How to Determine Your Technical Focus with Ademusoyo Awosika-Olumo

[MUSIC] 0:00 Well, you all have a wonderful festival day and we're so 0:04 super excited that you're here with us. 0:08 And it is my pleasure to introduce our first speaker of the day, Ademusoyo. 0:10 She is a senior software engineer based in New York City. 0:16 Outside of work, she runs her own digital creative agency, 0:21 blogger, co-founder and COO of MacScientists, 0:26 a community committed to lifting women of color in STEM. 0:30 And she's also the founder of Society x Tech, 0:34 a publication that discusses the societal implications of technology trends. 0:37 Ademusoyo graduated with a degree in computer engineering from the University 0:43 of Pittsburgh. 0:47 Welcome her to the stage. 0:49 [SOUND] >> Hello, everyone, thank you so much, Dr. 0:50 Toni, for that introduction. 0:55 It's really nice to virtually meet all of you guys and connect with you guys. 0:57 I'm looking forward to giving my presentation. 1:01 So I'm gonna pull up the big one. 1:06 So today, as was mentioned before, 1:09 I'm gonna be talking about how to determine your technical focus. 1:11 So a little bit about me, my name is Ademusoyo Awosika-Olumo. 1:16 I'm a Nigerian American. 1:21 I'm a senior software engineer at MailChimp and I'm content creator and 1:23 digital consultant. 1:26 I'm a strong advocate for Diversity in STEM and my favorite hobbies are yoga, 1:27 running and traveling, although I haven't been traveling so 1:31 much due to the fact that we're in the middle of a pandemic. 1:34 So a couple things that we're gonna be talking about today, 1:39 I'm gonna be sharing my career journey. 1:42 I'm gonna also talk about lessons I've learned along the way. 1:44 Then I'm gonna shift it over and talk about steps to determine your focus within 1:46 your career and also what to do if you still don't know. 1:51 So let's start with my career journey. 1:56 So my undergrad days, as I was stated at the beginning, I graduated with a BS in 1:59 Computer Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. 2:02 I coded in Java and C mostly. 2:06 I learned a lot of data structures and algorithms. 2:08 And even though I felt like I got a really good education and 2:11 was able to land my first job after college, 2:15 I still left college feeling so burnt out and really just happy to finish. 2:18 I didn't really know what I wanted to do. 2:22 I just knew that I was just happy to be done and happy that I graduated. 2:25 And yeah, I had all of these knowledge and all these skills, but 2:29 I wasn't really able to kind of see what post grad really looked like for me. 2:33 So then I got my first job at Goldman Sachs and 2:39 I was an engineering analyst there. 2:41 And I built different full stack applications that were supporting 2:43 our private equity business while I was there. 2:47 And I coded mostly in Java, React and C#. 2:49 However, being that I felt like I was doing what I would expect to be 2:54 doing working as a software engineer at a financial services industry, 2:58 I still felt this desire to work on consumer facing products. 3:02 So working on products that are being used by tons of people all over the world, 3:07 because that's what really drove me to study in Computer Engineering was the fact 3:12 that I felt like I had this ability to kind of communicate to multiple people and 3:18 impact multiple people. 3:23 So then I got my second job. 3:26 And that's where I'm at now. 3:27 I'm a senior software engineer at Mailchimp. 3:29 I'm working on building out new features on our website's offering. 3:31 So we just released a new feature that allows people to add payment blocks 3:35 on their websites. 3:39 And I'm coding in PHP and React. 3:41 And so that's kind of been where I'm at right now. 3:44 It's kind of been sort of a big journey over the past few years. 3:48 And I've learned so much along the way. 3:53 I've had a lot of mistakes that I've made along the way. 3:55 And so now I'm gonna kind of share what those lessons were. 3:58 I learned that a lot of what you learn is through working. 4:02 So I don't think any more time that I spent in school could have really prepared 4:06 me for what the real world was gonna be like. 4:11 And as I mentioned before, even though I started in my undergrad days 4:14 learning Java and C, I actually only coded in Java during my first job. 4:19 And I learned React, C#. 4:24 And so everything, 4:27 all the front end development I know is really through working. 4:28 And a lot of people don't expect you to know every single language that's 4:30 out there before you get your first job. 4:35 And it's okay, just as long as you're willing to learn. 4:38 And then I also learned that I really do like working on consumer facing products. 4:41 So I learned that I had this idea before when I was at Goldman Sachs that I 4:46 kind of wanted to work on things that other people were using. 4:50 And that's what kind of drove me to MailChimp. 4:54 And it turns out I really like it. 4:57 I think that there's a lot to do within this space. 4:58 I think that there's a lot to learn. 5:02 And just really being able to kind of build things based on human behavior is 5:04 really exciting for me. 5:08 And I really enjoy working on cross-functional teams. 5:12 So for me, I really like having teams where there is a product manager, 5:15 a project manager, a designer, engineering manager, 5:20 just the whole suite of engineering team members. 5:23 Because I feel like you get to hear so many different perspectives and 5:27 it ultimately makes whatever you're trying to build and ship out really a lot better. 5:31 And I get to learn more about how other people are thinking about things. 5:37 And I also really enjoy being able to talk to people and help kind of bridge the gap 5:40 of what I know while also listening and learning about what they know as well. 5:44 And I really do like being a full stack developer. 5:50 I kind of have done a lot of back end. 5:53 I've done a lot of front end. 5:56 It's been an interesting experience. 5:58 But I feel like I truly enjoy being able to kind of follow the problems as they go 6:00 whether it be starting in the database layer or 6:04 if they're gonna continue on into the front end React UI layer. 6:07 And so that's all, that's for me. 6:13 And that's how I kind of figured out what I wanted to do. 6:14 That's kind of how I've started to build my career and how I wanna continue on and 6:17 grow my career. 6:22 And so now I'm gonna talk a little bit about how you should pick your 6:23 career focus. 6:27 So the first thing you need to do is start with what you currently know. 6:29 So all of us have had some sort of learning, whether it be through Treehouse, 6:33 whether it be through on your own, whether it be through some sort of schooling. 6:36 Start with what you currently know. 6:40 What languages do you know? 6:42 What products do you know? 6:44 What frameworks do you know? 6:46 Start with that and then the next thing you need to do is evaluate if you wanna go 6:48 deeper into those topics. 6:52 So I did a little bit of C# when I was at Goldman Sachs and 6:54 I realized I didn't wanna do that anymore. 6:58 So I was really focused on not picking jobs for 7:02 my next job that included C# in any capacity. 7:05 And also summary, I started learning React and 7:09 I realized I really wanted to continue diving deeper in React. 7:11 And so that's when I made that decision of looking for 7:15 new jobs that I was able to kind of really dive deeper into learning React. 7:18 And then the next thing you wanna do is pick a sub-industry within tech. 7:23 So it can either be working on consumer tech, or working on healthcare tech, or 7:26 working on fintech. 7:31 Or it could be working on APIs or working on cloud computing topics. 7:33 But picking a sub-industry or a sub-focus after you've gotten deeper is really key 7:38 because that'll help you narrow down what jobs you're actually wanting to look for. 7:43 And then the next thing is you wanna identify the problem that you are working 7:49 to help solve. 7:53 So if you wanna help increase customer acquisition at your job or if you wanna 7:54 help work on building out new features on this particular part of the platform, 7:59 identifying that early on is gonna be really helpful in kinda figuring out where 8:05 you really wanna zero in on and where you wanna feel like you can grow your career. 8:10 And then lastly, you wanna identify where you have the support. 8:18 And I think the even though it is the last one, 8:21 I think that's the most important one. 8:24 Because as you're learning, you need to have people who are helping you, whether 8:26 it be through mentors, whether it be your manager, whether people on your team, or 8:30 just within the communities that you're a part of that are really supporting you and 8:35 really helping you dive deep. 8:39 So that when you do get stuck, 8:41 because oftentimes we always get stuck at some point during our coding journey. 8:43 You'll be able to kind of figure out, okay, what is it that I need to do next? 8:47 Or am I in the right direction or should I focus on something else? 8:51 And having those people to connect with and network with is gonna be 8:55 really critical in how you grow and evolve your career over time. 8:59 So we've talked a little bit about how you did that. 9:05 So if we look back, you kind of see the little pyramid of where you start at 9:07 the base and how you work your way up. 9:11 But let's say that you're stuck in a pick sub-industry within tech or 9:13 you're not sure if you wanna go deeper or not. 9:17 Or maybe you're kind of jumped around a little bit where you have the support. 9:20 But you're not sure what problem you want to solve and 9:24 you're not sure if you wanna go deep. 9:27 That's okay, I think you should continue to find opportunities that allow you to 9:30 learn and grow until you find the right thing that sticks. 9:34 There is no wrong or right way to be a software engineer in this industry. 9:37 There's plenty of opportunities for software engineers in this industry. 9:41 And you will find that thing eventually, 9:45 that makes you really excited to come to work every day or 9:47 really excited to collaborate and impact the world in the way that you want to. 9:50 And then also, continue to focus on having a breath and 9:55 having a wide range of experiences. 9:58 So that way, you can begin to identify what you want to focus on later. 10:00 So maybe you worked on building out this new feature here, but 10:04 maybe you wanna try building out some new feature there. 10:08 Or maybe you've been working on front end development for a while and 10:11 you wanna give working on back end development or try. 10:14 All of that is really good and 10:17 that's gonna help you really figure out what exactly do you want to do. 10:19 So that's all I have for this presentation. 10:25 I left a lot of time to kind of take any of your questions if you have. 10:28 You can connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on Instagram and Twitter. 10:32 And yeah, so I will stop sharing my screen and go back to the other screens so 10:36 I can see your questions. 10:41 Okay, so first question is how do you approach a new technical focus and 10:47 not feel overwhelmed? 10:51 That's a really good question. 10:53 I think the first thing I like to do is either A, read the documentation, 10:54 or B, watch a YouTube video or some sort of video that has people explaining it. 10:59 And then kind of really figuring out what are some key elements or key components 11:06 that people are kind of talking about every single different media that I have. 11:12 Also, don't be afraid to like go back to what you know. 11:18 So if you already have like a foundational knowledge of a specific 11:21 programming language or a specific framework. 11:25 Going back to that base level will allow you to kind of really add on to 11:29 what you already know in a way that seems a lot more transitional and 11:34 a lot less overwhelming. 11:39 Next question is when you come up with a specific problem/feature you want 11:41 to work on, do you take that with you into the interview and 11:46 tell them exactly what she wants to do if hired? 11:50 I think if they asked you what you want to do or what you're interested in, 11:53 then you should bring that up. 11:58 I think when you are getting hired they're always interested in what drove you to 12:00 that company, what made you excited or 12:05 made you interested in what they wanted to work on there. 12:07 And I think honestly having like, I saw this particular product or this particular 12:10 feature in the app and I think we could enhance it this way is definitely gonna 12:15 make you stand out amongst all the other applicants that you have. 12:19 So it never hurts, but maybe just wait until they give you that 12:23 question before you just kind of spit it all out for them. 12:27 As a woman in the industry, 12:31 how do you deal with male identified persons if they spoke down to you? 12:33 [SOUND] That is a really good question. 12:38 I think that the best advice that I have is you really have to work 12:42 on finding your voice. 12:47 I'm not someone who is like the most loud, 12:48 I think that when I have something to say I'll say it, but I'm also not 12:51 the type of person who will say something if I don't have anything to say. 12:56 But it's really important to kind of stick up for yourself and stand up for yourself. 13:02 I've had to tell lot of the guys like hey, that was my idea that you just took, or 13:06 really just kind of go in there and come up with my own. 13:10 Or really don't be afraid to combat what other people are saying. 13:12 So it does take a little bit of time, but just start to feel comfortable. 13:17 Unfortunately we are still in a very male dominated industry and 13:23 they're not gonna go away anytime soon. 13:26 So I really encourage you to do this continue to speak up, 13:28 continue to advocate for yourself. 13:31 And also continue to know what you want, know what's important to you. 13:33 Really makes, like really feel confident in the fact that you are where you're 13:38 supposed to be and you have the knowledge that you can share with anyone. 13:44 I hope that helps. 