John talks about why he created short chapters in his new book, Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual and his experience in writing the book. He also discusses why he doesn’t quit in the middle of a personal sprint. The panel discusses how to build a personal brand and why you need to be a specialist. John goes into how you can be fit and healthy. Richie asks John on how he’s able to read so much. Cecil asks John how we can find balance in our lives.

Recorded on: February 7, 2015 in the South Florida Code Camp Speaker Room.

Links

Julie Lerman – Entity Framework guru
Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual
Superhuman By Habit: A Guide to Becoming the Best Possible Version of Yourself, One Tiny Habit at a Time

Bio

John Sonmez is the author of Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual. He’s published over 50 courses on topics such as iOS, Android, .NET, Java, and game development for the online developer training resource, Pluralsight. He also host two podcasts to help developers: Get Up and CODE: http://getupandcode.com and Entreprogrammers: http://entreprogrammers.com He’s a life coach for software developers, and helps software engineers, programmers and other technical professionals boost their careers and live a more fulfilled life. He empowers them to accomplish their goals by making the complex simple. You can find him online at http://simpleprogrammer.com.

The panel discusses what really is Miami music. Rachel Appel explains that Chicago Pizza isn’t really pizza and the concept of the Rachii. The Rachels discuss the state of women in technology. Rachel Appel tells how she got started in technology and how she may have fractured a few rules during her start. Rachel Terman talks about her start in technology and how her business background propelled her. Rachel Appel tells a conference story when a male developer decided to be offensive and rude. The panel discusses how to get more diversity in conference speakers. Richie cons Rachel Terman into speaking at dotNet Miami. Richie shares his love for Cecil’s voice.

Recorded on: February 7, 2015 in the South Florida Code Camp Speaker Room

Links

• South Florida Code Camp
• Rachel Reese
• Girl Develop It
• Sara Chipps
• Dev Chix List
• Black Girls Code
• Girls Who Code
• Hour of Code

Bios

Rachel Appel is a 20+ year software engineer, author, mentor, and speaker. Rachel currently works as an independent consultant following a tenure at Microsoft; however she still works closely with Microsoft as an ASPInsider and IE userAgent. You can read Rachel’s monthly “Modern Apps” column for MSDN Magazine, or her blog about software development at http://rachelappel.com. Catch her speaking at top conferences such as VSLive, DevConnections, Devlink, and Netconf UY. Her expertise is in web development on the Microsoft stack, including ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms, SignalR, C#, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and TypeScript. Rachel also deals with data as a DBA and data scientist).

Rachel Terman is the Director of Operations for Schuman Feathers. Previously, she was the Vice-President of Product and Development at XEQ Information Solutions where she specialized in SharePoint, Office365, C# and VB.Net. Rachel is an active member of South Florida Development community and helps organizes events such as the South Florida Code Camp and dotNet Miami. She is also the founder of the Tech Night at the Ballpark, a networking event for the South Florida Technical Community held at Marlins Park in August. For more information go to http://technightattheballpark.com.

This is it. The beginning…of what we’re not exactly sure. Cecil and Richie talk about what Away From The Keyboard is and how it came about. Richie mentions dotNet Miami way too much and Cecil explains why pineapple and coconut water is better than pizza and Mountain Dew. They also discuss the real reason why we write software and the importance of community. Buckle up folks the ride starts here.

Show notes:

• dotNet Miami