Welcome to Summer of Code 09John Clegg - ProjectX + Summer of Code

Victoria University 15th July 2009

Today

Summer of Code 09 Kick-Ass Careers in ICT

What is Summer of Code ?

Summer of Code

non-profit internship programme connecting smart students with Wellington ICT

companies

70 students

in over

40 companies

2 out of 3

students get

hired

What’s in it for you ? Get training - Bootcamps, Seminars and Workshops

Get experience - 400+ hours of ICT experience

Get paid - $18 p/h

Create networks with Industry - UP, NZCS

Have Fun!

Boot camps

• Resumes workshop

• Communication skills

Boot camps

• Languages - .net / php / rails

• Web / HTML / SQL

• Unit Testing / Code Management

It starts now!Sign up on Summer of Code ‘09

Bootcamps start next week

www.summerofcode.co.nz

How to have kick-ass ICT career

What do companies look for in a graduate ?

Tips to help you along your way

Where to go for help?

Who am I ?

John Clegg

(J Money - Pimp of SoC)

CEO - ProjectX

Summer of Code

Where I’ve been ?

VUW Undergraduate

C+ Average

Career didn’t follow a plan

Spent time working in USA, OZ, UK, India, South Africa and NZ

Getting a good job is HARD!

Talked to a lot of people about hiring

I asked one

importantquestion

What they look for in a graduate?

The answers surprised me

We hire on personality

We hire on team fit

Tech skills are a given

We need a new plan

We need think differently

“Anybody with even routine skills could get a job as a programmer.

That isn't true anymore.”

“The future no longer belongs to people who can reason with computer-like logic, speed, and precision.”

“... engineers will have to master different aptitudes,

relying more on creativity than competence”

What skills areimportant going forward?

Not just function - DESIGN

Not just argument - STORY

Not just argument - STORY

Not just argument - STORY

Not just argument - STORY

Not just focus - SYMPHONY

Not just focus - EMPATHY

Not just seriousness - PLAY

Not just accumulation - MEANING

Your work fits into a big picture

DESIGN - STORY - SYMPHONY EMPATHY - PLAY - MEANING

How do you make this fit together ?

5 things to think about in your career

#1 #1 Who are you?

We see a lot of resumes

What are you all about ?

What does the world say about you ?

What makes youdifferent ?

Its not about grades

We hire people not grades !

We don’t want robots

Self awareness

What are your strengths ?

What are yougood at?

Look at Tiger Woods

What is the best part ofTiger Woods

game?

His Drive

What does Tiger Woodspractice the most ?

His Drive

Lesson #1Work on your strengths

Work around your weaknesses

#2 “What are your Interests?”

Tell us more about yourself

There are plenty of things that suck about computers

What do you like aboutcomputers?

What do you like aboutprogramming?

Lesson #2Tell us why you want to

work in ICT

#3 Curiosity

We have lots of problems

We need people to hunt them down

Figure out what’s wrong

Build Solutions

Lesson #3Be curious

#4 Learning

“By nature men are pretty much alike; it is learning and practice

that set them apart.”

Confucius

"Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back."

-- Chinese proverb

How do you learn ?

By Osmosis?

Visual ?

Aural ?

Kinetic ?

Or by Osmosis?

Mindmaps ?

Lesson #4Figure out how you learn

Check out NLP

#4 Getting things done

When do you work best?

You learn differently at different times of the day

In the end its about outputs

Its about hitting targets

Formula for success:Under promiseOver deliver

- Tom Peters

Lesson #5Focus on getting things

done

Summary

1. Show us your strengths

2. Tell us why you want to work in ICT

3. Be more curious

4. Figure out how you learn

5. Focus on getting things done

Here are five tips foryour career journey

#1 Its not about “you”

Its about what you can do for your company

Tip #1 Kick ass for your company and its clients

Build your own ‘brand’

#2 Its not about “qualifications”

We don’t want robots

Learning is a one step in a journey...

What you do with it, is more important!

“The difference between the novice and the master is simply that the novice has not learnt, yet, how to do things in such a way that he can afford to make small mistakes”

Signal vs Noise Blog

You learn by doing lots of small projects

Tip #2 Show us what you can do

Build a portfolio

#3 Learn about the industry

Read blogs that interest you

• Silicon Welly• NZ Herald• Stuff Tech Pages

Find out what’s happening in the industry

Technology changes fastKeep up

Tip #3 Keep with the news

Look at delicious.com

#4 Its about People

Connect with other geeks

Google doesn’t know all the answers

Tip #4 Connect with User groups

• Unlimited Potential• Super Happy Dev House• Geek Girls• Specialist User groups

#5 Communication

You have to talk to people

Best tech doesn’t all ways win

People with better communication skills

succeed

Ask Questions

Tip #5 Talk to people

Summary

1. Kick ass for your boss

2. Build your portfolio of interesting projects

3. Keep up with industry news

4. Join and participate in user groups

5. Just talk to people

Where to go for help?

Visit them at 14 Kelburn ParadeWellington

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/st_services/careers/

Talk to a Student Liaison

Go to industry network events

Books

More books

Questions

Resume seminar next week

LinksNews / Bookmarking - Delicious.com

Networking organisations - Unlimited Potential - http://www.up.org.nz - Super Happy Dev House - http://superhappydevhouse.org.nz/

Summer of Code - http://www.summerofcode.co.nz