Coding Is Not Enough Anymore! (3 THINGS TO STAND OUT)
Summary
TLDRThe video script addresses the challenges faced by tech workers in the current job market, emphasizing the importance of standing out. It offers three key pieces of advice: conducting thorough research on stakeholders before presentations, focusing on reading and writing documentation effectively, and prioritizing personal projects to showcase problem-solving skills. These strategies aim to enhance a tech professional's career prospects and marketability in a competitive industry.
Takeaways
- 🔍 The tech industry is facing challenges with mass layoffs, underscoring the importance of standing out in a competitive job market.
- 👩💻 Being a skilled coder is no longer sufficient; differentiation and additional skills are increasingly critical.
- 🎯 One strategy to stand out is to conduct research (or 'Recon') on your audience before presentations, understanding their roles and interests to tailor your communication.
- 🎨 Tailoring demos and presentations requires understanding the 'Three Ws': Why the audience cares, What is the essential information, and Where the demo should take place.
- 📚 Emphasizing reading and writing documentation can vastly improve understanding and use of tools, libraries, and frameworks.
- ✍️ Writing documentation enhances your ability to articulate and sell both your system and yourself, providing a significant career advantage.
- 🚀 Prioritizing personal projects can distinguish job candidates in the tech industry, showcasing creativity and problem-solving skills.
- 💡 Personal projects offer a practical demonstration of your skills beyond traditional coding challenges or interviews.
- 📈 Investing time in writing and personal projects not only aids in job searches but also fosters creativity and problem-solving skills.
- 🌱 These pieces of advice are aimed at helping tech professionals navigate their careers during uncertain times and emphasize the importance of adaptability and continuous learning.
Q & A
Why is the beginning of the year considered challenging for workers in the tech industry?
-The beginning of the year is challenging due to mass layoffs at some of the country's largest tech companies, as noted in forums like Reddit and LinkedIn, where there are many 'open to work' badges and discussions about unemployment.
What is emphasized as a key factor for standing out in the tech industry?
-The key factor for standing out in the tech industry is not just being a good coder, but also tailoring communication to your audience, understanding business roles, and engaging in personal projects.
What is one major piece of advice given for improving presentations or demos?
-One major piece of advice is to do recon on your audience to understand their roles and interests better, thereby tailoring your demo to align with their perspective and business needs.
What are the three W's mentioned as a guide to tailor demos for the target audience?
-The three W's are: Why the audience should care, What is the minimum amount of information they need, and Where the demo should take place (in-person, Zoom, etc.).
Why is reading and writing documentation highlighted as important?
-Reading and writing documentation is important because it ensures accurate use of tools and libraries, helps avoid reliance on inaccurate prompts from tools like ChatGPT, and improves communication and understanding of systems.
How can personal projects impact one's chances of getting hired in the tech industry?
-Personal projects showcase problem-solving skills and creativity, making a candidate more appealing to employers over those with just technical interview skills, like solving LeetCode problems.
Why might personal projects be considered more valuable than expertise in technical interview tasks?
-Personal projects demonstrate real-world problem solving and the ability to ideate, decompose, and implement solutions, providing tangible evidence of skills that are directly applicable in professional settings.
What misconception about side projects is addressed?
-The misconception addressed is that working on side projects outside of regular working hours is unnecessary; however, these projects are seen as beneficial for fostering creativity and demonstrating skills.
How does the script suggest approaching the use of ChatGPT and other AI tools during coding?
-The script suggests that before turning to ChatGPT or similar AI tools, one should first consult the API documentation of the tool or library being used to ensure accurate and up-to-date information.
What general advice is given for improving one's prospects in the tech industry?
-The advice includes understanding your audience, reading and writing documentation, and prioritizing personal projects to showcase creativity and problem-solving skills.
Outlines
🚀 Standing Out in the Tech Industry
The paragraph discusses the challenges faced by tech workers in the current job market, emphasizing that being a good coder is not sufficient to stand out. It offers three key pieces of advice for professionals looking to make a change. The first advice is to conduct thorough research on the audience before presenting a demo, understanding their roles and how the project benefits them. The speaker shares a personal realization about the importance of tailoring presentations to the audience's perspective and understanding. The advice also includes using the '3Ws' (Why, What, Where) to effectively communicate and deliver demos that resonate with the target audience.
