You are techY podcast

Ellen (00:00):

You are listening to the You are techY podcast, episode number 127.

Voiceover (00:10):

Welcome to the You are techY podcast where it’s all about growing in your techy-ness. So you can find the tech job of your dreams. And now your host, technology learning coach, Ellen Twomey.

Ellen (00:27):

Hey moms, are you trying to break into tech? Are you wondering what skills you really need to get hired and how those skills can be worth $45 an hour? Not that $25 an hour you thought when you first started thinking about going back to work? If so, then the You are Techy membership is for you. Our combination of courses, coaching and community, come with a mentor support. You need to keep moving forward into your tech career. It’s like no other membership available. We have the exact skills employers are looking for. You learn how to maximize your income with portfolio ready skills that hiring managers are seeking, not to mention the steps you can skip. So you don’t find yourself down that endless tech learning rabbit hole. Join me as we walk you step-by-step through the getting hired process in tech. Sign up at youaretechy.com. That’s Y O U A R E T E C H Y.com. I can’t wait to see you in our membership.

Ellen (01:23):

Welcome to the show today. We’re talking about tech fundamentals. I really love that word fundamentals MJ said, and that means Michael Jordan, get the fundamentals down. And the level of everything you do will rise. Now, that’s pretty impactful from arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. So I wanna dive into fundamentals today. If some of you have been on this tech journey for a while, or even if you’ve just gotten started, it’s important to keep in mind. What’s actually going to matter over the long haul, and we wanna keep doing more of those and get rid of the things that are not having an impact on what we’re doing. And what’s hard is that sometimes we can stay very, very busy doing things that don’t have as much of an impact. So I wanna dive in today into the tech fundamentals about why they’re important and how you can stay focused on them in a really specific way that I, I think if you’re really on this tech journey, it’s gonna help you get laser focused and get over that hump to get hired, to start.

Ellen (02:39):

I wanna just tell you a short story about basketball. Some of you may know, I love basketball and I wanna talk about the fundamentals of basketball. So I could often be found in my childhood dribbling in the basement and we had this, I think it’s linoleum. I think, you know, I mean, it was, this is <laugh>, this is what people had in our basement linoleum over the concrete, nothing else. So it was really good for dribbling. And that was a very, I don’t, I don’t know if it was every day, but nearly every day, that was an activity that I had. And it was really fun when I could go dribble in a gym at practice or something like that. But mostly I would on a day to day basis, be found dribbling in the basement. And I could dribble between my legs and figure eight.

Ellen (03:33):

I had a whole routine that I would do, and then I would pass the ball to the wall, to the concrete wall between the studs. So we had studs up in our basement. Part of it was finished for my sister’s bedroom. And then the rest of it was unfinished. It was unfinished for years and probably because I was using it for basketball. So what was the point of finishing it off? It was eventually finished when my basketball career ended, but it was a big part of my life. And I played for one of the best high school teams in Michigan. And I’m gonna tell you about that. Why I can say that pretty definitively. So I, I played for one of the best teams at height of five, six, I’m slow, and I couldn’t jump. I still really can’t jump. It’s kind of a funny thing in my family when I jump, they think it’s hilarious.

Ellen (04:30):

And I tell you that because whether you are a fan or, you know, the game at all, you can pretty much get the gist that I, you know, if you’re short, slow, and can’t jump, those are three really big physical negatives in basketball, but it was through practicing the fundamentals that I experienced a ton of success in this sport. In fact, if I would’ve kept doing it, I would’ve had a, a state championship ring. So I played varsity as a junior and then decided not to return as a senior, which might surprise you. The reason was I jumped to another S-curve and played football. We had a flag football team. I played quarterback for my senior year, and that was a lot more fun for me having those limitations that I had in basketball did limit me. So I didn’t get a ton of court time as a junior, but if I would’ve played as a senior, we won the state championship.

Ellen (05:23):

So that’s where I can say we really were the literally the best team in the state. And I share that because you can outpace a large, large percent call it 90% of people by just repeatedly doing the fundamentals. Let’s be honest. Most people do not repeat the fundamentals and I do and did love basketball. So it wasn’t this great sacrifice for me to do it. I, I, I wanted to do it, but there were times where I didn’t feel like it or times where it didn’t go well or times where it was bad, but that’s the whole point is that I, I did those fundamentals regardless of what it felt like. Like sometimes it felt awful. And then the next day I would just go back and do it again. So I understand that, okay, let’s get in and do the fundamentals can be maybe not the sexiest of topics.

