From the course: Career Clinic: Developer Insights

Shonna Smith

From the course: Career Clinic: Developer Insights

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Shonna Smith

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- There's this clerical error, that happens that, it actually took me a while to realize that it was a mistake. I really thought that that first computer programming class was a part of the business curriculum. I'm in this class, after the second class of learning I think like, word processing type software that it finally hit me. This is a mistake, and I had to like consciously think for a few minutes or days, whatever it was, what am I going to do about this? Am I going to say something, or am I going to keep it to myself? I've really always loved mysteries and mystery novels. Mystery books, mystery movies, you name it, I love puzzles and solving things, and subconsciously I knew that there was that connection. It wasn't until adulthood that I consciously connected those dots that the reason why I stuck with it, is because it's just in my nature. It was just my fate to be in this field because I have to solve problems. It's just what I do, it's what I'm built to do. One of my favorite problems to work on was when I started working with a small tech company in the northern Virginia area, and it was the first time where I had really impressive leadership. Like I've still have not yet met leaders like these people that I worked with, and I had the opportunity to step into a leadership role, a tech leadership role as a software architect making the kind of decisions in the kind of software that just challenged every part of my brain in every aspect of what my computer science degree taught me and it really stretched me. I learned tech skills, I learned people skills. It was just a good combination of challenges with getting the people part right, but also getting the tech part right, you know, leadership position. So the advice I have for other developers entering the field, or even those that have been in the field for a while is network. Take every opportunity you can to meet other people in the field. Go to conferences, go to tech community meetups, happy hours, whatever the event, whatever the occasion, take that opportunity. I have found that just knowing people in the industry has served me so well. So much so that I sometimes look back and think on most, if not all, of the jobs I've had, have been because I knew somebody. Not because of a resume. I don't think my actual resume has gotten me any jobs in life, other than that first one out of college. So I would say to anyone, continue to just know people, it's a human business, and people forget that in tech.

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