📚 Emphasizing Documentation and Personal Projects
This paragraph highlights the importance of focusing on reading and writing documentation. It suggests that engineers should start their coding sessions by reviewing API documentation, which can prevent common issues arising from outdated or incorrect information. The speaker regrets not spending more time on writing documentation, as it not only improves one's writing skills but also aids in selling the system and oneself. Lastly, the paragraph emphasizes the value of personal projects in showcasing problem-solving skills and fostering creativity, which can significantly improve one's chances of getting hired in the competitive tech industry.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Mass layoffs
💡Recon
💡Demo
💡API documentation
💡Personal projects
💡3Ws
💡Stakeholders
💡Problem-solving skills
💡Career development
💡Communication
Highlights
The tech industry is facing a challenging start to the new year with layoffs and high unemployment rates.
Being a good coder is no longer sufficient to stand out in the tech industry.
To stand out, it's important to understand the roles and responsibilities of the people you're working with and presenting to.
Tailoring your communication and presentations to your audience's level of understanding and relevance can greatly improve your effectiveness.
The '3Ws' method (Why, What, Where) can help in customizing your demos for different audiences.
Focusing on the 'Why' helps to understand the audience's interest and how your work benefits them.
Determining the 'What' involves providing the minimum necessary information to convey your message effectively.
The 'Where' considers the platform and environment where the demo will take place, which can impact the delivery and reception of your message.
High-quality engineers know the value of thoroughly reading and understanding API documentation.
Starting coding sessions with API documentation can prevent common issues and misunderstandings.
Writing documentation is crucial for not only explaining your work but also for selling your system and yourself.
Emphasizing personal projects can significantly improve your chances of getting hired in the tech industry.
Personal projects foster creativity and provide a platform to showcase your problem-solving skills.
Employers prefer candidates who can demonstrate real-world problem-solving through personal projects over theoretical coding expertise.
The speaker shares their personal journey and advice through regular updates on their YouTube channel.
Transcripts
look at the state of the tech world the
new year is not starting off on a happy
note for workers at some of the
country's largest tech companies with
more layoffs just announced Mass layoffs
forums and Reddit and Linkedin
absolutely full of open to work badges
cries for help and conversations of
longtime unemployment it just goes to
say that being a good coder is not
enough anymore and if you really want to
stand out if you really are finding
yourself in a spot where you want to
make a change here are three pieces of
advice that I wish I had when I was
coming up that you can take with and run
at whatever level you see fit let's talk
about it like you we're all trying to
work 40 hours and I get it some of you
are cranking 100 plus hour weeks and
some of you are part-time Heroes I'm
pretty
tired I think I'll go home now and one
of my biggest pieces of advice that I've
realized over the last 2 years and
something that will really help you
stand out is to do a little Recon
whether it be on workday talking to
colleagues creeping their LinkedIn and
really figure out who your you're
talking to when you're going to give a
demo and I don't mean just understanding
their name you should know that but what
I'm talking about is having a real
understanding of what their role in the
business is and what their role on your
project is here's a silly example you're
a designer and you're going to give a
demo to your design lead they probably
care that the button is blue and not red
they're going to have an interest in
that but if you were to give that exact
same demo to your boss's boss the truth
is they probably don't give a what
color the button is and they just care
that that button happens to be the
finalized checkout which is going to
make the business money and it's not
that they don't care that you worked
super hard to fight CSS or that you made
the backend API to support the button
it's just that their role is all about
making money dealing with Staffing and
contracts and finding additional
business leads to bring in a bigger
market for the company do yourself a
favor help yourself by helping them
understand the tools that you're
providing but in their world and in
their terminology and if you're asking
how how the hell you can do that here
are three W's that I like to use when
I'm trying to tailor My Demo to my
target audience first and foremost you
need to answer why they care what is
their role in the business why do they
care that you added this button how is
it going to help them the second of the
three WS what is the minimum amount of
information that you can give them based
off of why they care and this isn't to
hide information but this is to
streamline and put a spotlight on the