Ellen (06:23):

So I’ve got a couple more quotes to kind of amp you up and, you know, hop off that couch and get over to your computer and, you know, bust out some tech fundamental skills, and then we’re gonna dive into what they are. So just a couple of quotes here, no surprise. I’ve got one from Tony Robbins, no matter how many mistakes you make or how slow your progress, you are still way ahead of everyone else who isn’t trying. Wow. That sounds really specific. I can think of some of my students where that is completely true for them right now. Like they maybe haven’t made the progress they wanted or it’s slower than they thought, but if they really think about it, they’re still further ahead than if they hadn’t started trying. And then I’ve got one from famed, Notre Dame, coach, Lou Holtz, build your empire on the firm foundation of fundamentals.

Ellen (07:28):

I love that one. I love it. So let’s dive into some fundamentals today. I’m gonna break the fundamentals down into two parts. <laugh> you, won’t be surprised to hear that those parts are, build your portfolio and build your community. So we’re starting with building your portfolio. And so if you wanna get hired in tech, what I want you to do is do tech. Don’t take a course on tech, actually do the real world work of tech. Okay? So if you wanna be a UX designer, do the UX design process. You wanna be a developer and develop the right code. It sounds really simple, but there’s an unending rabbit hole of more information that you can spend time on instead of getting hired. And I don’t want you to do that. Don’t do that, do the stuff that will get you hired faster and for more money. And I love that lens getting hired faster and for more money, I mean, you guys do too, right?

Ellen (08:36):

Like who says I wanna get hired slower and for less money. But when we have that lens, what we do is we take action. Even in the face of fear that serves us. Most of us are gonna just hang out in that fear and maybe not quite take the boldest of actions, which will limit our earning potential and lengthen our time to get hired. So continually going back to that fundamental of, hey, we’re actually trying to get hired faster and for more money, there’s not that much bad stuff that’s gonna happen to you. You’re gonna have some negative emotions. You’re gonna have some fear. But aside from that, mostly you’ll be having great things happen to you. You’ll get information faster. You’ll really take the right action. So to get hired faster and for more money, we really wanna build that portfolio, which begs the question, what do I put in my portfolio?

Ellen (09:30):

So why UX of course, or code <laugh>, but what is that lens? So again, when we’re talking about tech fundamentals and I am gonna go into more specifics here, if this sounds repetitive, good, cuz we’re going over the fundamentals in your portfolio, you’re gonna have two real world projects. And just for now, as you get started, just do two. I’m not saying you will never have more than two. I’m not saying it’s bad to do more than two. I’m saying that I have worked with enough women breaking in into tech to tell you two is enough. It’s enough to think about it’s usually enough to get hired. It’s just enough. So just think about two projects. And one more thing about two projects. If you are thinking that you can do 14 projects or Hey, I really like doing extra work. I want you to know, I totally feel you.

Ellen (10:31):

This would’ve been me that I would’ve wanted to do. Oh, everybody else can do two. I’ll do five, but that is not a good strategy. Even if we want to do that. I totally understand why you would wanna do that. But by focusing on two, we are able to iterate and improve, which is the important part. So you’re probably not gonna do a great job your first time through. So you’re going to be spending so much more time going over and over these processes than, than you can really imagine right now. So that’s why I say two is enough because we want them to be two really great projects, not five or 14 mediocre. So I hear you. I, I know that is what I would’ve wanted to do too. We’re not gonna do that. We’re just gonna do two. Okay. There’s one more reason.

Ellen (11:29):

I say two, even though at the end of the day, you should just keep building your portfolio. You shouldn’t stop. There’s another reason. And I wanna cast out this warning for you. Okay. You’re never really going to feel job ready. There are some instances where the pain is just so great. You’re like, I just wanna get hired immediately, but generally speaking, you’re never gonna look at your portfolio and say, yep, I love it. It’s perfect. It’s done. I’m job ready. And yet all of every student I’ve ever had feels like that’s how it’s going to feel. And it’s not. That’s why I say build your community while you build your portfolio. Cuz you really don’t know. Many of my students get hired before. There’s a portfolio. And that is because they know the UX design process. Even if they haven’t tied it up in a bow and in a portfolio, they still do the portfolio because it’s good practice to do that.

