career development

How do I become a (good) web developer?

As a recent bootcamp graduate, I will discuss the multiple stigmas surrounding bootcamps (and their awkward socioeconomic role), their various implications, and finally my experience learning Drupal independently after completing my program. This analysis will support my ever evolving answer to the question, "What am I learning and why?"

A Drupalers Guide to Marketing

Those of us planning, designing, building or supporting Drupal for others are increasingly working for people who see that work through the lens of Marketing. This session will start by looking at the big picture of what's happening in the web market (Wix, WordPress, Sitecore, etc.), where Drupal fits today and how that evolution involves marketing professionals. Put another way, if Drupal is becoming the tool for Ambitious Digital Experiences, those experiences are paid for by Marketing budgets. 

Stamping Your Open Source Passport

Visiting a foreign open source community is kind of like traveling to a foreign country! It may be difficult if you don’t speak the language or share the same culture, but you’re guaranteed to return home with a new perspective and interesting experiences. It’s easy to get comfortable and stay in your own community bubble. Breaking outside of that allows you to see how others solve problems and tackle new opportunities. And, it turns out that other open source communities are generally welcoming and interested in your perspective as well!

The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Building Drupal Websites

Every developer has been there: fresh out of school, new to the field, or using a new technology. There is a lot to know to successfully build Drupal websites. To be successful, developers learn technical skills in school or from websites and books. Applying those skills in the real-world is not always straightforward. In addition, soft skills are equally as important to being successful in this field and are often neglected.

Putting Your Best Foot Forward: A How-to for Navigating the Recruiting Process

Web developers with skills in Drupal, WordPress and modern JavaScript have long been in high demand, leading to tough competition for top talent. For hiring managers at all types of organizations, the prospect of recruiting a new team member can seem daunting at best and downright frustrating at worst. The recruiting process can also be very challenging for developers. How can they best assess culture and fit of an organization through just a job description and a few interviews? What should they keep in mind when searching for a new position to keep up their career progression?

Contributing to Open Source

Open Source thrives on community contributions in the form of event organization, marketing, communications, volunteering, and yes, even code. This helps the projects move forward and stay relevant. Not everyone who works on open source projects is a coder or developer. Smaller tasks help people increase confidence and gain experience, which, in turn, leads to more contributions. Code is very important, but so are all the other parts. Contributing back to Open Source helps folks to feel connected with their community. A more polished project leads to a better overall experience.

Developers with Super Powers: Becoming Cross-Functional

As projects become larger and more complex, so too do the teams required to make them great. When the requirements seem to grow beyond reach we all need to be superheroes to keep up. Staying siloed into our individual roles is no longer viable. To keep up we all need to develop our own super powers by learning skills outside our role to become cross-functional and succeed both individually and as a team. By learning to be more cross-functional and expanding knowledge into the other disciplines required to build and maintain a site, a developer can: