget and not so much of a strict timeline. So there are also a lot of engineers that I have met that are out there who would love the opportunity to become a mentor and are not sure the right way to get involved. This would create an opportunity for interested parties to teach and mentor in a more formal environment. So, I mean, look at me. I'm up here genuinely talking about ThoughtBot and, because they took a risk on me. SO the message and good will of your company will spread throughout the students that you take risks on and train. But why is all of this important? Why is it important to have educational alternatives to training the next generation of developers? I have three reasons. Diversity, a massive lack of, of supply of engineer, and traditional education that isn't providing with the amount of people that we need. So mentorship Railsbridge programs and apprentice programs are absolutely key in getting more diversity into not only the web development world but the tech world as a whole. As you can see, NCWiT thinks it's crucial for advancing underrepresented employees. So access to the internet is a privilege. White males specifically have access at an earlier age and a much higher rate than females. And people of different ethnic backgrounds. Statistics show that boys get their first computers at fourteen, while girls at age eleven. It's even later for people of color, who tend to have a much higher adoption rate of smart phones, and I can't imagine trying to write code in a smart phone. So females make up more than half of undergrad graduates but only 18% of computer science graduates. There's a really high barrier via the traditional computer science route in university. Financial access, discrimination, lack of role models, lack of encouragement in general are creating this large gap of the lack of diversity. These are all barriers that are hard to overcome. So we want to create diversity within the industry, education has to come from elsewhere. outreach programs, mentorship and apprentice programs are all alternatives to a traditional education that lower these barriers. This is key in creating a diverse community. And I really want to emphasize that this is lowering the barriers and not the standards. Alternative education needs to be high quality in caliber in order to maintain the standard in the industry. So we all know that diversity is important. Not only does it drive economic growth, it's been scientifically proven that diversity fosters innovation and enhances abilities to solve problems. And approaching tricky programming problems from many perspectives proves to be successful in this industry. So another thing to be aware of is a lot of these outreach programs and alternative paths are in predominately white areas for people of average or even high socioeconomic statuses. So it would be awesome to see mentorship apprentice programs and outreach programs happening in rural areas that have a low socioeconomic status and ethnic diversity. So secondly, there's a massive lack of quality engineers. How many people here, or their company, is hiring on an ongoing basis? Yeah, and is it hard to find quality engineers? Yeah. So companies continually struggle with this. According to NCWIT research, if current trends continue by 2018, the information technology industry will only be able to fill half of its available jobs. There are people who never considered software engineering as a viable career option because they were discouraged from it, never thought they were smart enough, never grew up with a computer or were intimidated by people who had been programming for most of their lives. These people can discover their passion and take an alternative approach such as the ones I discussed earlier and programs like GSchool and Flat Iron School. So thirdly, the traditional science, computer science degree isn't providing the industry with the developers that it needs. Most people coming out of college are not ready for full-time engineering jobs. It takes four or more years to recieve a degree and not to mention the hefty price tag. So thanks to programs like Railsbridge, my amazing mentors, and ThoughtBot's apprentice program, I am here today to speak about the importance of alternative education paths in software development. I am almost done with my apprenticeship and I'm excited for what my next step will be on this path, and I would be lying if I told you that the path, my path to becoming a software engineer has been easy and constantly rewarding. There are times when I'm really close to quitting and there are times when I cry from feeling so frustrated and incompetent when the test suite won't turn green. But I know that I love what I'm doing and I won't quit and I know that it's because sometimes I literally get chills when I manage to get through it, refactor it, and produce some beautiful code. It literally moves me and makes me feel like I can do anything. My goal is that other people who never thought that becoming a software engineer was possible will become inspired by one of these alternative education programs or by an influential mentor and discover that they not only can be a great developer but find a passion for it. Thank you for your time today and you can contact me through email or Twitter if you have any questions. And here are some of my works' cited.