Ellen (12:19):

But it is not that like hurdle that you think that it’s going to be. So the reason that I see two projects is because I know that when you get those two projects, you’re still not really gonna feel job ready. And I have seen moms, not my students, cuz I would not let them do this. However, I have seen other moms give away work for free for literally years. What? Yes, I have literally seen that where she wanted to build her skills. And so they just keep doing it. It’s like, how do you break that relationship up or say, I need to get paid now. That’s why I’m so specific with two projects or don’t do work for more than three months for free. Like it’s you need to limit these things because your skills have value. And really the reason you’re doing that work is because you don’t feel like your skills are valuable enough or you feel like, well, I have these limitations because of my family commitments or my spousal commitments or different commitments.

Ellen (13:19):

And I’m not sure I’m gonna be the best total worker. So I’m going to give away this for free or do it for a while, but then a while becomes never. So it’s better to just decide up front that you’re going to do two projects. These are some pretty basic fundamentals. So you’re gonna build a portfolio by doing two real world projects and that’s how you’re going to build your skills. Okay. So you might ask, okay. Any two projects? No, I recommend one self-selected. So you decide the project so that you can get your feet wet with a topic that you care about and then one free free in quotes, freelance project so that you have a client to get feedback from and really learn those skills. See being a freelancer is hard, but if you can do that, you’ll be worth more in the market because of that relationship.

Ellen (14:13):

You’ll have someone to recommend. You you’ll have another project that was even harder, but you will have already done the process once. So those are important pieces to the outline of how you will work. Kind of the first fundamental that I’m talking about here is really the outline and the structure of your learning. So in other words, don’t just dive into the work again. Another one I totally understand. That’s what I used to like to do is just dive right into the work. It’s important that we structure our learning in a way that maximizes our benefit in terms of getting hired faster and for more money. So let’s get really specific with tech fundamentals. Now that we have the outline, let’s talk about our self selected. If you were doing a UX design project, what would be a fundamental, okay, let me get really specific on this.

Ellen (15:03):

So let’s say you’ve done user research and you’re like, check, I’ve done that. Well then the question you would ask is how can you do it better? That’s how you would work on your tech fundamentals. I have these questions. How can I do it better? You might check your language on your questions. Do you use vague words like any or some, you might ask yourself the question, how can I get the very best information from my users? And then you can iterate. You can change your questions on it to get even better. That would be how you would work on your tech fundamentals. Okay. In terms of the freelance project, first, we’re gonna do it for UX. Then we’ll do it for dev. How can I help my freelance clients focus on the users even more? How can I help her make the best choice for her users?

Ellen (15:49):

You see when you’re first doing your freelance, it might just feel like you are just going through the process. And that’s all you can think about. But if you’re really gonna dive into the fundamentals and like Lou hold says, build your empire on these fundamentals, you’re going to want to deliver higher value for your client. So how can I help my freelance client focus on her users more? How can I help her make the best choice for her users? And then we’re still in that portfolio lens. So what is the highest value way to talk about my project in my portfolio? What’s the highest value way? Not let me tell you every single thing about my project instead, how can I pull out the most valuable pieces so that somebody reading it isn’t overwhelmed and they really understand and get the point that I’m making.

Ellen (16:36):

All right. In terms of freelance for a developer, how do we focus on the tech fundamentals? Okay. If I can’t figure out something, have I written down all the ways that didn’t work so that when I ask for help, I’m immediately moving the conversation forward. As opposed to having my peers repeat what I’ve already done. That’s a way you can get really good with code. Hey, what did I already do? What didn’t work because you’d be surprised. You’ll try what didn’t work many times. <laugh>, it’s good to know what didn’t work sometimes. Going through that process enables you to solve your own problem. That’s another question. How can I make it easy for someone to help me? Well, you tell them what didn’t work for. You. You tell them the problem that you’re trying to solve and you give them the right amount of context, not a ton of information, just the right amount.

