Talks I want to hear by Michelle (@_michelleerica)
My name is Michelle and I’m one of the junior devs organising DDD Sydney’s new junior track. I’m a career changer, new to tech and keen to create an inclusive space for my fellow juniors to share, learn and meet each other.
I’m going on holiday and while I’m away, the call for presentations for DDD Sydney will close. In an attempt at time travel/getting what I want, I’m putting the following list of talks out into the universe and hope people out there actually submit them to DDD Sydney’s junior track.
This is basically a list of talks I personally want to see. All you have to do is fill out the CfP form: https://sessionize.com/dddsydney-2018/, and give the talk if you’re selected. Easy as.
Disclaimer
Please note talk selection is voted by the community, so if you do submit a talk similar to what’s below, it’s in no way a guarantee that you’ll be selected. This is just a wish list by someone with a dream.
Talk ideas - The world outside of me - Open Source - what it is, what you did as part of an open source project, how you can get involved, why you should get involved - Meet-ups (by a meet up organiser)- what they are, why you run them and what really goes on behind the scenes - Why diversity matters - what it is, why it’s an issue in tech, what you should know as a junior (i.e. you have the right to feel safe and comfortable in your own environment), red flags before you start, what to do if you’re already in it - Accessibility talk from the perspective of someone who needs it
Cool non-work stuff - Passion projects! What I learnt from building X and why you should DIY - Cool stuff you can do with code - Stories from a far away land - talk by someone who has worked in tech overseas - what it’s like, how its different to AU, lessons learnt? - How [something random] made me a better developer - maybe re a hobby, something random you’re passionate about, changing careers, travel, a tv show .. who knows? - Hackathons - what I learnt from winning / losing a hackathon - what a hackathon is, what it was like, technical but soft skill discussion
Career development advice - What I learnt from my first X years in tech - advice for juniors - So you think you can dev? A talk on imposter syndrome - Debugging mental health: Why it’s an issue in the tech space and what you can do to look after yourself and the people around you - Why culture matters and other things you should look for in a job - Cool jobs - if you have a cool job, talk about that e.g. You work at google, tell us what you actually do, bust some myths, perpetuate the mythology..? - Talk by a UX designer: what I wish the dev team knew - Back in my day: A talk by a tech dinosaur on tech in the [90s, 000s, before HTML5 …?] - TDD - what and why, benefits and drawbacks - Maintaining a legacy code base - Pair programming - what, why, what you should know to be a good pair
Technical stuff - Blockchain - what? how? how it can help the world - Machine learning - what it is + something cool you’ve done with it - Something to do with AI/VR - Cool stuff with data - what is data analytics and cool information you’ve discovered through data analysis. Also, facebook data.. should I be worried? - Cyber security: How scared should I be? Also, is the sticky tape on my laptop camera worth the effort?
Co-presenting + some more ideas
You can submit talks in tandem or as a group. Maybe you and a friend/colleague want to do a talk together providing different perspectives on the same thing (or maybe because it’s less scary to have a buddy by your side)?
Random ideas: - A debate on VIM vs EMACS / React vs Vue / Microsoft vs Apple etc - Pair programming by a pair who pair programs - Diversity in practice - discussion on diversity by a white male and someone holding a diversity card (I’m sorry if this is offensive, but I hope you understand where I’m coming from. I am Asian and female and am often the token diversity card, so I feel I have grounds for saying this). - Coding with Friends: Cool tech stuff you’ve done with your friends
Experience level
Please remember, the junior track is aimed at junior devs, we don’t need you to be an expert on a subject matter.
We encourage speakers to speak about what they’re passionate about / have an interest in and want to share (or maybe even use the talk as a reason to get to know a given subject matter more in depth).
There’s no assumed knowledge so intro talks on a technical topic on something you’ve been doing in the past year at work, for example is fine. Or if you’ve recently gotten into machine learning and want to push yourself to do a talk - that would be amazing and more power to you!
PLUS, there’s mentoring help available for speakers in putting together their talks.
Reminders - Talk selection is voted by the community. Make sure your talk title and abstract not only describe your talk, but describes a talk you would want to vote for/hear. - Voting is anonymous and we don’t want there to be any unconscious bias in the votes, so don’t include any identifying features in there like your name or gender BUT if your talk is about your workplace, for example, you’re welcome to name it.