Have you ever reflected on your career goals as a Software Developer? How often do you talk with someone who’s doing the kind of work you want to be doing? Find out how Mina Slater created her own role by taking advantage of her theater management background and expanding the impact of her work.
Often as developers, we believe we are supposed to know everything. Just figure everything by ourselves. As long as we get faster and better at coding, our careers will progress smoothly.
But if you ask around, you’ll notice that most people are feeling technically stuck, despite years of experience. If you ask for career advice, people will throw you an endless list of complex technical skills to master.
That’s not what you’ll find here.
Have you ever reflected on your career goals as a Software Developer? How often do you talk with someone who’s doing the kind of work you want to be doing?
“The first step to growth is identifying what you want”
Mina Slater is our guest for this episode. Mina decided she will never be stuck. She is always doing things that are uncomfortable and scary, such as communication and leadership skills. Some people call these “soft skills for software developers”.
With more than a decade of experience with theater management before becoming a Software Developer, Mina has been progressing in her career as she wanted. She even created her own role. In the week this episode was released, she was promoted to Senior Developer!
This episode also addresses this fact: no pacing is right or wrong, everyone has their own journey. How do you make sure you are moving forward and not getting stuck on your journey? That’s what this episode is about.
You’ll hear Mina using phrases such as “helping my team”, “reflecting on my progress”, “peer-mentoring”, “people skills”. These are clues of how to explore opportunities to grow in your career organically.
About Mina Slater
Mina Slater is dedicated to using her “superpowers” for good, to connect people and bring them closer together by contributing to meaningful and inclusive products.
Since transitioning from a career in theater management by way of Northwestern Coding Bootcamp in April of 2018, she has developed as Engineer and Consultant, with a specific interest in the backend and Ruby On Rails.
Episode Links
- YouTube Interview
- How to Create and Deliver a Technical Talk as a Software Developer
- Managing Out: Strategies for Leveling Up by Mina Slater
- RailsConf 2019 - Filling the Knowledge Gap: Debugging Edition by Mina Slater
- Mina’s Twitter
- Mina’s Instagram