13:49 [LAUGH] For the past 12 years I was doing virtualization projects in 13:51 a private cloud. 13:55 I wanted to get into coding also. 13:56 I'm trying to add a few more things to complement my virtual, 13:58 virtualization knowledge. 14:02 I'm thinking this, cloud technologies, 14:04 CA PM any thoughts on coding Python, Ruby, or PS? 14:07 What more is needed? 14:12 I think the fact that you're focusing on cloud technologies is, 14:14 that's honestly the advice I would give you. 14:17 I feel like that's a very good gradual step, and I think that that will 14:19 really showcase well in your resume and when interviewing, because you 14:24 already have that background knowledge of kind of that back layer thing. 14:29 But continue to do projects, get certified in cloud developer solutions architect, 14:34 if that's what you wanna do. 14:40 I think there's like GCP certifications and AWS certification. 14:42 So that is, yeah, you're on the right track. 14:46 Just continue to dive deep, continue to get certified. 14:51 And, thank you so much. 14:55 How much are you influenced by who you are designing for 14:58 in terms of where you want to work? 15:02 A lot, I think that now I've dealt with some really like unfortunate situations in 15:04 my career. 15:09 And I think now it's like very important to me that I really do like the people 15:10 that I'm working with, but I also like the work that I'm gonna get to be doing. 15:14 Because I think that especially as a black woman in tech and working as a software 15:19 engineer, it can get really tough and it can get really isolating. 15:24 And if I don't feel like I'm in an environment to be that I feel like I'm 15:28 gonna be heard and then I feel like my values are gonna be clear, 15:31 then it's not an environment that I want to work on. 15:35 And I also think, 15:38 especially now with everything that has been happening in 2020, I really do, 15:39 would be really curious about companies if I were to be looking for a job. 15:44 Like how they handled the pandemic, how they're supporting their employees, 15:48 how they're supporting their community in which they serve. 15:53 As well as what are their diversity rates looking like, or 15:57 what are they doing to improve diversity? 16:00 Are they even doing anything to improve diversity? 16:03 So those things are very, very important to me. 16:06 Any advice for 16:11 someone just starting a front end in-tech from a psychology background? 16:11 What specific tech area would you sort of merge those two worlds? 16:16 Being a UX engineer, so they're kind of a UX design/front end kind of role, I think, 16:22 yeah, I think that actually pairs really well cuz it is kind of a hybrid approach. 16:29 And I think having that psychology background will be really helpful in 16:36 making those decisions that you need to make in terms of design cuz you 16:40 are already studying like mind behavior. 16:44 So I think that would be really good to kind of balance those two, 16:47 so that is what I would recommend. 16:53 When interviewing, you guys have a lot of questions, I'm glad. 16:55 [LAUGH] When interviewing and they asked if I have a question for them, 16:59 what should I be asking? 17:04 Okay, yeah, so I think you should ask, a couple things I think you should ask. 17:05 You should ask, what do they expect you to be working on within a week of you being 17:11 there within 30 days of you being there, and within 90 days of you being there. 17:15 Ask them what they get to work on if they haven't talked about themselves yet. 17:20 Ask them what the hardest part of the job is, 17:25 ask them what are some things that they don't like about where they work as well. 17:27 Or something that isn't their favorite thing about where their work. 17:32 Because I think that just gives you a good sense of the culture, of how people feel 17:36 about working there, and also kind of what you're kind of getting yourself into. 17:40 I think also asking how the engineering organization, 17:45 if you are an engineer, is structured because that's really important. 17:48 Is it gonna be a mix of junior and senior devs on your team, 17:52 how many people are on your team? 17:55 What kind of opportunities do you have as a junior developer on your team to 17:57 really grow your career? 18:02 Yeah, those are some questions that I would ask. 18:03 And, I got lost. 18:07 Hi, any tips on transitioning from the beginner phase where you understand all 18:12 the syntax and you can do basic stuff but 18:16 have no idea how to use this knowledge to build real world applications? 18:18 I think this is a big issue for many people. 18:22 How did you make that leap? 18:25 Knowing data structures and algorithms is very key. 18:27 Because after you get to the point of just knowing how coding works. 