Career Progression Decoded: Angie Jones' Expert Tips for Entering the Tech Industry and Forging Your Unique Path

Meet Angie Jones 🇺🇸! Angie is a veteran software developer currently working as a global Developer Relations executive at TBD. Before that, she worked as an automation engineer at Twitter and as a software engineer and master inventor at IBM (where she worked for nine years)! Angie is also a teacher and an international keynote speaker who has authored 27 patents.

In this episode, Angie takes us through her career path, from falling in love with coding through automation engineering to eventually discovering her passion for teaching and DevRel. You'll learn the differences between large enterprises, medium-sized companies, and startups and find out what to look for if you're just breaking into the industry. Angie also talks about teaching, patenting your ideas, and finding specialization. Plus: decentralized technologies, changing jobs with the same company, and why it's important to keep learning new stuff.

🔗 Connect with Angie

⏰ Timestamps

Angie's father thought she should familiarize herself with computers, so she took a C++ course. The rest is history! (01:41)
What Angie loved about programming (03:14)
Are developers missing out if they don't study computer science at university? (04:02)
What makes a good teacher? (05:51)
Community break! Your Tweets and LinkedIn posts (10:00)
Angie got his first role in tech through an internship (11:23)
How Angie spent nine years at IBM (12:54)
What are the advantages of changing jobs within the same company? (13:31)
How does working at a huge corporation compare to working at smaller companies and startups, and why should you try a bit of both (15:12)
What does career progression look like? (17:17)
As a beginner, should you prioritize learning opportunities? What size companies should you go after? (17:55)
Pay attention to the ratio of juniors vs. seniors (19:18)
Software development is about much more than coding (19:39)
How Angie discovered automation engineering and, subsequently, DevRel (20:22)
There are gaps in the market for specializations (23:56)
How to find a slight specialization within frontend (28:06)
Quick-fire questions: Java, decentralized technologies, Sarah Drasner and Kelsey Hightower (29:53)
Angie Jones has 27 patents! Here's how that happened. (34:00)
What does a patent look like? (35:24)
What's it like to invent patents within a big corporation like IBM? (37:54)
Closing advice: Aside from technical competency, what else should new developers focus on? (39:31)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

Sarah Drasner
Kelsey Hightower
Scrimba Podcast with Chad Stewart: Tech Is Hiring, and Here's What You Need to Do!

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