Ellen (17:31):

That’s how you can get even better at code. And I love that one because really, if you think about it, writing code is just filled with a bunch of landmines of problems that you have to solve. So think about it every day you’re dealing with, well, this didn’t work and that didn’t work. So by making a list of, Hey, I’ve tried these different things. You can actually move the conversation forward and you can begin to highlight what you have solved. That’s a really important piece to the mindset of tech fundamentals. Okay. Another piece stick with me on this. We’re talking about tech fundamentals, we’re in the build your portfolio area and we’re in the freelance area and we’re in the dev area. Okay. Even within that, we’re gonna build confidence. Okay. How are we doing that? Remember that you know more about your own work than anyone else.

Ellen (18:29):

What that is a really important piece. I’m gonna say that again. This is a very fundamental tech mindset when it comes to really UX or dev. But I’m talking about the dev realm right now that you know more about your own work than anyone else. This is an important piece because when you go out to ask for help or you’re looking for a mentor, you think someone else knows more than you. Of course we think that because we’re new. So of course we think someone else is gonna have the right solution easily, but they’re not necessarily gonna be able to figure out your code easily. Now, initially you’re missing a bracket or a semicolon. Okay. They might be able to help you with that. But as your code increases, you need to be able to walk them through it. And just remember, even if they generally know code better than you, you know, your own specific code better than anyone.

Ellen (19:30):

Okay. That’s an important fundamental, that’s a little mind bendy spend a little time on that one. So please don’t underestimate the importance of these simple but important concepts. If this doesn’t ring true to you, if it’s not aligning with you, maybe you aren’t spending your days in a design or development environment. If you are spending your days in this, these should ring pretty true to the work that you’re doing. So again, if, if it feels like there’s a disconnect, don’t worry about it. Just spend a little more time in that zone a little more time in Figma, a little more time in GitHub. So I wanna take you back to my basketball career because who doesn’t wanna talk about glory days, right? But think about these important concepts in terms of my basketball career. If you wanna get better at basketball dribble, you would likely even if you have no basketball knowledge, think that that made sense and you would be right, but that’s not the important part. What’s important is actually dribbling every day. See, that’s the thing I dribbled nearly every day in the basement. And then I passed between the studs and the wall and then go figure I achieved a high level of basketball success. Despite physical limitations.

Ellen (20:54):

I was willing to work on the fundamentals more than my peers. And that provided me an advantage. When we talk about the lens of getting hired faster and for more money, it really is pretty straightforward. Be willing to work on the fundamentals more than your peers. And remember what Tony Robbin said. Even if your progress is slow, even if you feel like you’ve made a ton of mistakes, you’re still further ahead than anyone who isn’t trying. So just go back and do the fundamentals. Now we’re gonna talk about tech fundamentals in terms of building your community. And this is maybe varying off topic a little bit, but I do wanna address it here because ultimately you are here cuz you wanna get hired in tech. And if you just spend time working on those two projects, it is a great, great learning experience, but it won’t get you across the finish line.

Ellen (21:56):

So in terms of fundamentals, when it comes to building your community, the most important fundamental step you can take is to go to a meetup. It’s about being brave, being bold. And most of all, connecting with people. For example, if you are coming from a non-technical field like PT or teaching or being a stay-at-home mom, what you can do to get hired faster and for more money is to bring more people into your community who are part of your tech network. So the world of work could change from when I’m recording this to when you’re listening to it. But for today, as I’m recording this in the spring of 2022, the job market is on five year. It is on fire. They cannot hire people fast enough. So your tech circle does not need to be that big. And you will likely bump into someone who is hiring or knows someone’s hiring, or can introduce you to someone who is hiring.

Ellen (23:02):

It’s a hot job market. And that means you can build a much smaller community and still get your desired result. So when you build your community with this fundamental step of going to a meetup, what you are doing is overcoming your greatest fears and changing your identity. So you’re going from whatever you were before, a PT, a nutrition coach, a teacher, a stay-at-home mom, and you’re becoming a techy. You’re becoming a developer or a UX designer or a scrum master or a product owner, whatever you are and going to a meet up is a way to change that identity. You just show up. And the first one you can just say, I’m just trying to break into the field. I’m starting to learn. Just say whatever’s true for you. And you are going to feel like you don’t belong. That’s okay. That’s okay. It is really great to feel like you don’t belong and go anywhere.