18:31 When you learn about different algorithms and different data structures, you start 18:34 to kind of understand the complexities and the theories behind the wire coding. 18:39 And also you kind of get into those bigger coding problems or 18:43 coding challenges where you're kind of thinking okay, it works 80% of the way. 18:48 How do I get that 20% to work? 18:54 Or worse, where it works 99% of the time and then suddenly you have 18:55 found that 1% that doesn't work, and how do you solve for that? 19:00 So definitely really diving deep into different data structures, 19:04 understanding which ones you want to use and where you want to use them, and 19:08 why you would want to use them. 19:12 And also learning about different algorithms as well. 19:14 Because that's usually what a lot of interviews have. 19:17 And even when you're coding, you're always learning some sort of algorithm, 19:20 you're doing some sort of algorithm to get to the solution. 19:25 And, Okay, as a new developer, 19:28 I practice coding, code challenges and watch tutorials but 19:32 still struggle on being able to think on my own. 19:37 What are some strategies to get past this? 19:41 So I think that when you're, it's helpful to do it while you watch, 19:44 but I think rather than do while watching, maybe do it. 19:49 Like pause the video, try doing it yourself, 19:53 and then come back to the video to see how they did it, and 19:56 really just taking the time to iron out your steps. 20:01 I think It's really easy to just rush into code. 20:05 But even now, I still write little to-do on how I think things should 20:07 be implemented, or where I think pieces in the code base or 20:11 I need to change before I go in and change them and I check them off. 20:15 So I think that you should stop looking at the coding tutorials and 20:19 actually try to do stuff yourself, and just kind of compare and contrast. 20:24 Okay, I'm new to this space and trying to figure out where to start. 20:30 Are there any programs that you recommend first, or 20:36 is there any program that can act as a building block to others? 20:39 For example, before I learned how to solve an equation, 20:43 I have to learn how to add then multiply. 20:46 What programs are the initial programs essentially, 20:49 Sorry, make it easier to learn others? 20:54 Okay, so I think there's the levels of programming languages, there's frameworks, 20:57 there's libraries and then there's the actual language itself. 21:03 Learn the language first, make sure you understand the language, 21:07 then add in some libraries, and then add in framework. 21:11 So for example, you may be really interested in being a front end developer. 21:14 So I would make sure that I learned HTML and JavaScript and CSS first. 21:19 And then maybe I would add on a framework, like React. 21:23 And/or React is more of a library, so that's kind of a bad example, 21:26 but just go with me. 21:31 Learning React, and then after that maybe after that I wanna kind of go in deeper. 21:32 So I'll look into looking at Gatsby or Next Js or something like that, 21:37 where I'm taking on more frameworks, but 21:41 I'm starting, at the very minimum I already know HTML, JavaScript and CSS. 21:44 I'm 16, I have taken graphic and web design classes and 21:52 computer science classes and I'm graduating in a few months, wow! 21:56 This spring I will be taking a degree in tech do taking a tech degree to 22:01 house course in UX design. 22:05 Let me start working on myself My area of work. 22:07 Do you have any advice for learning more on UX design and working with that? 22:11 I think UX design is constantly changing. 22:15 So I don't think I would, 22:18 I don't recommend kind of going for a book or looking for a book to read. 22:20 But I think following people on Twitter or subscribing to different publications 22:24 on medium that are constantly talking about UX and 22:29 just paying attention to UX trends that are going on, would be very helpful. 22:32 And then start playing around with stuff yourself. 22:37 When I was doing design originally it was so bad, [LAUGH] and 22:41 now I feel like it's gotten a lot better. 22:44 So just play around, have fun in the same way that you've been doing like graphic 22:47 and web design classes, like you just kind of continue on to build the skill set. 22:53 So yeah, and that was the last question. 22:59 I hope you guys really enjoyed this. 23:03 Thank you so much, Treehouse Festival for having me. 23:05 If you have any more questions that I didn't answer, feel free to tweet at me or 23:09 DM me on Instagram, and 23:13 I look forward to hopefully connecting with some of you all again soon, bye. 23:15

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