Author Archives: dommillar

About dommillar

.Net and iOS Developer + cat herder Australia

The importance of meetups

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I have been talking to a bunch of software engineers over the last few weeks about the importance of meetups and why software engineers should engage in these. Here are my top 3 reasons:


1.Network

2.Network

3.Network

Seriously, the one massive aspect of meetups is the ability to develop and grow your network. Of course there are opportunities to present (and grow these skills) and share and collaborate in all sorts of ways. But what stands out is your ability to connect and grow relationships with a community and for me I have been able to both connect, re-connect and grow a number relationships via Meetups and it has definitely made a difference in the last ten years of my career in software engineering. Through my network I have established a significant group of people who help me in all sorts of ways (I think I’ll do a specific blog on this soon) and have allowed me to grow throughout my career.

There are all types of meetups/user groups/clubs that exist and it’s pretty easy to find one that is related to software engineering, so take the opportunity to check one of these cool organisations out and you might find like me you are able to grow your professional network.

And while I am on subject – here is a plug to an awesome meetup in the city I live : https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Junior-Developers-Canberra/

If you are a junior dev in or around the Canberra area would highly recommend joining.

Canberra Junior Developer meetup in november – SOLID!!!!!

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Junior Dev – Introduction to SOLID Principles of Object Oriented Design

Thursday, Nov 12, 2020, 6:00 PM

21 Software Developers Attending

Check out this Meetup →

Brilliant article about systems thinking

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Outstanding thoughts by Hanselman giving advice to a young developer. Really great article that I think a lot of developers (should read) …

“… to try not to focus on the syntax of C# and the details of the .NET Framework, and rather to think about the problems that it solves and the system around it.

…

Do you understand how your system talks to the file system? To the network? Do you understand latency and how it can affect your system? Do you have a general understanding of “the stack” from when your backend gets data from the database makes anglebrackets or curly braces, sends them over the network to a client/browser, and what that next system does with the info?”

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/SystemsThinkingAsImportantAsEverForNewCoders.aspx

Technical presentation tips (part 1)

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I’ve been speaking to a number of developers recently about presenting at conferences and there is often a general concern about the stress, process and experience so here is my general advice for people giving presentations – or how I go about giving presentations:

PickTopic();

While (I_still_want_to_present_this_topic)

{

   Practice();

   Research();

   Refine();

}

 

If it looks a bit out of order that’s because it’s actually important to jump right in. Do your practice first. Practice with yourself. Do it in front of the mirror. Do it with no preparation and learn from it. Maybe do the next iteration in front of the mirro. Then next iteration practice with a friend or family member. Then iterate through the loop and do it again and this time do it with a few close colleagues from School or Work. Then iterate again … Eventually when you are presenting at a Work, School or Industry event you will have been through the loop number of times and the refinement and experience will make you more comfortable delivering.

I’ve been doing this for a while and it seems to work 🙂

However, I am not an expert by any measure. The following are much better so here are some more tips and they are gold::

Hanselman

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/11TopTipsForASuccessfulTechnicalPresentation.aspx

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/VIDEOTheArtOfSpeakingWithScottHanselman.aspx

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheDoMySlidesSuckTest.aspx

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/11EssentialCharacteristicsForBeingAGoodTechnicalAdvocateOrInterviewer.aspx

Really nice summary from Ayende;

https://ayende.com/blog/185953-A/technical-presentation-delivery-notes

Others:

http://wittcom.com/how-to-plan-a-technical-presentation/