#RUCoding?

This evening I attended the Rutgers Coding Boot camp alumni project demo presentations. It was hosted at Postlight, a digital agency here in the city. The event was very cool and informational. I met some new and interesting people and was able to reunite with an old friend. Besides the project, the event also included lightning talks done by specialists and professionals in the community. 

The first speaker was Dave Chappel (not pronounced like the comedian lol), a recruitment specialist for software engineer companies. Dave gave us some tips on how to spot bad recruiters, what to expect from good ones, and how to make yourself a good client to work with. You should be looking for a recruiter who specializes in your industry so they know the market and have a relationship with some great companies, who can give you at least 3 testimonials to vouch for their work, and who's willing to connect with you in person and get to know you. Pro tip: Don't tell them where else you're interviewing if they ask. 

One alumni was very excited to speak about Python and Panda. Panda is a data analysis toolkit that helps manage and clean up data using Python. He also used Jupyter notebook to run his program. All software I've never heard of before.

Three of the alumni created a video paging app for doctors. One of the developers was a practicing MD and saw the need because a large percent of hospitals still use beepers even though doctors have to travel across huge campuses to get to their patients. They hacked Twilio's api and were a great example of seeing a need for technology in your everyday life, using other people's technology and keeping things simple. 

The last alumni I saw didn't have a project to present but he did give some really great advice to new developers on how to deal with being new at a company, being thrown into a a project or having to learn a new language quickly. My top takeaways were:

-Pause take, a step back and know that you're not expected to be a master overnight.

-Efficiency and quality are important

-And you should never be afraid to ask questions

His tips for starting on a project:

1. Get an overview of the project. 

2. Set up your system. Download the tools and be sure you have permissions and access needed. 

3. Pull the code. Request and review design documentation. 

4. Analyze the tasks and functional requirements. 

5. Take some time to review the code. 

6. Mock up design documentation. 

7. Google is your best friend. (EVERY developer tells you this lol)

8. Start coding based on your planning. 

And his tips for working well and writing good code: 

1. Comment your code well. 

2. Try to be less repetitive

3. Test, test, test some more. 

4. Request code reviews with your team. 

5. Your team is your greatest asset. 

6. Don't be afraid to ask questions. 

~ Lisa Lou