bits of information and the overall
message that you're trying to deliver to
them once again help yourself by helping
them and the last W may seem a bit
strange but this last W is where should
this demo take place is it in person is
it over Zoom Microsoft teams is it in
the cloud or is it locally deployed on
your machine this is one of those like
doesn't seem like it quite fits with the
others but I promise you if you can nail
this one you're going to have a much
better delivered message they're going
to probably think a little higher of you
and you're going to get a lot less
questions and instead receive some
proper feedback back that we're all
actually trying to get out of our bosses
I put this pillar first because in my
opinion this is the biggest secret that
really highquality Engineers just know
how to take advantage of if nothing else
in this video consider those 3ws and
start tailoring your demos for the
target audience in their language I
promise you it'll make a huge difference
on how you are received and perceived
from the people that control your money
the second piece of advice that I wish I
had when I was coming up was really
putting emphasis on reading but more
importantly writing documentation rather
than starting your coding session with
chat GPT on one screen and your intellig
or vs code on the other screen I really
encourage you to start making the API
documentation of whatever tool or
Library you're using your very first
place to look I can't count the amount
of times I've helped another engineer
and truthfully myself included where the
issue with the snippet of code is that
the chat GPT prompt they use just wasn't
good enough you're trying to use methods
that don't exist anymore options that
just flat out never existed or even
smaller more subtle things things like
you're on version 5 but Chachi BT is
giving you answers and responses to
version 3 so what do you do in this
scenario you start riffing back and
forth with chat GPT just trying to brute
force your way through this and this
type of prompt hell hole I think you can
completely avoid if you just start
reading the API docs first more
importantly I wish I would have spent
way more time actually writing
documentation and it's not that I didn't
write docs but quite honestly the docs
that I did write were quite
spending more time writing in general
will not only help you write better
documentation but also help you better
sell the system and yourself think about
it your documentation is kind of like
this rushing nesting doll you have
function or method level docs which roll
up to your class level docs which roll
up to your service or API docs which
rolls up to your microservice which
rolls up to your architecture which
rolls up to the product line as you grow
in your career and spend different
amount of time in all of these different
levels writing documentation I promise
you that you will have a huge jump start
if you just start putting more emphasis
on writing now I remember being asked my
very first time to help identify
components of a product line for a
proposal we were working on I had never
done that before had no clue where I
should even start and it really
highlighted how terrible of a writer I
was so now I just spend more time
writing I actually find that I enjoy
writing it's peaceful it's relaxing it
energizes me but also are great
additions to my resume so that in the
future I can go ahead and better sell
myself the last piece of advice I wish I
had when I was coming up was to spend
more moretime prioritizing personal
project as I mentioned in the beginning
the tech world right now is kind of a
show it's damn hard to get a job in
Tech right now and based off of all of
the data that I've seen and interviews
that I've been a part of the people
getting hired fast are the ones that
have personal projects that they can
show off and talk
[Music]
about in full transparency for a very
long time I was one of those people that
thought it was absolute to work
on side projects like I write code 9 to5
why am I going to write more code
outside of work but the real kicker of
prioritizing personal projects is not
only helps you Foster creativity but
allows you and gives you an Avenue to
show off your problem solving skills
sure you might have to solve a leak code
problem or two during your interview
process but it is really cool
when you can show off that you found a
problem in the world and you solved it
and I'm personally not a leak code
fanatic you just don't use that in the
real world so if you can show me some
real soft Ware and how you ideated the
problem decomposed all the features and
tasks and implemented it I would pick
you 10 times out of 10 to join my team
over the elite code expert and there you
have it that's three actionable
practical pieces of advice I wish I had
when I was coming up and practice what
I'm preaching check out the card over
here or the link down below where I'm
prioritizing my personal project and to
take you along the entire Journey The
Good the Bad the Ugly the success the
failures all of it right here on YouTube
so subscribe if you're a Dev or if
you're interested in that sash journey I
post a new video every week and with
that I will see you next week
peace
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