Ellen (24:04):

Now I started a meetup in the Raleigh Durham area many years ago. I have to look I think five. We now have our free Facebook group that we do online instead of the meetup. So you can go to facebook.com/group/u R techy, Y O U a R E T E C H Y. If you wanna join us there, lot of great women in that group. And, but when I started the meetup, Meetup’s really big, right? So this would be before the pandemic. So I did some research recently because I know that my students were asking about it and I wanted to make sure that we could still get a ton of great info on meetup.com. So I went to meetup.com and I searched for meetups that would help someone break into the tech space in my area, which is a pretty tech savvy area. Yes, but also not the tech savviest.

Ellen (24:56):

Also not the biggest area in the country. And I immediately found eight meetups. That would be fantastic for anyone trying to break into tech. So I really challenge you to go to meetup.com and just search. Maybe you feel more comfortable with women in tech or product or agile or things like that. And if you’re like, I don’t even know what that is. It’s okay. You’re listening to the podcast. I’m giving you the info. You can go and learn. You can say I’m new. I don’t know. I guarantee you, someone is gonna wanna tell you, let me let you in a little secret people in tech, like to tell you about what they know. Not because they’re mean because they’re excited about what they know, let them tell you it’s all right, that you’re new, but going to a meet up is not the end all be all.

Ellen (25:37):

That’s gonna get you hired. Although it can be, it has been for me and for some of my students, but I understand that not every person is gonna get hired immediately at their very first beat up, but it’s still a great step for you because it’s really helping you build your confidence and build your tech community. And so when we talk about the fundamentals, what we wanna do is not look at getting hired in tech as a two step process. Well, first I build my portfolio and then I apply for jobs. And instead we wanna look at it as a more of a intertwined relationship of, I am building my portfolio and building my community every day. So you might not go to a meetup every day, but you certainly could follow up with the people that you met at the meetup and then schedule coffees based on it and then continue to build those relationships.

Ellen (26:29):

And then you go to your next meetup. So those are the fundamentals of go to meet up, follow up, have coffee. If you don’t drink coffee, okay, whatever you drink and do, I mean in person or virtual, yes, whatever you can do is good. Just keep doing that process. You really can’t know who’s gonna hire you. And what I would offer and submit to you is maybe you can do something for those people. Maybe there’s something that you can offer them. Sure. Your tech skills are new, but you can allow them to be a mentor, allow them to share their journey. Maybe they had a rough day and you can listen to them. There are just lots of great things that you have to offer. And so practicing offering those skills and that value, that is a great tech fundamental to apply and work through every single week.

Ellen (27:21):

In essence, one of the things that I wanna point out in terms of fundamentals is that fundamentals are not about doing more. They’re not about doing something different. They are about doing something better. We’re continuing to produce and then getting feedback and then iterating to improve your very best self. And if you say produce for a beat up, you’re just producing yourself. <laugh> for a portfolio, you’re producing assets, but it really is about this process of going back and doing the fundamental things every single day. And what’s hard is that you don’t know exactly when you’re gonna cross the finish line, but what’s great is that when you’re doing these fundamentals, you do something that I know many of you listening, maybe most could be all want to do, which is build your confidence. You’re building your confidence because you’re just repeating it, repeating it, repeating it.

Ellen (28:29):

This is becoming who you are. And when you repeat it in that way, you get a lot of confidence about it. And that will help you so much when it comes to crossing the finish line. I mean, in fact, sometimes my students it’s like they get hired and it it’s almost a foregone conclusion because they’ve just built this relationship with someone who really wants to hire them. So remember what Michael Jordan said, get the fundamentals down. And the level of everything you do will rise. Here’s two tech fundamentals. Thanks so much for spending time with me today. I’ll see you next time.

Ellen (29:06):

Hey if you enjoyed listening to this podcast you have to sign up for the You are techY email list. Imagine being in the tech job of your dreams. Join me to get the strategies training and never-ending support to get hired. Sign up at youaretechy.com. That’s Y O U A R E T E C H Y.com. I’ll see you next time.